CHAPTER VI. 



SUPPURATION AND ALLIED CONDITIONS. 



THE subject of suppuration is an exceedingly wide one, and 

 embraces a great many pathological conditions which in 

 their general characters and results are widely different. 

 Thus bacteriological research has shown that the same 

 organism may in one case produce a simple local abscess 

 of trifling importance, in another case multiple spreading 

 suppurations in various organs, or again, under different 

 conditions, an ulcerative endocarditis. The study of the 

 pus-producing or pyogenic organisms, their paths of entrance, 

 and their effects on the tissues, constitutes one of the most 

 important subjects in pathology. Suppuration will first be 

 treated of in general, and reference will afterwards be made 

 to certain inflammatory or suppurative conditions of special 

 importance from the clinical standpoint. 



Nature of Suppuration. Suppuration is not a specific 

 disease, but rather a pathological condition which follows 

 inflammation under certain circumstances. The process is 

 best studied in the subcutaneous tissue or in a solid organ, 

 such as the kidney, and it is found that the following factors 

 are involved. Consequent on the inflammatory condition, 

 there occur in the part affected (a) a progressive immigra- 

 tion and accumulation of leucocytes, chiefly of the finely 

 granular polymorpho-nuclear variety (the so-called " multi- 

 nucleated " leucocytes) ; (b) degeneration followed by 

 necrosis of the special cells of the part, those most highly 



