Observations on the causes and treatment of ulcerous diseases of the leg / by J.C. Spender.

Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the causes and treatment of ulcerous diseases of the leg / by J.C. Spender. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    lute and defined alteration in the exterior of the extremity, and not its direction and locality, which is the most frequent cause of the production or con- tinuance of had kinds of sores, yet it is not meant to assert that this is the only source from which they spring. For, independently of that class arising from external violence, some ulcers partake of a constitutional origin; though this latter cause does not, I helieve, operate to the extent which is usually supposed. But whether such cases he many or few, they are the effect of a general, not a local tendency, and might have exhibited themselves on the arms or other parts of the surface of the body, as well as on the legs. In these instances, there- fore, the situation or position of the limb cannot explain the common occurrence with which it is the seat of ulcerous diseases. But the custom of resolving the frequency and intractableness of ulcers of the leg into the direction or locality of the extremity, is not only, I think, theoretically wrong, but, what is of greater import- ance, and induces me to give the inquiry this pro- minent place, it has given rise to the practical evil of drawing off our attention from the real and immediate cause of the disease. We have been satisfied by announcing in general terms that the legs are prone to ulcerate, and to remain so, with- out always sufficiently investigating the positive. B 2