Reflections on the nature of inflammation, and its alleged consequences / by David Badham.

  • Charles David Badham
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reflections on the nature of inflammation, and its alleged consequences / by David Badham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    quate, the blood stagnates, and gangrene is the inevitable consequence. In concluding these observations on gangrene, I may remark, that the circumstance of the circulation being nearly suspended in hybernating animals, and quite sus- pended in parts that have become frost-bitten; in the first of which cases it may be objected that mortification never happens, and in the second not of necessity, does not in reality make against my views concerning the deleterious influence of venous blood on parts in which it may be confined. For, in the first case, (hybernation,) the stoppage is never complete; the circulation is uniformly retarded over the whole body, so that no part can be said to be congested; add to which that there is in this instance a corresponding dimi- nution of animal and organic life, in strict relation with the diminished powers of the bodily organs ; in short, hybernation is not disease. And in the second case, (that of frost-bitten parts,) where congestion of vessels may be supposed, these parts possibly do not mortify, for the very reason that they are frozen. Their congeal- ing may prevent their sloughing, by rendering them incapable of action, and the nature of their tendency to mortification may be illustrated by the facility with which they are observed to fall into that state on being precipitately thawed.* ULCERATION. After what has been already said of suppuration and gangrene, and the reasons which dispose me not to consider them as mere inflammatory products, I need say • I may here remark, that Hunter’s experiments on the blood, by which he attempted to establish its vitality or loss of life, from the comparative facility or difficulty with which it underwent congelation, by no means proves what this able experimenter intended. Since blood may be frozen in the body, (witness his own experiments on rabbits’ ears, among other facts) and yet, when thawed again.
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