Observations on certain eruptions of the skin which occur after recent operations and injuries : a thesis for the degree of M.D. in the University of Cambridge / by Edward C. Stirling.

  • Stirling, Edward Charles, 1848-1919.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on certain eruptions of the skin which occur after recent operations and injuries : a thesis for the degree of M.D. in the University of Cambridge / by Edward C. Stirling. 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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    after the passage of an instrument, acute urethral fever, the temperature in one case reaching 103°, and in the other 105°, preceded by rigors so severe as to very forcibly suggest pyaemia. On the day following there was in each case an outbreak of herpes about the mouth, face, and neck, which gradually passed off; but in one of the cases the temperature, though it fell somewhat after the outbreak of herpes, remained high for some days. Though very severe symptoms and high fever are often met with after the passage of urethral instruments, it had not fallen to my lot to notice eruptions of the skin under like circumstances before, but some of my colleagues have informed me that the occurrence is familiar to them. Such cases are instructive as showing the probable agency of reflex action in the production of this and similar rashes, as the presumption is that there was no wound. It will not escape notice how very frequently any surgical inter- ference with the genital organs is followed by these eruptions. Herpes after Wounds. A similar eruption has been observed by Verneuil to follow cutting operations. One such case was made the text of a clinical lecture,* and he concludes by saying that we must count herpes as one of the complications which may attend wounds. It may appear either on the surface of the wound or at a distance ; and it is noticeable that the outbreak is usually accompanied by rigors, a high tempe- rature, and other severe constitutional symptoms. Here, then, we have a number of eruptions of various kinds following not only wounds, but also other surgical treatment and affections, not necessarily involving the presence of an external wound. The one feature common to them all is their occurrence in relation to an injury or operative measure. It will be, however, noticed that the relation, in point of time, between the rash and the wound 18 not nearly so uniform as in the scarlet-fever cases ; this piobably arises from the fact that they are so much fewer * Lancet, 1878, vol. ii. p. 873.