Antiseptic surgery : its principles, practice, history and results / by W. Watson Cheyne.
- Watson Cheyne
- Date:
- 1882
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Antiseptic surgery : its principles, practice, history and results / by W. Watson Cheyne. Source: Wellcome Collection.
592/656 page 556
![cally irritating; and the effect of the application of irritating chenaical substances to granulations is to cause them to suppu! rate P mother, these zrntating chemical substances-the pro- ducts of this fermentation-are not transiently applied but are constantly present day after day in contact with the granula- tions, for as we have seen, the ' vital ferments ' have an in- definite power of multiplication, and thus there is a constantly fresh supply of the irritating products. The result is the pro- fuse suppuration which constantly follows free incisions into these abscesses, and the consequence of this prolonged and free suppuration is hectic fever, exhaustion, waxy infiltration and degeneration of various internal organs, and ultimately, in the great majority of cases, death. On the other hand, prevent the entrance of micro-organisms, as I have shewn can be done by the aseptic method, and the pus remains as unirritating as formerly There is no more reason for great formation of pus after than before the abscess was opened; indeed, the granu- lations are relieved from the tension of the pus, and are there- fore less irritated than before and secrete less. And then in a few^ days the greater part of such an abscess cavity closes by adhesion of the granulations, and only a sinus is left leading to the seat of disease. But the granulations hning this sinus do not supi^urate because they are not irritated, and hence all that happens is a slight transudation of serum, perhaps not a couple of minims in a w eek, and this continues till the disease is cured and the sinus can close. Thus, during the treatment the patient is not exhausted by profuse discharge, while he is relieved from the presence of the abscess, which by the tension of its contained pus was keeping up the chronic inflammation of the bone and was a source of constitutional irritation. And thus we constantly see that, where such abscesses are opened aseptically and kept aseptic, the patient's health at once begins to improve. That these are not mere theoretical speculations, but that they are fair deductions from the facts, will be evident to any one who will carefully weigh the facts brought forward in the history of antise])tic surgery and in Chapter XX. For there we see that the only method of treatment whicli could be snid to be of any service at all in these cases, exce23tiug the Listerian](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20409928_0594.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
