A memoir on indolent ulcers, and their surgical treatment / by John Gay.

  • Gay, John, 1812-1885.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A memoir on indolent ulcers, and their surgical treatment / by John Gay. 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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    For the healing of an ulcer it is therefore neces- sary;—1st. That a portion of entirely new skin-tissue be produced. 2nd. That, the extent of skin-tissue which a given sore is able to produce, being seldom, if ever equal to the area of the sore itself, the deficiency must be made up at the expense of the surrounding skin. 3rd. That, for the continuance of the cicatrizing pro- cess and in order to its perfect accomplishment, the tissues of the border of the ulcer must be free to con- tract, and their contiguous structures must also be free to yield to the traction thus made upon them. From the remarks now made it is obvious, that we must look for the causes why an ulcer becomes “ indo- lent,” not within the domain of the sore itself, but chiefly in its skin-border and the contiguous surface tissues. The foregoing remarks are applicable to ulceration in the abstract; but I purpose to apply them especially to ulcers which show a reluctance to heal, independently of all constitutional influences. There is a generally recognized species of ulcer, the “ indolent,” which is included amongst the opprobria of the healing art. The accounts given of it by writers differ almost in every instance. Boyer defines it as an ulcer, the base, edges, and ad- joining structures of which are hard and permanently in a state of chronic inflammation; and Chelius, as an ulcer surrounded by a whitish, dry, insensible edge, not