Two or three drams of Rochelle salts may be administered in a tumblerful of water every morning, one hour before breakfast.
A useful prescription, combining the saline purgative and the iron, is--
℞. Ferri sulph., gr. xij; Magnes. sulph., ℥iss; Sodii chloridi, gr. xij; Acid. sulph. dil., ʒiss; Infus. quassiæ, ad ℥vj. M. Sig. One tablespoonful one hour before meals.
℞. Extract. colocynthidis, Extract. hyoscyami, _āā._ gr. x; Massæ hydrargyri, gr. xx. M. Fiat massa dividenda in pilulas No. xx. Sig. One pill three times a day.
Strychnine in addition to the iron is often a most useful medicine in cervical catarrh.
Various medicines have been administered internally to control the hypersecretion from the cervical glands. Such therapeutics, however, is not to be relied upon.
Any distinct pathological condition, like tuberculosis or syphilis, should, of course, receive the appropriate treatment.
Local treatment may be directed to the vaginal aspect of the cervix or directly to the cervical canal. The former treatment should always be tried first, and it will usually be found sufficient. It consists of the administration of hot vaginal douches, the application of Churchill’s tincture of iodine to the vaginal vault, and the use of the glycerin tampon as described under the treatment of laceration of the cervix. Puncture of the cervix in order to produce local depletion, as already mentioned in the preparatory treatment of laceration of the cervix, may also be tried.
If any case of cervical catarrh persists after the cure of the primary local or general lesion, in case such a lesion is present, and after the additional local treatment by douches and applications to the vaginal vault, then we may be obliged to make applications directly to the mucous membrane of the cervical canal.
These applications should be made as follows, any time in the menstrual interval being appropriate: The cervix should be exposed through the Sims or the bivalve speculum, and should be steadied by seizing it with a tenaculum. The cervical canal should then be wiped out with cotton either in the grasp of long thin forceps or upon an applicator. The cervical mucus should be removed in this way, in order to permit the direct application of the desired solution to the mucous membrane. The applicator or forceps, armed with cotton saturated with the solution, should be introduced in the cervical canal and applied to all portions of the mucous membrane.