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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    scarlet fever occurring in broad patches, which affect suc- cessively different parts of the body. There is neither fever nor any other untoward symptoms whatever asso- ciated -with the rash, which begins to disappear in two or three days after its first appearance, and it is not followed by desquamation; convalescence is in no way retarded, and no sequelae are observed to follow. Dr. Kidd observed these appearances in three per cent of the cases attended by him, and they have been noticed also by Dr. McClin- tock and Dr. Lombe Athill. This still further, I think, strengthens the analogy between the puerperal and traumatic states : and the fact that the former may be followed by an eruption which is clearly not scarlatinal, as well as one which is, lends addi- tional probability to the argument that similar events may occur also in the traumatic state. We have in the ‘ erythema uterinum’ another instance of the close relation existing between events taking place in the sexual appa- ratus and in the integument. In a very large proportion of cases here recorded, in which simple (non-scarlatinal) eruptions have followed surgical interference, the inter- ference has been with parts connected with the organs of generation; and on the supposition that these eruptions are reflex vaso-motor actions, the process is, as we have have said, quite in accord with what we know of the normal physiology of those organs. If we admit the influence of the nervous system in the production of such eruptions as herpes zoster, and perhaps others also, there : need, I think, be no difficulty in admitting its influence in the cases that have been considered.