Surgical experiences : the substance of clinical lectures. / By Samuel Solly.

  • Samuel Solly
Date:
1865
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Surgical experiences : the substance of clinical lectures. / By Samuel Solly. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    580 tlie term plilebitis to inflammation of the vein, and use the term purulent absorption to the affection we are now considering. I must next explain to you what becomes of the absorbed pus, and in what way it produces such mischief in the system. The pus globules once ad- mitted into the current of the blood, flow freely through the large systemic veins, until they reach the capillary system of the lungs. It has been stated, that in con- sequence of these pulmonic capillaries being more minute than the pus globule, that its progress is arrested; that they accumulate till the capillary, no longer bearing the pressure from behind, gives way, and they are extravasated into the parenchyma of the lungs. Here they reproduce their species. I doubt this mecha- nical explanation; I am more inclined to regard it as an attempt to excrete the poisonous matter, to get rid of it from the system. I believe that this is sometimes effected, and the matter is coughed up, and the patient recovers. At the same time it must be remembered that the pus globule is a living nucleated ceU, and as such enjoys an individual existence; it forms new cells, and their accumulation constitutes a new abscess. The lungs are not the only portions of the organism where this attempt to unload the system occurs. You find secondary abscesses in other situations. In the case I am about to read to you, suppuration took place in the hand. It has been doubted if these abscesses ever occur on the other side of the lungs—that is, in the systemic arteries, unless pus has been previously effused in those organs. There are, hovmver, several cases recorded of abscess in the liver after injuries of the head, without any mention being made of abscess also in the lungs. The best remedy in these cases is cinchona—not quinine, but the cinchona bark, Battley’s Liq.; cinchona in doses of 5ss. every six hours till the head is affected by it; or if not, Battley’s Liq., the tinctiira cinchoncB com])osita, or Huxham’s tincture of bark. If tlie skin is made dry by it, then add a few minims of vin.