Volume 1

Green's Encyclopedia and dictionary of medicine and surgery / edited by J. W. Ballantyne.

Date:
1906-1909
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Green's Encyclopedia and dictionary of medicine and surgery / edited by J. W. Ballantyne. 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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    ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MEDICINE Aachen. See B ALNEOLOGY (Ccrmaii v). Abano. See Balneology (Italy). AbartiCUlar.—Not affecting tlie joints, e.<j. abavticular rheumatism. Abasia.—Diminished or lost power of walking;. See Astasia. A batto i rS. —Abattoirs or public slaughter- houses may constitute a danger to the public health, partly on account of their improper location and construction, and partly by reason of the offensive trades, such as blood-boiling, bone-boiling, and gut-scraping, carried on within them. Private slaughter-houses are ranch greater dangers, and they ought to be abolished and their place taken by jiublic abattoirs. No dwelling should be within 100 feet of an abattoir. The slaughter - houses should have through ventilation, a sufficient water-supply, impervious walls, and a concrete or asphalt floor well drained and properly sloped; they should not be below the surface of the ground, and no rooms or lofts should be constructed over them ; and they must be open at all times to the inspection of the ofhcers of the sanitary or local authority. The approach to the abattoir should not be through narrow and steep streets, and the offensive trades carried on in it should be strictly supervised and regu- lated. The law relating to abattoirs is con- tained in the English Public Health Act of 1875, and the Scotch Act of 1897. A.B.C. Liniment.—Linimentum aco- niti coni])i )situm, containing equal parts of aconite, belladonna, and chloroform liniments. A. B.C. Sewagfe Process.—This pro cess consists in the addition of alum, blood, cXiiy, charcoal, and zinc sul])hate to the sewage in order to form a solid residue and a clarified effluent. See also Sewage and Drainage. VOL. I AND DICTIONARY AND SURGERY Abdomen, Clinical lnvestig:a- tion of. Inthuductory ...... 1 Symptoms ...... 2 EXAJIINATION OF PaTIENT .... 2 Examination of Excreta ... 4 See also under Children, Clinical Examina- tion of ; Gynecology, Diagnosis in ; Post- mortem Methods; Pregnancy, Physiology; Rickets ; and Visceral Pain. In many respects the diagnosis of disease within the abdomen is more difficult than that of disease situated in other pai'ts of the body. The manifestations of a lesion of the nervous system can be observed witli accuracy, and its site determined largely from a knowledge of anatomy and physiology. In the case, too, of ' disease affecting the heart or lungs the methods of physical examination are usually adequate to I enable us to determine the seat, and to some ' extent the nature, of the lesion. But in the investigation of abdominal diseases the means at our disposal are more limited in their applica- tion ; and in making a diagnosis we have to fall back—to a greater extent than in the case of disease elsewhere—on our knowledge of pathology, and on our former experiences of cases presenting a clinical history similar to that of the case under consideration. Hence the necessity for giving careful attention to every abnormal phenomenon which is essential in the investigation of disease in any part of the body, is especially called for in the case of disease situated in the cavity of the abdomen. The object of the present article is to take a brief survey of the main points to be attended to in the investigation of an abdominal case, and the suV>ject will be considered under the following headings :—{a) The symptoms from which the patient suffers, together with facts relating to his previous history ; (b) the physical examination of the patient; (r) the examination