523 



DISEASE OF THE SCROTUM. 



In October 1849, Colonel Biddulph's little black charger, 

 a colt he bought out of a lot of the dealer's, now four years 

 old, was brought to me with considerable swelling over one 

 side only of the scrotum. Examination showed that there was 

 a tumour about the magnitude of a small orange, contained 

 in this side of the bag, which appeared loose and floating, as 

 though isolated, and did not seem to have any connexion 

 with the chord. There was not much tenderness in it, and it 

 was solid and firm to the feel. It had not been discovered 

 before it reached its present size, and would not perhaps even 

 now had it not given rise to some infiltration of the pendulous 

 part of the sheath below. In the course of a week the 

 swelling appeared augmented, and when felt no longer con- 

 veyed the sense of isolation, but seemed to involve the entire 

 substance, skin and all, of one half, of the scrotum. In a 

 few days it in one spot came to a head, the abscess upon it 

 being as large as a marble. This I opened, letting out a 

 spoonful of such aqueous pus. Physic and fomentation have 

 been prescribed, and latterly has been given the alterative 

 ball (Bol. Plumeri), night and morning. Since the suppura- 

 tion, the swelling has been gradually diminishing, and he has 

 been dismissed for w^ork. It is possible, though castration, 

 must have been performed long before — say, certainly, two, 

 perhaps three or four years, antecedent to the period of what 

 appeared to be scrotal disease — that this attack may have 

 owed its origin to disease of the end of the chord, though 

 there existed no proofs of it. 



THE DISEASE MISTAKEN FOR SYPHILIS. 



This afi'ection according to D'ArbovaFs observation, 

 " ordinarily commences by an inflammatory irritation of the 

 glans penis, which extends to the enveloping membrane, runs 

 along the dorsum penis, and thence sometimes spreads upon 

 the lining of the sheath. So long as no morbid exudation is 



