The progress of imprisoned pus may take weeks, months and years before an abnormal communication between the abscess and the external portion of the body is completed.
The victim wonders at the spread of the local trouble, and that an opening for the pus canals has frequently to be made three to sixteen inches away from the seat of the abscess.
The imprisoned contents of the abscess cavity and the pus canal or fistula often give rise to much annoyance before finding an outlet.
It is not usual that pusformations occur in these inflammatory channels.
Pathogenic organisms, especially pus cocci, frequently gain lodgment in the milk glands and cause local (mastitis) or general infection.
Clostridium tetani or lockjaw bacillus, Corynebacterium diphtheriae or the diphtheria bacillus, Clostridium botulinum or a bacillus causing a type of food poisoning, Pseudomonas pyocyanea or the bluepus bacillus are the most important.
The typhoid and cholera organisms die in a few hours when dried, while pus cocci and tubercle bacilli live much longer.
In certain cases there is severe fever, and Alexander knows of purulent pleurisy, and the fact that when pus is present the side on which it is is warmer than the other.
His treatment consists in venesection, purgatives, and, when pus is formed, local incision.
