Pustule

“ On the tenth or twelfth day, a little swelling may be detected with the finger, and the skin changes its color, and has a greenish blue tint. The pustule is now rapidly formed, and about the sixteenth day breaks, when the mothers again appear, with their little ones attached to their feet, and covered by a portion of the shell of the egg from which they have just escaped. These little ones immediately set to work, penetrate the neighboring skin, bury themselves beneath it, find their proper nourishment, and grow and propagate, until the poor creature has myriads of them preying upon him. ”

“ In a typical case of contagious impetigo (and it is questionable whether there is any impetigo which is not contagious) the lesion is usually a flattened vesico-pustule. This is small at the outset, superficial, and without any surrounding area of inflammation. It is always single, although when the pustules are very numerous, a number of them in close proximity may appear like an irregular group. ”

“ A small, soft, copper-coloured pustule (Pidakâ) appearing on the eye-lid and attended with burning, pricking sensation and a slight pain is called an Anjana. Vegetations of pustules (Pidaká) of equal size (D. R. —attended with hardness) occurring all along the eye-lid and resembling it (or each other) in colour are called Bahala-vartma. 9-10.
Such swelling of the eye-lid attended with an itching sensation and a slight pain as impedes or interferes with its being evenly opened is called Vartma-bandha. ”

“ It is during this stage that, owing to the softening of its membranous covering, the pustule is broken by the movements of the patient or the contact of rough bed-linen. The pustules of the face are usually the first ones broken, and an ulceration frequently occurs which destroys the true skin and results in a pit or scar. Pustules do not rupture spontaneously and discharge their contents. Dessication lasts usually from five to twenty days, the exposed parts being the first to dry and shed their crusts. ”

“ The Face is the first Part that appears bloated, from the Pustules there first attaining their utmost Size: and this inflation is sometimes so considerable, as to look monstrous; the like happens also to the Neck, and the Eyes are entirely closed up by it. The Swelling of the Face abates in Proportion to the scabbing and drying up of the Pustules ”

“ A day or two afterwards the redness dies away, and a globular eminence, perfectly round, and generally about the size of a split pea, is beheld. If it be opened, a proportionate quantity of thick pus of a healthy character escapes, and a comparatively large incrustation forms over the part; if not opened, the pustule bursts and the scab follows, but larger than in the previous case. Mostly the eruption appears on the belly and inside of the thighs, but it is seldom strictly confined to those parts. Often it affects the trunk and tail, but does not usually attack the head and fore-limbs. ”

“ If the liniment is applied late in the vesicular stage, or not until the pustular stage has set in, the carbolised oil penetrates more or less into the epidermis which is being thrown off by the suppuration of the pustule; as the pus is discharged by rupture of the epidermis the oil mixes with the pus, disinfects it, and keeps it sweet, as is to be observed by the entire non-existence of, or extremely modified condition of, the horrid stench that accompanies small-pox, subsequent to the pustular stage of the disease. ”

“ So you can imagine how many of these spores may be produced by a single diseased area which has produced perhaps four or five hundred of those pustules, each pustule containing anywhere from one to twenty threads. Each one of those spores may develop a new diseased area, provided it is transported to a fresh break in the bark of a chestnut tree. Fortunately, only a very small fraction of one per cent ever reaches the proper place for growth. ”

“ Malignant pustule, which is simply splenic fever, affects shepherds, butchers, and tanners, who handle the flesh and hide of tainted animals. Inoculation with the bacillus almost always occurs in consequence of a wound or scratch on the hands or face. ”

“ The point of a lancet being dipt into a pustule, and moistened with the matter, the person who is to be inoculated is immediately pricked in the arm, so as to introduce the point between the scarf and true skin. The operator then presses down the scarf-skin again with his finger, and all is done. No plaister or fillet is ever used. A few pustules appear afterwards on the part, but never any wound, ulcer, or discharge. ”

“ The vaccination wound on the arm, as will be seen, takes the typical form of a large irregular pustule or small abscess about one inch in diameter, more or less, with a depressed center and raised margin like a smallpox pustule, and this pustule is full and tense with a collection of pus or suppurative disease matter which, of course, always contains the germs of pus infection, inflammation and suppuration in one or more varieties which usually include, as Dr. ”

“ The process may involve fascia, muscles, and even periosteum and bone. The disease is to be distinguished from furuncle by its greater size, flatness, and the multiple points of suppuration. From erysipelas, to which in the beginning it may have some resemblance, it is to be differentiated by the hardness, painfulness, and circumscribed character of the lesion. It is also to be distinguished from malignant pustule. It is always to be looked upon as a serious affection, especially when occurring in those past the age of fifty or sixty and in those in a debilitated condition. ”

“ In this Species the Pustules are often more elevated and bold, and being constituted of less noxious or malignant Matter, they are not accompanied with violent or threatning Symptoms, and they generally compleat their Course with good Success, which most commonly is done on the eleventh Night after the first Attack, when many likewise expire; that Period of Time then is only properly assigned as commonly decisive in the lowest Degree of the Confluent Sort. ”

“ On the face, especially, the pustules are small, less elevated, coalescent; and it is often covered with a universal flat vesicle: the fluid is whitish or brownish, not yellow and tenacious, or of due maturation and concocted purulency. The pustular interstices, if any, are pale and flaccid. The facial intumescence subsides about the tenth or eleventh day: and during these stages of fermentation and depuration, a salivation commonly ensues, especially in adults; and in infants a diarrhœa. ”

“ The small red spots, or papulæ, were converted into vesicles or pustules, in periods, varying from three to seven or eight days; the fluid contained in these vesicles or pustules is represented by some as resembling whey, by others milk, and by others to be yellowish or straw-coloured, like the thin pus of sores. It was likewise described as bloody water. When at their height they were about the size of a pea. One very intelligent lady, who had witnessed its effects in several of the blacks, informed me the eruption was very like the cow-pock. ”

“ The individual pustules are usually somewhat acute in their course, but new lesions may continue to appear from day to day or week to week. As a rule, not more than five to twenty are present at one time, and in most cases they are seated on the legs. ”

“ RING-WORM, or Tetter, (Herpes miliaris) , an eruption on the face, which consists of numerous small pustules, that rise closely in contact with each other; appearing generally in a circular form, and being attended with painful itching.
These pustules never suppurate, and cannot be easily cured; often breaking out at certain periods of the year, even after they have been apparently removed. The usual application, in this affection, is the common black or writing-ink; but frequent friction, or embrocation of the eruption with mushroom catsup, has sometimes been attended with success. ”

“ The pustules then break and a thick viscid ichor exudes and dries upon them as a whitish slough and around their base as a yellowish-brown crust. Beneath the whitish slough is the raspberry excrescence or yaw proper, a reddish fungous growth with a nodular surface. ”

“ In general, the complaints in this state are very moderate, and attended with so little illness, that the patient eats and sleeps well the whole time: a few pustules appear, sometimes equally dispersed; sometimes the inflammations on the arms spread, and are surrounded with a few pustules, which gradually advance to maturity ”

“ Eruption filling on limbs and trunk.
17th. Pulse strong and frequent; skin hot; tongue moist and loaded. Pustules scabbing on face. Not yet entirely filled on limbs, where they are in clusters with inflamed bases.
18th. Pustules full and matured on limbs. Running into each other in places. Tongue dry, brown, and furred in centre, yellow and loaded at sides. Pulse quick and frequent. Lies easy.
19th. Blebs formed on arms; pustules running into each other, beginning to shrink; matter oozing out. Tongue covered with a dark crust. Pulse quick and frequent. Erysipelas of eyelids and ophthalmia. ”

“ The softening of the swelling is not a mere change of solid substance into a fluid, as if by decay, but it is the result of an active process, which we call suppuration. When this process is properly performed, good pus is made, or as the old writers in medicine rather quaintly expressed it, laudable pus. ”

“ Pus was formerly regarded as irritating and corroding, and was therefore carefully removed from every granulating sore; but purulent matter, though it may prove a source of irritation to the neighbouring parts, does not disturb the surface which secretes it, but, on the contrary, protects the tender granulations, and acts as a temporary cuticle. A crust is formed by the evaporation of the thinner part of the fluid; and we frequently see small sores healing rapidly when thus protected. ”

“ The robber could be no one but Putois. That was the opinion of the corporal, who knew all about Putois, and had tried hard to put his hand on that bird. The ‘Journal of Saint-Omer’ devoted an article to the three melons of Madame Cornouiller, and published a portrait of Putois from descriptions furnished by the town. ‘He has,’ said the paper, ‘a low forehead, squinting eyes, a shifty glance, crow’s-feet, sharp cheek-bones, red and shining. No rims to the ears. Thin, somewhat bent, feeble in appearance, in reality he is unusually strong. ”

“ Pus may be thrown off by a mucous membrane, without any actual breach of continuity. Diffuse infiltration of the tissues is the most dangerous form of suppuration.
In this variety of inflammation the exudate is brought into contact with the greatest possible extent of absorbent vessels, for as a surface of a sponge is greater than that of a bag, which would contain it, so the surface of these intercellular spaces is much greater than that of an abscess cavity filled by the same amount of pus. ”

“ When the old king died, the princess and her husband reigned in his stead. Their most honored and faithful friend at court was Puss in Boots, for his master never forgot to whom he owed all his good fortune. Puss lived on the daintiest meat and the most delicious cream, and was petted and made much of all the days of his life; and he never ran after rats and mice except for exercise and amusement. ”

“ When pus is formed in a well-maintained system and tissue, the outer layer of the lymph is developed into a fibrous sac enclosing the liquid pus and constituting an abscess. In an unhealthy system, or when the inflammation depends on some injurious poison, like that of erysipelas, this sac may not be formed, and the pus, burrowing into and between different organs, destroys the connections and substance—diffuse suppuration. ”

“ Putting down his revolver on the table, he opened the lamp and peered in at the smoking wick. We were now face to face and his cocked weapon lay within eighteen inches of my hand. I tried my fingers and found that they were reasonably supple. The blood was streaming through the puffy veins and vesicles. The operation hurt horribly; in fact, I was one mass of crude, raw, painful man flesh. But now I was full of hope and despite the muscular torments of returning animation I felt that my vigour was returning. Belleville snuffed the wick and struck a match along the table. ”

“ This great excitement of the two sensorial powers of irritation and sensation is so great, when the pustles are diffused over the whole surface of the body, that a torpor succeeds the sudden ceasing of it ”

“ Sometimes the pus pushes its way upward and backward between the sensitive laminae and the wall, and makes its appearance at the margin of the coronary band in the region of the quarters or heels. This usually occurs when the tissues beneath the horny frog become bruised or the sensitive tissue pricked by a nail. It is commonly termed "gravelled." Pus rarely breaks through the thick horny tissue, but follows the wall and breaks through the skin where it meets with the least resistance. Corns may be considered a serious unsoundness in driving horses. ”

“ The pus infiltrates the meshes of the cellular tissue, there is sloughing of considerable portions of tissue of low vitality, such as fat, fascia, or tendon, and if the process continues for some time several collections of pus may form.
_Clinical Features._--The reaction in cases of diffuse cellulitis is severe, and is usually ushered in by a distinct chill or even a rigor, while the temperature rises to 103, 104, or 105 F. The pulse is proportionately increased in frequency, and is small, feeble, and often irregular. ”