Volume 1

On feigned and factitious diseases, chiefly of soldiers and seamen, on the means used to simulate or produce them, and on the best modes of discovering impostors: being the prize essay in the class of military surgery, in the University of Edinburgh, session 1835-6, with additions / By Hector Gavin.

  • Hector Gavin
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On feigned and factitious diseases, chiefly of soldiers and seamen, on the means used to simulate or produce them, and on the best modes of discovering impostors: being the prize essay in the class of military surgery, in the University of Edinburgh, session 1835-6, with additions / By Hector Gavin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    to be acrid, but does not taste so. The C. flammula, however, is pungently acrid to the taste, it reddens and blisters the skin.!] The thapsus,? and the powder of the yew tree.® Besides the above acrid plants, there are many others which produce similar effects, It may, however, be remarked here, that the operation of these agents may, in general, be sus- pected, as the effects which they produce are different from the other agents which are used to excite ulcers. In every instance, active inflammation of the wound is produced, with inflamma- tion extending to the limb above it, with redness and san- guinolent infiltration of the cellular tissue: the appearances are in fact those of diffuse cellular inflammation, But an eschar is never formed, | . The seeds of the ricinus communis produce violent inflam- mation when applied to a wound.*. The seeds of the jatropha curcas, the physic-nut of the West. Indies, when applied in the form of powder to a wound, produce violent spreading inflam- mation of the subcutaneous cellular tissue.° The jatropha manihot, and multifida, are equally acrid. The manchineel (hippomane mancinilla,) and other species of the same genus, are most powerfully acrid, exciting inflammation wherever the juice touches, even the sound skin. The root of the bryony, bryonia dioica, is a powerful acrid; two drachms and a half applied to a wound, brought on violent inflammation and sup- puration of the part, ending fatally in sixty hours.6 The arum maculatum, is probably the most violent of all acrid vegetables inhabiting this country. The leaves of the juniperus sabina, | or savine, have been long well known to be highly acrid. To these may be added, the gratiola officinalis, rhus radicans, and rhus toxicodendron, chelidonium majus, sedum acre, rhodo- dendron chrysanthum, and ferrugineum, pedicularis’ palustris, cyclamen europum, plumbago europa, pastinaca sativa, lo- 1 Orfila, op. et lib. cit, Fallot, lib. cit., p. 240 . oh 2 Galen, Dict. “des Sciences Méd., loc, cit., t.li. Zacchias, op. cit, Fallot, lib. cit., p. 240. 3 Zacchias, op. cit. . 4 Orfila, Toxicol. Gén. vol. i., p. 706. 5 Ibidem, i., p. 715. 6 Ibidem, p. 679,