The pus collection causes pressure on the spinal cord. The infection is usually due to bacteria. Often it is caused by a staphylococcus infection that spreads through the spine. It may be caused by tuberculosis in some areas of the world, but it is not as common today as it was in the past.
From the 1830s until 1870, the abolitionist movement attempted to achieve immediate emancipation of all slaves and the ending of racial segregation and discrimination.
As far back as 1830, sectional lines had been steadily hardening on the slavery question. In the North, abolitionist feeling grew more and more powerful, abetted by a free-soil movement vigorously opposed to the extension of slavery into the Western regions not yet organized as states.