An essay on the use of nitric acid, as an escharotic, in certain forms of hemorrhoidal affections; illustrated by cases / by John Houston.

  • Houston John, 1802-1845.
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the use of nitric acid, as an escharotic, in certain forms of hemorrhoidal affections; illustrated by cases / by John Houston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    9/30
    at stool,and hemorrhages of dangerous amount are entailed upon the sufferer. Or, still farther, when that stale of the mucous membrane, to which the term “ vascular tumour” is applied, su- pervenes, as I believe it often does, upon a varix, then, a simple and otherwise innocuous affection becomes one productive of most poignant suffering. Ofthis latter complication,—the vascular tumour,to which, in particular, I consider the application of the nitric acid berieficial, I propose to speiak somewhat in detail. The multiplicity of names given to this disease, such as “ vas- cular tumour,” “ haemorrhoidal excrescence,” “erectile tumour,” “ spongy haemorrhoid,” “ varicose tumour,.” internal haemor- rhoid,” &c., leads the mind astray,and prevents it from forming any accurate conception respecting its true nature. I am dis- posed to regard it as an affection of the mucous membrane and isub-mucous tissue, exclusively, and to treat it as such. It may, land I believe it usually has, for its basis, a nuckle or bunch of ivaricose veins; but it may also be a distinct and independent ^growth, the result of some other irritation in this region. I have i'seen it covering the surface of one varix in a rectum, while others Inin the same bowel have been smootb, and free from any such ^growth,—the former being the source of much annoyance, the fJattergiving no trouble at all. (<SeeCases III.IV.) I have also seen lithe affection, in j'oung individuals particularly, where the veins wvere quite free from any varicose dilatation, but in whom, after a liiime, varices formed as the result of the irritation of the vascular laimour. And I have observed that, in almost all cases of inward ^ I oiles of long standing, no matter whether the affection have be- £gun originally as a varix, or as a degeneration of the mucous iinembrane, both affections come to be present in conjunction, reci- IDFOcally aggravating each other’s severity. (See Cases I.,II.,III.) -These tumours vary in size in different patients, from a pea to i walnut. Their number, also, is equally variable. Sometimes ihere is but one; in other instances, there may two or more; and n others, again, they are so numerous and large as to cause, by B