Volume 1

The standard physician : a new and practical encyclopaedia of medicine and hygiene especially prepared for the household / edited by Sir James Crichton-Browne [and others].

Date:: 1908-1909

Credit: The standard physician : a new and practical encyclopaedia of medicine and hygiene especially prepared for the household / edited by Sir James Crichton-Browne [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$TIIIC STAXDAKI) I'llVSK'IAX Colic Contclouanesa 3JJ an actual blister. Collodion is very intlaininable, and ^u'eat care should be taken to keep it where children will not be likely to phiy with it. COLOCYNTH. - The fruit of the ('itridliis colocynlhis, or bitter cucuinbei-, deprived of its rind. The truit is a round gourd about three inches in diameter. It is grown in many of the tropical countries. Colocynth is a inirgative, producing a watery stool. It is used in conditions where it is desired to reduce the amount of water in the system, as in dropsv, or collec- tions of fluid in the chest or abdomen. It is never used alone, but is always combined with other ])urgative drugs, being an ingredient in several well-known pills, such as the compound cathartic pill and the vegetable cathartic pill. COLOUR-BLINDNESS. Total or partial inability to perceive or to dis- tinguish colours, usually a congenital and incurable defect. Accpiired colour- blindness is a deep-seated affection of the eye, the recognition and treat- ment of which requires an exact medical examination. The congenital form of the affection usually manifests itself in inability to distinguish certain colours, red and green, for instance, being often confounded. In some cases the individual is altogether unable to recognise colours, everything a})pearing as grey on grey. The former defect is by far the more freejuent one ; the latter is very rare. The faculty of recognising colours is of great j)ractical importance, and railway-companies especially insist upon their employees possessing this al)ility, as the mistaking of the colours of signals may lead to irighttul acci- dents. Railway and steamboat companies, therefore, demand that appli- cants for positions in their service be examined by oculists ; colour-blindness precludes their appointment. The ability to recognise colours is ot great importance in military service, also in the Navy. Many persons may never discover that they are colour-blind ; others become aware ot is only when they make a serious mistake in the selection of colours. CONCEPTION.—See Reproduction. CONDYLOMA, BROAD.—See Venereal Disease. CONGESTIONS TO THE HEAD.—See Brain, I)ise.\ses of. CONIUM. The leaves and fruit of Coniiim maculatum, or poison- hemlock, a small herb, originally a native of Europe, but now grown in America. It contains an active principle known as coiiiinc. Conium is vei}^ little used as a medicine at present, interest in it centring chietly in its poisonous qualities. It is related that Socrates met his death thiough the administration of this drug. Conium acts mainly by depressing the tei mi- nations of the motor nerves at their junction with the muscular tissue. causing paralysis. CONJUNCTIVITIS.—See Eye, Diseases of. CONSCIOUSNESS, DISTURBANCES OF. Consciousness is the term applied to the conception entertained by an individual, not only regarding$