GRAVITY DRAINAGE

To the Editor:  —In hand infections of a localized character, a form of treatment may be employed which, for lack of a better term, I have named gravity drainage. All have seen instances in which the palmar surface of a finger or of the hand has become infected and the member is carried with the palmar surface uppermost, the infection undergoing active inflammatory action and the tissues beneath being infiltrated with the products of inflammation. Such conditions are seen many times in laborers who are holding poultices in their hands waiting for the skin to break and give relief from agonizing pain while the tissues beneath are being filled with infected matter, which is rapidly spreading throughout the hand according to the law of gravitation until the back has become swollen and edematous and later on has "pointed," nature having produced an opening for drainage. The sufferer may say that