HOSPITAL GANGRENE: its synonyms; may be caused by the use of charpie,
instruments, bandages, etc., which have been previously employed on
infected parts; is a highly contagious and infectious disease; its
prevalence at Leyden in 1798; if the disease be mild or chronic, wounds
on the arm may continue healthy for some days after those on the leg
are infected, but not so if the gangrene be acute; Mr. Blackadder’s
description of the disease, as it occurred in his own person, from
inoculation; M. Delpech attributed its spread in the French army to the
misfortunes and sufferings of the soldiery; Dr. Tice on the attendant
depression, apathy, and despair; description of the disease in its
most virulent and less destructive forms; characteristic signs of
the disease; the question as to its constitutional or local origin;
character of the fever; opinion of the French surgeons that the disease
was of local origin; local and constitutional treatment; use of mineral
acids at Santander in 1813; Dr. Boggie on large bleedings in the
disease at Bilbao; cases of hospital gangrene, with tetanus-bleeding
curing the one, and failing in the other; Dr. Boggie on the treatment
of phagedœna, and of inflammatory gangrene, after disorganisation; the
introduction of Fowler’s solution of arsenic, as an escharotic, by Mr.
Blackadder; dangers of that practice; Dr. Walker on hospital gangrene
at Bilbao: Delpech on phagedœnic ulcer, and its treatment; attributes
the first employment of mineral acids to the British surgeons in Spain,
and especially to Mr. Guthrie; Deputy Inspector-General Taylor on
hospital gangrene in India; considers it a local disease, to be cured
by local treatment; uses nitric acid to the circumference of the ulcer;
the burning, gnawing sensation removed by the acid; dirty fungous
growths from wounds of the hands and forearm. CONCLUSIONS: Return of
the number of cases in the hospital stations in the Peninsula during
the last six months of 1813. pp. 163-175