Early in the history of medical science, surgeons realized that to render the human economy a service meant to imitate and to anticipate Nature's own method of disposing of disturbing elements. Thus the evacuation of pus whenever it is found within the body became one of the cardinal principles of surgery.
Suppuration is a cleansing process, an effort to throw off a virulent irritant. Unaided, the vital forces will ultimately effect an evacuation of a pus cavity, but the method is slow and is attended with certain dangers, prominent among which may be mentioned a change in the integrity of the surrounding structures.
For a long time, the use of poultices which would bring boils "to a head" and cause abscesses "to point" was considered proper treatment. Now most surgeons advocate the prompt evacuation of suppurating areas as soon as the presence of pus is determined. Why many should fail