Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/436

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AvVich arc fhoftcr than the cup. Llmnsl Gen. Plant, p. 12. See Jun'CUs.

&CIRRHUS (C>/.)->The feat of z fcirrhus is very various and uncertain; for this diforder is not confined to the internal parts alone, to wit, to the liver, fpleen, lungs, mefentery, jpancreas, and in females to the uterus ; but it frequently happens alfo to the external parts, as to the lips* tongue, tonfils, fauces, palate, gums, neck, mamma;, axilla, m- guina, penis and tefticles, and that generally after inflamma- tions of tho'fe parts ; though it fometimes alfo appears with- "out any inflammation, especially in perfons of a heavy phleg- matic habit; fometimes alfo it is occafioned by an exter- nal injury, as a fall, a blow, &d

As foon as the fcirrhus is formed, the immediate confluence is, that the indurated part becomes unfit to perform the functions allotted by nature to it, and the neighbouring parts fufFer prefTurc, and become impeded in the pcrrorm- ance of their feveral functions. It is therefore no wonder that they are found fubje&, in thefe cafe? ? to inflammations, ulcerations, cancers, gangrenes, tabes, ilhTnefs, immobility, and the like, according to the nature of the injured part. ■ The more inveterate z. fcirrhus is, the greater will be the -difficulty in the cure. When this diforder happens to young people, and fuch as are of a good habit of body, it is much more fafe and tractable, than when it happens to older infirm perfons. When there is any thing venereal in the cafe, the difficulty is yet the greater. The fcirrhus is of the more or lefs confequence, according to the nature of the part it is feated in; and internal ones are always more dangerous, for this reafon, than the external.

While a fcirrhus continues free from pain, there is little dan- ger from it; but when it becomes painful or ulcerated, it generally threatens a cancer. The cure of thefe diforders is always difficult and uncertain, but in young rebuff, habits fometimes the knife and corrofivcs will effect it. When the fcirrhus is of long ftanding, and in old people, great care muff be taken how it is meddled with, left, while under treatment, it fhould become cancerous. On the other hand, when the fcirrhus is but newly formed, and you have ho figns of vehement pain or hardnefs, where the patient is otherwife of a good habit of body, external and internal remedies are to be employed at once, to endeavour to fet the confined fluids at liberty. The internal remedies, found of mofr. fe'rvice on thefe occafions, are the decoctions of the woods, digeftive tinctures,, or mild mercurials, giving be- tween whiles relaxing medicines, to refolve the infpiflatcd humors.

In regard to the external remedies, plafters made of the warm gums, as ammoniacum, galbanum, fagapenum, and the reft, either alone or mixed together, and aififted fometimes by the powder of bryony root, or of the birthwort, are ufed. Mercurials ferve greatly to this purpofe, and the following compofiticn is alfo excellent as a plafter on thefe occa- sions. Take galbanum and opoponax of each an ounce, ammoniacum and bdellium of each two ounces, oil of olives 'two pounds, yellow wax half a pound, powder of long and round birthwort, lapis calaminaris^ myrrh and frankincenfe, of each one ounce, Venice turpentine four ounces 3 melt them all into a plafter.

Next to plafters, cataplafms are found highly ferviceable in thefe cafes, one of the beft of which is made in the following manner. Take white bryony root four ounces, round birthwort and angelica of each an ounce, leaves of favin, rue, fcordium, wormwood and camomile flowers, of each one handful ; melilot, elder, marfhmallows and centaury, of each half a handful ; let thefe be boiled together in a fufficient quantity of water to the proper confiftence for a cataplafm, adding, toward the end of the boiling, three ounces of galbanum, diflblved in the yolk of an egg, two ounces of Iinfeed meal, and as much as is neceffary of lin- feed oil.

It is to be applied warm, and often renewed ; and a fo- mentation made from the fame ingredients, boiled in vine- gar, is often found alfo of great ufe.

Inftead of thefe remedies fome highly extol the ufe of acid Vapours on this occafion ; fometimes the fleam of boiling vi- negar is ordered to be received on the part, and that either of plain vinegar, or of fuch as has been medicated by infu- fions of rue, lavender flowers, or other fuch ingredients, or of the Venice treacle. Some fprinkle vinegars of thefe kinds Over a hot ltove, and receive the vapour through a funnel ; others advife the burning of common brimftone, and holding the part over the fume ; and others are fond of fumigations of cinnabar. Great care muff: be taken in thefe cafes not to raife too large a fume, nor to keep the patient over it too long ; and he muft be advifed not to admit it in- to his nofe or mouth, for all thefe fleams are injurious to the lungs; and in the laft cafe, the quantity of mercury raifed in vapour from the cinnabar may often be enough to raife a falivation.

Mercurial medicines are alfo found to perform wonders in thefe cafes, either adminiftered in the beginning, or after all

. other remedies have failed. Befide giving mercurials inter- nally, an excellent mercurial ointment may be made, by

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mixing quickfilver firft with a fmall quantity of Venice tur- pentine, and afterwards with a much larger of ho^'s Jard by rubbing them together in a glafs or marble mortar. The fcirrhus fhould be anointed two or three times a dav with this, covering it With a common mercurial plafter ; and to prevent this method from raifing a falivation* fome purging medicine, as the extract of rudius, or jalap, is to be gi$en in fmall dofes every fourth or fifth day. But if all thefe methods prove unfuccefsful, and the firrhus is free and moveable, and its fituation threatens no danger from the neighbourhood of any confiderable vefTek, and if the patient's Strength fhall be judged fufficient to undergo the operation, the affiflance of the knife muft be called in, and the fcirrhus cut out, to prevent its growing cancerous* When the fcirrhus is thus taken out, the wound is to be dreffed and healed with the common vulnerary balfams : but when (.he firrhus is fixed, knotty, uneven, and deeply rooted ; where the patient is of a bad habit of body, is fub- jedr to form fcirrhufes from an hereditary taint, or has ■ formed feveral already; and laftly, where the fituation of the diforder is fuch, that from the vicinity of confiderable veins and arteries, there is danger of bringing on an he- morrhage, which may prove fatal, then all attempts to cure, whether by the knife, by digeftives, or by corrofive medi- cines, are to be neglected ; for this kind of fcirrhus is almoft always attended with very violent pains, and ail that can be: done is to attempt to alleviate thofe pains, and prevent a cancer. Heijrer's Surgery, p. 221. Scirrhus hepatis, in medicine, a difeafe confifting in art indurated tumor of the liver, occafioned by a ftao-nation of the humors which grow thick there, from an exha- lation of their more fluid and fubtle parts. This differs from the infartfus hepatis, not only in degree* but in its fymptoms, for it almoft always is attended vvtth a hectic, or with cedemato-hydropic fwellings. Junkers Confp. Med. p. 208.

Signs of it. Thefe are a tumor and hardnefs in the right hy- pochondrium, or region of the liver, always evident to the patient, and often fenfibly perceived by any body elfe, on touching the part. To this are to be added dull tenfivc pains, and a fenfe of a weight hanging there, and ufually afthmatic fymptoms, and a dry cough. It becomes pain- ful to lie on the left, or oppofite fide; and with thefe a hectic comes on, with a wafting of the upper parts, and a fwelling of the inferior ones; firft of the feet, but afterwards upwards to the belly, which finally become-' very obftinate, and truly afcitic. The urine in this cafe is fmall in quantity, and of a deep orange colour, and thick confiftence. It has ufually a mucid iediment, and fome- times a thick one of a rofe colour.

Caufes of it. Thefe are ufually either an omiffion of artificial difcharges of the blood, by habitual bleedings at fpring and autumn, or a fuppreffion of the natural ones, by the men- fes or hemorrhoidal veflels : an improper treatment of in* termittent fevers with aftringents, of quartans with lar^e quantities of bark, and of acute fevers with too cooling a regimen, or a violent quantity of the volatile falts, or a condenfation of the humors in a fimple infarction, by means of cold external applications. The flopping hemor- rhages, which nature had brought on for her relief in ple- thoras, have alfo been fometimes known to occafion a fcir- rhus of the liver ; as have alfo external injuries by blows, falls, and the like.

ProgwjHcks. A recent fcirrhus of the liver admits of a cure, but this not without great difficulty, and in a more confirmed one there is very little hope. This tumor has a continual tendency to corruption, either by fphacelation, or by an inflammatory fuppuration ; neither of which can happen fuccefsfully, for the firft muft occafion inftantane* ous death, and the latter, exulceration, and a fucceeding fa- tal hectic. A fcirrhus of the liver often follows, and fometimes precedes a jaundice of the moft violent kind.

Method of treating it. The bowels are firft to be cleanfed and relaxed by a clyfter, made of a decoction of mallows, camomile flowers, mullein, and fennel feed ; after this, bleeding in the foot is to be ordered, and then the nitrous and other refolvent medicines are to be given, fuch as tartar of vitriol, and the like. After this medicated V/ines fhould be drank as the common drink, prepared with bryony and arum roots, centaury, hyffop, and maidenhair leaves, faf- fafras, fenna, black hellebore, and rhubarb; and externally s plafters of the refolvent and ftrengthening kinds are to be applied. But after all directions for the treatment, it is to be acknowledged, that an obdurate and inveterate fcirrhus admits of no remedy. "Junker's Confp. Med, p. 210.

SCIRRONESj a name given to a fort of fmall lice breeding under the fkin.

SCIR.ROPHORIA, E^sOogia, in antiquity, an anniverfarv folemnity at Athens^ upon the twelfth day of the month fcirrophorion. For its origin and ceremonies fee Potter, Archeol. Grec. lib. 2. cap ; 20. Tom. I. p. 430.

SCIRROPHORION, S*.^^^, in antient chronology, the

twelfth and laft month of the Athenian year. It contained

a twenty