DEFINITION — PATHOLOGY. 223 



as febrile conditions, with general disturbance, closely allied 

 to the ordinary specific fevers, consisting in contaminated 

 states of the blood, the result of infection from without, or of 

 changes occurring in the animal tissues luithin, resulting — in 

 true pycemia — in the formation of abscesses and j^ct'fticular 

 lesions in internal visceral organs and other particular j^arts. 

 This state is often subsequent to an infective infiammatory 

 condition of wounds and suppurations in certain structures, 

 particularly bone ; while, ivhen ccb-^cesses occur, the pv.s they 

 contain is largely charged luith bacterial forms. 



Pathology. a. Nature of these Conditions. — Both these 

 manifestations, pya3mia and septic contamination of the 

 blood, Avhich are probably in their essential nature one, al- 

 though long and extensively Imown, particularly in their 

 manifestations and results, and although we possess a mass of 

 facts and information bearing upon their difterent relation- 

 ships, still afford material for differences of opinion as to the 

 interpretation which ought to be given to these facts, as well 

 as give rise to many questions which yet remain unanswered. 



The meaning originally attached to the term ' pysemia,' viz. 

 that the phenomena of the diseased condition were to be 

 accounted for by the existence of pus in the circulating blood, 

 has for some time been abandoned ; and although the name 

 indicating this assumed condition is retained, it has now 

 very different significations attached to it. Experiment and 

 investigation lately carried out clearly point to differences, 

 more or less important, existing between conditions often 

 spoken of under terms understood by many to be convertible, 

 as pyogenic fever, pyiemia, and septicaemia, etc. The results 

 of these experiments point to the fact that pyaemia and septi- 

 ctemia, like other infective diseases, are produced by animal 

 fluids in particular states of change or decomposition, and that 

 in some way bacterial forms are intimately associated with 

 their production ; that these organisms are either the direct 

 contagia, the carriers, or the manufacturers of it from fluids in 

 which they are found. 



In its nature pyoemia has often been regarded as but the 

 natural result of embolism and thrombosis, and dependent for 

 its peculiar manifestations on the softening, brealdng up, and 

 distribution through the mass of the circulating blood of the 



