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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    testis; sometimes the disease arises from the pressure of an ill-formed truss; at other times it has been brought about by the application of cold. Richter relates several cases in which a hydrocele arose in three or four days after the patient had been exposed to immoderate cold. A hydrocele has sometimes been known to arise from a schirrous state of the testicle. This combination consti- tutes the disease denominated by authors Hydrosarcocele.* A late writer, Mr. Ramsden of London, in his practical observations on sclerocele has endeavoured to prove that hydrocele is dependent in many instances upon excitement in the urethra. In order to give a clear conception of Mr. Ramsden's ideas on this interesting subject I shall make one or two extracts from his work, I am induced, says Mr. Ramsden, to offer this opinion from a variety of facts, which have presented themselves to my observation, and which lead me to suspect, that in almost every case of true hydrocele, the urethra will be found either to have been exposed at some previous time to excitement, or in- flammation, or to be in a present state of increased sensa- tion, from constitutional irritability, from the membranous fence, or from some other of the several general or local causes to which I have in the preceding pages, refered the derangement of this membrane. The prevalence of hydrocele in the East or West In- dies, instead of being attributable to the relaxation of the climate, may more reasonably be refered to the constant excitement to which the urethra is exposed from the ha- bits of the table; since it is well known that in those hot countries, every individual indulges in high seasoned * Dr. Gibson was called last winter to Upper Marlborough to extract a schiri ous testicle. The testicle was found to be of very large size, and the tunica vaginalis, contained upwards of a quart of water. (Lect. on surg.)