_Results of the Infection of Wounds._
The name usually given to the conditions which result from wound
infection is _Septic Disease_. This includes both the mild and the grave
troubles which may ensue.
The mild forms of infection usually appear as interference with the rapid
healing of the circumcision wound. The principal of these are:--
1) Ulceration at the cut edge of the prepuce.
2) Ulceration in the raw tissue left on the under surface of the
penis between the reflected mucous membrane and the cut skin.
3) Sloughing or mortification of the reflected mucous membrane.
These conditions are usually attended with some amount of swelling; and
the unhealthy state of the wound with the accompanying discharge afford a
fertile soil for the rapid growth and multiplication of micro-organisms
and their absorption into the system.
Of the more serious results of infection the principal is _Erysipelas_
in its various forms. Here we find that as the signs of unhealthy
inflammation around the wound occur, symptoms of constitutional illness
begin. The infant becomes feverish, there is loss of appetite, rapid
breathing and wasting supervene, with a profound alteration in the
general appearance. The signs evident, locally, are redness of the skin
increasing to a vivid blush which spreads on to the thighs, scrotum or
abdomen. The surface is tender, and the edge of the red patch is sharply
defined from the surrounding healthy skin. The disease is most active at
this sharp margin for it is there that the micro-cocci may be found in
abundance. The glands in the groin become swollen and tender, and the
circumcision wound, failing to heal will probably inflame and suppurate.
While this is going on, a poison is being manufactured by the microbes
in their growth, and this poison being absorbed into the circulation,
generally proves fatal to the infant.
The process is usually limited to the skin, and its uppermost layer is
often raised into blebs containing clear or discoloured blood serum.
But the morbid change may take place first in the tissues under the
skin, when there will be great swelling and dropsy of the part so that
the pressure of the finger will leave a pit in the skin before the
latter becomes itself inflamed. In these cases the organisms readily
enter the blood stream and being carried away to distant organs set up
infection in these. These are necessarily the most hopeless cases of
blood-poisoning.
So far we have briefly considered infection by the group of organisms
known as micro-cocci. It is necessary to point out here that at least two
of the organisms of the group of _Bacilli_ have been known to infect the
circumcision wound. The one is the Tetanus (lockjaw) Bacillus, the other
is the Tubercle Bacillus.
In _Tetanus_ the first symptom noticed is that the infant is unable to
suck, and on examination it will be found that this is due to cramp of
the muscles of the jaw, which become fixed and hard. The face assumes a
peculiar aspect which is quite characteristic of this disease, spasms of
the limbs and then convulsions of the whole body take place, the joints
become stiff and the case is almost invariably fatal.
In regard to the infection by the Tubercle Bacillus it may be said that
this occurrence is one of the rarest of the rare sequels of circumcision,
but it appears that _tubercular ulcers_ have arisen over the area of the
wound when the METZIZAH has been performed by mouth suction on the part
of a Mohel who was suffering from Tuberculosis. A number of these cases
have been reported from time to time, and in some of them it apparently
led to general Tuberculosis (_consumption_).
The foregoing brief statements exhaust most of the possibilities of wound
infection by means of micro-organisms. There is however another source of
infection, not yet definitely proved to be of microbic origin, which has
important relations to circumcision. This is the poison of _Syphilis_.
If the Mohel should be suffering from this disease the secretions of the
mouth are infective and the disease may easily be transmitted to the
infant by means of Metzizah. On the other hand, should the infant be born
with the disease--a circumstance of not infrequent occurrence--it must be
remembered that its blood is charged with the poison, and is capable of
infecting a healthy individual when it is brought into contact with any
wound, abrasion or other breach of surface.
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