Volume 2

A dictionary of medicine : including general pathology, general therapeutics, hygiene, and the diseases of women and children / by various writers ; edited by Richard Quain ; assisted by Frederick Thomas Roberts and J. Mitchell Bruce ; with an American appendix by Samuel Treat Armstrong.

  • Quain, Richard, 1816-1898.
Date:
1895, ©1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dictionary of medicine : including general pathology, general therapeutics, hygiene, and the diseases of women and children / by various writers ; edited by Richard Quain ; assisted by Frederick Thomas Roberts and J. Mitchell Bruce ; with an American appendix by Samuel Treat Armstrong. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

    85/1298 (page 73)
    3. Hypertrophy.—It will suffice to re- mark under this head that the lacteal glands are liable to be more or less hypertrophied in cases of lymphadenoma, and ia the form of leucocythsemia-'attended with glandular en- largement. The writer has met with instances where the prowth was very considerable. They might possibly be detected during life by phy- sical examination, or they might cause symp- toms by their mechanical effects; but, as a rule, their existence is only ascertained at the post-mortem examination. 4. Atrophy and Degeneration.—The mesenteric glands atrophy in old age, and they may also become wasted and withered after previous disease, such as typhoid fever. The caseous and calcareous changes which they undergo in connexion with scrofulous disease have been already alluded to. It may happen that atrophic or degenerative changes in these glands affect the general condition ; but it is certain that they may be extensively calci- fied, and yet the patient remain apparently in excellent health. 5. Morbid Formations.—The mesen- teric glands may be the seat of alhvmiinoid disease. It is said that they can then be felt through the abdominal walls, firm, dis- tinct, and easily movable ; but this is by no means always the case. Cancer is chiefly met with as a secondary formation, the lacteal glands being particularly hable to become affected if the intestine is the seat of malignant disease, and the localisation being determined by that of the intestinal lesion. It may occur, however, as a primary affection. The cancer is usually of the softer variety, but it will depend to some extent on the natvire of any primary deposit. A con- siderable tumom- may be formed, firm and nodulated ; or the glands may remain sepa- rate. Physical examination often reveals the presence of the disease. Further, local- ised pain, with symptoms due to pressure, should it exist, together with evidence of a cancerous cachexia, and of the implication of other organs, especially of the intestines, constitute the clinical phenomena to be found associated with malignant disease of the lacteal glands. No treatment can be of any service except as a palliative. Frederick T. Egberts. MESENTERY, Diseases of. —/See Peritoneum, Diseases of. MESMERISM. — Definition. — The name of the process by which, rather more than a century ago, Anthony Mesmer, the deluded (or at aU events the deluding) promulgator of the doctrine of 'animal magnetism,' induced the so-called mesmeric trance or sleep. See Magnetism, Animal. This mesmeric trance is identical with the condition now known as ' induced somnam- bulism,' or still more commonly as ' hypno- tism ' or the ' hypnotic state.' The condition itself is one which presents to the observer many highly interesting phenomena, and it, together with the means of inducing it. was first investigated in a full and scientific maimer by James Braid of Manchester (1843). In this place it is not intended to speak of the subject from its old point of view. The reader who desires to gain some notion of the errors, deceptions, and vain pretensions with which the whole subject was enveloped by those who have been content to style themselves 'mesmerists,' may with advan- tage consult the article on ' Mesmerisme,' by Deschambre {Diet. Encycl. des Sc. Med., torn, vii.), at the close of which they will also find a valuable bibUography. In that article the proceedings of Mesmer and his followers in France are fully exposed. As a sort of transition between this old state of things, with its erroneous theory and vain pretensions, and the scientific stand- point taken by Braid in regard to the more correct limitation of the phenomena observ- able and their altogether intrinsic mode of production, came the observations of Elliot- son in London, as conducted in the years 1887-38, when he sought to inform himself and others as to the phenomena and curative virtues of mesmerism. He encountered a storm of opposition, principally on account of his mode of dealing with the subject. He was unquestionably honest and enthusiastic in his search for what he beheved to be truth; but he unfortunately did not, as Braid by his keener insight was enabled to do, reject and otherwise explain the so-called phenomena of clairvoyance, of transposition of the senses, and of prediction or prophecy. It is to be regretted, however, that Braid did not also reject aU the so-called phenomena of phreno-hypnotism. An independent practical study of the subject and of its therapeutic applications was shortly after the date of Braid's labom'S commenced by Esdaile in India (1846), as well as by J. K. Mitchell in the United States. They have more recently been succeeded by other investigators, amongst whom may be mentioned Girard Teulon and Demarquay (1860); Gh. Eichet (1875); Charcot (1878); and also Weinhold, Beard, Preyer, Berger, Griitzner, and Heidenhain (1880), Bernheim, and many others. The induction of the hypnotic state or sleep has hitherto been possible in only a certain, but variable, percentage of the per- sons with whom trial has been made, though a successful result has been much more frequent with women than with men. Ac- cording to Eichet, however, the operator should not be discouraged by the failure of his first attempts with the same person; as persons may succumb on the fom-th or fifth trial, and subsequently prove thoroughly good subjects for experimentation. Persona