Selected monographs.

  • New Sydenham Society
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Selected monographs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    EC. From all that has preceded there would therefore appear at present to result an almost complete certainty touching the mode of production of gangrene. The general law might be formulated in these two equations : arterial obliteration=dry gangrene; venous obliteration coinciding with arterial oblitera- tion = moist gangrene. This is the opinion which has recently been ably defended by M. Behier * Everything is so satisfac- tory, everything is so logical from this point of view, that in truth it would'be very desirable that such should be the case if anything were desirable in the matter of science other than knowledge of the truth. But Nature does not accommodate herself so easily to our sys- tematic views. There still remain the spontaneous gangrenes, which it would be premature to introduce into one or other of these groups. Perhaps with the spontaneous gangrenes, the gangrenes of the mouth and vulva in children may be associated. Does the gangrene produced by ergot of rye depend upon a material obstacle to the course of the blood? It is at least necessary to prove this, and on the other hand during the last few years new facts have been brought forwards which may modify our views in this respect. We know that M. Bourgeois, of Etampes, has sought to establish that dry gangrene of the limbs may occur as a com- plication of typhoid fever,t and he believes so strongly in the union of these two conditions that he does not hesitate to propose for this variety the name of typhoid gangrene. It is true that M. Behier responds by a verdict of not proven, and contests the exactitude of the diagnoses made by M. Bourgeois, who in his opinion has taken for typhoid that which was only the commencement of gangrenous symptoms.X It must be admitted that the facts cited by M. Bourgeois are too incomplete for a definite conclusion to be deduced from them. The state of the arteries is not noted, and no autopsy is recorded. Nevertheless one is most reluctant to admit an error of diagnosis on the part of a physician so distinguished as M. Bourgeois. Perhaps a distinction should be drawn between the fact and * Lettrc sur la gangrene typhoide. U Union Medicate, Oct. 22, 1861. t Archives generales de Medccine, 5e Serie, T. x., p. 149. J Rapport lu a la Socie'tc medicale des Hopitaux par M. Behier. VUnion medicale 13 Juin, 1857.
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