On the early stages of inflammation / By Joseph Lister.

  • Lister, Joseph, Baron, 1827-1912.
Date:
[1858]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the early stages of inflammation / By Joseph Lister. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/60 (page 647)
    there will result, in proportion to the elevation of the temperature and the duration of its action, undue redness of the vessels from accumulation of the blood-corpuscles; and if the burn have been sufficiently severe, vesication will soon take place as in the human subject. These and other similar cases indicate that the early stages of inflammation are alike in man and in the frog, and this conclusion is fully confirmed by examination of the bat’s wing, which furnishes the means of watching the effects of irritants upon mammalian circulation. The very small size of the blood-corpuscles, and some other circumstances, render that animal much less suitable for the investigation than the frog ; but with the use of high powers of the microscope and a little pains, the same sort of experiments can be made with both: and the careful observations of Messrs. Paget and Wharton Jones, and, I may add, also my own more limited experience with the bat, have shown that in all the details that can be observed, a complete similarity obtains between the effects of irritation upon the circulation in the two creatures. We may therefore rest fully satisfied that conclusions arrived at from the study of the early stages of inflammation in the foot of the frog will apply in all strictness to the same morbid process in man. It is well known that the field of observation thus afforded has not been allowed to remain uncultivated. Since the microscope has been brought to its present state of perfection, not to speak of a previous period, men of established scientific reputation have devoted much patient labour to it; and any one who now enters upon this inquiry has the great advantage of possessing faithful records of accurate observations made by many able predecessors. But the number and discordance of the views entertained by different authorities regarding the cause of the “stasis” of the blood in inflammation, are sufficient evidence either that the subject demands further investigation, or else that it lies beyond the reach of human means of research. Having been called upon in the capacity of a teacher of surgery to attempt an expla¬ nation of the matter to others, I felt bound to do my best, by personal observation, to form a judgement for myself; and several new facts which I have unexpectedly met with appear to throw such fresh and clear light upon the nature of disease, that I venture to submit them to the Royal Society. SECTION I. On the Aggregation of the Corpuscles of the Blood. The tendency of the corpuscles of the blood to aggregate together, constitutes, as we shall see, an important element in the cause of the obstruction which they experience in the vessels of an inflamed part. It is therefore desirable that we should be acquainted with the nature of the phenomenon. If a drop of human blood just shed is placed between two plates of glass and examined with the microscope, the red corpuscles are seen to become, applied to one another by their flat surfaces, so as to form long cylindrical masses like piles of money, as first observed in 1827 by my father and Dr. Hodgkin ; and the terminal corpuscles of mdccclviii. 4 Q