Page 113 - My FlipBook

produce an inflammation, a soreness in that locality lasting ; ;
two or three days, but if it is not infected no pus will form
if the broach is clean no pus will form. I have been mean
enough to try that in young patients in whose teeth the apical
foramen was large, so that I could readily get a broach
through. Under strictly aseptic conditions I have torn up
the tissues in the apical space as much as I could with a
barbed broach. I have sometimes made a tooth pretty sore,
but have never produced an abscess in that way, and in a
healthy person you cannot produce an abscess in that way
there will be a little inflammation that will cause some sore-
ness, an inflammation necessary to the repair, and the re-
pair will be made. But if you prick a broach through the
apical foramen infected with the micro-organisms I have
shown you that liquefy this gelatin so readily you will have
a beautiful abscess within twenty-four hours, just as certainly
as you pass those micro-organisms into the tissue. Their
enzymes will dissolve this material that is thrown out for
the repair and bring with it the white blood cells that were
intended to develop and form the cellular elements of that
tissue. So the repair is defeated ; not only is the repair de-
feated, but the inflammatory process extends, more of the
exudate is thrown out and the hard swelling extends more
and more. In the center here (blackboard) there will be
more material liquefied and becoming white with the num-
ber of leucocytes that are thrown into it. Finally the pus
will burrow to the surface or into some cavity and be dis-
charged. Now, in conjunction with this there is another set
of processes taking place. There is a waste product formed
by the organism, that has its peculiar effect when instilled
into the blood, as it is continuously during the time of this
process—a poison that disturbs certain brain centers and
interferes with heat production and heat eHmination, with
the result that the temperature of the person rises—they
have fever. Whenever we have acute pus formation going
on involving a considerable area of tissue we also have the
accompaniment of fever produced by a poison instilled into
the blood from these organisms. This is not a result of local
poisoning, but an absorption into the blood of a poison that
has a peculiar effect upon certain nerve centers, that produces
this fever.

lOT