Clinical lectures on subjects connected with medicine and surgery / by various German authors.

  • New Sydenham Society
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Clinical lectures on subjects connected with medicine and surgery / by various German authors. 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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    concerns the demonstration of the death of the tissue brought about by certain animal or organic poisons, and the inflammatory reaction of the tissues with exudation, infiltration, and subsequent formation of callosities, or suppuration. The local treatment of the rarer kinds of chemical noxious matter, owing to our still imperfect experience, leaves much to be desired. In the following I shall treat of this group of foreign bodies merely in a cursory way, only so far as they act in consequence of their prolonged presence. Concerning the ]Dathology of foreign bodies simply acting mechanically, as we shall not consider the injury itself, we have especially to occupy ourselves with the alterations produced by the specific weight, the form, and the surface of the body in question, at the same time we shall, however, not entirely lose sight of the eventual resorbability, i.e., its solubility in the fluids of the body. The number of instances of healing-in of foreign bodies in the organism is an extremely large one, and the reports on the same, especially in the earlier decades of this century, played an important part in surgical literature. But the older examples have for us lost much of their marvellous character since the conditions of the healing process in wounds has become better understood. We know that foreign bodies, with the exception of some which act chemically, do not possess as such qualities which cause suppuration, and we are therefore not astonished if they do not produce a violent reaction. Leber has demonstrated as regards the eye that copper and mercury act as exciters of suppuration. Grawitz especially has recently shown that nitrate of silver, croton-oil, ammonia, and turpentine produce suppuration in certain species of animals. Some ptomains have, according to 8cheuerlen, similar effects. These, of course, may not be instances of progressive suppuration, as no ferment-like substance comes into action. Older Observations. The older observations are of but slight importance for the purpose I have in view, because for the most part the anatomico- pathological conditions are not entered into, and only the previous history, the course, and the treatment have been con-
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