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. In two volumes.

  • Hooper, Robert, 1773-1835.
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

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. In two volumes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    propriety of considering the discovery of its qualities, as worthy to be considered among the happy events attending the modern Materia Medica.—Mitchill's MS. Lectures. A.] ACARUS. (From a/capp;, small.) The tick. An insect which breeds in the skin. A very numerous genus of minute insects which infest the skin of ani- mals, and produce various complaints. Those wliich are found on the human body are X. The acarus (lomcsticus, or domestic tick. 2. The acarus scabiei, or itch tick. 3. The acarus autumn alls, or harvest-bug. ACATALE'PSIA. (From a, neg. and /caxaAapfiavw, to apprehend.) Uncertainty in the prognosis or judg- ment of diseases. ACA'TALIS. (From a, neg. and x«rcw, to want.) The juniper tree: so named from the abundance of its seeds. ACATA'POSIS. (From a, neg. and Karamvo), to swallow.) Difficult deglutition. Aca'statos. (From a, neg. and KaOiartjpt, to deter- mined Inconstant. 1. Fevers were so called which are anomalous in their appearance and irregular in their paroxysms. 2. Turbid urine without sediment. ACAULIS. (From a, priv. and caulis, a stem.) Without stem. Plants destitute of stem are called acaulcs, stemless; as Cypripedium acaule, and Car- duus acaulis. This term must not be too rigidly un- derstood. ACCELERATOR. (From accelero, to hasten or propel.) The name of a muscle of the penis. Accelerator urinje. A muscle of the penis. Ejaculator Seminis; Bulbo-syndesnw-cavemeux of Dumas; Bulbo-cavernosus of 'Winslow. It arises fleshy from the sphincter ani and membranous part of the urethra, and tendinous from the crus, near as far forwards as the beginning of the corpus cavemosum penis; the inferior fibres run more transversely, and the superior descend in an oblique direction. It is in- serted into a line in the middle of the bulbous part of the urethra, where each joins with its fellow; by which the bulb is completely closed. The use of these mus- cles is to drive the urine or semen forward, and by grasping the bulbous part of the urethra, to push the blood towards its corpus cavernosum, and the glans, by which they are distended. ACCESSION. {Accesio; from acccdo, to approach.) The commencement of a disease. A term mostly ap- plied io a fever which has paroxysms or exacerbations: thus the accession of fever, means the commencement or approach of the febrile period. ACCESSO RIUS. (From accedo to approach: so called from the course it takes.) Connected by con- tact or approach. Accessorius lumbalis. A muscle of the loins. See Sacro-lumbalis. Accessorius nervus. The name given by Willis to two nerves wliich ascend, one on each side, from the second, fourth, and fifth cervical pairs of nerves, through the great foramen of the occipital bone, and pa9i out again from the crtfiiium through the foramina lacera, with the par vagurn, to be distributed on the trr pezius muscle. ACCI'PITER. (From accipio, to take.) J. The hawk; so named from its rapacity. 2. A bandage which was put over the nose: so called f»om its likeness to the claw of a hawk, or from the tightness of its grasp. ACCIPITRI'NA. (From accipiter, the hawk.) The herb hawk-weed- which Pliny says was so called be- cause hawks are used to scratch it, and apply the juice to their eyes to prevent blindness. ACCLI' V IS. A muscle of the belly, so named from Hie oblique ascent of its tibres. See Obliquus interims abdominis. Accouchement. The French word for the act of delivery. Accoucheur. The French for a midwife. ACCRETIO. (From ad, and cresco, to increase.) Accretion. 1. N ulrition; growth. 2. The growing together of parts naturally separate as the lingers or toes. Accuua'tio. (From accumbo, to recline.) Child- bed ; reclining. Ace'oia. (From a, priv. and Kti&os, care.) Careless- ness, neglect in the application of medicines. Hippo- crates sometimes uses this word, in his treatise on tin glands, to signify fatigue or trouble. ACE'PHALUS* (Acephalus, i. m. axe^oAof; from a, priv. and Kt<t>a\n, a head.) Without a head. A term applied to a lusus natura:, or monster, bom with- out a head. [This term is also applied by modem naturalists to a certain portion of the gelatinous or soft bodied ani- mals, which were formerly classed among the Vermes of Linnaeus. They are now termed Acephalous Mol- luscte, or headless molluscte, having no distinct part corresponding to the head of other animals. A.] A'CER. {Acer, eris. neut.; from acer, sharp: be- cause of the sharpness of its juice.) The name of a genus of plants in the Linntean system. Class Polyga- mia; Order, Moncecia. Acer campestre. The common maple. This tree yields a sweetish, soft, milky sap, which contains a salt with basis of lime, possessed, according to Sherer, of peculiar properties. It is white, semitransparent, not altered by the air, and soluble in one hundred parts of cold, or fifty of boiling water. Acer pseudoplatanus. The maple-tree, falsely named sycamore. It is also called Platanus traga. This tree is common in England, though not much used in medicine. The juice, if drank while fresh, is said to be a good antiscorbutic. All its parts contain a sac- charine fluid; and if the root or branches be wounded in the spring, a large quantity of liquor is discharged, which, when inspissated, yields a brown sort of sugar and syrup like molasses. Acer saccharinum. The sugar maple-tree. Large quantities of sugar are obtained from this tree in New- England and Canada, which is much used in France, where it is commonly known by the name of Saccha- rum Canadense or Saccharum Acernum, maple sugar. It has been supposed that all Europe might be supplied from the maple of America, which grows in great quantities in the western counties of all the middle States of the American Union. It is as tail as the oak, and from two to three feet in diameter; puts forth a white blossom in the spring, before any appearance of leaves; its small branches afford sustenance for cattle, and its ashes afford a large quantity of excellent pot- ash. Twenty years are required for it to attain its full growth. Tapping does not injure it: but, on the con- trary, it affords more syrup, and of a better quality, the oftener it is tapped. A single tree has not only survived, but flourished, after tapping, for forty years. Five or six pounds of sugar are usually afforded by the sap of one tree; though there are instances of the quantity exceeding twenty pounds. The sugar is separated from the sap either by freezing, by spontaneous evaporation, or by boiling. The latter method is the most used. Dr. Rush describes the process; which is simple, and practised without any difficulty by the fanners. From frequent trials of this sugar, it does not appear to be in any respect inferior to that of the West Indies It is prepared at a time of the year when neither insect, nor the pollen of plants, exists to vitiate it, as is the case with common sugar. From calculations grounded on facts, it is ascertained, that America is now capa- ble of producing a surplus of one-eighth more than its own consumption. [The Acer Saccharinum, or sugar-maple tree, abounds in the state of New-York and many other parts of the United States. It furnishes a great amount of rough sugar in the interior of the country and the new settlements, where foreign and refined sugars are but little used. Very little effort has heretofore been made to introduce it into market as an article of com- merce. But in 1328 several hundred barrels of this sugar, from the Territory of Michigan, reached the city of New-York by way of the great Western ca- nal. It was sold at auction for six cents per pound ; and when refined and converted into loaf sugar, it af- forded a reasonable profit to the refiner. A.l ACERATE. Aceras. A salt formed of the acid of the Acer campestre with an alkaline, earthy, or metallic base. ACE'RATOS. From a, neg. and xepao>, or Ktpav- vvfu, to mix.) Unmixed; uncorrupted. This term is applied sometimes to the humours of the body by Hip pocrates. Paulus rEgineta mentions a plaster of this name. ACERB. {Acerbus from accr sharp.) A specie*