Researches on suppuration. Sect. 1. On the frequent presence and on the effects of pus in the blood, in diseases attended by inflammation and suppuration / by George Gulliver.

Date:
[1838]
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Credit: Researches on suppuration. Sect. 1. On the frequent presence and on the effects of pus in the blood, in diseases attended by inflammation and suppuration / by George Gulliver. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    bable that the degree and type of the fever induced by the presence of pus in the blood may be found to depend on the extent to which it may be contaminated. Of the inflammatory, hectic, and low typhoid fever, it seems hardly necessary to observe, that they appear to be all com- prehended under the common designation of constitutional irritation in the interesting work of Mr. Travers, which I had not read till my attention was directed to it by Mr. Liston after this paper was written. Under the term typhoid, I have included that grave form of fever in which the vital powers sink rapidly, as I believe, from somewhat sudden and exten- sive mixture of pus with the blood, as sometimes occurs after operations on veins, or amputations, or even independently of wounds. The patient seldom complains of much pain; he has, among other symptoms, dilated nostril, flushed face, en- crusted tongue and teeth, restlessness, small quick pulse, cold clammy sweats, offensive breath, hiccough, subsultus, stupor. I cannot conclude this paper without expressing a hope that it will lead to a still more careful and extensive examina- tion of the blood in various diseases than has hitherto been attempted. The microscope may become as important an instrument to the pathologist, and even to the medical practi- tioner, as the stethoscope. If my results should be confirmed, it is hardly too much to expect that some important discovery, particularly in diagnosis, may be made by a patient investi- gation of the blood in many malignant diseases, such as cancer : it is not long since the urinous fever, as it is called, was found to depend on the accumulation of urea in the blood. [From the London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science for Sept. 1838.]