Volume 1

A dictionary of medicine : including general pathology, general therapeutics, hygiene, and the diseases of women and children / by various writers ; edited by Richard Quain ; assisted by Frederick Thomas Roberts and J. Mitchell Bruce.

Date:: 1894

Credit: A dictionary of medicine : including general pathology, general therapeutics, hygiene, and the diseases of women and children / by various writers ; edited by Richard Quain ; assisted by Frederick Thomas Roberts and J. Mitchell Bruce. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$AMBULANT (ambulo, I move about). Moving, unfixed, shifting. Applied to dis- eases that shift from one part to another, such as erysipelas; in connexion with blisters applied in succession to different parts of the body, also called ' flying blisters'; and to moving or ' field' hospitals, as distinguished from fixed or 4 base' hospitals. AMBULATORY {ambulo, I move about).—A term used in connexion with mild or latent cases of acute diseases, in which the patient continues to walk about, or work, up to a late period of the attack, as in typhoid fever—typhus ambulans s. ambulatorius. See Typhoid Fever. AMELIE-LES-BAINS, in France (Pyrenees).—Thermal sulphur waters and climatic health-resort. See Mineral Waters, and Climate, Treatment of Disease by. AMENORRHCEA (a, priv.; rfv, a month; and peco, I flow).—Absence of the menstrual flow during any portion of the period of life when it ought to be present. See Menstruation, Disorders of. AMENQRRHCEAL INSANITY.— See Insanity. AMENTIA (a, priv.; and jxivos, the mind).—-An obsolete term for dementia. See Dementia. AMNESIA (afiurjala, forgetfulness; Fr. Amnesie; Ger. Gedachtnissiuache).—A gene- ral term signifying loss or defect of memory; commonly, however, used in reference to one particular class of defect of memory, viz., that for words (amnesia verbalis). Sometimes there is a mere forgetfulness of proper names ; sometimes a substitution of wrong words; at other times the pronunciation of a meaning- less jargon, not at all representing words. The production of these defects is due to disease in different parts of the brain, owing to the memories of words being threefold—auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. See Aphasia. AMOEBA COLL—A species of amoeba, found in connexion with ulceration of the >colon and with tropical abscess of the liver. See Entozoa. AMPHORIC.—A peculiar hollow metal- lic sound, elicited occasionally by percussion, but more commonly heard in auscultation. Amphoric breath-sound resembles that pro- duced by blowing into an empty glass or metallic vessel with a narrow neck (am- phora). See Physical Examination. AMYGDALITIS (amygdala:, the ton- sils).—A synonym for inflammation of the tonsils. See Tonsils, Diseases of. AMYLOID DISEASE (ap.v\ou, starcb). The name given by Virchow to albuminoid disease, from the belief that the material characteristic of this morbid condition is of the nature of starch or cellulose. See Albuminoid Disease. AMYOTROPHIC (a, priv.; fits, a muscle; and rpo(pr], nutrition).—Associated with muscular wasting. See Spinal Cord, Diseases of. ANJEMIA (a, priv.; and alpa, blood).— Synon. : Spanaemia ; Hydraemia; Oligemia; Aglobulism. Fr. Anemie; Ger. Andmie; Blutarmuth. Definition. — Deficiency of blood in quantity, either general or local ; also, deficiency of the most important constituents of the blood, particularly albuminous sub- stances and red corpuscles. This definition is purely pathological, and the condition thus expressed presents many varieties, anaemia in the widest sense of the term including oligemia, oligocythemia, hydraemia, and spanaemia, as well as chlorosis (see Chlorosis, Hydremia, Spanaemia, Oligocythemia ; and Blood, Morbid Conditions of). From the clinical point of view, anaemia is a condition of system in which impoverishment of the blood, whether from want or from waste, is associated with symptoms of imperfect dis- charge of the vital functions. ^Etiology.—The causes of anaemia are generally multiple and complex. First, the supply of blood to the body may be insuf- ficient, and that from a variety of causes, of which the chief are :—derangements of alimentation, including insufficient food, constipation, and morbid states of the lymphatic and blood-glands ; such defective j hygienic conditions affecting the formation and nutrition of the blood as want of light, air, and muscular exercise; prolonged exposure to the influence of certain poisons, as lead, rnercury, and malaria; and, lastly, interference with the free circulation of the blood by cardiac or vascular disease, such as valvular disease or dilatation of the heart and aneurysm of the aorta. Secondly, the con- sumption of blood may be increased by haemorrhage; by profuse discharges, such as suppuration, catarrh, and albuminuria; by rapid growth and development; by frequent pregnancy and superlactation; by excessive muscular exertion; and by the presence of pyrexia, or of new growths, which rob the system of nutritive material. In a third group of cases of anaemia both the supply and the consumption are at fault. Thus derangement of the organs and of the whole process of sanguification is frequently associated with profuse discharges from various parts ; and in acute febrile diseases, malignant diseases, and the ' chronic consti- tutional diseases,' such as syphilis, tuber- culosis, Bright's disease, albuminoid disease, Addison's disease, and others, the cause of the anaemia is extremely complex. But the majority of the cases of anemia that are$