A dissertation, read before the Massachusetts Medical Society, on the importance and manner of detecting deep seated matter / by Nathaniel Miller.

  • Miller, Nathaniel, 1771-1850.
Date:
1827
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dissertation, read before the Massachusetts Medical Society, on the importance and manner of detecting deep seated matter / by Nathaniel Miller. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    16/20
    nearer to the centre, asking the same question, until he says that you hurt him. Continuing the pressure still further you will find a margin of tenderness, which may be three or four inches in di- ameter. Here then is the spot to which your atten- tion will be drawn. The parts not being very sen- sible, you can make the pressure required to feel the fluid. The first process of the examination cannot be dispensed with, as you have at first no guide to the spot; but having discovered this line of demarcation, which is seldom wanting in these cases, your attention is concentrated upon the small circle in which you feel. Now if the matter is in the deep interstices of the muscles, or even at the bone, and that in a small quantity, you will most assuredly discover it, by managing the thumbs as I have directed. The gentle elevation is felt with the stationary thumb, while you press firmly with the other, having all still around. If it is determined to evacuate the matter, it would be well, if there is cause to believe that the quantity is small, to mark the point with ink be- fore your thumbs are removed ; otherwise if you should remove your eyes and thumbs for a moment from the limb, and place the scalpel but a small distance from the spot where the elevation is de- signated, you might be led by the cavity, which would occasion great embarrassment and confusion. In such cases I always mark the centre of the spot in which the touch gives assurance of the presence