THE LOCAL ACTION OF PUS. 
675 
acids, and sulphide of carbon, all acted in quite a different 
manner, causing coagulation of the blood, with and without 
secondary vesication of the parenchyma. Solution of sul- 
phuretted hydrogen, containing 3 vol. H S to 1 vol. aq., 
caused a weak green discoloration in the first instance, then 
slow suppuration, and therefore also a different effect. On 
the other hand, the effects of sulphides of ammonium pre- 
sented many points of analogy, a few drops of a solution of 
the yellow sulphide of ammonium, or of the bright red sul- 
phide, producing very similar effects when subcutaneously 
injected to those of putrid fluids, except that the smell is 
peculiar. Integrity of the skin gives immunity to sulphide 
of ammonium as well as to putrid fluids. 8. The subcutaneous 
action of the products of inflammation varies in producing 
the most different disturbances of nutrition, from slight in- 
flammation to strong suppuration, putrefaction, and mummi- 
fication. But the contagious nature of non-specific pus can 
be no more established than the existence of a special inflam- 
matory poison. Amongst the inflammatory products, how- 
ever, very different chemical and physical agencies are 
operative which induce quite distinct effects. 9- The che- 
mical nature of the products results from the nature of the 
part originally affected, the cause of the inflammation, the 
violence of the suppuration, &c. A collection of pus is an 
albuminous mass in the body in which an anomalous meta- 
morphosis of tissue is taking place. 10. The tenacious 
mucus of the nose of a violent catarrh produces a thick, 
yellow, and dense sac ; the thick pus of a mammary abscess 
produces a violent inflammation, leading to coagulation in 
twenty-four hours ; the pus of a boil acts in the same way, 
whilst the pus bonum et laudabile of a bubo produces a per- 
sistent, strong, and firm infiltration of the ear. 11. The 
glycero-phosphoric acid found in fresh pus gives rise in weak 
solutions to slight, in strong (1 to 9) to severe inflammation, 
not however running on to suppuration. Solution of common 
salt causes suppuration when injected of no greater strength 
than of 1 to 100. — Lancet . 
