Lexicon medicum; or medical dictionary; containing an explanation and comparative, botany, chemistry, materia medica, midwifery, pharmacy, physiology, practice of physic, surgery, and the various branches of natural philosopy, connected with medicine / Selected, arranged and compiled, from the best authors, by Robert Hooper.

  • Robert Hooper
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lexicon medicum; or medical dictionary; containing an explanation and comparative, botany, chemistry, materia medica, midwifery, pharmacy, physiology, practice of physic, surgery, and the various branches of natural philosopy, connected with medicine / Selected, arranged and compiled, from the best authors, by Robert Hooper. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ing should be made as soon as the presence of purulent matter is ascertained ; thus, when mat¬ ter forms under the cranium, in the thorax, in the cavity of a joint, in the vicinity of the eye, by tlie side of the rectum, or in the axilla, or when it is confined under a tendinous aponeurosis, or so situated that there is danger of its being dis¬ charged into any of the cavities of the body, the surgeon should be careful in good time to afford it a safe outlet. In chronic abscesses the general principle of treatment is exactly the reverse of that which obtains in the acute; an opening is always to be made as early as possible, with a view of prevent¬ ing a large accumulation of matter, and this opening should be no bigger than is absolutely needful to give exit to the matter, lest the cavity of the abscess become inflamed by exposure to the external air. Where the collection of matter is very extensive, as in lumbar abscess, it will accumulate repeatedly after being evaeuted ; hence the opening should be immediately healed up, and a new one made when necessary. Abscissa vox. Loss of voice. Celsus. ABSCISSION. (Abscissio; from abscindo, to cut off) 1. The cutting away some morbid or superfluous part, by an edged instrument. 2. The term abscission was formerly used by medical writers to denote the sudden termination of a disease in death, before it arrives at its de¬ cline. Absco'nsio. (From abscondo, to hide.) A cavity of a bone, which receives and conceals the head of another bone. Absi'nthate. Absinthas. A salt formed by the combination of the absinthic acid with a base. AbsFnthine. Absinthina. Absintkia. The bitter principle of the absinthium detected by Caventou. Absi'nthic Acid. Acidum absinthicum. A peculiar acid found by Braconnot in the absin¬ thium. AbsinthiTes. Wine impregnated with ab¬ sinthium. ABSI'NTIIIUM. (v.T/i, U. n. Atyivdiov ; from a, neg. and \ptr6os, pleasure: so called from the disagreeableness of its taste.) Worm¬ wood. See Artemisia. Absinthium commune. Common wormwood. See Artemisia absinthium. Absinthium maiutimum. Sea wormwood. See Artemisia maritime. Absinthium ponticum. Roman wormwood. See Artemisia pontica. Absinthjum komanum. See Artemisia pon¬ tica. Absinthium santonicum. See Artemisia santonica. Absinthium vulgare. Common wormwood. See Artemisia absinthium. Absolute. Alkohol as free from water as it can be obtained is called absolute alkohol. The French chemists sometimes apply this term to other substances which are perfectly pure; thus, huile absolue, pure oleine. ABSORBENT. (Absorbens ; from absor¬ bed, to suck up.) 1. In Anatomy, the small, delicate, transparent vessels, which take up sub- stances from the surface of the body, or from any cavity, and carry it into the blood, are termed absorbents, or absorbing vessels. They are denominated, according to the liquids which they convey, lacteals or lymphatics. See Lacteal and Lymphatic. 2. In Pharmacy, medicines which destroy acidities in the stomach and bowels are called absorbent medicines ; such are magnesia, pre¬ pared chalk, oyster-shells, crabs’ claws, &c. 3. In Chemistry, this term is applied to sub¬ stances which have the faculty of withdrawing moisture from the atmosphere. ABSORPTION. (Absorptio, orus. f. ; from absorbeo, to suck up.) 1. In Physiology, a function of the animal body, which consists in the taking up of sub¬ stances and their conveyance into the mass of circulating fluids by means of absorbing vessels. The absorbent system consists of lacteals, which convey the chyle from the intestines, and lym¬ phatics, which absorb all redundant matter from every part of the body. The former class of vessels are described in this Dictionary under the head Lacteal. It is evident that the fluids which are secreted by the different secerning organs would accumulatein a manner prejudicial to health, and in many instances speedily destruc¬ tive to life, if there were not a set of vessels per¬ petually at work to carry off’ the surplus. Ac- I cordingly, a set of vessels is every where distri¬ buted both within and without for this express purpose, and they are called lymphatics, from the limpidity of the fluid they contain. The merit of the first distinct discovery in the physiology of absorption is generally conceded to Aselli, j who, in the year 1622, observed a set of vessels I in the mesentery of a dog which appeared to have no direct connexion with arteries or veins, and which he denominated lacteals, from the milky appearance of the fluid they contained. In 1651, Pecquet discovered the termination of these vessels in the thoracic duct. The dis¬ covery of the lymphatics was not made till about the year 1650, and the title to it w-as warmly contested between Rudbek and Bartholin : it is generally thought that the merit of priority II belongs to the former, and that of more exten- i| sive investigation to the latter. According to | Glisscn, an English anatomist named Joliffe I was acquainted with the lymphatics before either I of the writers above mentioned ; but as he never f] published his discovery, his claim to it remains I very doubtful. The subject, once brought for- I ward, was prosecuted with activity and success by [I numerous inquirers; among whom were Glis- II son, Nuck, Ituysch, Meckel, llewson, the second ll Monro, and both the Hunters: finally, the world M was indebted to Cruikshank and Mascagni for I full and accurate descriptions of the anatomy of [ this wonderful system. The absorbents anastomose more frequently I than either the veins or the arteries; for it is a I general law of organisation that the smaller the I vessels, of whatever kind, the more freely they I communicate and unite with each other. We I cannot trace the orifices of the absorbents except t in the instance of the lacteals; but we can trace I their united branches from an early junction, f