104 
Home Department. 
AN EXPERIMENTAL INQUIRY INTO THE EFFECTS OF 
INJECTING PUS INTO THE VEINS OF ANIMALS. 
By Joseph Sampson Gamgee, Esq. 
From three experiments made for this purpose Mr. Gamgee 
infers : 
1. That when pus is fairly injected into a vein, there is no 
obstacle to. its moving on with the current of blood ; 
2. That the first organic effect of such injection is conges- 
tion of the lungs ; which may be so intense as to prove 
instantly fatal, or be temporarily recovered from; 
3. That the abscesses met with in the lungs of individuals 
who have fallen victims to pyaemia, may be produced by 
injecting pus into the veins of healthy animals. 
Experiments for the purpose of ascertaining the effect of 
injecting pus into the blood-vessels have likewise been per- 
formed by Gaspard,* * * § Trousseau and Dupuy,4* Gulliver, J 
Renault and Bouley,§ Alan,|| d’Arcet,^f Lebert,** Castelnau 
and Ducrest,ft Sedillot, J J and Lee.§§ The results they have 
obtained are singularly contradictory ; and it w ould appear 
as if the progress of time and the addition of experience have 
only served to augment the obstacles in the way of a definitive 
solution; for the most recent inquirer, Mr. Henry Lee, 
arrived at conclusions which tended to subvert those of 
Castelnau and Ducrest, and of Sedillot, who have particularly 
distinguished themselves for the number of, no less than for 
the manner of executing, their experiments. It is remarked 
* Journal de Physiologie, par Majendie, tom. i et ii, 1821-22. 
t Arch. Gen. de Medec., tom. xi, 1826, p. 273. 
| On the Fj-equent Presence and Effects of Pus in the Blood in Diseases 
attended by inffammation and Suppuration. "Veterinarian 5 for 1839, 
pp. 42—51. 
§ Rec. de Med. Vet., Mai, 1840; et Arch. Gen. de Med., 3e Serie 
v, viii, 1840. 
|| Gazette Medicale, 1842. 
These de Paris, 1842. 
** Physiologie Pathol., t. i, pp. 313 — 324. 
ft Rechercher les cas dans lesquels on observe les abces multiples, et 
comparer ces cas sous leurs differents rapports ; in " Memoires de l 5 Academie 
Royale de Medecine, t. xii, 1846. 
±| De l’infection purulent ou pyoemie, Paris, 1849. 
On the Origin of the Inflammation of the Veins, and on the Causes, 
Consequences, and Treatment of Purulent Deposits. London, 1850. 
