A treatise on the venereal disease / by John Hunter ; with copious additions, by Philip Ricord ; translated and edited, with notes, by Freeman J. Bumstead.

  • John Hunter
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the venereal disease / by John Hunter ; with copious additions, by Philip Ricord ; translated and edited, with notes, by Freeman J. Bumstead. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    to antisypbilitic treatment, and the epilepsy disappeared, never to return. Sandras concludes that the epilepsy in this case was dependent on some syphilitic tumor of the brain, which was removed by the treatment. Syphilitic affections of the lungs, heart, and liver, will also be described in the latter part of this work, when we come to consider tertiary syphilis. In the present state of science, we may conclude :— 1. That the existence of syphilitic lesions of the viscera is proved by analogy, by certain cases in pathological anatomy, and by cures effected by antisyphilitics, after other means have failed, in serious affections of the vis- cera, coexisting with undoubted specific symptoms. 2. That these lesions cannot be recognized, at present, by any pathogno- monic sign, aside from the history of the case and the coexisting symptoms; but that the possibility of their existence should always be borne in mind, and an appropriate treatment be employed, whenever a syphilitic cause is suspected.—Editor. ] § 5. Of Inflammation. I consider common inflammation to be an increased action of the smaller vessels of a part, joined with a peculiar mode of action, by which they are enabled to produce the following effects; to unite parts of the body to each other, to form pus, and to remove parts of the solids. These effects are not produced by a simple increase of action or enlargement of the vessels, but by a peculiar action, which is at present, perhaps, not understood. These three effects of inflammation I have called distinct species of inflammation. That which unites parts, I have called the adhesive inflammation; that which forms pus, the suppurative inflammation; and that which removes parts, the ulcerative inflammation. In the adhesive inflammation, the arteries throw out coagulable lymph, which becomes the bond of union. This, however, is not sim- ply extravasated, but has undergone some- change before it leaves the arteries, since in inflamed veins it is found lying coagulated upon the internal surface of the vessel, which could not have happened if simply extravasated. In the suppurative inflammation, a still greater change is produced upon the blood before it is thrown out by the arteries whereby it is formed into pus: which change is probably similar to secretion. In the ulcerative inflammation, the action of the arteries does not remove the parts; that office is performed by the absorbent vessels which are brought into action. In the first two species of inflammation, there must be a chano-e in the disposition and mode of action of the arteries; for the suppura- tive species cannot be considered as simply an increase of action of the adhesive, as its effects are totally different; but, in the third species there is probably no change of action in the arteries from that of the second; the action only of the absorbents being superadded, by which solid parts, and of course the arteries themselves, are removed.