AN ADDRESS 
BEFORE THE 
DELAWARE COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY. 
BY 
ADDINELL HEWSON, M.D., 
OF PHILADELPHIA. OH VARIOUS PURPOSES TO WHICH EARTH MAY BE APPLIED 
IN MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 
AN ADDRESS 
DELIVERED BY INVITATION BEFORE THE 
Delaware <{ounty JJedioal 
ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3 187Jf, 
BY 
ADDINELL HEWSON, M. D., 
SURGEON TO THE PENNSYLVANIA HOSPITAL. 
"JUNflTA M-VANT. ” 
PUBLISHED AT TIIE BEQUEST OF THE SOCIETY. 
PHILADELPHIA: 
LINDSAY & BLAKISTON. 
1 8 74. SHERMAN <fc CO., PRINTERS. , Media, Pa., October 1, 1874. 
Dr. Addinell Hewson. 
Dear Sir : The undersigned were appointed a Committee by the Delaware 
County Medical Society to express to you the satisfaction given by your 
recent instructive Lecture before that body, on your latest appliance of the 
Earth treatment, and to solicit the same for publication as a valuable con- 
tribution to medical literature. 
A favorable response will gratify yours, sincerely, 
Isaac N. Kerlin, 
Linnieus Fussell. 
135 S. 15tii Street, Phit.ada., October 3,1874. 
Dus. Kerlin and Fussell, 
Committee of the Delaware County Medical Society. 
Gentlemen: Your favor of the 1st instant is received, and I shall take 
much pleasure in complying with the request of your Society for the publica- 
tion of my recent address before it. 
I am, with much respect, very truly yours, 
Addinell Hewson. ADDRESS. 
Gentlemen : When, in 1870, I received, through ray much- 
esteemed friend, Dr. Kerim, an invitation to address you on a 
subject which, I may fairly say, I had then just commenced to 
investigate, namely, “Surgical Dressings with special reference to 
the use of Earth,” I was compelled to decline the honor from the 
fact that I could not command the leisure, for I was working on 
the subject—and very heavily too—at the expense of the little 
time I had for rest from a most active practice in our profession, 
and I am sure you can all appreciate the force of such a reason. 
My work then,—which resulted in the little volume I have 
published on the subject,*—although there is not much to show 
for it, was a severe tax on me and made it prudent for me to 
avail myself of the occasion of my wife’s seeking health abroad in 
1872 to go, and to stay away from my ordinary duties for a full 
year. 
Whilst abroad, the temptation was frequently offered me to 
address members of our profession, as I do you to-day, on this 
subject. But I stoutly adhered to the determination which I 
formed when I felt myself compelled to decline your flattering 
invitation in 1870, and which was, not only, never to forget the 
compliment you had paid me, but to prove my appreciation of it 
by making a meeting of your society the first occasion of such an 
address from me. This part of my resolution 1 am most happy 
to be able to carry out to-day. 
Furthermore, Delaware County is most emphatically entitled 
to be the first in which I should so speak from the facts that I 
* On the Use of Earth in Surgery. With Four Photo-Relief Illustrations. 
By Addinell Hewson, M.D. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston. 1872. 6 
ADDRESS. 
have not only had from her my most instructive cases, but have 
found in her members of the profession the most zealous sup- 
porters in my work. And, again, one of the ideas which I started 
out to develop I very early found had been conceived more than 
ten years before by one of Delaware County’s most estimable 
citizens, Minshall Painter. 
A letter suggesting the use of earth as a dressing in surgery, 
which he sent to the steward of our hospital in 1857, was put 
away at that time by Mr. Malin as a curiosity; coming as it did 
in the days of the height of water-dressing, and unceasing wash- 
ings—in the days, if I may be allowed to coin a word for the occa- 
sion, of Palophobia (mjlo?, dirt, or earth properly speaking, and 
<poj3o<dread), for I know of no more forcible way of briefly ex- 
pressing the state of things at that time, when soap and water 
were twice as much used as before or since then in the dressings 
of surgical patients. 
Here is a copy of the letter of Mr. Painter, and I must read it 
to you: 
“Lima P. O., Delaware County, Pa., 
July 29th, 1857. 
“Wm. G-. Malin: 
“In a few words I wish to bring to the notice of those who have 
ample opportunity of examining into its value, a suggestion which may 
or may not he of some importance. I mean tlie use of the earth to ill- 
conditioned sores. 
“ Plants introduce their roots into the soil and it makes the best 
application to wounds on the more elevated parts of trees. Some ani- 
mals burrow and pass most of their time in the earth, others roll them- 
selves in mud, and others again seek the earth as a suitable place for 
repose ; indeed it seems well suited to organized nature. The farmer as 
he trudges along his furrows covered with dust, never doubts its health- 
fulness, if he does not permit it to remain on his skin too long. The 
Arab of the desert, performing his religious devotions, for the want of 
water uses sand with which to rub his body, and which, no doubt, 
removes the exfoliating skin and exhalations. Offensive smells are 
sometimes removed from clothing, and even articles of food, by being 
buried in the soil. Fullers use earth in cleaning their cloth, for which 
soap is not so well suited in many instances. It is an Eastern custom 
to use scented clay instead of soap at their toilet, which causes the skin 
to remain smooth by not affecting the lubricating oil immediately below 
the surface, which is affected by alkaline soaps. Children that crawl on ADDRESS. 
7 
earth and play in the dust, and occasionally fill their mouths with it, 
provided their nui’ses occasionally clean them, are generally healthy. 
Instead of soap, the earth is sufficient to remove any exhaled matter 
from the skin, not only by absorption, hut by its scouring property in 
being removed by water. Some animals occasionally lick or eat earth ; 
perhaps by their instinct they find it necessary for their health ; indeed, 
we have heard of savages who eat largely of some varieties of clay, and 
some families, not over tidy, enjoy good health, while those more scrupu- 
lous, do not enjoy the best. 
“We presume nature has provided a material very appropriate and 
cheaper for poultices than the slimy pultaceous poultices made of vege- 
table matter, and inclined to incipient fermentation when applied to 
certain parts of the body for any length of time. Earth (soil) has some 
properties we think which fit it for this use ; putrefying animals emit 
carbonic gas and ammonia, which damp earth readily absorbs and pre- 
vents reabsorption into the system ; the humus poultices may he kept 
moist by the application of water, while at the affected point; which 
cannot be so readily done by slimy poultices ; any active ingredient 
deemed useful could be added to such poultices as to any other kind. 
The earth we should select would he the primitive earth from woodland, 
rejecting the undecomposed matter ; causing it to he suspended in water 
for a short time, that the heavy and coarse ingredients might subside, 
and then have the supernatant water decanted, that the finer may sub- 
side for use. 
“Perhaps the profession might fear being dubbed “mud doctors;” 
but they are unfit for their profession who object to using the simplest 
means which nature offers for restoratives ; with such means, the healing 
art is sufficiently abstruse to tax all their genius. 
“ If you think my suggestions worthy of trial in hopeless and extreme 
cases, I should like to know what success attends it. The study of medi- 
cine is one branch I have never attended to, and am consequently unac- 
quainted with its technology, which will be discovered. 
“ I am, with respect, etc., 
“ Minshall Painter. ” 
This letter bears on its face the evidence of extensive knowledge 
and of considerable thought on the subject, but as much as it 
would protit us to discuss all the points it suggests, the present is 
not the proper occasion, and I will dismiss it with one or two 
allusions to one point especially, the damaging effects of the ex- 
cessive use of soap, referred to by Mr. Painter, and which not 
only occasioned much merriment at the time of the receipt of his 
letter, but may even now cause a smile with many. These effects 8 
ADDRESS. 
of soap arc however now being extensively recognized. They 
have been most clearly pointed out by no less an authority than 
the author of the article “ On the Skin,” in the Physiology for 
Practical Use, edited by James Hinton, and published in Lon- 
don at the beginning of the present year. 
In England, as at home, I have frequently had occasion to 
notice not only on the face of the neat and tidy mother and of the 
maid of advanced years, but on that of the young and budding 
beauty, the mischief of constantly using this mode of cleansing 
the skin, which is supposed, very erroneously, by many to be 
necessary. I refer to that glistening, smooth appearance of the face 
after the use of soap, occasioned by its removing the outer layer 
of the epithelial scales, and which ultimately results in making 
the skin of the face coarse, and wanting in the softness and fresh- 
ness of color which are really natural to the English complexion. 
This never fails to provoke comment from the American traveller 
abroad, and the question is constantly asked on the Continent, why 
it is that the English who have by nature so much more beautiful 
skins than the people on the eastern side of the Channel, so much 
more frequently have them disfigured and rendered coarse, even in 
early life. 
One whose attention has been directed to this matter in Europe 
will find 'presumptive evidence not only there, against the use of 
soap in cleansing the skin, and in favor of earth in preserving its 
softness, similar to what Mr. Painter refers to in the far East, as 
resulting from the habits of the people, but will find such evidence 
everywhere on the Continent, in favor of the healing effects of earth, 
in the cures called miraculous, constantly pointed out to one as 
resulting from the contact of earth, which had either been blessed 
by the Pope, trodden on by some saint—our blessed Saviour, his 
mother, or the like—and which earth, in every instance that I 
have had the opportunity of examining, is most decidedly of a 
clayey nature. 
But there is not only presumptive evidence of the healing 
powers of clay to be found in Europe. There are positive proofs, 
recognized by the profession, in the results of the mud-baths used 
and recommended of late most extensively by physicians in Ger- 
many. We have likewise at home such evidences in the “grave ADDRESS. 
9 
cures” by the Indian “medicine-man,” reputed to have been 
made, not only in the earliest histories of our land, but as being 
made amongst many of the aborigines of the present day. Nay, 
the results attained by such men of the Mojavis, with the mud of 
the Colorado River, is at this moment occasioning the pilgrimage 
of a host of desperate civilized, if not well-educated, sufferers to 
the country of those Indians in hopes of getting relief. And even 
the visitors to our mineral springs are using the mud there, and 
claiming for it astonishing results. 
But our palophobic brethren meet all this with a shrug of the 
shoulder and a declaration, that none of it is material from which 
any legitimate medical conclusions are to be drawn, or that the 
most of it is, at least, but the result of ignorance, superstition, 
or well-marked prejudice. Granted. But are we, in consequence, 
to shut our eyes to all that it may suggest and justify the wide 
repute which the profession has long enjoyed of being opposed to 
every progress in our art? Where would the world be to-day, as 
to the scourge of Small-pox, if Jenner had been a man of that 
stamp, and had refused to reflect on the suggestion of the igno- 
rant dairy maid, that the cow-pox was a protection against that 
disease? 
Ignorance and prejudice have had their influence in our pro- 
fession from time immemorial, but not in the direction of progress 
and improvement, on the contrary, decidedly away from it. It 
certainly looks like “the pot calling the kettle black,” when these 
men get to talking about ignorance and prejudice, and about fal- 
lacy in reasoning. They say, they cannot understand how dirt, 
which they not only had always been taught, but had positively 
seen, to be injurious in surgical dressings, could now be advocated 
for such purposes, but, was there ever a greater fallacy than this, a 
more actual confounding of a specific with a generic meaning of a 
word. And where is the man amongst them, who by his every 
utterance against our use of earth, has not convicted himself 
either of ignorance or of prejudice, and in many instances of both ? 
It has been said that a great objection to the use of earth must 
be its uncleanliness, but there is not any more with it than with 
your cerates and washes, if carelessness or negligence is to be 
allowed in either instance. The idea of using it is revolting to 10 
ADDRESS. 
some, but why should it be so any more than the use of hog's fat, 
the dead tissue of an animal considered by most people as typical 
of the utmost filthiness? 
The instinct developed in the brute creation, and referred to by 
Mr. Painter, likewise weakens very materially the idea of prejudice; 
and here I must allude to some, amongst the many facts which 
have been communicated to me by correspondents in all parts of 
the world, and which present a remarkable coincidence as to how 
animals of various kinds had been rapidly cured, either by their 
own instinct or the interference of man, of severe injuries and 
ulcers, with clay, and how they seemed always to enjoy the contact 
of the earth. Some of you, I have no doubt, are familiar with 
one of these instances, as it occurred in your county, and can 
readily recall the delight and vivacity with which your late very 
worthy citizen, Constant Guillou, related the relief given by the 
earth to his pet dog, how the animal used to come regularly, after 
the first application which he received of the earth for a severe 
burn, to have himself powdered with clay. 
Of this instinct of animals in resorting to clay as a means of 
cure, I have amongst my letters and other communications, 
three accounts, presenting a most singular coincidence, coming 
as they did from opposite parts of the globe, for they were from 
New Jersey, Maryland, and Australia. Each was of an occur- 
rence witnessed in those parts, and was of a dog bitten by a venom- 
ous reptile. In each of these instances the dog went, immediately 
on being injured, and buried the part in some clayey earth, and 
kept it buried for four or five days. In one instance, the ex- 
tremes of hunger and thirst could not induce the animal, a noble 
Newfoundlander, to abandon his cure, although every temptation 
was offered him, by putting food and water near him, but not 
within his reach unless he left the bed of clay. 
I might readily occupy the hour in detailing similar instances, 
and in so discussing objections to the use of earth, but, gentlemen, 
I did not come here for that purpose. My purpose was to give 
you some of my own personal experiences of its value, and to 
give you an idea of the ground over which that experience has 
extended. 
Your original request was to address you on surgical dressings, ADDRESS. 
11 
but in making my selections to-day from the vast amount of 
practical material which I have accumulated in the last five 
years, I shall not confine myself to that relating to the use of 
earth as a surgical dressing properly speaking, but shall, on the 
contrary, knowing that you are all general practitioners, select 
what will be particularly interesting to you all, in your every- 
day life. I hope that none of you will, however, infer either 
from the variety of uses to which I have applied the earth, or my 
zeal and earnestness in studying its effects, that I am prepared to 
declare it the best of applications, much less an infallible remedy 
or a panacea. 
As most of you are probably aware, my attention was first called 
to the subject by the well-established deodorizing power of earth, 
demonstrated by the earth-closets, and I started out to use it 
for that purpose on offensive ulcerated surfaces, dreading at the 
time that it would prove an irritant to them, but, to my utter 
surprise, it seemed at once to remove the pains with which the 
patients were suffering. This not only recalled to my mind my 
boyhood’s experiences in fighting bee’s nests, similar to what 
many of you, I have no doubt, have had with the soothing power 
of mud on the stings of those insects, but also directed my atten- 
tion to the possibility of its acting as a sedative to the pains of 
superficial inflammations. 
So also I early noticed the rapid absorption of the recent effu- 
sions of lymph, the products of inflammations of loose tissues, or of 
bruises; then the effects of the contact of earth on troubles of long 
standing, and of great depth; and thus by careful study, I have 
been led by the fairest induction to recognize actions of the earth, 
not only on the skin and on the subcutaneous tissues, but on the 
deeper parts, and 6veil the various organs of the body. 
I wish to call your attention to these in the order in which I 
have just mentioned them. 
And first, as to the action of the earth on the skin and mucous 
membranes, the effects have always been, evidently, beneficial, 
both in allaying and in preventing inflammatory tendencies in 
the promptest manner. Using it as a disinfectant for my hands in 
the winter months, I found it to protect them from chapping, and 
to rapidly cure them, where such trouble had ensued from care- 12 
ADDRESS. 
less exposure on leaving a sick-room where I had been compelled 
to use soap for cleansing them. 
Numerous trials of it for those trifling annoyances, the chafings 
and excoriations about the nose, lips, ears, vulva, prepuce, anus, 
and folds of the joints, have not only been followed by a speedy 
cure, but by instantaneous relief from the itching, and that, too, 
generally by simply dusting the finely powdered clay on the 
part. Experience soon taught me here, to forbid any excessive 
use of the article as tending to the production of crusts which 
would aggravate the mischief. When this powdering failed, 
relief was sure to follow from a resort to the clay applied as a 
paste. But where relief came from the powdering, and crusts 
happened to form, I have always found it advisable to remove 
them without the use of* water, by simply picking them off*, hav- 
ing been fully convinced that the contact of water under those 
circumstances was an interference with the healing process. 
From its producing such prompt soothings in these troubles, I 
was led to try it for such effects in various eruptive diseases, and 
here I have been more than satisfied. These effects were not 
only very apparent in the simplest forms of erythema, of urticaria 
and rose rash, but in herpes, eczema, erysipelas, scarlet fever, 
and in fact, in all forms of the exanthemata, characterized as they 
are by hyperaemia in their early stages. And it was in that stage, 
essentially, that the benefits of the clay were evident. 
I have seen the nettlerash, and the rash from the poison vine, 
dissipated entirely in four or five hours’ time by a covering of 
clay. 
In erysipelas, my experience allows me very positively to claim 
that its idiopathic form can, in its earliest stages, be cured, with 
the utmost certainty, in forty-eight hours’ time by the complete 
contact of the earth, and in its traumatic form I always feel con- 
fident of a like result, unless there is a complication of abscess or 
deepseated suppuration, prior to a resort to its use. 
As to my experience with it in scarlet fever, I do not feel bold 
enough to cite it as sufficient to draw positive conclusions as to so 
capricious a disease. The facts I have accumulated are, however, 
very significant. In all the cases which I have seen of that dis- 
ease in the last five years, I have had it used freely, dusted over ADDRESS. 
13 
the body, and there lias always followed a marked reduction of 
temperature with positive soothing of the patient, and allaying of 
delirium and insomnia where they wrerc present. In one instance, 
to which I will make special reference, the patient, a bright lad 
of thirteen years, much given to delirium in all febrile disturb- 
ances, was alarmingly ill at the very outset of the disease. 
On the second day he had a pulse of 125, and a temperature in 
the axilla of 118°, and such delirium as to require him to be con- 
stantly restrained. He had not slept for the forty-eight hours. I 
then dusted his body and limbs with some powdered clay in a 
piece of coarse muslin, with the most charming effects. In half 
an hour lie was sound asleep with his pulse at 105, and his tem- 
perature 102°. 
In this case I am sure you will all admit I had good reason to 
form a most unfavorable prognosis, prior to the application of the 
earth, for if my patient was so ill fully twenty-four hours before 
his disease was at its height, what had 1 to expect? But he did 
not have an unfavorable symptom or any excitement of fever 
after that day. He persisted in constantly dusting himself with 
the powder, even until his convalescence was complete, always ex- 
periencing the most soothing effects. 
In this, and in five other instances of scarlet fever, occurring 
in large families, where the circumstances were such as to prevent 
the isolation of the case, and to clearly prove the child to have 
been the only one of the family exposed to contagion from out- 
side, the disease did not spread. This certainly affords strong- 
presumption in favor of an antidotal power of the earth, which is 
corroborated by the fact that in all other instances of scarlet fever, 
where this use of earth was faithfully persevered in throughout 
the stage of desquamation, not one has proved a source of con- 
tagion, either directly or indirectly. From the fact that anything 
which holds out the least possibility of alleviating or mitigating 
the evils of this horrid disease never fails to attract the attention 
of the profession, I feel confident that what I now make known 
will speedily be followed by a most thorough testing of its value. 
I have likewise seen blighting effects from the use of earth in 
small-pox w ell worthy of the attention of the profession. In one 
instance 1 made, with full consent of my patient, an experiment 14 
ADDRESS. 
of contrasting its action with that of the Enip. <le Vigo, which 
will perhaps serve better than any other way, of demonstrating 
these effects. In it I applied constantly the mercurial plaster on 
one side of the face, and the clay made with water into a thick 
paste on the other with the result that my patient’s face to this 
day is positively marked on the one (the mercurial) side, and I 
may fairly say not at all on the other, as there are only one or 
two pits where the clay did not constantly cover the skin on that 
side. 
Here the earth should also have a fair trial by a resort to its 
use in the early or hypersemic stage, otherwise disappointment 
will be experienced, where results similar to what I have just 
intimated are anticipated. 
In the vesicular and scaly diseases of the skin the best results 
from the earth are to be looked for in the early stage. In the 
simplest forms of herpes, if the clay is applied at the first indica- 
tion of burning and itching, or slight swelling and redness, it will 
blight the disease in a few hours’ time. 
In the advanced stages of the scaly forms of skin diseases, I 
have constantly noticed that the earth would at first relieve the 
heat or irritation with which the patient may have been suffering, 
and then afterwards evidently excite an intolerable itching in the 
part, this latter effect following whether the clay had been applied 
as a dry powder or as a paste and allowed to dry. Microscopic 
and other minute examinations have shown these results to be 
from two distinct actions. The allaying of irritation in a part, 
which speedily ensues on the contact of the earth, is shown to be 
associated with a reduction of temperature, tumefaction and hyper- 
semia, whilst the itching subsequently complained of is as clearly 
to be traced to a well-marked shrivelling of the epithelial cells, 
producing in them sharpened points and edges as sources of irrita- 
tion. These results, any of you who are the victims of corns 
can demonstrate for yourselves to-night on going to bed if you 
desire; you will by putting some mud on the corn find the pain 
in it speedily relieved; but may be disturbed in the night after 
the clay has become dry by the itching, and when you remove 
the dressing in the morning, you will find the blush and tume- 
faction gone, and the scaly portion or core evidently shrivelled. ADDRESS. 
15 
The itching excited by shrivelling of the epithelial scales some- 
times becomes a source of great annoyance, specially at night; it 
is readily relieved by dampening the dressing by a wet cloth or 
sponge. 
The microscopic student of the etfects of the earth on living 
tissues will, I am confident, have promptly brought to his mind 
what Prof. Beale has pointed out as occurring in disease, and 
will readily recognize here just the reverse of what he has demon- 
strated in the cell changes of diseased action. There is the con- 
traction of the epithelial cells just referred to, and this is generally 
best seen in the oldest cells, not, however, because they are such, 
but because they have been nearest to the clay from their super- 
ficial position, for where the two have been equally exposed the 
youngest will be found to be the most acted on, that is, the most 
contracted by the clay. The student of Beale’s work will remem- 
ber how admirably he demonstrated the difference in the activity 
of the various portions of a tissue by the use of a weak solution 
of bichromate of potash, the chromic acid being precipitated, as 
shown by its color, after the absorption of the solution, by the 
acid contents of the cells, they having greater affinity for the 
potash than the chromic acid has. The brilliancy of color being 
of course proportional to the activity of the cells, is thus found to 
be greatest in the youngest of them. Such facts sustain the notion 
advocated by the famous German, Tran be, that cell action is carried 
on by the chemical relations of the parts. That such chemical 
relations have been ami are affected by the contact of the earth is 
a matter of easy demonstration in many instances, and that the 
earth acts chemically is susceptible of proof in all instances, by the 
fact that roasting it always destroys its beneficial effects. 
I have heretofore spoken of the earth, whose use I am advocat- 
ing simply as earth, and as clay or clayey earth. I should have 
perhaps earlier stated more definitely what I recommend. I will 
therefore state here, that I have found the stiffest yellow clay, that 
freest of sand or grit, the best for remedial use. It should be dried 
without roasting, powdered, and sifted through a fine flour-sieve. 
Its quality and fitness for our purpose are best determined by 
putting some in the mouth and chewing it; the presence of sand 16 
ADDRESS. 
and of grit and the amount of stiffness can thus be readily ascer- 
tained. 
What I have just said, and what I said a few minutes before in 
reference to the remedial action of this earth being of a chemical 
character, will no doubt suggest to many of you the question put 
to me once on quite a public occasion, namely, “ Why not use the 
chemical ingredients, and in a chemically pure state ?” The answer I 
then gave, founded as it was on personal experience, will serve me 
here. The occasion was a dejeuner in Paris, where one of Eng- 
land’s greatest savans, having heard of some of the remarkable 
resnlts of the use of earth in our art, asked me, “ What I meant 
by earth ?” I promptly said, “ Clay, clayey earth.” “ But what,” 
said he, “ is it chemically f” “Essentially a double silicate of 
alumina,” was my answer. “Why not then use that?” said he. 
“For the very reason that having tried it, I had found it not to 
produce the effects which nature’s crude article did !” was my 
reply. This appeared to him, both from his manner and language, 
as rather absurd. 
Subsequently, the conversation which was being carried on by 
a number of professional men at the table, turned to the cures 
made by some of the mineral waters of Germany, a subject on 
which my interrogator had written very considerably, and I then 
casually asked him what he thought of Bishop’s granular prep- 
aration of the salts of those waters? He promptly answered 
me in a very characteristic manner, “ Why, sir, you may use 
Bishop’s preparations if you desire, but in doing so, you must 
not expect to get the same results as are to be obtained from the 
natural waters !” “ Perhaps, then,” said I, “ you can really appre- 
ciate better than you seemed to a few moments ago my position 
on the use of clay as found in nature!” It was immediately 
evident from the expressions on the faces of those at the table, 
that in the opinion of all, I had certainly the advantage in the 
discussion, and my opponent, after a moment’s pause, during which 
his face became red, said : “ Well, I don’t know but what you 
are right; I must really look into the subject for myself.” 
To return to the effects of clayey earth on the epithelium and 
corium, I have likewise to refer to them here as beneficial in 
superficial injuries, whether they were wounds, bruises, or burns, ADDRESS. 
17 
and in diseased states, such as ozaena, sore throat, gonorrhoea, 
leucorrhoea, rodent ulcer, epithelial cancer, and keloid degenera- 
tion of cicatrix. I have seen it make rapid cures in all of them. 
Here are photographs of one of the earliest cases in which I 
tested it on epithelial cancer. They were published in the “ Pho- 
tographic Review of Medicine and Surgery ” for June, 1871. The 
diseased action, including thereby the induration, involved origi- 
nally the whole of the lower lip, save just so much at the right 
angle as I could cover with the pulp of my index finger, and the 
ulcerated surface was two inches long by one and a quarter at its 
widest point when I began to use the clay. Its development and 
growth had followed the use of a pipe. Microscopic examinations 
made by Dr. Tyson and by myself distinctly demonstrated the 
character of the ulcer. 
Not anticipating any favorable result, it never occurred to me 
to preserve a picture of this case at the outset of its treatment. 
Indeed, the idea was suggested only by the marked improvement 
which had taken place at the end of over three months. Then, 
the sixty-seventh day, the 3d of January, 1871, the ulcer, as seen 
by the first picture of the set I show, was more than half cica- 
trized. Four months later, when the last picture was taken, 
there was not a trace of the ulcer visible on the outside of the lip; 
it had then been cicatrized about two weeks. The treatment 
extended over a period of seven months, and during the whole 
time the patient never lost a day from his work—that of outdoor 
labor. No internal treatment was ever added to this local one. 
When this patient then left my care as cured, I cautioned him 
against using the pipe. This injunction I learned afterwards 
from some of his neighbors he did not long follow, but taking 
to smoking, the lip soon again became sore, and being ashamed 
under these circumstances to return to me for advice, he suffered 
with it until an ulcer of far greater size had formed. For this 
he sought aid of Dr. Duhring of the skin department of the Uni- 
versity Clinic. The Doctor studied the case with care, and has 
figured it in a subsequent number of the “ Photographic Journal,” 
of which he was one of the editors, and in which I had previously 
published these pictures. His diagnosis confirmed the opinion I 18 
ADDRESS. 
had formed of the case. The fatal result which ensued added to 
this, and I certainly think that no stronger proof could be asked 
of the possibility of the earth’s power to heal such a diseased sur- 
face than a fair review of the history of this ease. That the dis- 
ease should have returned is no proof against the healing power 
of the clay, and this is all I claim for it. 
I claimed a few moments ago a power for clay to cure keloid 
degeneration of cicatricial tissue. Here I will give you a brief 
summary of a ease which has been before published in one of my 
lectures on the use of earth in burns, at the hospital. The patient 
was the victim of severe burns from the sport of a child, who 
threw a lighted match into a coal-oil lamp which she was filling 
whilst holding it between her knees. The burns of the lower limbs 
were mostly all of the fourth degree, and were treated by one of 
my colleagues with the ordinary measures, such as carron oil, 
sedative poultices, and cerates. When I took charge of the case 
eight weeks had elapsed since the accident, and most of the ulcer- 
ated surfaces were healed, but with such contractions at both 
knees that the patient could not stand on either limb, and her 
only way of getting about was either on her buttocks, or on her 
hands and knees. The cicatricial tissue here was very painful, 
and of well-defined keloid character. Constant resort to passive 
motion and mechanical support for over a month by my direction, 
had no effect in diminishing these symptoms, 1 had in no other 
way meddled with the original treatment. At the end of the 
fifteenth week of her confinement to bed 1 determined to resort 
to the clay, but before doing so, I asked Prof. Gross to see the 
case, without intimating to him my determination to put the clay 
on. My pretext for getting him to see it was that I knew it 
would be of special interest to him from the severity of the keloid. 
Pie remarked, after examining it with great care, “ It is a terrible 
case, Doctor. What a blessing if ycmr earth could do some good 
there !” My answer was, “ We don’t know yet all the good it can 
do.” This was on a Wednesday afternoon. The right leg could 
not then be straightened, or rather extended at the knee beyond 
80° from the thigh, and the cicatricial tissue extended from one 
inch below the vulva to six inches below the knee, and involved 
at the joint two-thirds of its circumference. The left limb was ADDRESS. 
19 
not nearly so bad, in fact it could be extended within 20° of the 
straight line, and I felt that if I could oidy get the right limb 
straightened, the patient would be able to move about on her feet. 
On the following (Thursday) morning I dressed the right limb 
only with the clay. My purpose in so acting was to demonstrate 
most effectually by the contrast, the action of the clay on the pains, 
and the contractions of the two limbs. On Friday, the very next 
day, the patient expressed herself as relieved of the pain in this 
limb, and could actually stand up on it. She was of course de- 
lighted with my proposal then to dress the left limb also with the 
earth. You will remember the right was by far the worse limb. 
The consequence of this second dressing was, that the patient on 
Saturday morning could readily walk across the room. This was 
just forty-eight hours after the first application, and to make the 
demonstration of the result then obtained as surprising as possible 
to my good friend, Prof. Gross, I directed that my patient should 
be dressed up with her bonnet and shawl and meet us in the hall 
of the hospital at noon of that day, when I knew the Professor 
could join me there, having stopped at his office and asked him 
to name an hour most convenient for him to see a very interesting 
case at the hospital. You can all readily appreciate his amaze- 
ment on entering the hall of the hospital, and being asked if he 
remembered the patient, a genuine Virginia negress, who, enjoy- 
ing the joke as much as I did, was grinning from ear to ear, and 
courtesying in the old-fashioned style. His exclamation was, 
“Good heavens, you don’t mean to say that this is that terrible 
case of keloid ? What have you done for her ?” 1 promptly 
answered him, and the patient as quickly stated she was mate- 
rially relieved of the pains. An examination showed that no 
blistering or cracking had occurred in the keloid, and that it was 
actually thinner and freer than it was forty-eight hours before. 
The result of the continuance of the earth dressings for a period 
of nearly six weeks was the complete cure of the trouble, so that 
the patient then took a situation in the hospital as scullion, which 
required her to be on her feet all day long. This position she 
held for over six months, and I had not only the opportunity 
of frequently examining her and determining the completeness of 
the cure, but also of showing her to my friends. 20 
ADDRESS. 
Of the effects of the earth on injuries of the superficies I will 
not make any reference now, as I can at a later period dispose of 
them more briefly. Before, however, passing to the discussion of 
the earth’s effects when it is applied for deepseated troubles, I 
must show the pictures I have here of a case of elephantiasis. The 
case, barring its intrinsic value from its extraordinary character, 
must be of special interest to yon, as it is from your county, and 
many of you may have seen it at different periods of its history. 
The man, a negro farmhand, a native of Virginia, aged twenty- 
seven, was admitted to the Pennsylvania Hospital, December 1st, 
1873, by my colleague, Dr. Morton, for the purpose of resorting 
to Carnaghan’s method—that of tying the femoral artery—for the 
cure of this disease. Both lower limbs, as can be seen by refer- 
ence to the first picture, were affected, but the right very much 
more so than the left. This right limb at the time of the opera- 
tion measured just above the ankle twenty-two inches in circum- 
ference. The disease had been developing in it for fourteen years. 
It appeared about the same time in the left leg, but was there 
confined to the deeper tissues, in fact it never developed any 
ichthyosis in it. Its progress, however, had been such as to make 
the ankle measure more than the calf of the leg, twelve and a half 
inches. 
The operation of tying the right femoral was performed by Dr. 
Morton on December 6th, and was, barring an attack of bron- 
chitis which developed itself the next day, followed by no unto- 
ward symptom. In fact, it at first promised every success, for 
the limb very rapidly diminished in size, and even the condition 
of the skin was much improved. At the end of the third week 
the ankle measured fourteen and a half inches. Then, however, 
the collateral circulation showed itself as well established, and the 
limb began to grow again. An elastic bandage (Esmarch’s) was 
now, January 7th, resorted to, and with decided advantage, for 
by its pressure the limb was reduced one and a half inches, from 
fifteen and three-quarters to fourteen and one-quarter inches, in the 
first forty-eight hours. But no reduction was effected beyond this 
last measurement, although this form of pressure was continued 
steadily for four weeks. Then, February 5th, the ichthyotic con- 
dition began to grow worse, and the measurements were increased. ADDRESS. 
21 
I now had had charge of the case for a week, but had made no 
change whatever in the treatment. The aggravation in the con- 
dition of the skin was however such as to tempt me to apply on a 
portion of it, a strip three inches wide on the front of the leg, a 
coating of carefully prepared shellac. After it there was some 
improvement, resulting possibly as much from the fact that the 
patient could not remove his dressings—a practice he had been 
pursuing every night for some time before. It was so reduced to 
the measurement of fourteen and one-quarter inches by the 8th of 
February, but no improvement as to size occurred afterwards up 
to the 19th of February. 
Ihiring all this time, up to February 8th, nothing was being 
done for the left limb; some improvement, however, had occurred 
in it from the long rest in the recumbent posture. This improve- 
ment had then ceased, and I applied a firm bandage for over 
twelve days without any benefit. On the 19th of February, the 
seventy-fifth day after the operation of tying the right femoral, the 
right leg measured sixteen and one-half inches at the ankle, and 
the left ten and one-half at the same point, a reduction of five and 
one-half inches for the right, and one and one-half inches for the 
left. There had then been no improvement in either for some 
time, and I felt assured the operation was not going to cure the 
right, and rest had done all it could for the left. 
On this day, February 19th, I applied the clay as a paste, with 
Scultetus bandage to the left foot and leg, up to the knee, but 
made no change for the right. On the next day the right was 
larger, but the left smaller, and this continuing for some days, 
benefit from the clay was undoubted. Then I resorted to it for 
both, and in this second picture you can see its effects on the 
twenty-eighth day after its first use on the left leg. There was 
then in the left leg not a trace of the disease, and in the right a 
reduction to ten and three-quarter inches, which was four inches 
less than it had ever been under the Esmarch bandage. At this 
stage the patient left the hospital, considering himself well enough 
to go to work. The case needs no comment from me. 
I might here detail to you the histories of rapid cures, of fib- 
rous and other fleshy tumors of superficial parts, including the 
breast and testes, which I have accomplished by the topical use of 22 
ADDRESS. 
earth, but the time I have occupied warns me to bring this 
address to a close as soon as possible. I must, however, to do 
my subject full justice, say something in reference to the earth’s 
healing powers in wounds, and in diseases of deep tissues, espe- 
cially the latter, for they are the most marvellous of all the results 
I have seen. 
To avoid presuming too much on your patience I will, how- 
ever, dispose of these in a summary manner. 
And, first, of wounds. My experiences with the earth have 
not only enabled me to heal such, whether produced by accident, 
for the cures of injuries or disease, in a very rapid manner, but 
also to attempt to save limbs which I would have formerly cut 
off as being incurable in any other way. This assertion is sus- 
tained by the diminution in the proportion of amputations in my 
wards, and by the extraordinary successes which have attended my 
cases of penetrating wounds since I have been using the earth. 
Thus in the past term of my service, of all the cases of penetrat- 
ing wounds of the abdomen, six in number, and I cite only those 
where the omentum protruded and there could be no doubt as to 
the diagnosis in consequence, the healing occurred directly in all 
without a sign of inflammation, the patient being up and about, 
as a ride, within the week, in fact there was but one of the series 
that remained in the hospital over six days. 
Something of the success which has attended my cases, where 
I have used the earth in wounds of various kinds, I am free to 
admit is attributable to other details of the dressings. Thus in 
none of them have I used ligatures. Indeed, I have scrupulously 
avoided them. Formerly I resorted to acupressure, but now I 
rely entirely on torsion, and so I get rid of a fertile source of irri- 
tation and of delay in the healing. For the purpose of reducing the 
risks in this direction to a minimum, I have likewise constantly 
used silver stitches and gauze with collodion, where such were re- 
quired, to retain the lips of the wound in thorough coaptation. And 
I never note disturb the dressing for the first four or five days, and 
then merely for the purpose of removing the stitches. Washing 
the wound after the first dressing is applied I always avoid, if 
possible. 
Bruises and deepseated lacerations have yielded like results. ADDRESS. 
23 
Indeed, I have seen excessive tumefactions from such sources rap- 
idly removed. I have had both the swelling and the discoloration 
of badly bruised eyelids dissipated entirely in twenty-four hours 
by the earth. 
Rut the best, as well as the briefest way in which I can indi- 
cate the results attainable by the earth in such injuries, is to state 
the effects in bad sprains of the ankle and knee. Such injuries I 
have no doubt you were all taught, as L was, to look on with as 
much, if not more, dread in reference to the patient’s sufferings 
and confinement than a broken leg. I am also confident that 
your experience in the past as mine of former days fully sustained 
such a doctrine. I used to think myself singularly fortunate 
when I had such a case well in six weeks’ time. Remember I 
am speaking of bad sprains of those joints, and what I mean by 
well is for the patient to be able to use the limb freely, and to 
need no bandage or support, and to be relieved of all pain or 
tenderness in the joint. Now since I have been using the clay in 
such cases, I have had all my patients instantly relieved of their 
pains, and all, with but one exception, well within two weeks from 
the time it was first applied. In this exceptional case) the cure 
was completed on the nineteenth day, and there was in it a com- 
plication in the form of rheumatic arthritis. 
In deepseated troubles, and in local sufferings from blood 
poisonings and like constitutional causes I was, quite naturally 
at first, deterred from using the earth—not only anticipating its 
failure, but really dreading evil consequences from its producing 
repercussion of the morbid action going on in the part. Becoming, 
however, more and more satisfied with its power of elimination in 
those actions, I have now ceased entirely to dread any such con- 
sequences. Even in gout and inflammatory rheumatism I do not 
now hesitate to employ it in conjunction with internal remedies 
for the destruction of the disease in each instance. Credit, there- 
fore, could be claimed for the earth only in these cases where its 
use was speedily followed by relief of pain and reduction of swell- 
ing; and this has been the case, the result being similar in those 
respects to what I have before stated in reference to corns and 
bunions. 
fn bone and periosteal troubles I have seen relief speedily occur 24 
ADDRESS. 
unless there was pent-up pus, and then a free vent had to be given 
to it. 
I have seen the clay also act in the like prompt manner in 
relieving deepseated soreness of the flesh from fatigue, from 
cramps, and from colics, and in rapidly removing the effusions of 
synovitis, pleurisy, and peritonitis. 
The last-named cases tempted me to try it in abdominal tumors, 
and I could here detail to you, if time permitted, the histories of 
a number of cases in which it was successfully used, of positive 
cures by it of undoubted fibroid and fibro-cystic growths of parts as 
deep as the broad ligaments and uterus. But J will now, for want 
of time, only make this reference to them to complete the range 
over which I have extended my investigations. These last-named 
results may not, however, be as startling to you as others which I 
have mentioned, for some of you may have attended L)r. John 
Potter’s lectures at the Almshouse Hospital, Baltimore, as far back 
as forty years ago, when he used, I am told, to cure cases of 
hydrocephalus by a cap of clay worn constantly on the patient’s 
head, whilst internal treatment was being pursued. 
I have, now, gentlemen, given you a fair view of the field in 
which I have been laboring, and of what I consider the range of 
my subject. I hope, as I said before, that none of you will con- 
clude from this that I wish to make out of the earth a panacea, or 
claim for it the properties of an infallible remedy. If you may 
be tempted by my accounts to admit merit in it so far as to try it, 
I shall be satisfied. A careful examination of its actions will, it 
seems to me, show them to be essentially of a local anti-inflamma- 
tory character, both as to the pain and other conditions, and this 
must destroy all the idea of absurdity in the very extensive range 
I have given to my researches. 
I will now, if you will spare me more time, exhibit to you the 
clay as I use it, and, with the assistance of my son, make some 
demonstrations and explanations of special modes of applying it. 
For an account of these demonstrations and as explanatory of 
my remarks made whilst they were going on, I will olfer the fol- 
lowing in the form of 
© ADDRESS. 
25 
ADDENDA. 
The clay exhibited was some stiff yellow clay which had been 
recently powdered and sifted through a fine flour sieve. And 
referring to the researches made by Boussingault on earths taken 
from various depths in the vicinity of the Rhone in 1822, as to 
their greed for oxygen, and also to Prof. Way’s experiments made 
in London more recently on the difference between earth taken from 
the surface, and that from three and a half feet below as to absorbing 
power of ammonia and other gases, it being double in favor of 
the deej) diggings,* I stated the advantages I had experienced of 
late from keeping the earth in bulk rather than in the powdered 
state, namely, that samples of the same earth always proved more 
efficient in every way when recently prepared than when they had 
been kept on hand for any length of time in the powdered state. 
The advantages here to the yellow form of clay would seem to 
be that the iron in it (to which it essentially owes color) is, ac- 
cording to Saussure, in a minimum state of oxidation when at cer- 
tain depths, or protected from the air. The blue color of the 
potter’s clay is according to the same authority due to the large 
quantity of oxygen which it has condensed, and this fact in con- 
nection with my observations that the yellow clay in becoming 
exhausted or unfit for surgical purposes tends to take that color, 
suggests a reason for my not getting as satisfactory results from 
the potter’s, and like colors of clay.' 
This greed for oxygen and power to deoxidize, and lienee to 
arrest combustion, belongs also in a marked manner to the alumina 
of clay, and is therefore to be found in all forms of that kind of 
earth, but not so fully as in that where the iron exists in a low 
state of oxidation. 
Saussure’s and Austin’s experiments on this oxidation, show 
that it occasions the generation of ammonia where the clay is freely 
exposed to the air, or in contact with water, the hydrogen and 
nitrogen which exist in either instance being liberated and allowed 
to combine with each other. 
* See my book on the Use of Earth, p. 225 et seq., for fuller details of these 
and other points alluded to elsewhere concerning the Chemistry of the Earth. 26 
ADDRESS 
This greed for oxygen which belongs to fresh clay, not only being 
readily satisfied by pre-exposure to air and to water but also more 
readily so, such exposures destroy the clay’s efficiency as an an- 
tiphlogistic application to living tissues, for it will not seek oxy- 
gen if it is already satisfied or if it can get that element more 
readily than by robbing the tissues of it. Ifence the advantages 
I have likewise always experienced from applying it in a dry state, 
and in such thickness and close contact as to leave but one source 
(the tissues themselves) from which it can satisfy this greed. 
In a burn, ulcer, or wound, I have found it best to surround 
the part, if possible, by a ring of thick mud, and fill it in with 
the powder to the depth of half an inch or more, and then cover 
the whole with a piece of unglazed paper (the 1)1 lie-colored, as I 
have stated in my previously published experiences, having proved 
the best, very probably from its influence on chemical actions), 
or with some cotton wadding (advocated by Guerin in Paris as a 
dressing in itself, from its known influence in excluding elements 
of the air which can be obnoxious to injured and diseased tissues), 
and then retaining the whole by a well-applied bandage, which is 
not to be disturbed, as before stated, until there is some necessity. 
When it is not possible to apply the powdered clay in this 
manner, as for instance, on a pendent part, or on a stump, T then 
either suspend the part in a box filled with the powder, using the 
powder as Barton did the bran in his famous dressing, or envelop 
it completely with a thick layer of the powder on cotton wadding. 
Where either of these expedients fail to effect a thorough and 
constant covering with the clay, 1 apply it as a paste all over the 
part, retaining this by Scultetus bandages, on which the paste has 
likewise been spread. The purpose of this layer of clay on the 
bandage is to make the bandage hold more firmly in its place, and 
to more thoroughly exclude the air. Over this Scultetus I apply 
the blue paper and roller as in the other dressing. The blue 
paper used by druggists to protect the saline part of the Seidlitz 
powders from the action of the air answers a most admirable pur- 
pose here.* Recognizing as we do the disadvantage of the water 
* The influences of color were demonstrated by Franklin more than a 
hundred years ago, in relation to the conduction of heat. Priestley and In- ADDRESS. 
27 
to the clay, we must feel the necessity of avoiding frequent re- 
newals of the dressing greater here than where the dry powder 
has been used. 
Where there is a necessity to keep the earth from drying, I 
always cover the dressing with waxed paper in preference to oil 
silk* 
In applying the earth to the mucous membranes, as those of 
the nose, mouth, urethra, bladder, rectum, and vagina, there is of 
course no choice but to use it wet, in fact it can only be used in 
those instances suspended in water. The exception which may 
suggest itself, that of the vagina, to this rule is not a real one, for 
although the earth can be packed in that passage, it will not be 
tolerated there, according to my experience, by the patient for 
any length of time. The amount to be suspended in the water 
will depend on our means of application in each instance. As a 
mouth-wash it can be used much thicker than in any other instance. 
Thudichum’s bottle is the best way of using it on the nose, and 
answers most admirably with appropriate tubes for the rectum, 
vagina, urethra, and bladder, as by constantly agitating the bottle 
the earth can be kept well suspended. In gonorrhoea and cystitis 
I use always the double catheter devised by me some years ago, and 
figured in the Pennsylvania Hospital Reports for 1869, p. 256. I 
have had most ample proofs of the earth acting beneficially when 
applied in this way. In gonorrhoea, where my experience has been 
the most extensive, I have that confidence in this treatment that I 
always anticipate a cure, in the acute stage, within a week after the 
commencement with daily injections. The same results have been 
obtained by many professional friends, who have kindly communi- 
cated their experiences to me. My friend Dr. F. W. Godon, for- 
genhous afterwards carefully studied them as regards their chemical actions in 
the development and growth of vegetable life. Then Bernard in France, and 
Samuelson in England, have more recently demonstrated the same in the 
growth of flies and other insects. And finally General Pleasanton, of Phila- 
delphia, has quite lately shown the effects of color on the growth of animals, 
demonstrating most clearly the advantages of the blue tints of color over 
nutrition. 
* The advantages of the paper were predicted by the author in the Penn- 
sylvania Hospital Reports for 1868, and have now caused it to entirely super- 
sede the silk with a saving of several hundred dollars a year to the Institution. 28 
ADDRESS. 
merly of New York City, but now of San Francisco, in a recent 
letter to me says, “ Since your high recommendation of it for the 
cure of gonorrhoea, I have been using it in all my cases, and I find 
that it proves itself almost a specific. I have collected now thirty- 
five cases where I have tried it in acute gonorrhoea, in all of which 
it has acted most satisfactorily; in no one of them has the disease 
lasted longer than a week after the earth had been used.” 
Such prompt relief is of course only to be looked for, as I have 
before intimated, in the acute stage of the morbid conditions for 
which I recommend the use of earth. 
A. H.