HI 



ERROR. 



KKYSITELAS. 



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 in '. :. 



i of mell. and oven of the neighbouring organs, being supposed to 

 _iuence the vessels ot the eye, and even of the brain. Some 

 affections of the eye, and also of the head, are certainly relieved by 

 ouch means, and their occasional use tuny be permitted; but the 

 habitual use of errhinee it in moat cases objectionable, and followed 

 by hurtful consequences. The membrane of the nose becomes 

 thickened, its sensibility impaired, and the power of discriminating 

 odours greatly lessened ; while, if the unbalance be possessed at the 

 same time of narcotic qualities, such as snuff procured from tobacco, 

 the palate, the stomach, and other organs enncerned in digestion like- 

 wise suffer, and loss of appetite with other symptoms of indigestion 



result rSTERXfTORIES.] 



ERROR (in Law), a fault in the pleadings or in the process, or in 

 the judgment, nix>n which a writ, called a Writ of Error (breve de 

 errore copigendo), might, and in some cases may, still be brought to 

 reverse the judgment The proceeding of bringing error, which now 

 in ordinary casea consists of simply suggesting that " there in error in 

 the record and proceed ngs," is the ordinary mode of appeal from a 

 court of record, and is in theory a commission from the crown to the 

 judges of a court superior to that in whieh the judgment was given, 

 tiv which they are authorised to examine the record, and on such 

 examination to affirm or reverse the judgment according to kw. 



EKUCIC ACID (C 4 ,Hj.O,), a colourless crystalline acid contained 

 in the expressed oil of mustard (Sinapis alba). It fuses at 93 Fahr., 

 is insoluble in water, but soluble in alcohol and ether. 



ERYSI'PELAS (lyni* Saccr, the Ruie, Hi. Anthony'i Fire), an inflam- 

 mation of the skin, occasioning a spreading redness, which occupies a 

 broad surface, on which are formed vesicles or blisters, preceded by 

 and accompanied with fever. The whole of the inflamed surface is 

 painful ; but the pain is not acute, it is rather a sensation of burning 

 or stinging than of severe pain. The redness is not intense like that 

 produced by phlnginou or boil, but is of a pale rose colour. There is 

 always considerable tumefaction; the tumour is not surrounded by a 

 definite boundary, but is diffuse, irregularly circumscribed, and unat- 

 tended with a sensation of throbbing. The tumour is often soft and 

 boggy. It is characterised by the vesications which form upon it. 



The proper seat of erysipelas is the skin, but the appearance of the 

 disease is somewhat modified according to the part of the skin which 

 is more especially inflamed. If the rete mucosum, or the part of the 

 skin which is placed immediately beneath the cuticle [SKIN], be the 

 principal seat of the inflammation, the vesieation is remarkable ; there 

 is commonly a considerable discharge from the vesicles, and a free 

 rxfoli.ition of the cuticle. If, on the contrary, the inflammation be 

 chiefly seated in the cutis vera, or the true skin, namely, that portion 

 of the skin which lies immediately beneath the rete mucoaum, the 

 cellular tissue beneath the skin is always more or less involved in the 

 inflamma ion, and then the 'tumefaction is considerable on account of 

 the infiltration of the cellular tissue with serum poured out from the 

 blood by the inflamed cuticle. 



Eryaipelatoua inflammation is characterised by its tendency to 

 spread, and thereby to cover a considerable portion of the external 

 surface of the body. It creeps on in succession from oue part of the 

 skin to another until it extends to a great distance from the part origi- 

 nally attacked, the inflammation often disappearing from the former as 

 it becomes established in the latter. Sometimes the inflammation 

 appears to pass from the external surface to the internal organs ; and 

 occasionally the disease quits the surface as it attacks the internal 

 organs, although more commonly the external and internal inflamma- 

 tion go on simultaneously, greatly increasing the severity and danger of 

 the attack. 



Erysipelas moat commonly attacks the face, but it sometimes seizes 

 on one of the extremities. The disease is always more severe when it 

 attacks the head than when it is seated in any other part of the body. 



The inflammation which appears on the external surface of the body 

 in erysipelas is not the primary and essential part of the disease, but a 

 remote event depending on a preceding state of disease affecting the 

 whole system. This is proved by the fact that constitutional disturb- 

 ance always precedes, commonly for the space of two or three days, the 

 appearance of the local affection. 



An attack of erysipelas comes on either with chills or a distinct col 

 shivering, attended with a sense of lassitude, aching in the limbs, rest 

 lejguess, and that disordered state of the skin which has been expres- 

 sively termed febrile uneasiness. There is from the beginning 

 uneasiness or confusion in the head, which soon amounts to decided 

 pain. This is accompanied with such a degree of drowsiness that tin 

 attack may sometimes be predicted long before there is any appearance 

 of redness or Dwelling in the face, from the inability of the patient to 

 keep himself awake. The chilliness is soon succeeded by heat of skin 

 the appetite fills ; the bowels are ocmUpated; the tongue is dry am 



sometimes nausea and vomiting ; the pulse i.- 



irequcnt, sometimes full, soft, and compressible, but occasionally hart 

 a nl tense. 



After these symptoms have continued some time, always one, gene 

 rally two, and sometime* three days, there appears on some part o 

 the face a redness, attended with burning heat and tingling. Com 

 monly a red spot appears on one cheek ; after a short time a similar 

 spot appears on the other cheek ; often the redness spreads successive!; 

 fro.u one chock to the other across the nose, which is completely 



nvobred in the affection. From the nose it extends to the forehead, 

 nd thence over the whole scalp. Soon after the redness appears the 

 ace begins to swell; and by the second night or the morning of tl,.- 

 hird day from the commencement of the fever, the eyes are completely 

 losed, the eyelids exceedingly prominent, the nose distended, and the 

 ears tumid, nil, shining, and burning. On the fourth or fifth day the 

 esications appear on the inflamed surface, which break on the fifth or 

 ixth, when the redness changes to a yellowish hue. The whole I 

 low so turgid that the form and expression of the features are com- 

 letely lost, and the patient could not possibly be recognised by hU 

 nost intimate friends. 



The surface of the skin in the blistered places becomes covered with 

 brownish or dark-coloured scab, which often gives a livid or blackish 

 appearance to the part; but this livid colour seldom goes deeper than 

 .he surface, and does not proceed from any degree of gangrene afl'> 

 ,he skin. On the parts of the face not affected with blisters the ou 

 s destroyed, and desquamates, a new cuticle being formed beneath it. 

 Though the face, in general, however intensely inflamed, seldom 

 nto suppuration, yet it is by no means uncommon for matter to form 

 n the tumid eyelids. 



Occasionally, though not often, when erysipelas attacks the I. 

 extends to the mouth and fauces, and even to the pharynx and larynx, 

 at the same time that it covers the neck and chest externally. Mr. 

 Copland mentions a case in which the enormous tumefaction oi tin- 

 neck and throat with the affection of the larynx and trachea, inci 

 jy the constriction produced by the integuments surrounding th< 

 and throat, caused suffocation in a few hours. When the inflammation 

 extends to the fauces, throat, and larynx, it sometimes produces a 

 species of croup. 



On whatever part of the body the inflammation appears in erysipelas, 

 even when it is strictly confined to the skin, its appearance i* not 

 attended with any remission of the fever which preceded it : on the 

 contrary, the fever generally increases with the augmentation mid 

 ixtension of the inflammation. 



The progress of the disease is more or less rapid, and its duration 

 longer or shorter, according to the age, the temperament, and the 

 vigour of the individual. In the young, the sanguine, and the rolunt, 

 the tumefaction is sometimes fully formed on the second day, and tin- 

 whole terminates on the sixth or seventh, while in the aged ami tlie 

 less vigorous it may be protracted to the tenth or twelfth, and the 

 desquamation may not be completed before the fourteenth day. The 

 average duration of the disease may be stated to be from eight to ten 

 days. 



When the fever and inflammation are intense, delirium comes on, 

 which sometimes rapidly passes into coma. These are most alarming 

 symptoms, indicating a severe and too often a mortal inflammatio 

 the brain. In such cases death frequently takes place, with many of 

 the symptoms of apoplexy, on the seventh, ninth, or eleventh day of 

 the disease. " In such cases," says Ur. Culleu, " it has been commonly 

 supposed that the disease is translated from the external to the internal 

 parts. But I have not seen any instance in which it did not appear to 

 me that the affection of the brain was merely a communication of 

 the external affection, as this continued increasing at the same time 

 with the internal. When the fatal event does not bike place, the in- 

 flammation, after having affected a part, commonly the whole of the 

 face, and perhaps the other external parts of the head, ceases. With 

 the inflammation the fever also ceases ; and, without any evident 

 crisis, the patient returns to his ordinary state of health." 



In the cases which prove fatal, on the examination of the body after 

 death, the inflamed skin is found infiltrated with serum, which is some- 

 times mixed with pus, and occasionally portions of the skin are found 

 disorganised, and in a state of gangrene. It is remarkable that the 

 blood in the large vessels and in the cavities of the heart is semifluid, 

 and that the veins which proceed from the inflamed parts are in a state 

 of inflammation, and contain pus, more especially when the inflamma- 

 tion has extended from the skin to the cellular tissue and has passed 

 into suppuration. In the cases attended with delirium and coma the 

 membranes of the brain, and especially the arachnoid, are thickened 

 and opaque with the effusion of serum between the membranes and into 

 the ventricles. If the disease has been complicated with inflammation 

 of the fauces, pharynx, oesophagus, trachea, and bronchi, these organs 

 present the ordinary signs of inflammation ; and the same is true with 

 regard to the mucous membrane of the stomach and intestines ; but 

 in all these cases the signs of inflammation are much more closely 

 allied to those which occur in fever than to those which are proper to 

 pure inflammation. 



There is a peculiar condition of the skin which seems to preill 

 t < er\ sijH'ia.s connected with the irritable or bilious temperament, and 

 a plethoric habit of the body. The occurrence of the disease 

 renders the skin peculiarly susceptible to its recurrence. I 'nwholesome 

 and indigestible food, the excessive use of spirituous liquors, the sup- 

 pression of the excretions, and more espeeially the suppression of the 

 perspiration, of the bile, and of the catamenial discharge, predispose to 

 i ry-ipelas. 



The exciting causes ore exposure to cold and moist air after the 

 body has been previously heated ; exposure to sudden and great alter- 

 nations of temperature : exposure to great heat however produced, 

 whether by the direct rays of the sun or by a fire ; intemperance j 



