concept
Lunar Caustic
lunar caustic
also: ляпис, silver nitrate
Fused silver nitrate (lyapis), a caustic stick used in 19th-century medicine to cauterize wounds, including animal bites, on the theory that burning out the wound site could prevent infection -- the standard first-line treatment before a Pasteur rabies inoculation was considered.
Reading notes
- To Paris! §13 прижег их ляписом
Lunar caustic (fused silver nitrate) was the standard period first-aid treatment for animal bites, burning the wound site in hopes of preventing infection -- primitive and largely ineffective against rabies, which is why the marshal insists on the much more drastic step of a trip to Pasteur.