METRITIS, METRO-PERITONITIS, ETC. 653 



The theory therefore is, that in cases of acute septikaemia such a quan- 

 tity of septic matter has been absorbed, that the blood has received 

 phlogogeneous properties, and that it is able to produce inflammatory 

 changes wherever it goes. Such a general inflammation of the whole or- 

 ganism, and especially of those organs whose undisturbed function is ne- 

 cessary for the maintenance of existence, must be capable of destroying 

 life before marked pathological alterations have been developed in indi- 

 vidual organs. Accordingly, in such cases functional disturbance of the 

 drgans are alone observed during life, and after death only the com- 

 mencement of parenchymatous inflanmntion of those organs — the " cloudy 

 swelling " of the cell. 



In other cases the infection of the blood is not so intense ; fever is the 

 only symptom of general disturbance ; the functions of the organs im- 

 portant to the maintenance of life are not so disturbed that death must 

 inevitably follow. If infective matter has only once been absorbed 

 into the blood, the disturbances caused by it soon pass off, as shown in 

 numerous experiments on animals ; the poison is rendered innocuous 

 within the organism, or eliminated from it. Such is the case when putrid 

 matter has been once injected into the blood. 



By infection from a wound, the absorbed matter has still another 

 effe'ct. Locally, it sets up around the wound an inflammation progres- 

 sive in character — the acute inflammatory oedema — with a tendency to 

 extend along the connective tissue. In this inflamed spot, again, materials 

 are produced by the disintegration of tissues, equally possessed of pyroge- 

 netic and phlogogeneous properties. Continually small quantities of these 

 materials are absorbed into the blood, and thus the fever is sustained. 

 At the same time the blood, now possessed of phlogogeneous properties 

 — though in a slight degree — may also cause inflammation in other 

 organs predisposed thereto, either from their anatomical condition, or 

 from the idiosyncrasy of the patient. Such organs are chiefly the large 

 abdominal glands and the serous membranes, also the striped muscles 

 and the. connective tissue. Whilst the process described as consisting of 

 a uniformly acute degeneration of all the organs has been called " septi- 

 kaemia," that just mentioned, where the process is more chronic and 

 limited to individual organs, has been designated "ichorrhaemia." A 

 specific difference between the two does not exist — it is only one of 

 degree ; for where septikaemia has not quite an acute course it ceases to 

 be a pure intoxication with the original infecting agent ; but the infection 

 of the blood is now aided by the' absorption of the products of the local 

 inflammation — which products, however, are not specifically different 

 from the original agent. 



On the whole, septikaemia may be considered the acute, icorrhaemia the 

 chronic, or rather sub-acute, septic infection. The whole organism may 

 also be effected from the local disease by the occurrence of thrombus in 

 a vein ; but this, properly speaking, is not peculiar to septic infection 

 (Schroeder). 



General infection, then, in the majority of cases, is due to the presence 

 of parturient sores or ulcers m the vulva, vagina, or uterus, and this in- 

 fection is manifested externally by the high temperature and other serious 

 symptoms. In other cases, when only a small quantity of septic matter 

 has been absorbed, the symptoms have more of a local character ; they 

 are less severe, and though the fever may be of a continuous character, 

 yet it is not so acute, and indications of peritonitis are generally absent. 



