025 



HATCHETIN. 



HEAD, INJURIES OF THE. 



626 



HATCHETIN. A fossil resin found in the lignite of Wales. It is 

 colourless, fusible, and volatile ; and is probably identical with ozokerite. 

 It has the same per-centage composition as olefiant gas, but is doubt- 

 less a mixture of several chemical compounds. 



HAUTBOIS. [OBOE] 



HAWKER. [PEDLAR.] 



HAWKING. [FALCONRY.] 



HAZEL. Economical Uses. The hazel is best known for its n*, 

 which are consumed in enormous quantities. From Spain alone there 

 are usually exported 30,000 or 40,000 bags in a year, of four bags to 

 the ton. Besides being eaten simply as a fruit, the nuts are sometimes 

 peeled in warm water, and used as a component in dishes like blanched 

 almonds ; or converted into a kind of chocolate ; or made into bread ; 

 or pressed to yield an oil little inferior to almond oil. The wood of 

 the tree is not large enough for building purposes ; but it is used in 

 cabinet-making, and in the manufacture of a number of small articles ; 

 it ia close, even, and pliant, but does not take a good polish. Some of 

 the roots yield curiously-veined pieces, eagerly sought after for orna- 

 mental purposes. The smaller branches and twigs of the hazel are 

 more useful than the main trunk, on account of their toughness and 

 flexibility ; they are largely employed for crates, hurdles, props, wattles, 

 walking-sticks, fishing-rods, whip-handles, ties for faggots, springes for 

 birds, thatch-fastenings, &c. Evelyn, among other mention of the uses 

 of this tree, said : " The use of the hazel is for poles, spars, hoops, forks, 

 angling-rods, faggots, cudgels, coals [charcoal], and sprynges to catch 

 birds ; and it makes one of the best coals, once used for gunpowder, 

 being very fine and light, till they found alder to be more fit. There 

 is no wood which purifies wine sooner than the chips of hazel. Also, 

 for withes and bands; upon which, I remember, Pliny thinks it a 

 pretty speculation that a wood should be stronger to bind withal, 

 being bruised and divided, than when whole and entire." Hazel-rods, 

 cut of equal size and varnished, form good materials for rustic garden- 

 seats and flower-baskets ; and many ornamental devices may be pro- 

 duced by using some peeled, and the rest unpeeled. A laborious but 

 uncommendable attempt has been made to produce a kind of mosaic - 

 picture, by interlacing differently-coloured hazel-rods. 



A peculiar abuse, rather than a use, of the hazel, is described under 

 DrviNixo-RoD. The old herbalists, too, had singular notions about 

 this plant, which modern medicine has by no means confirmed. 



HEAD, INJURIES OF THE. From the many peculiar and im- 

 portant features which they present, injuries of the head have properly 

 received a separate consideration in all systems of surgery. For not 

 only is the brain so essential to life that even its least injury must 

 be regarded as serious, but the parts around and guarding it have many 

 peculiarities. The skull, composed of two thin layers of bone, much 

 exposed to external violence, and protected from it by only slight 

 coverings, is extremely liable to fracture, and it is covered by a very 

 dense and tightly apph'ed membrane, the pericranium, of which the 

 injuries and diseases exhibit all the peculiarities of those of other 

 fibrous membranes. By the free communications of its vessels with 

 those of the similar membrane (the dura mater) lining the interior of 

 the skull, and less directly with those of the brain, disease is very 

 liable to spread from the pericranium to these more important parts ; 

 and it is itself covered by firm unyielding muscles and tendons, under 

 which disease is always prone to extend widely. The injuries of the 

 head are best considered as they affect the parts enclosing the brain or 

 the brain itself. 



In mere bruises of the scalp two circumstances are worthy of notice. 

 A vessel of some size may be burst without the skin over it being 

 wounded, in which case a most copious effusion of blood takes place, 

 raising up the scalp from the skull, and producing rapid swelling of the 

 whole of the upper part of the head. It needs however no particular 

 treatment ; no incision should be made into it, for if cold wet cloths be 

 diligently applied, the blood will be again rapidly absorbed. If the 

 effusion of blood from the bruise takes place between the pericranium 

 and the skull, the former is raised into a tumour, with sharp defined 

 edges, and yielding to pressure in a manner so similar to that of 

 fracture with depression of the skull, that the most experienced surgeon 

 might be deceived and induced to apply the trephine, but for the rule 

 that it should never be employed except in case* in which the brain 

 itself is implicated. 



A common superficial wound of the scalp needs no particular treat- 

 ment. It should be closed with sticking-plaster after the hair around 

 it has been shaved off, and it should be kept cool ; but to guard 

 against mischief to the adjacent parts, the patient should avoid all 

 stimuli, and all exertion of either body or mind, till it is completely well 

 Not unfrequently a violent oblique blow will strip off a large flap of 

 the scalp so as even to denude the bone. In cases of this kind, the 

 psrt, after being carefully cleaned, should be accurately replaced : if 

 absolutely necessary, a suture may be inserted to ensure more exact 

 adaptation, and the rest should be closed by adhesive-plaster ; the head 

 around, being shaved, must be kept perfectly cool ; the patient must 

 be placed on low diet, take aperient medicine, and remain quiet ; on 

 the first appearance of general excitement blood must be taken from 

 the arm, and by leeches applied round the wound ; under this treat- 

 ment many cases get well with almost singular rapidity; but if 

 irregularities be permitted, serious consequences may ensxie even from 

 the Bliglitcr injuries. 



ARTS AND SCL DtV. VOL. IV. 



One of the most common of these sequels of injuries of the scalp is 

 erysipelas of the head and face. It generally occurs in persons of an 

 unhealthy habit, in hard drinkers, and in the full and plethoric. It 

 commences about the third or fourth day after the injury ; the patient 

 begins to complain of headache and a feeling of general illness ; he has 

 a shivering fit, followed by nausea, thirst, and restlessness ; a quick 

 and hard pulse, and a thickly-coated tongue ; he cannot sleep, and is 

 perhaps slightly delirious. Soon after these symptoms have com- 

 menced the head and face feel very hot, and become red and swollen, 

 appearances which increase, and after a day or two are accompanied 

 with an eruption of small blisters, full of yellow fluid. There is no 

 pain on touching the parts ; but by the great swelling the eyes are 

 often closed, and the features almost obliterated. Active reducing 

 measures should, as a general rule, be early employed, and continued, 

 if the disease does not yield, as far as the patient's strength will 

 permit ; and purgatives, with small doses of mercury, should be given, 

 for the liver is very generally affected. After a period of from five to 

 eight days the inflammation in most cases subsides, the cuticle scales 

 off, and the wound, which had assumed an indolent unhealthy appear- 

 ance, acquires a vigorous aspect, and rapidly heals. But in some cases 

 the cellular tissue thus affected suppurates and sloughs, the scalp is 

 separated, and there is profuse discharge from the wound. One or two 

 incisions should in such case be made into the sloughing part, to 

 admit of the free separation of the sloughs ; but even with this the 

 disease will sometimes spread and prove fatal. 



Another affection which sometimes follows injuries (and especially 

 punctured wounds) of the external coverings of the skull is inflamma- 

 tion and consequent extensive suppuration in the loose tissue connect- 

 ing the tendon of the muscle covering the top of the head with the 

 pericranium. The general symptoms of fever are in these cases less 

 severe than in erysipelas ; the scalp is less hot and swollen, but more 

 painful and very tender ; the face is never affected. After a few days 

 of general illness, a feeling indicating a collection of fluid may be per- 

 ceived over some part of the head ; and on making an opening into the 

 swelling which has formed there, a quantity of matter may be pressed 

 out of it from beneath a large portion of the scalp. When this affec- 

 tion is suspected to be coming on, leeches should be put on the head in 

 large numbers about the wound, and cold diligently applied ; but if 

 matter should form, one or more free incisions should be made through 

 the scalp to let it out,- and the part afterwards treated like a common 

 abscess. 



In cases in which the bone has been exposed, the same general and 

 local treatment should be employed. The scalp when replaced may at 

 once unite to the bone ; or if it do not, granulations may spring up 

 from the surface of the bone and close the wound : in worse cases, the 

 outermost layer of the skull may die, and require a tedious process for 

 its exfoliation and healing ; in the worst, the whole thickness of the 

 skull may perish, and the dura mater be exposed. In all these cases 

 the mildest treatment is requisite, but as the disease is extremely 

 liable to spread to the interior of the skull, the general health should 

 be carefully watched, and if any indications of mischief arise, general 

 or local bleeding should be at once employed. 



When the bone itself is injured, no active treatment should ever be 

 adopted, unless there are evident signs that the brain is suffering from 

 compression or any injury that may be mitigated. These fractures of the 

 skull get well even more rapidly than those of other bone ; and in some 

 cases, especially in children, the skull may be forced in to some extent, 

 but when it does not produce any derangement of the functions of the 

 brain the injury will be repaired, and health perfectly restored. Cases 

 of fracture of the skull in which the brain is not at first injured may 

 be amongst either the most simple or the most dangerous in surgical 

 practice for the least intemperance or irregularity committed within 

 some time after their reception may produce irreparable inflammation 

 of the brain or its membranes. 



Injuries of the dura mater (the membrane lining the interior of the 

 skull) are of yet more importance, because they more immediately 

 affect the brain. The dura mater is connected with the skull by a 

 tissue in which numerous vessels ramify, and these may be ruptured 

 by the jar from a blow which does not even break the skin. The blood 

 that flows from them, accumulating between the dura mater and the 

 skull, produces compression of the brain. The chief indication of this 

 very dangerous accident having occurred is that the patient, who for 

 some time after the blow had seemed only stunned, or had been even 

 quite sensible, gradually becomes dull, sleepy, comatose, and at last 

 totally insensible, just like one suffering from apoplexy. These 

 symptoms supervene with,' a rapidity corresponding to the size and 

 number of the vessels ruptured ; the most rapid are those in which, by 

 a blow on the side of the head, the main artery, supplying the dura 

 mater and upper part of the skull, and which ascends just before the 

 ear, is wounded. The only hope in these cases is to bleed the patient 

 largely, to check the flow of blood in the head, and if that be not 

 evidently beneficial, to apply the trephine wherever it is most probable 

 that the blood may be found and removed. It must be confessed, 

 however, that there is little prospect of doing good by trephining in 

 these cases ; it is seldom possible to decide at what part of the skull 

 the blood is effused, or whether it may not be between the dura mater 

 and the brain, or even in that organ itself. The symptoms in each 

 case are the same, but the mechanical removal of the blood is possible 



