Local treatment consists in the beginning, with the hope of aborting the lesion, of the application of carbolic acid to the central portion, or the use of a twenty-five-per-cent. ointment of ichthyol applied as a plaster:--
[Rx] Ichthyol, ............................ [dram]j Emp. plumbi, ........................... [dram]ij Emp. resinæ, ........................... [dram]j. M.
Or the injection of a five-per-cent. solution of carbolic acid into the apex of the boil may be tried if the formation is more advanced. If suppuration is fully established, evacuation of the contents, followed by antiseptic applications, constitutes the best method.
A saturated solution of boric acid or a lotion of corrosive sublimate (one to three grains to the ounce) applied to the immediate neighborhood of the boil or boils tends to prevent the formation of new lesions. Frequent washing of the parts with soap and water or tincture of green soap and water is also a preventive measure of value. In repeatedly infected areas, mild exposures to _x_-rays, at intervals of a few days, will often prove of curative value.
#Carbunculus.# (_Synonyms:_ Anthrax; Carbuncle.)
A carbuncle is an acute, usually egg to palm-sized, circumscribed, phlegmonous inflammation of the skin and subcutaneous structures, terminating in a slough.
#At what age and upon what parts is carbuncle usually observed?#
In middle and advanced life, and more commonly in men.
It is seen most frequently at the nape of the neck and upon the upper part of the back.
#What are the symptoms and course of carbuncle?#
There is rarely more than one lesion present. It begins, usually with preceding and accompanying malaise, chilliness and febrile disturbance, as a firm, flat, inflammatory infiltration in the deeper skin and subcutaneous tissue, spreading laterally and finally involving an area of one to several inches in diameter. The infiltration and swelling increase, the skin becomes of dark red color, and sooner or later, usually at the end of ten days or two weeks, softening and suppuration begin to take place, the skin finally giving away at several points, through which sanious pus exudes; the whole mass finally sloughs away either in portions or in its entirety, resulting in a deep ulcer, which slowly heals and leaves a permanent cicatrix.