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XXV. Researches on Suppuration. By George Gulliver, 

 Esq., Assistant Surgeo7i to the Royal Regiment of Horse 

 Guards. 



Sect. I. — On the frequent presence and on the effects of Pus 

 in the Blood, in diseases attended by Inflammation and Suppu- 

 ration.* 



f N the prosecution of an inquiry in which I have been long 

 * engaged concerning Inflammation and Suppuration, I soon 

 perceived the necessity of instituting a careful examination of 

 the blood in these affections, and particularly in the different 

 forms of inflammatory fever and hectic. 



The result has been the detection of pus in the blood in 

 almost every instance in which there was either extensive sup- 

 puration, or great inflammatory swelling without a visible de- 

 position of pus in any of the textures of the body : and the 

 contamination of the blood by pus appears to me to be the 

 proximate cause of the sympathetic inflammatory, sympathetic 

 typhoid, and hectic fevers. Since the writings of Dr. Lee, Mr. 

 Lawrence, Mr. Arnott, of MM. Velpeau, Dance, and others, 

 the profession has become familiar with cases in which pus has 

 been found in the veins, particularly after surgical operations 

 and in uterine phlebitis ; but although the humoral patho- 

 logy has of late years begun to assume some of its ancient im- 

 portance, I am not aware that any writer has attempted to 

 demonstrate the dependence of the fevers under consideration 

 on the presence of pus in the blood. 



Previous to a brief notice of some of the experiments and 

 observations from which the results have been drawn, it may 

 be proper to mention the means by which I have detected pus 

 in the blood. The examination was very simple, — partly 

 chemical, and partly by the aid of the microscope. Those 

 who are acquainted with the minute constitution of the animal 

 fluids are aware of the rapid and energetic action of water on 

 the blood-corpuscles : now the globules of pus undergo no 

 change after having been long kept in water ; accordingly, 

 if the suspected blood be mixed with this fluid, the blood cor- 

 puscles will soon become invisible, and any globules of pus 

 that may be present will subside to the bottom of the vessel, 

 and may be easily seen, and their characters determined, with 

 a good microscope. Ammonia instantly renders the blood- 

 corpuscle invisible, while that of pus is acted on but slowly 

 by the alkali; and the different action of acetic acid on pus 



• Read before the Royal Society, June 14, 1838 ; and now communicated 

 by the Author. 



Phil. Mag. S. 3. Vol. 13. No. 8L SepL 1838. O 



