sro OF HYDATIDS. 



" As hydatids seldom prove fatal, when tliey 

 have found an outlet, and as there is a disposition 

 in nature to discharge from the body, an attempt 

 should be made to assist the efforts of nature by art. 



** In the first place, a tumour tilled with hyda- 

 tids, situated in the extremities, or on the exter- 

 nal surface of the body, may be with safety remov- 

 ed. Hydatids, lodged within the cavities of the 

 body, m.ay also be extracted, provided the organ 

 containing these has contracted an adhesion with 

 the containing parts, as was done in case seventh, 

 with complete success. Plater* has related the 

 case of a young woman, who had a tumour in the 

 right hypochondrium, which was very painful, es- 

 pecially when she lay on the left side ; it at length 

 burst, and a large quantity of a serous fluid was 

 discharged, besides a number of hydatids, after 

 which the patient obtained a complete cure. Gna- 

 tannics testimony is equally strong. He has relat- 

 ed a case, in which the parietes of the abdomen 

 over a tumour in the region of the liver, became 

 very thin, and the tumour, iu consequence of vio- 

 lent coughing, at length burst externally, and three 

 hundred entire hydatids, together with a quanti- 

 tity of serous fluid, were discharged. The open- 

 ing remained fistulous for some time, but at length 

 closed, and the patient recovered. In the same man- 

 ner, when hydatids have been accumulated with- 

 in the uterus, these may be removed from it, as 



* Sec Obs. Solort. Mantissa. Obs. xviii. p. 44. 



