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
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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![hand, such cases as those related where urticaria followed the introduction of a speculum or the passage of a gall- stone, and the cases of herpes after catheterisation, would seem to show that the whole process maybe, and often is, a reflex one. It will be noticed how very frequently the symptoms follow interference with certain parts of the body, such as the generative organs, in the normal functions of which reflex actions play such a prominent part; and it must not be forgotten that in nearly all surgical operations the skin is interfered with, which also is deeply concerned in reflex processes. Physiologists have told us how power- fully the course of reflex actions is influenced by trans- mission through the skin, it being much easier to produce a reflex action by slight pressure on the skin than by strong shocks applied directly to a nerve trunk. The comparative frequency with which the rashes in ques- tion follow burns and scalds, where it is the integument only which is implicated, seems to me to point in the direction of some such explanation, though I am well aware that there are many facts which strongly oppose such a view. These explanations, however, leave quite untouched the question, what determines the nature of the rash—why it should be in one case urticaria, in another herpes, and in the majority simple erythema, just as the explanation is equally impossible in the case of the drugs before men- tioned ; but we cannot at present even speculate upon this point. With regard to herpes, which seems to be of rarer occurrence than the others, I am inclined to think that it [ will be found associated with much more profound con- r stitutional disturbance than either urticaria or erythema. I In any case, the size of the wound need not necessarily be a determining factor. It may be truly said that there t is no wound or no focus of inflammation so small that it ’-] may n°f; under suitable circumstances, be a channel lead- : lng to effects far more potent and severe than those wo I are now considering. The products of inflammation, be • j t ley wbat they may, can be as readily absorbed through '1 a 8ma^ wound as through a large one, and the prick of a](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22354281_0057.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
