Ancient superstition and home remedies occasionally form a background for sound therapeutic measures. One would hardly think that the use of urine in infected wounds by primitive Africans and Asiatics might contribute to the modern development of urea therapy. The success of some investigators with urea and allantoin has stimulated work to evaluate the indications and limitations of the use of urea in diseases of the ear, nose and throat. Kaplan1 found that by the use of allantoin, a maggot excretion, chronic indolent ulcers could be made to heal. Using urea, also a maggot excretion and a product of the hydrolysis of allantoin, Robinson2 and his collaborators obtained similar results. Using concentrated solutions and gross quantities of urea crystals applied directly to a wound, Holder and MacKay3 were able to reduce infection and hasten healing in cases in which other therapeutic agents were not effective.
For the most part a