An inaugural essay on hydrocele : for the degree of doctor of physick : submitted to the consideration of the Hon. Robert Smith, Provost, and of the Regents, of the University of Maryland / by Octavius C. Taney.

  • Taney, Octavius C., -1832.
Date:
1815
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inaugural essay on hydrocele : for the degree of doctor of physick : submitted to the consideration of the Hon. Robert Smith, Provost, and of the Regents, of the University of Maryland / by Octavius C. Taney. 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.)

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    The patient seldom experiences any pain or uneasiness; the weight and dragging of the tumour sometimes, however is productive of considerable pain, particularly in the loins. In the commencement of hydrocele the swelling is generally soft and fluctuating, but in the advanced stages of the dis- ease it is tense and elastick, and feels like a bladder dis- tended with water. The tumour has sometimes a stony hardness; two or three cases of this kind occurred to doctor Gibson in which he found it difficult to determine whether the disease was hydrocele, or sarcocele. Instances of a similar nature are mentioned by Schmucher. In such cases the tunica vaginalis testis has generally been much iudurated and thickened. Such are the general symptoms attendant on hydrocele, others shall be more particularly noticed when we come to point out the diagnostick signs. CAUSES. It is a very difficult matter, and perhaps impossible, to account in a satisfactory manner for the production of hydrocele. The causes of the disease have upon all hands been allowed to be very obscure, and by no means understood. The celebrated surgeon Ruisch attributed the complaint to a varicose state of the spermatick cord; it has been amply demonstrated, however, since the time of Ruisch, that the disease frequently occurs without any preceding or concomitant affection of the cord; and it has been remarked by Mr. Pott, that although it was difficult to say, whether or not there was any foundation, for such an opinion, yet that in all probability, a varicose enlarge- ment of the spermatick cord, was to be considered as an effect of hydrocele rather than a cause. The exciting causes of hydrocele are sometimes evident; thus the complaint has been speedily induced by a blow on the