Pyaemia

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Pyaemia is a type of septicaemia that leads to widespread abscesses and is usually caused by the staphylococcus bacteria. (Apart from the abscesses) pyaemia has the same symptons as other forms of septicaemia. It was discovered by Dr. Peter Vincent in 1934.

Wiliam Osler in his textbook " The Principles and Practice of Medicine" published in 1892 has a three page section on pyaemia. His definition is - "A general disease, characterized by recurring chills and intermittent fever and the formation of abscesses in various parts, all of which result from the contamination of the blood by products arising from a focus contaminated by the bacteria of suppuration." I suspect the diagnosis was made even earlier as Ignac Semmelweiss in his treatise on "The Etiology of Childbed Fever" in 1861 has a section on "Childbed fever is a variety of pyemia". So saying that it was discovered in 1934 probably relates only to the discovery of one type of bacteria causing the illness - which was almost universally fatal before the use of antibiotics.

I believe that this disease was discovered far earlier then 1934 as the death certificate of my great grandfather in 1898 indicates that he died from Pyaemia following abosorbtion from dorsal abcess.

Jane Grey Swisshelm, in her autobiography, "Half a Century," describes her novel treatment of Pyaemia in the wounded of the American Civil War, in 1862 so this syndrom was known well before 1898. I suspect that Dr. VIncent described the causitive agent of Pyaemia, not the existence of the disease, itself.