Surgery : its theory and practice / by William Johnson Walsham.

  • William Walsham
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Surgery : its theory and practice / by William Johnson Walsham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    159/864 page 143
    zinc, and the wound sprinkled with iodoform and dressed antiseptically. WouxD-DlPHTHERlA is rare in this country. It is thought by some to be a mild form of hospital gangrene, by others to be a distinct affection depending upon a specihc form of micrococcus and the result of bad hygiene and want of cleanliness in the treatment of the woimd. When a woimd is so attacked, the surface, previously granulating, becomes covered with a greyish-white, opaque, tenacious membrane, similar to that of diphtheria. This membrane consists of granulation-cells and coagulated exudation, in which are found micrococci in chains and colonies. The atfection appears to be only very slightly contagious, and does not aifect the system generallj^ further than by the absorption of the septic products. The treatment consists in attention to the general hygiene, and dusting the wound with iodoform or rubbing it over with a stick of nitrate of silver. ]\Lu.iGX^Uv'T Pustule or Charbon is a specific and infective disease due to inoculation with a wus (the harJlhis anthracis) obtained from animals suffering from splenic fever. It occurs most frequently in this country amongst those whose work brings them into contact with hides imported from countries in which splenic fever is common. The bacillus may enter the system through a wound or abrasion of the skin, a pustule occurring at the point of inoculation. The disease may then remain localized, or the bacillus may enter the blood and there rapidly multiplying give rise to constitutional symp- toms. At times the bacillus is absorbed directly into the blood through the alimentary or respiratory mucous membrane without any external manifestation, and sets up similar constitutional symptoms, the affection being then known as Woolsorter's Disease. (See a work on Medicine.) tiyirqitonis.—A red itching pimple is first noticed, gene- rally at the situation of a slight scratch or abrasion of the skin, on the face or some other exposed part. The pimple soon becomes converted into a vc^siclo, whilst the surrounding tissues become red and brawny. Gangrene occiirs at the focus of inJlammation, .and around this a ring of secondary vesicles forms. Thus, when the so- called pustule is fiQly developed, it presents a very characteristic ap])oavanco. In the centre there is .a dry black sloi;gh, around this a ring of vesicles, and around
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