The anatomy of the absorbing vessels of the human body / by William Cruikshank.

  • Cruickshank, William, 1745-1800.
Date:
1790
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The anatomy of the absorbing vessels of the human body / by William Cruikshank. 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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    dropsy, instead of refusing or being unable to take thorn tup) says, V that in gonorrhoea, the discharge is occasioned from excoriation of the glands of the urethra, (amongst which he reckons the prostatey.xheko. throw out the poison ; but, if the discharge is stopped, and'the mouths of the glands sealed up by astringents, balsamics, &c. the poison is conveyed by certain ducts to' the inguinal glands, and thefe detained and'accumu- lated.” And on this preconceived notion he founded his practice j that is, encouraged suppuration and a discharge, to discharge thee poison!; or he cut out the glands, or destroyed them by caustic:—4Hisfiwords a'repf‘if the glands will not come to suppuration, I. always, if the patient) will admit of it, divide the largest of the inguinal glands into the body of it, and with my finger, or spatula, turn out their insides, or destroy them with escha- rotics ;—this I take to be the] easiest, the safest, and most expeditious method towards a cure.” Every anatomist milk know, that what Mr. Freke calls turning out their inside, was turning out the entire gland ;/ch'ancres also must have been included in his excoriated glands. - Dr. Hunter saw this, and acknowledges, that though fie taught the lymphatics.were absorbents, as early as 1746, yet it was not till the publication of Mr. Freke’s book, in 1748, that he thought of the argument of the afbsprption of poisons, that, when a poisou waFpassing into the system, tire lymphatic' gl'and'sfnfiarest the infected part were almost always ipflamedt—he; said be caughtrthe. bint from reading the passage I have now quoted. Dr. Hunter perceived im- mediately that Freke’s certain ducts ” were sagaciously imagined, and could be no other than the lymphatic vessels. It is fortunate in these dreadful diseases that the poison lies so long in the first infected parts, be- cause it gives time for removing the diseased parts, and this saves the pa- tient’s life. This, however, is not always to be depended on, and therefore as soon as cancerous matter, or the poison of the mad dog, have shewn them- selves, I recommend immediate removal of the parts; for though commonly there is time to deliberate, and room for delay, there have been instances to the contrary, and therefore immediate excision is the best and safest prac- tice: sometimes, if the glands in the axilla are cut out with the diseased mamma, the patient may be saved, but this is always doubtful; whilst on the other hand, I have not lost one patient, who submitted to the operation be- . >1-' u > J fore