On the nature, causes, statistics, and treatment of erysipelas / by Peter Hinckes Bird.

  • Bird, P. Hinckes (Peter Hinckes), 1827-1891.
Date:
[1858?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the nature, causes, statistics, and treatment of erysipelas / by Peter Hinckes Bird. 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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    ON THE NATURE, CAUSES, STATISTICS, AND Creatment ot a^r^eiipelas!^ BY PETER IIINCKES BIRD, F.R.C.S., &c., cStC., AUTHOR or THE JACKSORIAK PRIZE ESSAY ON ERYSIPELAS. It would be difficult to find in the whole range of nosology a disease which requires more accuracy of discrimination in the adoption of the treatment necessary to arrest the destructive ravages which follow the unchecked progress of its severer forms than the one which forms the subject of this paper; and yet there is perhaps no subject of prac- tical importance upon which there has existed such contrariety of opinion as to its nature and treatment, and especially as to the precise signification and extent of the word. The design of this paper is, to establish that the distinctive charac- teristic of erysipelas and the diseases allied to it, is their origin in a morbid poison in immediate connexion with an unhealthy condition of tlie system. A subtle poisonous matter enters the blood, constituting, in fact, a true blood-poison disease ; and the almost universal rule, that the presence of a poison in the blood is productive of a direct and special operation on the skin follows, in this particular instance causing erysipelas. But what I particularly wish to insist upon is, that the characteristics of this dififiise inflammation may he manifested in other tissues than the skin or subcutaneous cellular membrane, and that there is no conclusive reason why this species of inflammation should he confined to the external surface of the body; indeed, many acute and experienced observers have recorded instances without number, of internal parts presenting every specific mark of that diffuse inflammation which, when confined to the skin, is termed erysipelas. Some accidental cause may determine in which tissue it shall appear. In a person predisposed to this form of inflammation, it may become developed wherever the immediate excitement may he thrown. Thus, if it be a wound, erysipelas B