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Transactions of the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh (1829)
Transactions of the MedicoChirurgical Society of Edinburgh - 1829 Author:Unknown Author Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: OBSERVATIONS HOSPITAL GANGRENE, WITH REFERENCE TO THE DISEASE CHIEFLY AS IT APPEARED IN THE BRITISH ARMY DURING THE LATE WAR IN THE PENINSULA. By J. Bog... more »gie, M. D. Surgeon to the Forces. J. He efforts of nature are in nothing more conspicuous than in repairing the various injuries incident to the living body from wounds and other accidents ; but causes occasionally supervene to counteract these efforts, which nature, unaided, is unable to overcome, and which terminate often not only in the destruction of a part of the body, but even in that of life. Of these causes, none appear to me more deserving of an attentive consideration than Hospital Gangrene, which 1 propose as the subject of the following observations, and which may be regarded as the most serious affection to which wounded surfaces are liable; as it destroys without distinction, and involves in one common mass, all the textures which it attacks. It has, in this country, been denominated VOL. III. A Contagious Gangrene, Phagedaena gangraenosa, Malignant Ulcer, Putrid Ulcer, Sloughing Sore ; and by the French writers, Gangrene humide des H6- piteaux, Pourriture d'Hopital: I shall use the name Hospital Gangrene, as a general term, and point out what I wish to be understood by that of Contagious Gangrene and Phagedaena Gangraenosa. This affection prevails in various situations, but it is seen in its most aggravated forms in military hospitals ; and deplorable, indeed, are the consequences sometimes resulting from it; so that perhaps there is no disease more destructive than this to an army on service. During the late war in the Peninsula, if I mistake not, there was no malady more fatal, in proportion to the numbers affected by it; nor was there any by which a greater number of men were rendered unfit...« less