The American eclectic practice of medicine (Volume 2).

  • Jones, I. G. (Ichabod Gibson), 1807-1857.
Date:
1853-54
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The American eclectic practice of medicine (Volume 2). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    earlier writers have made a number of varieties, each predicat- ed upon some one of the different phenomena of the disease, to which they have devoted special attention. These distinc- tions are still retained, though by some of the more sensible authorities they are regarded as having no practical advan- tage or application. I have already referred to the erysipelas phlegmonodes, or that modification in which the inflammation extends to the cellular structure, producing a more than usual amount of swelling; this is one variety. Another is predi- cated upon the traveling character of the disease, and is called erysipelas erraticum. A third variety is where the disease occurs in debilitated systems producing some edema of the parts, and is called erysipelas cedematodes. And a fourth variety is called, from its occasional termination in gangrene, erysipelas gangrenosum. Other distinctions are made by authors which you will readily perceive are merely expressive of some particular characteristic of the affection, and are of no practical utility. I refer to the local erysipelas, erysipelas fever, bilious erysipelas, malignant erysipelas, etc. The anatomical character of erysipelas has very little of interest connected with it, as it develops no important scien- tific principles, and sheds no light on the nature of the dis- ease. Sometimes the redness of the skin entirely disappears, then again it remains and turns purple. But where important complications are connected with it, the morbid appearances would present a corresponding condition. Causes. The numerous cases that have come under my observation have so invariably presented evidences of general derangement of the system, as to leave no doubt in my mind that erysipelas should be considered among the symptomatic disorders. But in what particular way the local symptoms are connected with the general derangement is not well un- derstood. Some peculiar circumstances attending one or two cases recently occurring in my practice, the influence of depurating agents upon the blood, which I have uniformly observed, and particularly the effects of cholagogue cathartics, have strongly inclined me to consider the disease as connected with the condition of the blood. To illustrate this view, I