Lexicon medicum, or, Medical dictionary : containing an explanation of the terms in anatomy, botany, chemistry, materia medica, midwifery, mineralogy, pharmacy, physiology, practice of physic, surgery, and the various branches of natural philosophy connected with medicine : selected, arranged, and compiled from the best authors / by Robert Hooper.
- Hooper, Robert, 1773-1835.
- Date:
- 1838
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Lexicon medicum, or, Medical dictionary : containing an explanation of the terms in anatomy, botany, chemistry, materia medica, midwifery, mineralogy, pharmacy, physiology, practice of physic, surgery, and the various branches of natural philosophy connected with medicine : selected, arranged, and compiled from the best authors / by Robert Hooper. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![ABS Should these means not avail to check the discharge of the forcing pains, and particularly if the water be eva- cuated, there can be no expectation of preventing the miscarriage ; and where there is reason for believing the ftetus dead, from the breasts having previously subsided, the morning sickness gone oil', the motion stopped, &c. it will be proper rather to encourage it by manual assistance. table habit, rather deficient in blood, be subject to abor- tion, or where this accident is threatened by profuse evacuations and other debilitating causes, it may be more probably prevented by a diet nutritious, yet easy cold bath, attending at the same time to the state of the bowels, giving opium if pain attend, and carefully avoiding the several exciting causes. [When a female has suffered several abortions, it becomes almost impossible to prevent a repetition at the same period of gestation in a subsequent preg- nancy. Nothing, however, will be so successful in preventing a recurrence of a similar misfortune, as in allowing the uterine vessels to recover their tone; for which purpose a sufficient time must intervene before the next conception, otherwise the remedies above re- commended will have little or no effect. A.] ABORTIVE. (Abortivus; from aborior, to be sterile.) That which is capable of occasioning an abor- tion, or miscarriage, in pregnant women. It is now generally believed, that the medicines which produce a miscarriage, effect it by their violent operation on the system, and not by any specific action on the womb. [From the violent operation of the secale cornutum, or spurred rye, upon the gravid uterus, it has been thought that it would act at any period of gestation as an abortive; but the experiments and trials made with it, have proved it to be inert, having no specific action upon the uterus, except in time of labour. A.J ABORTUS. A miscarriage. tended with abrasion. ABRASION. (Abrasio; from abrado, to tear off.) This word is generally employed to signify the de- struction of the natural mucus of any part, as the sto- mach, intestines, urinary bladdei, &c. It is also ap- plied to any part slightly torn away by attrition, as the skin, &x. A'brathan. Corrupted from abrotanum, southern- wood. See Artemisia abrotanum. A'brette. See Hibiscus Abelmoschus. Abro'ma. (From a, neg. and Bpioua, food ; i. e. not fit to be eaten.) A tree of New South Wales, which yields a gum. ABRO'TANUM. (ABporavov; from a, neg. and (Iporoc, mortal; because it never decays: or from afipos, soft, and tovos, extension; from the delicacy of its texture.) Common southern wood. Bee Artemisia. Abrotanum has. See Artemisia. ABROTONI'TES. (From abrotanum.) A wine mentioned by Dioscorides, impregnated with abro- tanum, or southernwood, in the proportion of about one hundred ounces of the dried leaves, to about seven gallons of must ABRUPTE\ Abruptly. Applied to pinnate leaves which terminate without an odd leaf or lobe:—folia abrupti pinnata, Abscede'ntia. (From abscedo, to separate.) De- cayed parts of the body, which, in a morbid state, are separated from the sound. ABSCESS. (Abscessus; from abscedo, to depart: because parts, which were before contiguous, become separated, or depart from each other.) Absccssio; Jmposthuma. A collection of pus in the cellular mem- brane, or in the viscera, or in bones, preceded by in- flammation. Abscesses are variously denominated according to their seat: as empyema, when in the ca- vity of the pleura; vomica, in the lungs; panaris, in any of the fingers; hypopyon, in the anterior chamber of the eye; arthropuosis, in a joint; lumbar abscess, &c. The formation of an abscess is the result of inflam- mation terminating in suppuration. This is known by a throbbing pain, which lessens by degrees, as well as the heat, tension, and redness of the inflamed part; and if the pus be near the surface, a cream-like white- ness is soon perceived, with a prominence about the middle, or at the inferior part, then a fluctuation may be felt, which becomes gradually more distinct, till at ABS length the matter make!) its way externally. When suppuration occurs to a considerable extent, or in a part of importance to life, there are usually rigours, or sudden attacks of chilliness, followed by flushes of heat; and unless the matter be soon discharged, and the abscess healed, hectic fever generally comes on. When abscesses form in the cellular membrane in persons of a tolerably good constitution, they are usu- having been previously effused, and having obi iterated the communication with the adjoining cells; but in those of a weakly, and especially a scrophulous consti tution, from this not occurring, the pus is very apt to cumstance, which may prevent its readily reaching the surface, is its collecting under an aponeurosis, or other part of dense structure, when the process of ulceration will rather extend in another direction; thus pus ac- cumulating in the loins, may descond to the lower part of the thigh. When suppuration occurs, if the inflammation have not yet subsided, it may be necessary to employ means calculated to moderate this, in order to limit the extent of the abscess: but evacuations must not be carried too far, or there will not be power in the system to heal it afterwards. If the disease be near the surface, fo- mentations or warm emollient poultices should be employed, to take off the tension of the skin, and pro- mote the process of 'ceration in that direction. As soon as fluctuation is obvious, it will be generally pro- per to make an opening, lest contiguous parts of im- portance should be injured; and often at an earlier period, where the matter is prevented from reaching the surface by a fascia, &c, but it is sometimes ad- visable to wait awhile, especially in large spontaneous abscesses, where the constitution is much debilitated, till by the use of a nutritious diet, with bark and other tonic means, this can be somewhat improved. There are different modes of opening abscesses. 1. By inci- least painful, and most expeditious, and the extent of the aperture can be better regulated. 2. By caustic; this may be sometimes preferable when suppuration goes on very slowly in glandular parts, (especiaUy in scro- phulous and venereal cases,) lessening the subjacent tumour, giving free vent to the matter, and exciting more healthy action in the sore; but it sometimes causes much deformity, it can hardly reach deep seated abscesses, and the delay may be often dangerous. 3. By seton; this is sometimes advantageous in superfi- cial abscesses, (where suppuration is likely to con- tinue,) about the neck and face, leaving generally but a small scar; likewise when near joints, or other im- portant parts liable to be injured by the scalpel or caustic. See Lumbar Abscess, and Ulcer. ABSCES'SUS. See Abscess. ABSCISSION. (Abscissio; from ab, and scindo, to cut.) 1. The cutting away some morbid, or other part, by an edged instrument. The abscision of the prepuce makes what we call circumcision. 2. Abscission is sometimes used by medical writers to denote the sudden termination of a disease in death, before it arrives at its decline. 3. Celsus frequently uses the term abscissa vox to express a loss of voice. Absinthites. Absinthiac,or absinthiated. Some- thing tinged or impregnated with the virtues of absin- thium or wormwood. ABSINTHIUM. (Absinthium, thii, n. aUwfWl from a, neg. and \piv9oc, pleasant: so called from the disagreeableness of the taste.) Wormwood. See Ar- temisia. Absinthium commune. Common Wormwood. See Artemisia Absinthium. Absinthium maritimum. Sea Wormwood. See Artemisia Maritima. Absinthium pcnticum. Roman Wormwood. See Artemisia Ponlica. Absinthium vulgare. Common Wormwood. See Artemisia Absinthium. ABSORBENS. See Absorbent ABSORBENT. (Absorbcns; from absarbeo, to suck up.) 1. The small, delicate, transparent vessels, which take up substances from the surface of the body, or from any cavity, and carry it to *he blood, are termed absorbents or absorbing vessels. They are denomi- nated, according to the liquids which they convey](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21129605_0015.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
