On the so-called malignant pustule of external anthrax / by J.T.J. Morrison.

  • Morrison, James Thomas Jackman, 1856-1933.
Date:
[1887]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the so-called malignant pustule of external anthrax / by J.T.J. Morrison. 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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    (Reprinted from the Birmingham Mediccll Review) t Vol. XXIf 1887). ON THE SO-CALLED MALIGNANT PUSTULE OF EXTERNAL ANTHRAX., BY J. T. J. MORRISON, B.A., F.R.C.S. CASUALTY SURGEON TO THE QUEEN’S HOSPITAL, BIRMINGHAM. Bacterial pathogeny is the youngest and not the least promising bud on the tree of pathology. The influence of vegetable micro- organisms in morbid processes engrosses considerable attention amongst medical men, and is steadily becoming more widely acknowledged. Of the group of diseases recognised as being associated with bacteria, anthrax appears to be the member which has been most fully and successfully studied. Therefore a survey of the present position of our knowledge of anthrax, so far as its external variety is concerned, may prove of interest and profit as affording some insight into the views of modern pathologists. But the subject is additionally important because of its practical bearing. For though “malignant pustule” is comparatively unknown in this district, and the nature of the local industries considerably lessens the risk of its occurrence, yet in so large a centre of population, having wide commercial relations, we are every day exposed to the liability of being confronted with cases of this malady. And, be it remembered, the disease is one which is very fatal if left to nature, whereas early diagnosis and energetic surgical treatment almost, if not quite, invariably effect a cure. As giving point to the above observation, attention may be called to the recent outbreak of anthrax amongst cattle in Poulton, Gloucestershire, attended with loss of life in the person of a man who skinned a diseased carcase.* The writer’s interest in the subject was aroused during his studentship and house-surgeoncy at Guy’s Hospital, where cases from time to time present themselves from the tanneries and leather manufactories of Bermondsey. He possesses notes of Lancet. July 9, 1887,