A Collection of Chirurgical TractsBeckett, William
Science
A Collection of Chirurgical Tracts
Beckett, William
Surgery
By this we may see how circumspect we ought always to be, lest
we interrupt the Design of Nature when she is about to expel any
morbifick Matter, the ill Effects that attend it oftentimes discovering
themselves after different Manners; We look upon a continued Discharge
of Matter to be, as it were, a natural Evacuation, and that it’s
immediate Stoppage, without other Means, being made use of to divert
and evacuate it, to be succeeded by a greater Fulness and Distention of
all the Vessels, as is observable upon the Suppression of the _Menses_,
_Hemorrhoides_, or _insensible Transpiration_, there is this Difference
to be observed that the ill Accidents that attend the Stoppage of
the Discharge of Matter are not so much owing to the Distention and
Plenitude of the Vessels, but according to the ill Quality of it,
’tis disposed to render the Patient feverish more or less, which is
generally ushered in by Rigours, and sometimes succeeded by Spasmodic
Contractions.
For a further Illustration of this, we will take the liberty to
relate the Case of a Man of about Forty Years of Age, who was for a
considerable time incommoded in his Business, by reason of a violent
Contusion he had received on the Upper-part of his Left Arm, a
little below the Shoulder: After some time it was succeeded by an
Apostemation, upon the opening of which I was informed, a considerable
Quantity of Matter discharged, which was not of any ill Colour or
Smell, the Matter continuing to make its Exit the same way for several
Weeks, at length formed a _Sinus_, which might be easily traced to the
Upper and Fore-part of the _Os Humeri_. The external Orifice of this
was endeavoured to be dilated, but it not only put the Patient to a
great deal of Pain, but pent in the Matter, and caused the contiguous
Parts to tumifie very much. About this time the Axillary Glands began
to swell and pain him, and by their Pressure on the Limphaticks the
whole Arm became Oedematous; soon after some part of the Matter
made it’s way out under the Arm, upon which it almost ceased to flow
from the _Sinus_ on the upper-part of it. In short, upon this the
Patient found himself very much indisposed, he lost his Appetite, was
attended with Shiverings, became feverish, and at length died violently
convulsed.
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