Lectures on the theory and practice of surgery / by the late Abraham Colles ... ; edited by Simon M'Coy.

  • Abraham Colles
Date:
1844-1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on the theory and practice of surgery / by the late Abraham Colles ... ; edited by Simon M'Coy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the fever lasts all the secretions, morbid as well as natural, are diminished ; if a patient has a gonorrhoea or gleet, or a running sore on his leg, or an issue in his arm, they will all dry up on the accession of in- flammatory fever, from any cause; the thirst, dimi- nished secretion of urine, and of the mucous mem- brane of the bowels, the dry tongue, &c., may all be explained by this one fact. This is the sort of fever met in phlegmonous inflammation in a healthy consti- tution, and our treatment will be directed simultane- ously to it and to the local affection. Now, the occur- rence of this fever, and its severity, depend very much on the constitution of the patient, although it is ne- cessarily dependent on inflammation as an exciting cause; yet the presence of this cause does not always call it into action, as in slight and trivial cases, in a person of good habit. When the local inflammation is reduced, the fever will subside, and its departure is often marked by what is called a critical symptom, such as sweating, or diarrhoea, &c., leaving no trace behind except a little debility. But this is not always so, for the inflammatory fever sometimes gives place to, or merges into, a fever of another kind, apparently owing to a new turn in the inflammation itself; these changes in the local disease are called—perhaps rather loosely—terminations of inflammation. The most favourable and common termination of inflammation is by what is called resolution—that is, where on its departure it leaves the part just as it was before it was attacked. But it may end in suppuration, or by adhesion or gangrene. Each of these will be consi- dered in its proper place; at present, we have only to deal with the treatment, with a view to resolution. The local applications are either cold or w'arm ; cold water or medicated lotions are often extremely useful.
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