Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/740

 714 SCROFULA SCUDDER eral treatment. Niemeyer found benefit in the use of the galvanic current, which may be passed from above on the muscles of the fore arm, 'the tendons of which pass to the thumb and index finger. Strychnine has sometimes produced good results, and where the patient labors under malarious influence the use of quinine has been found beneficial. SCROFULA, a blood disease manifesting itself in a great variety of organs, and characterized when fully developed by the presence of a pe- culiar unorganized matter termed scrofulous. The name is supposed to be derived from the Latin acrofa, a sow, that animal being regarded as especially liable to humors of a similar char- acter. It was called struma by Celsus, Pliny, and other Latin writers, from ttruere, to heap up. The disease is transmitted from parent to child, though like other hereditary diseases it frequently passes over one generation to attack the next. It is closely allied to pulmonary consumption ; consumptive parents have often a scrofulous or strumous progeny, and vice versa. A damp cold atmosphere is favorable to its development, while it is probable that overcrowding and want of ventilation, aided by unwholesome and insufficient food, may ori- ginate it de novo. When the predisposition to the disease exists, everything that tends to de- press the vital forces exercises an unfavorable influence. The scrofulous habit, when strong- ly marked, is easily recognized. If the skin be fair, the complexion is often peculiarly bril- liant, but the color seems laid on in one large patch, leaving the surrounding skin of an un- natural whiteness ; the winga of the nose are thick, the upper lip often swollen, and the lips become cracked and rough on exposure to cold. The skin is unusually delicate and irritable ; the patient suffers very readily from chilblains, and in childhood is more liable than others to cutaneous diseases. The mucous membranes partake the delicacy and irritability of the skin. The edges of the eyelids are apt to be red and swollen ; the eye is very liable to be attacked by a peculiar inflammation (see OPHTHALMIA) ; haemorrhage from the nose, cold in the head, and enlarged tonsils are frequent. The muscles commonly want firmness, and the whole sys- tem is deficient in stamina. Sometimes the scrofulous diathesis is marked by a dark com- plexion, a rough, dry skin, and a pasty, un- healthy look ; the movements are sluggish, the habit of body indolent, and the intellect dull. When scrofula is fairly developed, its essen- tial element is the deposition of an unorgan- ized, brittle material, generally of the consis- tence of new cheese. In the lungs the presence of this matter constitutes tubercular consump- tion ; in the mesenteric glands, tdltet mesente- rica ; in the arachnoid membrane of the brain, acute hydrocephalus ; in the lymphatic glands, bones, &c., scrofula. Scrofula is eminently a disease of childhood, while consumption be- longs to a later period ; but neither is confined to any age. One of the forms in which scrofu- la most commonly and earliest shows itself is swellings of the lymphatic glands in various parts of the body, more particularly about the neck. These become enlarged and firmer, and after a time a deposition of the peculiar curd- like matter is found to have taken place in their interior. After a time suppuration occurs, the swellings become softer, and the skin over them assumes a dusky red hue, gradually be- comes thinner, and finally bursts, giving outlet to an unhealthy pus mixed with the curd-like deposit of the disease. The ulcers thus left heal slowly and with difficulty, and unless great care is exercised produce deformed cicatrices. Occasionally, but rarely, scrofulous glands un- dergo a process of cure without the occurrence of suppuration, the swelling gradually subsi- ding, and the tuberculous matter, by the absorp- tion of its thinner part, being converted into a chalky concretion. In the management of strumous infants much can be done to guard against the development of the disease. If the mother be affected, a healthy wet nurse if pos- sible should be employed ; the sleeping room of the child should be large and well ventilated; it should be bathed daily, at first in warm, and as it acquires strength in cold water, well dried, and thoroughly rubbed ; it should be warmly clothed, and exposed as much as possible to the light and air. As it advances in age, the diet should be simple and digestible, but abun- dant and nutritious; the child should have rea- sonable but not excessive exercise, and should be in the open air as much as possible ; while if it be, as is frequently the case, bright and precocious, great care should be taken not to stimulate its intellect too early and too much. When the disease shows itself, a residence by the seaside during summer is frequently of ser- vice. Remedial agents are to be sought in the preparations of iron and iodine, in quinine and the bitter tonics. SCRIPLE (Lat. scrtipulum, a little pebble), a weight equal to the third part of a dram or the 24th part of an ounce, as used by apothecaries. The scrupnJum (also written scripulum and tcriptulum) was J f of the Roman uncia, and afterward ^ of an hour. The 60th part of this was scrupulum secundum, and the 60th of this icrupulum tertium, whence our terms seconds and thirds applied to these divisions. SCI ODER, John, an American missionary, born in New Brunswick, N. J., Sept. 8, 1793, died at Wynberg, Cape of Good Hope, Jan. 13, 1855. He graduated at Princeton in 1813, studied medicine, and settled in New York. He sub- sequently offered himself to the American board as a missionary, studied theology, and in 1819 was ordained as a minister of the Reformed Dutch church on board the ship which carried him to India. For 19 years he labored in Ceylon, where he conducted a large hospital. In 1839 he was transferred to Madras. In 1842 he visited America, and after his return to India in 1846 resumed his labors, but in 1854 went for his health to the Cape of Good