Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/426

 SAN

At its fir ft appearance there are ufually felt cerlain little tu- mors under the fkin ; and after this there appears a feab which remains on the part a confiderable time, and will not eafily be removed or torn off. The pain of this is {harp and erofive, efpecially when it is exafperated by fcratcbing; and while this is fixed to fome one part, there are pains felt deep within the flefh in other places, which are moft intolerable in the night; and in women the fluor albus, or whites, is ufually an attendant on it ; and in men fometimes a gonor- rhoea, fornetimes bubos and other tumors ; and in infants, who are thus affected, from the difeafes of their parents, there are frequent excoriations, and often criftated and ver- rucofc excrefcences of flefh about the anus. The leprous itch. In this the head is frequently affected, the pains are very violent, and the hair and fkin very frequently fall off. There iffues from the fcabs white fanious matter, and the whole texture of the Jkin is altered; the cuticle be- ing befet with fmall fcales, and feeling rough like the fkin of an elephant, whence the difeafe has been called by fome elephatitiafs.

In other refpedts, this complaint is attended with no fenfa tion of pain, or uneahnefs ; but the face is inflated, the teeth become black, the breath becomes fcetid, and tumors of the bubo kind appear on feveral parts of the body, all which become finally malignant ulcers; and in the progrefs ofthedifeafe, large fcabs, with portions of the fkin, fall from different parts of the face. Perfons fttbjeft to the itch. Thefe are principally men of a fanguineous temperament of body and phlegmatic difpofition. who moft eafily fall into the moift itch of the fimple benign kind, and are of all others moft difficultly cured of it. Thofe, on the other hand, who are moft fubject to the fim- ple dry itch are men of a dry temperament and choleric habit. All perfons who eat coarfe foods, with much fait, and drink four or decayed liquors, eafily fall into this kind ; as alfo fuch as live in a damp foggy air, and thofe who are fubjecf to obftructions of the liver, and who have long been af- flicted with quartans. Thofe who have a fuppreflion or di- minution of the ufual quantity of urine, and by that means have the fait ferofities of the blood not duly carried off, are alfo more fubject than others ; as alfo, from the fame caufe, are fuch as have had old ulcers fuddenly flopped, or ifliies dried up ; people who have been ufed to cupping, at certain regular times, and afterwards neglect it ; and finally, thofe of an idle and fedentary courfe of life. Ibid. p. 450. Caufes of it. The caufes of the Ample benign itch are a ftafis and corruption of the lymphatic humors, and this is often occafioned by the humid temperament of the air, which in cold feafons prevents the going oft" of thofe humors by fweat, which had been directed to the fkin by nature for that purpofe, hence they remain there and corrupt ; and there are other things which more or lefs concur to caufing it ; thefe are a change of the food and drink continued for fome time, and with this a plethoric habit of body. It i: fometimes the crifis of other difeafes, as of a quartan, &c Thefe arc the caufes, and thefe the perfons fubject to the itch, as a primary difeafe beginning with them ; but its ufual method of propagating itfelf is by contagion ; fifty people, at Ieaft, having it by tills means, for one, on whom it appears of itfelf. A free ufe of falted food greatly ex- afperates the itch in all perfons, but this alone can have but little effect toward the original producing it. The malig- nant or complicated itch owes its origin to other caufes The ferine itch is always caufed by the fcurvy, and the ve- nereal or pocky itch owes its origin to a corruption of the lymph in the venereal difeafe. Prognq/iics in the itch. The Ample benign itch, of the moift kind, is the mildeft of all the kinds, and in general the moft eafily cured ; but as it is more fubject to ulcerations than the other kinds, this fometimes makes the cure bad habits of body more difficult. The dry itch is more troublefome, and takes more time in the cure than the moift, and is more troublefome to the patient ; but in the moift fa- mous and fuppurating itch, when it is rafhly treated by mer- curial and fulphureous ointments, by quickfilver girdles, by aftringents and refrigerants, and is driven in, which is ; very common cafe, there always arife very unhappy fymp- toms, fuch as anxieties of the pratcordia, afthmas, fuffocative catarrhs, intermittent fevers, and fometimes inflammatory acute ones, both which are of a different appearance from thofe diftempers in their ufual ftate ; not unfrequently alfo terrible chronic complaints are brought on by this, as ca- chexies, anafarcas and cedemas. 'The itch, in general, when newly caught by infection, is always much more eafily cured, than when it arifes from a fault in the humors, and is confe- quentiy much more deeply rooted : for the fame reafon, the chronic itch is of all others the moft difficult to be cured ; and where there concurs with it a defect or fault of fome of the vifcera, as is too often the cafe, the cure is yet greatly the more difficult. The malignant itch is always much more deeply rooted in the patient, and of confequence is much more difficult of cure than the fimple ; and in particu - Jar, the ferine or fcorbutic itch is one of the moft ftubborn difeafes we know of. In this cafe the food, and other cir-

S C A

cumftances, often make the cure much more difficult than it naturally would be : poor people are often infefted with this ; and their diet not being in their choice, are with difficulty cured of it. The venereal itch, though generally accounted the moft terrible of all the kinds, is yet much more eafily cured than the fcorbutic, and fometimes than the fimple chronic kind, when treated in a proper manner. Junker's Confp. Med. p. 452. Method of cure. The corrupt ftate of the humors is to be corrected according to the feveral kinds. In the benign itch, this is effected by aiexipharmics and diuretics, fuch are decoctions of the woods of guaiacum, faflafras, and the like, with elecampane and pimpernel roots, and the common abforbents fated with acids, as the crabs eyes, or oifter fhells, faturated with lemon juice, or the like ; and the acri- mony of the humors is greatly taken off by fulphur and nitre given in powders, or by the fimple balfam of fulphur in oil of almonds. After this external applications com- pleat the cure ; of this kind are the mercurial ointments, and thofe which contain fulphur. In the dry itch fomentations and baths do much more than ointments ; of this kind are decoctions of the oxylapathum root, and a lixivium of quick-lime and fulphur, or the general bathing in mineral fprings.

In the malignant itch, the ferine or fcorbutic is to be treat- ed as the fcurvy, to which it owes its origin. The anti- fcorbutic juices fhould betaken for fome time, and the de- coction of- tobacco made very ftrong, is a good external ap- pHtfatfon ; mercurial ointments have alfo their ufe here, and the violent heat of the eruptions may be mitigated by cam- phor, and by the frogs fpawn plalfter.

In the venereal itch, the method to be ufed for a cure is the fame with that for the venereal difeafe in any other ap- pearance, but in this there muft be always kept up a gentle perfpiration : mercurial ointments have peculiarly a place here : and when the difeafe is fo rooted as to give way to no other means, recourfe is to be had to a falivation ; and finally, the cure is to be completed by evacuating the cor- rected humors by ftool, in which cafe calomel is a very ufe- ful ingredient in purges, and the decoctions of the diapho- retic and diuretic vegetables are of great fervice in com- pleating it, and preventing a return. Ibid. p. 454. SCABIOS &., fcabious, in the Linnsan fyftem of botany, a diftindt genus of plants ; the characters of which are, that there is both a common and a proper pcrianthium, of which the latter is alfo double. The common perianthium is expanded, and compofed of many leaves, and containing many flowers ; its leaves are -inferted in the receptacle, and furround it in various feries, the inner ones becoming gradually lefs than the outer. The proper perianthium is double, but both are fixed on the germen of the piftil. The outer peri- anthium is fhort, membranaceous, and folded, and remains after the flower is fallen ; the inner is divided into five feg- ments, which are narrow, and pointed ; the flowers are mo- nopetalous, they are placed erect, and the pe£al forms a tube, which is widened at the extremity, and flightly divided either into five, or four fegments, the exterior of which are the larger. The ftamina are four fmall and weak filaments. The an- thers are oblong, and laid clofely upon them. The germen of the piftil is placed below the proper receptacle of the flower ; and is inclofed, as in a cafe, in its proper vagina. The ftyle is (lender, and of the length of the flower. The fiigma is obtufe, and is obliquely rimmed round the edge. The feeds are fingle to each flower, of an oval oblong figure, and crowned with their proper cups, and contained in the common receptacle, which is convex, and divided by the perianthia of the feveral flowers. See Tab. 1. of Bo- tany, Clafs 12. and Linneei Gen. Plant, p. 23. The characters of this genus, according to Tournefort, are thefe. The flower is of the flofculous kind, and is com- pofed of feveral unequal flofcules, contained in one general or common cup. Thofe flofcules, which are placed in the middle of the flower, are divided at the ends into four or five fegments, and thofe which make the outer circle or rim of the flower are bilabiated. Each of thefe ftands on the coronated top of an embryo, and each is contained in its proper and peculiar capfule, w : hich afterwards becomes ei- ther a fimple or a funnel fafliioned capfule, containing a coronated feed. Town. Inft. p. 464.

The fpecies of fcab'tous enumerated by Mr. Tournefort are thefe. 1. The common hairy field fcabious, or fcabious of the fhops. 2. The greater fcabious with purplifh blue flow- ers. 3. The broad leaved white flirubby fcabious. 4. The broad leaved {hruhby fcabious with bluifh flowers. 5. The tall annual fcabious with leaves like agrimony. 6. The narrow leaved white flowered ihrubby fcabious. 7. The larger white flowered, narrow leaved fhrubby fabious. 8. The yellow flowered fcabious with multifid leaves. 9. The double headed white fcabious. 10. The broad leaved white proliferous fcabtous. n. The proliferous fabious with gin- gidium leaves. 12. The fmall fine leaved po\iferou$ fcabious. 13. The Alpine fcabious with great centaury leaves. 14. The fmooth mountain fcabious with leaves like the common fabious. 15. The red flowered mountain fcabious broad not

jagged