412 PRINCIPLES OF VETERINARY SURGERY 



microorganisins, which in each case was even more stubborn than the original 

 disease. No internal treatment was administered. — L. A. M. 



PURULENT INFECTION— PYCEMI A. 



DEFINITION. — Purulent infection is a disease deter- 

 mined by the penetration of pus, micro-organisms and their 

 toxins into the blood vessels. It is characterized by the for- 

 mation of multiple abscesses in the organs, and is accompan- 

 ied with a chain of symptoms that vary in gravity with the 

 species and nearly always terminate fatally. 



The disease designated as "purulent infection" by Vel- 

 peau has been given various names that describe accurately 

 enough the interpretation of what was known of this path- 

 ological state at the different epochs. "Purulent resorp- 

 tion," "purulent fever," "purulent diathesis," "traumatic 

 embolic fever," and "suppurative, metastatic phlebitis" are 

 the expressions that have been most frequently employed. 

 Nowadays most of these names are forgotten and the pro- 

 cess is seldom referred to except by the name of "pyaemia" 

 or "purulent infection." 



SUSCEPTIBLE SPECIES.— Purulent infection in vet- 

 erinary practice as in human medicine, has become a rare 

 disease. All of tlie species are not similarly exposed. Certain 

 ones suppurate more readily than others and from Bouley's 

 point of view the domestic species are classed in the follow- 

 ing order: ist, fowl; 2nd, oxen; 3rd, dogs; 4th, swine; 5th, 

 sheep; 6th, rabbits; 7th, horses, starting with the animals in 

 which suppuration is rare and ending with the horse, in 

 which the simplest trauma becomes purulent. Bouley's scale, 

 although exact on large lines is not infallible, because in ad- 

 mitting the incolitestable pyogenic aptitude of the horse it is 

 not denied that the ox suppurates frequently enough. Lucet 

 and Bourney have already observed that suppuration in 

 bovine animals is not rare, and the opinion is shared by all 



