Volume 1
A system of practical medicine / by American authors ; edited by William Pepper ; assisted by Louis Starr.
- Date:
- 1885-1886
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A system of practical medicine / by American authors ; edited by William Pepper ; assisted by Louis Starr. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![ficial pallor, characterize the asthenic inflammations, which show a fre- quent tendency to become localized in the more dependent parts of the body, the force of the circulation being too feeble to overcome the effect of gravitation. In the typhoidal inflammations are associated those symptoms winch are so prominent in the severe varieties of tyi)hoid fever. _ These are the predominant symptoms : hebetude or low, muttering delirium, picking at the bed-clothes, involuntary evacuations, stertor, and the like. The ner- vous disturbances are associated with a feeble pulse and a dusky hue of the skin. ' The constituents of an inflammatory exudation are frequently used as a basis of classification, and characterize the inflammation from tlie_ ana- tomical point of view. As the exudation is complex in its composition, the predominant element is made use of to designate the variety, and in doubtful cases a combined adjective indicates the presence of the two most abundant constituents. As the exudation is directly derived from the blood and contains serum in addition to Avhite and red corpuscles, the serous, purulent, and hemorrhagic varieties of exudation naturally arise. The fibrinous and diphtheritic inflammations relate to the presence of membranes or false membranes. Finally, there are the productive inflam- mations, resulting in the new formation of tissue, and the destructive inflammations, where losses of substance occur. Serous inflammations are most frequfint in those parts ot the body where the structure contains the largest lymph-spaces. The so-called serous cavities of the body offer the most favorable opportunities tor tJie accumulation, as well as for the exudation, of the inflammatory product; then follow the regions of the larger lymph-spaces, according to the size and number of the latter. . , v i The serous inflammations may also arise from the epithelial coverings of the body, as the cutaneous, alimentary, and respiratory surfaces, ihe serous exudations of the skin are those ]>resent m vesicles, blisters,_or bulls which owe their limitation to the resistance offered to the spreading of the liquid inflammatory product by the coherent epidermis, berous inflammations of the alimentary canal may assume a vesicular character, although, from the structure of its mucous membrane and the macerating influence of its contents, the vesicles are apt to be of an extremely tran- sitory character. u The more important serous inflammations of the intestines are those manifested by profuse watery evacuations, the extreme form ot which is to be found in cholera. . „ Serous inflammation of the lungs accoriipanies the more se^^re forms, and usually represents but a limited and circumscribed affection, asso- ciated with more abundant cellular and fibrinous products _ Serous inflammations of the peritoneum, pleura, pericardium, tunica vn-inalis, and central ventricles often give rise to the preseiicc of enor- mous quantities of fluid, whose partial removal from many of the cavities concerned by operative measures frequently represents a most beneficial result of treatment. . . , . ^. r The smaller lymph-spaces of the connective tissue in various parts ot the body are the frequent scat of the inflammatory ccdcnia, so ca led, whose presence is an important indication of the direction assumed L)y a](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20415023_001_0031.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
