A treatise on the nature, causes, and treatment of erysipelas / by Thomas Nunneley.

  • Nunneley, Thomas, 1809-1870.
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the nature, causes, and treatment of erysipelas / by Thomas Nunneley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    latter to the former. Besides which, it is quite impossible to.point out any difference in the local affection, whether it appear on me head, trunk, or extremities : in either case it is observed to► P**™ every degree of severity, from the most superficial to the most aggravated form of the complaint; the local changes being the same, and the general svmptoms identical, allowance being made for the neighbourhood o'f the brain, and its consequent-greater lia- bility to become involved when the scalp is affected than when a limb is concerned. The multiplication of generic or specific terms in medicine, as in every science, without there really be something distinct in the things so designated, is highly improper; and on a careful examination-of Mr. Arnott's paper, I cannot think he has shown this distinction. That erysipelas of the scalp, and lace is more frequently an idiopathic affection than that of the extremities, may be true, but when the complaint is fully established, whether as an idiopathic or sympathetic complaint, the phenomena are precisely the same; and nothing is more common than to see erysipelas supervening upon a wound of the. integuments of the face and head, which shall run its course as though the local ex- citing cause had not been a wound, and produce the same effects as when seated upon the limbs or trunk. DIFFUSE INFLAMMATION OF THE CELLULAR MEMBRANE. For milch of what is known respecting those very serious cases of illness, to which the term Diffuse Inflammation of the Cellular Texture has been applied, the profession is indebted to Dr. Duncan, Jun.; not but that the phenomena of the disease were well known previous to his valuable communication in the first volume of the Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Transactions, as more than one writer had referred to them; the cause of the symptoms, and the condition of the facts were, however, not understood. By one, the effects were considered to arise from an inflamed state of a vein, produced by some injury, or punctured by a foul lancet; by an- other, they were attributed to a nerve having been wounded in the act of venesection ; by a third, to the tendon having been hurt; by a.fourth, to the fascia having been pricked ; and by many, to in- flamed absorbents. To Dr. Duncan must be awarded the merit of having first given a comprehensive account of the affection, and having detailed the pathological condition of the parts as re- vealed by post-mortem examinations. Although the term diffuse inflammation of the cellular texture has been proposed by Dr. Duncan, and is now often employed as though this formed the chief characteristic of the affection it is quite certain that in many cases, even where the constitutional symptoms are the same, the local changes do not appear to be connected primarily with the condition of the cellular membrane •