U L C 



Wiliia. Leaving hU brother Skirgello as his viceroy, he 

 returned to Poland. Skirgello by his barbarity, and the 

 Teutonic knights by their unwarrantable praftices, foon oc- 

 cafioned a rebellion, that was not terminated without much 

 bloodfhed. This event was followed by a war with the 

 Tartars, in which the lieutenant of Lithuania was defeated 

 by a heutenant of Tamerlane, and by wars between Poland 

 and Pruffia, m which Uladiflaus took the field in perfon, and 

 penetrating into Pomerania, gained a great viftoi-y over the 

 knights near Marienburg. Failing to take the town, he 

 conlented to grant the knights an advantageous peace. 

 The reputation of Uladiflaus induced the Hufiites of Bo- 

 hemia to offer him the crown, but he dechned accepting it. 

 After a reign of forty-eight years, generally profperous and 

 at length tranquil, he died at a very advanced age in the 

 year 1434, highly honoured and much regretted. Mod. 

 Un. Hilt. Moreri. 



Uladislaus v., king of Poland, was the fon of the 

 preceding. See Ladislaus IV. king of Hungary. 



UL^, in Ancient Geography, a people of Afiatic Sarma- 

 tia, upon the coaft of tlie Cafpian fea. Ptol. 



ULAK, in Geography, a mountain of Bofnia ; 20 miles 

 S.S.W. of Zwornick. 



ULAMA, in Anesint Geography, a town of Paleftine, 

 S.E. of Dio Cxfarea, at the diilance of about 12 miles. 



UL.^MIRSKA, in Geography, a town of Ruffia, in 

 the government of Tobolfit ; 48 miles E.S.E. of Yalu- 

 torovlk. 



VLARDINGEN, or Vlaerdingen, a town ©f Hol- 

 land, formerly the feat of the counts, fituatcd on the N. 

 fide of the Meufe ; 2 miles W. of Schiedam. 



ULATHA, in Ancient Geography, a town placed by 

 Jofephus between Galilee and the Trachoniiis. 



ULAUN, in Geography, a town of Bengal; 45 miles 

 W.N.W. of Ramgur. 



ULBACH, a river of the duchy of Baden, which runs 

 into the Elzach, 4 miles N.W. of Elzach. 



ULBO, a fmall ifland in the Adriatic, near the coaft of 

 Dalinatia ; 4 miles W. of Pago. 



ULCAMI, or Ulcumi, a kingdom of Africa, on the 

 coaft of Guinea, N. of Ardra. 



ULCER, in Surgery. The word ulcer, as profcflbr 

 Thomfon rightly obferves, does not cafily admit of a fatif- 

 faftory definition. It has, fays he, fometimes been ufed in 

 a more extenfive, and at other times in a more limited fenfe. 

 By fonie it has been defined to be a folution of continuity 

 in the folid parts of the body, accompanied with the dif- 

 charge of a purulent fluid. According to this definition, 

 the term ulcer is fynonimous with the words fore, fuppu- 

 rating wound, and open abfcefs. Dr. Thomfon thinks this 

 ufe of the term ulcer too general and indefinite. By others, 

 the term ulcer has been employed to exprefs only thofe fo- 

 lutions of continuity, from which an ichorous, fanious, or 

 vitiated matter is dilcharged, attended with a lofs ot fub- 

 ftance in the part. Although profeflbr Thomfon thinks 

 more favourably of this definition than the former, we con- 

 fefs our decided preference of the other, for the reafons 

 which this judicious furgeon has himfelf explained. If we 

 objeft to calling fuppurating wounds, and fuch abfcefles as 

 have burft, ulcers, as long as they difcharge healthy pus, 

 what particular reafon is there for approving of their re- 

 ceiving tliis name only when the matter from them happens 

 to be of a bad quality ? The healthy or unhealthy ftate oi 

 the difcharge from a fore or an abfcels, is an accidental cir- 

 cumftance, depending upon the favourable or unfavourable 

 condition of the parts to admit of the procefs by which 

 they are to be healed. If the preceding capricious rnethod 



U L C 



of defining an ulcer were to be fanftioned, every ulcer 

 would ceaie to be one, when the difcharge from it becomes 

 healthy pus ; nor could there be any inch ulcer as that 

 which has ufually been defcribed by the name of the fimple, 

 purulent, and 'healthy ulcer. 



In all the foregoing cafes, whether fores, fuppurating 

 wounds, or open abfcefles, the parts can be healed only by 

 one and the fame procefs, — the formation of granulations ; 

 and the principal difference in thefe examples is, that in 

 fuppurating wounds and abfceffes, there is not always a lofs 

 of fubftance, as in the inftances of ulcers. In thefe, a chafm 

 or breach is aftually produced in the part affefted by the 

 aftion of the abforbent veffels in the procefs of ulceration ; 

 which fee. 



The caufes of ulcers, fays Dr. Thomfon, are extremely 

 various. Some of thele caufes operate more, others lefs di- 

 reftly ; fome are limited in their operation to tlie parts to 

 which they are immediately applied, while the influence of 

 others extends to the general iyftem ; and hence a diftinc- 

 tion of ulcers, which is in common ufe, and which muft 

 ever continue to be made of ulcers, into local and conlti- 

 tutional. It is only, however, withitj certain limits, as pro- 

 feffor Thomfon oblerves, that even this dillinftion is well 

 founded ; for an ulcer which was at firft completely local, 

 may in time affeft the fyftem fo as to become conftitutional ; 

 and ulcers which derived their origin from fome general 

 affeftion of the fyftem, may remain after the conftitutional 

 affeAion has been removed, by which they were originally 

 ■ produced. 



When an ulcer arifes from an internal caufe, it is, as 

 profeffor Thomfon has accurately explained, the immediate 

 effeft of the procefs of ulcerative abforption ( fee Ulcera- 

 tion) ; but when a wound, a burn, or an abfcefs, becomes 

 an ulcer, it is by no means neceffary that the procefs of 

 ulcer.Htive abforption ftiould in any degree whatever have 

 taken place. A fuppurating furface, when it is long in 

 healing, or when it is changed from a healthy to an un- 

 healthy ftate, may, according to the ufe that is at prefent 

 made of the term ulcer, become an ulcer, without the pro- 

 cefs of ulceration having ever been induced. Every fuppu- 

 rating furface, or abfcefs of long continuance, may, in this 

 extended fenfe, be regarded as an ulcer ; at leaft, the period 

 at which they ceafe to be wounds or abfceffes, and when 

 they become ulcers is not very diftinftly marked. So true, 

 indeed, is this, that in defining and claffifying ulcers, au- 

 thors have always found it neceffary to fet out from a 

 healthy ftate of the fuppurating furface, or, in other words, 

 to begin the confideration of the fubjeft of ulcers, with 

 whA they term a healthy or a fimple purulent ulcer. 



Ulcers, continues Dr. Thomfon, have ufually been dif- 

 tinguiftied from each other, as Fallopius very juftly remarks 

 in his treatife upon this fubjeft, by the caufes by which 

 they are induced, by the fymptoms which they exhibit, and 

 by the parts of the body in which they occur. The want 

 of a difpofition to heal in a fuppurating furface may depend 

 upon lome fpecific aftion in the caule from which it pro- 

 ceeds ; upon fomething pecuhar in the conftitution of the 

 patient in whom it exifts ; or merely upon aij improper 

 mode of management. Hence, the diftindtion that has , 

 long been made of ill-conditioned fores, or ulcers, into thofe 

 which are fpecific in their nature, and into thofe which are 

 fimple. 



Specific fores, or ulcers, may be occafioned by fpecific 

 poifons, or by particular diathefes. The fores, or ulcers, 

 which arife from fpecific poifons, may be either local, that 

 IS, confined, like a primary fyphilitic ulcer, to one part ; or 

 conftitutional, that is, liable to occur in any part, texture, 



or 



