Volume 1

Descriptive catalogue of the pathological specimens contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

  • Paget, James, Sir, 1814-1899.
Date:
1882-1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Descriptive catalogue of the pathological specimens contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    parts run immediately into the suppurative inflammation, the adhesive inflammation in common being excluded; such parts are the internal surfaces of the eyelids, nose, mouth, trachea, air-cells of the lungs, oesophagus, stomach, intestines, pelvis of the kidneys, ureters, bladder, urethra, uterus, vagina, and indeed all the ducts and outlets of the organs of secretion, which all these parts men- tioned may be in some degree reckoned, and which are commonly called mucous membranes. In such parts, if the inflammation is but slight, the suppurative in common takes place, which is almost immediate, as it is not retarded by the adhesive stage, which accounts for the quickness of suppuration of these parts in many cases. I have known a violent discharge of pus come on the sur- face of the urethra only a few hours after contamination. These facts are shown us every day in various inflammations of those parts, and particularly in the gonorrhoea, cold in the nose, lungs, intestines, &c. The matter from such is generally not called true matter or purulent, but is often so, if not always, having all the characters of pus; however, this will be according to circumstances. Since those surfaces are, in general, secreting surfaces, suppuration would appear to be only a change in the secretion ; and I think I have visibly seen, or could visibly trace, the one change gradually leading into the other: the different parts, therefore, of which the pus is composed will not always be in the same proportion, so that the matter will seem to vary from true matter towards that of the common secretion of the part, and vice versa. But this does not alter the position, for it is common to matter from a sore; and even common to our ordinary secretions.—Hunter, On the Blood, Sfc.: Worlcs, vol. iii. p. 288. 162. A compound and comminuted fracture of a tibia, widely exposed in front. The preparation was marked by Mr. Hunter as an example of Suppuration taking place in consequence of a breach in the solids not being allowed to heal by the first intention.—Hunterian MS. Catalogue. Violence done to parts is one of the great causes of suppura- tion ; but we have already remarked that violence simply does not always produce this inflammation, but that it must be a violence followed by a prevention of the parts performing their cure in a more simple way, viz. a restoration of the structure, so as to carry on the animal functions of the part, or, in other words, a preven- tion of union by the first or second intention ; or attended with this circumstance, viz. that the parts are kept a suflB.cient time in that state into which they were put by the violence ; or, what is something similar to this, a violence attended with death in a part, such as in many bruises, mortifications, sloughs in conse- quence of caustics, &c., which, when separated, have exposed internal surfaces.—Hunter, On the Blood, Sfc,: Worhs, vol. iii. p. 404. F 2