Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c16.33

c16.33

It remains only that I add a word or two upon the Eastern manner of opening the pustules, which (as before mentioned) is directed to be done with a very fine sharp pointed thorn: Experience has established the use of this natural instrument in preference to either the scissors, lancet, or needle; the practitioners perforate the most prominent part of the pustule, and with the sides of the thorn press out the pus; and having opened about a dozen, they absorb the matter with a calico rag, dipped in warm water and milk; and proceed thus until the whole are discharged; the orifice made by the thorn is so extremely small, that it closes immediately after the matter is pressed out, so that there is no admission of the external air into the pustule, which would suddenly contract the mouths of the excretory vessels, and consequently the further secretion of the variolous matter from the blood would be thereby obstructed; for this consideration, the method recommended by Doctor Tissot, of clipping the pustules with sharp pointed scissors, is certainly liable to objection, as the aperture would be too large; when in the true confluent kind, no distinct pustules present, they perforate the most prominent and promising parts, in many places, at the distance of a tenth of an inch, usually beginning at the extremities; and I have often seen the pustules in the contiguous, and the perforated parts in the confluent kind, fill again before the operation has been half over; yet they do not repeat the opening until a few hours elapse, conceiving it proper that the matter should receive some degree of concoction in the pustules before it is again discharged.