Boils, ulcers & abscesses : their cause, cure and prevention.

Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Boils, ulcers & abscesses : their cause, cure and prevention. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/40 page 162
    BOILS. Most people know what a Boil is like, for more probably than not.they have had practical experience of one at some time or other. Surgeons describe this kind of sore as a small, hard, cone-shaped tumour, which suppurates—that is, forms pus or matter—and has a core in its centre. This suppurat- ing process is popularly called “coming to a head,” and, as a rule, lasts for several days, during which time the Boil, of course, increases in size until at last it breaks and discharges, when there is immediate relief. During the gathering, the pain is always more or less intense, and there is always more or-less inflammation. Indeed, a Boil is really a skin-inflam- mation of a special kind. Boils are common to every part of the surface of the body, and sometimes break out in very awkward places, making sitting unpleasant or impossible; but that is no reason why _some doctors should, as they do, write jokingly about them. A Boil is no joke, even when a slight one, while a severe one is simply agonising. The present writer speaks feelingly, for, when a boy, he had a Boil on his neck that made him wish he were dead. Let these unsympathetic doctors be careful. They themselves may be afflicted with Boils as a kind of judg- ment, and then they-won’t laugh. As we have indicated, there are Boils and Boils—quick- healing Boils and obstinate Boils—Boils that soon come to a head, and Boils that are dilatory in so doing—Boils that throb and jump and make the sufferer jump also, and Boils that, if not very distressing, cause a dull, dead pain and a nasty sickish sensation which would go far to irritate a saint. In the best of cases, too, they are always very tender to the touch, and, wherever situated, seem, like sores in general, ever in the way. Also, there may be more than one Boil ; by which we mean that a person may have two or three at the same time. Truth to tell, he may have a crop of them. Again, sometimes no sooner is one Boil healed in one place than an- other appears in a different place. This is tantalising, but there it is; and the whole thing goes to show that Boils are really due to ill-health of some kind.
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