A dictionary of practical surgery : comprehending all the most interesting improvements, from the earliest times down to the present period; an account of the instruments, remedies, and applications employed in surgery; the etymology and signification of the principal terms; and numerous references to ancient and modern works, forming together a "catalogue raisonnée" of surgical literature: : with a variety of original facts and obervations / by Samuel Cooper.
- Samuel Cooper
- Date:
- 1822
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A dictionary of practical surgery : comprehending all the most interesting improvements, from the earliest times down to the present period; an account of the instruments, remedies, and applications employed in surgery; the etymology and signification of the principal terms; and numerous references to ancient and modern works, forming together a "catalogue raisonnée" of surgical literature: : with a variety of original facts and obervations / by Samuel Cooper. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
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![scesses named lumbar being elsewhere treated of, arc here excluded from consideration. Collec- tions of purulent matter, resembling turbid whey, and containing, whitish or yellowish flakes, are not unfrequently formed in the cavity of the perito- neum, as one of the effects of inflammation ac- companying puerperal fever—(Stoll, Rat. Med. 4. p. 103 ; Lassus, Pathologie, Cliir, T. ], p. 137, Nouvelle Edit. 8m. Paris, 1809.) In lying-in-women, abscesses frequently form between the abdominal muscles and the perito- neum, especially just above the groin. They are cases, which have been very correctly de- scribed by Conradi. Before the integuments pro- ject, the diagnosis is often attended with diffi- culty, and sometimes an obscurity prevails several weeks; for, the patients seem as if affected with slight colic pains, which yield to common treat- ment, particularly external applications, but soon return. Thus, unless the vicinity of Poupart’s ligament be carefully examined, in which situa- tion some very painful point, or a hardness, or elevation can be detected, the abscess may remain concealed until a large prominence, or the ex- tension of the matter down the thigh, lameness, &c. make the nature of the case completely ma- nifest. As the peritoneum, adjoining the ab- scess, is always thickened by the preceding in- flammation, Conradi assures us, that there is no danger of the collection of matter bursting in- wards. Some abscesses indeed have been so enormous, that the matter actually pushed the viscera out of their places, yet all this happened without being followed by any inward bursting of the disease. The whole danger depends upon the duration of the complaint, and the extent to which the matter spreads. A timely detection of the nature of the case, the use of emollient ap- plications, and the making of an early opening, generally brings the disease to a speedy and favourable termination.—(See Arncmann’s Mag- azin fur die Wundarzneiwissenschajt, 1 B. p. 175. 8vo. Giitt. 1797.) Chronic tumors of the mesentery, which, in scrophulous children, sometimes slowly termi- nate in suppuration, and diseases of the ovary, and other abdominal viscera, bringing on the formation of matter, are often the cause of pu- rulent extravasation, great emaciation, hectic symptoms, and death. However, sometimes salutary adhesions are produced between the viscera, by which means an outlet is obtained for the matter through the bladder, anus, or va- gina. Thus (says Lassus) in the case of a woman who had had for a long while pains in the right lumbar region, which were supposed to proceed from suppuration of the kidney, because pus was voided with the urine, the right kidney wasfound after death in the natural state; but an abscess existed in the right ovary, that was adherent to the bladder, into which the pus had passed through an ulcerated communication. In another patient, who had voided pus by the anus, the right kidney was suppurated, and adhered to the colon, with which it communicated by a preternatural aperture. A woman bad for many years a hard considerable tumor in the abdomen : at length the pain, which she suffered from the disease, became intolerable; and. just at the moment when her death was ap- prehended, an immense quantity of pus was sud- denly discharged from the vagina. The pain abated; the swelling of the belly subsided; merely the remains of the induration were now percepti- ble ; and the woman’s health became perfectly re-established. (Lassus, Pathologie Chir. T. 1, V- 138.) The abscesses, which sometimes form between the peritoneum and abdominal muscles, or be- tween the layers of these muscles, or under the integuments of the abdomen, are attended with considerable variety, according as they happen to be chronic, or acute; circumscribed, or diffused; small, or extensive. Those of the acute or phlegmonous kind sometimes follow stabs, and contusions, and are particularly noticed in the article Wounds. These are cases, which de- mand especial care, because, if not checked and kept within certain limits, they may prove fatal, many examples of which are upon record. (See Commcrc. Litcrar. Nnric. 1741, P. 100 ; Eller, Medic, and Chir. Anmerkungen, P. 108, tfre.) As for chronic external abscesses of the abdomen, they should be opened early, and treated on the principles explained in the article Lumbar Abscess. For further information, respecting abscesses of the parietes of the abdomen, the reader may consult, Commerc. Liter. Noric. 1735, hebd. 37 ; C. Bell, System, of Dissections, 1'ub 1; Bourienne, in Journ. de Medecine, T. 43, P. 64; Collomb. Med. Chir. Werke, Obs. 28 ; J. LI. Furstenau, Diss. Abscessuum musculorum abdominis, Qc. lata tristiaejue exempla, Rinlel, 1742; Hoffmann, de FehreTertiana, Obs. 7. vid. Op. 2, P.20; Heuer- mann, Vermischte Bemerhungen. 2, &c.; K.tc, in Medical Communications, 2, No. 6, and App. to Essays mi Submersion, fyc.; Riverius, Obs. Cnmmunicat. Obs. 2. 3 ; Tl'inship, in Memoirs of the Medical Society of London, 2. No. 52; Wrede, Collectanea Chir. T. 1. Hard indigestible substances, after being swal- lowed, are not unfrequently discharged from ab- scesses formed in some of the abdominal regions. (See De La Grange, in Museum der Heilkunde, 4 B. P. 154 .• a fish-bone, which had been swal- lowed, found in the abscess; Petit, Traile des Mol. Chir. T. 2, p. 226: an awl, without a handle, extracted from an abscess of the abdomen ; and many other analogous cases.) Encysted tumors sometimes form between the peritoneum and abdominal muscles, and at- tain an immense size, before they burst; a re- markable specimen of which is detailed by Gooch. (Cliirurgical 'Works, Vol. 2. p. 144, <$r. 8vo. Land. 1792.) In this case, the spontaneous opening in the navel was enlarged with caustic, and the cyst extracted; but, belone a cure could be effected, it became necessary to make a de- pending opening, and introduce a seton. Swell- ings of this nature, however, are only noticed here, on account of their resemblance to circum- scribed chronic abscesses of the parietes of the abdomen. Abdomen, Pulsations in the. From the article Aneurism, the readerwill understand, that, though it be the common nature of this disease to be at- tended with throbbing, it is not every pulsating tumor, which is an aneurism. The cases, usually called abdominal or epigastric pulsations, often furnish a proof of the correctness of the preceding remark. The authors, who have treated of the latter affection with the greatest discrimination, are Dr. Albers, of Bremen, and Mr. Allan Burns,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2493026x_0012.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
