A treatise on the venereal disease / by John Hunter ; with notes by George G. Babington.

  • Hunter, John, 1728-1793.
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the venereal disease / by John Hunter ; with notes by George G. Babington. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    also the seat of the small-pox and the measles; the throat is the seat of the hydrophobia and the hooping-cough. The scrofula attacks the absorbent system, especially the glands. The breasts, testicles, and the conglomerate glands are the seat of cancer. The skin, throat, and nose are more readily affected by the lues venera than the bones and periosteum; which, on the other hand, suffer sooner than many other parts, particularly the vital parts, which perhaps are not at all susceptible of the disease. § 5. Of Inflammation. I consider common inflammation to be an increased action of the smaller vessels of a part, joined with a peculiar mode of action, by which they are enabled to produce the following effects ; to unite parts of the body to each other, to form pus, and to remove parts of the solids. These effects are not produced by a simple increase of action or enlargement of the vessels, but by a peculiar action, which is at present perhaps not understood. These three effects of inflammation I have called distinct species of inflammation. That which unites parts I have called the adhe- sive inflammation; that which forms pus, the suppurative inflamma- tion; and that which removes parts, the ulcerative inflammation. In the adhesive inflammation the arteries throw out coagulable lymph, which becomes the bond of union. This, however, is not simply extravasated, but has undergone some change before it leaves the arteries, since in inflamed veins it is found lying coagu- lated upon the internal surface of the vessel, which could not have happened if simply extravasated. In the suppurative inflammation a still greater change is produced upon the blood before it is thrown out by the arteries, whereby it is formed into pus; which change is probably similar to secretion. In the ulcerative inflammation, the action of the arteries does not remove the parts: that office is performed by the absorbent vessels which are brought into action. In the two first species of inflammation there must be a change in the disposition and mode of action of the arteries ; for the suppu- rative species cannot be considered as simply an increase of the action of the adhesive, as its effects are totally different; but in the third species there is probably no change of action in the arteries from that of the second: the action only of the absorbents being superadded, by which solid parts, and of course the arteries them- selves, are removed. § 6. Of Mortification. Mortifications are of two kinds, one preceded by inflammation, the other not. But as the cases of mortifications which will be mentioned in this.work are all of the first kind, I shall confine my observations to that species. I consider inflammation as an increased action of that power 3