John
Hunter, M.D.
Click here for the
book by John Hunter "A
Treatise on the Blood, Inflammation and Gunshot Wounds" in this
collection
John Hunter's A Treatise on the
Blood, Inflammation and Gunshot Wounds was published in 1794. Throughout
the nineteenth century this was considered the most important study of
inflammation and has been widely quoted since. After a section on the
nature of blood and the circulatory system, in which he describes the
vascular supply in detail, he passes on to an extensive survey of
inflammation. This is based mainly on his wide clinical experience,
including that as a military surgeon. He, however, supplements this with
a number of experiments, some of which are classic. He bases his
observations on the four cardinal signs of Celsus (redness, heat,
swelling and pain). Inflammation is then divided into three main groups:
adhesive, suppurative and ulcerative. He discusses the nature of pus and
the formation and treatment of abscesses. He describes his experiments
on the transplantation of tissues under the general heading of adhesive
inflammation. This, he states, underlies the union of wounds and thus
the union of tissues after transplantation. Although unaware of the role
of infecting organisms as a cause of inflammation, he makes observations
on inflammation in smallpox, venereal infections and tuberculosis. He
relates these to his observations on inflammatory aspects of wound
healing. Lister was particularly influenced by Hunter's observations in
the development of antisepsis. As well as the local effect of
inflammation, Hunter was concerned with the constitutional effects such
as fever.
