The first lines of the practice of surgery. ... Being an elementary work for students, and a concise book of reference for practitioners / By Samuel Cooper.

  • Cooper, Samuel, 1780-1848.
Date:
1809
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The first lines of the practice of surgery. ... Being an elementary work for students, and a concise book of reference for practitioners / By Samuel Cooper. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    » 3: FIRST LINES OF THE rencc of gangrene and sphacelus. Every man of experi- ence ims a well-founded dread of this symptom, in eases of strangulated hernia ; for, it is almost a sure indicator of gangrenous mischief within the hernial sac. In the large vessels leading to a mortified part, the blood usually coagulates for some distance from theslough, and this is the reason, why the separation of a mortified limb is seldom followed by hemorrhage. When any part of the body mortifies, the constitution suffers immediately a considerable dejection. The patient’s countenance suddenly assumes a w ild cadaverous look ; hiccough takes place; the pulse becomes small, rapid, and sometimes irregular: cold perspirations, diarrhoea, and even delirium occur. MORTIFICATION IJNPRECEDED BY INFLAMMATION. Mortification often takes place tin preceded by inflam- mation. Impediment to tire return of blood through' the veins sometimes produces gangrene and sphacelus. In this case? the bloodvessels become turgid, and the part swells y and becomes livid and very painful. A esiclcs soon arise, and, at length, the part becomes soft, oedematous, em- physematous, cold, black, insensible, and fetid. A stran- gulated hernia affords an instance of such mortification. Impediment to the flow of arterial blood into a part is another cause of mortification, this case is at first at- tended with softness and coldness of the part, which loses its natural size, and become^ void of sensibility, shrivelled, black, and lifeless. Great general debility, extreme old age, and an ossified state of the arteries, frequently produce a species ot morti- fication, different from that following inflammation. Pressure on any part of the body, especially, when the constitution is weak, and the circulation languid, in con- sequence of sickness, and long confinement in bed, often