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XXFX. A Sketch of a History of Pus* . By George 

 PearsOxN, M.D, F.R.S. Senior Physician of St. George's 

 , Hospital, o#c. &c. 



was induced to write this historical sketch for three 

 purposes: namely ; 1st, To inform myself of the facts already- 

 published on the subject. 2d, To, perhaps, assist some others 

 with information. 3d, To manifest whether or not my own 

 investigation had produced any accession of knowledge. 



The word pus, so very commonly used in our language, 

 is plainly the Greek word tfvo$ or ttmv abbreviated by the 

 Latins, with the change of writing in Roman characters* 

 It appears from the original writers that this term, denoted 

 any thick, white, opake, clammy, animal fluids such aa 

 the matter of abscesses, and of ulcers or sores; alsQ;tlj$ 

 thick milk called colostrum secreted immediately after- par- 

 turition. I am of opinion that philological investigations- 

 are unsuitable in a writing 1 . of the same kind as tbis novtf 

 offered ; yet I think it may be useful or even necessary to 

 remark, that the etymological import of the word pus, is 

 that of putridity or corruption ; which, denotes a state of 

 broken down texture, not only of animal and vegetable 

 matters, but of any mineral substances whatever, such as 

 stones and metals*. Accordingly the word pus appears to: 

 have signified, among the Greeks, and Romans, an animal 

 fluid from matter in a state of broken down aggregation, 

 or of corruption; and such were the fluids above .named.; 

 Hippocrates distinctly describes the pus of abscesses and; 

 ulcers from its simple, obvious properties; viz. it is a thick, 

 white > inodorous > uniform, smooth fluid— when it is of a 

 good or " laudabte" kind. But according to its variations 

 from these properties, it was asserted to be of a. bad kind.; 

 It it> especially *>aid that good pus has not the least orlen* 

 sive smell. It was considered among the ancients to. be 

 of great moment to know the properties of this fluid, par- 

 ticularly fvr the purpose of determining whether or not the 

 sputum in pulmonary disorders was produced by an ulcer 



* The acceptation of the term putridity, and of it.s derivatives according 

 to their confined meaning since the cultivation of chemistry as a distinct 

 science, and not according to the original extensive sense, is one of the 

 causes of the erroneous doctrines of fevers called putrid, which disgrace the 

 pages of some of our most eminent writers, 'I he modern meaning oiputre- 

 f action being that of the process of new compositions and decompositions in 

 animal or vegetable substances effected by clveinical attractions, and -cha^ 

 racterized by fcetor, it is apparently incompatible for matter in a Jiving state 

 to exist" during such chemical agencies. 



Vol. 36. No. 149. Sept. 1810. L or 



