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KXVI. Case of Hydrocele, improperly treated as Buptvre. 

 By John Taunton, Esq., Surgeon to the City and 

 Finsbury Dispensaries, and to the City Truss Society for 

 the Relief of the Ruptured Poor. 



To Mr. Tilloch. 



Sir, Jt is not the least of the evils which accompany a 

 state of distase among the poorer classes of this large me- 

 tropolis, that their complaints are frequently misunderstood, 

 and consequently treated in a manner which tends to in- 

 crease rather than to alleviate their sufferings. The super- 

 ficial and hasty view which is but too often taken, even by 

 regular medical practitioners, of the diseased victim of po- 

 verty on the one hand, and the allurements held out by 

 mercenary and ignorant pretenders to medical skill on the 

 other, are the causes of this additional affliction to the poor. 



Those who officiate as medical officers to the numerous 

 public charities which do honour to this great city,, have 

 daily opportunities of witnessing the melancholy effec:s of 

 the errors thus committed. The following case of this 

 kind, which occurred lately uuder my own inspection, and 

 which bad nearly terminated iatally to the patient, is one 

 of the many illustrations of this observation which may 

 be adduced. 



Thomas Erskine, set. 53, servant to Mr. Thomas Butcher, 

 of Charing Cross, a few years ago received a kick in the 

 scrotum, which occasioned a swelling, and which has con- 

 tinued ever since. At first it was attended with extreme 

 pain ; but this soon ceased, and the tumour assumed an in- 

 durated appearance. The poor man applied to tw.o regular 

 surgeons in his immediate neighbourhood, *yho informed 

 him that his complaint was a rupture, and recommended a 

 truss. Attracted by an alluring advertisement from some 

 truss-maktrs in Soho, the patient applied to them : these 

 gentlemen, after examining the patient, and affecting a 

 great deal of medical and anatomical knowledge, confirmed 

 the opinion of the surgeons, and applied a truss to the tu- 

 mour, for which they charged the exorbitant price of a 

 guinea. This happened three years ago, and the palient 

 has ever since worn the instrument thus applied, with more 

 or less inconvenience. A few weeks ago he was admitted 

 a patient at the City Dispensary, when on examining him 

 J found the ease to be a decided hydrocele. The operation 

 of tapping was immediately performed, and the patient in 



K 4 a few 



