Rob (Kentucky) on 10/13/2026

The Medical Summary, A Monthly Journal of Practical Medicine, New Preparations, p.66 · Volume 12 ~ 1890

Campho-Phenique was brought to my attention a few months ago, and though I had used it somewhat in minor surgical cases, I had no opportunity to test its real merits in anything like a decisive manner until very recently, and the results have been such that I think I am justified in placing them before the profession, and thus calling their attention to a remedy of great value, and of a wide range of applicability and usefulness.

The first serious case in which I determined to test Campho-Phenique was one of facial erysipelas. The face was very much swollen, and the patient (a woman) was in great pain. Having first caused the entire inflamed area to be well washed with alcohol, the remedy was applied with a camel's-hair brush over the surface, and orders were left that the application should be repeated every four hours. To my great satisfaction the patient felt great relief shortly after the first application, and, as I subsequently learned, felt absolutely no pain or inconvenience for about three hours after the application.

A second application was made as directed, and to my great surprise the pain was subdued at once. It left then and there, and did not again return. The remedy was subsequently applied six times (eight applications in all), the disease rapidly yielding under its effects, and the cure being rapid and complete. I should add that in addition to the applications of Campho-Phenique I administered muriated tincture of iron, internally in doses of 12 drops every four hours. This, of course, may (and probably did) have had something to do with the result, but we cannot attribute the sudden and remarkable anæsthesia to this cause, and though often used, the tincture of iron never before exhibited any such happy effect. I am therefore justified, I think, in attributing the cure to Campho-Phenique.

I would say, further (what I am sure all who have ever treated erysipelas of this description will endorse), that even though the remedy had no directly curative properties, its great and absolute control of the element of pain makes it of the very highest value in these and similar cases.

~ S. V. WAGNER, M. D. Bremond, Texas