On a Non-Operative Treatment for Hernia

Hernia being very common in India,?according to Dr. Mallannah's figures indeed it affects some 12 per cent, of adult males and some 25 per cent, of elderly Indian males,?and patients being in dread of operative procedures and anresthetics, any successful non-operative form of treatment is of interest. A truss often fails to cure and is merely palliative; indeed in the long run it weakens the muscles and this may enlarge the ring, so that the hernia becomes larger with age. Of various medicinal treatments advocated, Heaton advocated applications of white oak bark, Pancoast an application of strong ammonia to produce local inflammation and adhesions. The mortality from operative procedures is about 3 per cent. (Coley), and the. failure rate some 5 per cent. Unsutured wounds of the skin heal by granulation tissue formation, and the author accordingly considered the possibility of inducing some similar process in the mouth of the hernial sac. A vaccine was prepared of B. pyocyanens, of strength 1 c.c. = 100 millions: and a suitable case presented himself in the form of