I have been in practice for nearly forty years, all of the time in New England where sinus trouble is rampant, and I have never yet had a case of sinus infection develop in my own practice. I have received many from other physicians, but have never seen one develop in a patient who has been treated with the indicated remedy.
Another field where much harm is done is in gynaecological work. Leucorrhoeal discharges are exceedingly troublesome to many patients, and astringent douches are frequently ordered by specialists in this field. Lotions and astringent douches can and do suppress the quantity of these secretions, oftentimes changing their character entirely. This treatment appeals to the patient because it speedily reduces the offensiveness of the symptom. The temptation would be to do this very thing if we did not know the fundamental law that vital energy will express itself, and in the kindliest way to the future health of the patient; when we attempt to alter by physiological means, we are bound to disturb that vital force and cause it to express itself in some other channel than that which nature chooses.
Along this same line is the promiscuous use of local applications, deodorants to suppress or change the character of perspiration. This is exceedingly objectionable, because it leaves pent up in the system that which is poisonous and injurious to the health of the individual. This condition is not often observed by the doctor unless he by chance runs across it, or is on the alert for such suppression.
In the indiscriminate use of surgery, the habit of painting the patient with iodine is objectionable from two points–that of the absorption of the drug, and from the local irritation that this drug so frequently creates. Many patients are exceedingly susceptible to drugs in such form, and it is not uncommon for involuntary provings to be made by the local use of iodine or other applications on such a patient.One patient was particularly sensitive to zinc in any form, and felt constitutional symptoms after the use of adhesive tape or talcum powders.
I want to urge strongly the use of asepsis in our obstetrical work instead of antisepsis, because at this particular period the whole female genital tract is particularly susceptible to the use of antiseptic drugs; whereas if asepsis is strictly carried out, the patient’s recovery is uneventful.
