Medicine: Salt Pork for Nosebleeds

Last week, at the Manhattan meeting of the American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, Dr. Alfred Jared Cone, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, reported what sounded like an old country nostrum, but wasn't: that simple salt pork packs are "invaluable" in controlling hemorrhage.

He took his cue from the suggestions of the Society's president, Dr. Lee Maidment Kurd of Manhattan.

In cases of severe nosebleed, whether after operation or from disease, plugs of salt pork in the nose, said Dr. Cone, are far more effective than ordinary gauze packs. "In many instances," he continued, "salt pork promptly stopped bleeding after other methods had failed. ... It seems to have the property of preventing recurrence. ... I have used it in controlling violent hemorrhage occurring with the onset of measles, rheumatic fever, and typhoid fever, and during the third stage of labor."

"Salt pork," he continued, "is cheap, common, and easily obtained. It keeps well and is handy to use. It is superior to the usual nasal pack in that it is easier to introduce, and it is more comfortable for the patient, whose only complaint is that the salt causes smarting for a few minutes. . . . Salt pork is easily kept in brine and does not disintegrate. Pork fat does not harbor the parasites (trichinae) that might be present in muscle."