W H I 



harm in any examples, in which the difeafe is either in an 

 inflamed or irritable ftate. 



In chronic cafes, the fwelling may alfo be leflened, and 

 the complaint fometimes much benefited by prelTure, made 

 either with ftrips of adhefive plafter, or with bandages. 

 This method will not do much good in inftances where the 

 bones are difeafed, nor is it applicable to cafes which are 

 irritable, or attended with heat and inflammation. 



For fcrofulous white-fwellings, furgcry cannot yet be 

 faid to have difcovered any effeftual or certain means of 

 relief ; and thefe melancholy difeafes frequently compel the 

 patient to fubmit to amputation, as the only thing by which 

 a long train of fufferings can be arretted, and the term of 

 life extended. The common plan of treating fcrofulous 

 white-fwellings is, by topical bleeding, fomentations, and 

 cold applications, when they are attended with much pain, 

 heat, and irritation ; and by ilfues, fetons, and blifters, in 

 oliher periods of the difeafe. The cautery and moxa have 

 alfo been much employed abroad ; and, as every body knows, 

 they were favourite and powerful remedies in the hands of 

 the ancients. In this country, the ufe of aftual fire in fur- 

 gery is nearly, if not quite, exploded, on the ground that its 

 employment is attended with an appearance of cruelly, and 

 that iffues, made with cauftic, are equally efficacious. 

 Pouteau, an eminent French furgeon, will ever be famous 

 for having revived in his own country all the ancient par- 

 tiality to burning irons. He recommended their ufe for all 

 ■white-fwellings without difcrimination ; and the accounts 

 which he has left of the fuccefs of the prattice are fur- 

 prifing, if not incredible. In faft, they are in all proba- 

 bility great exaggerations ; for we find that baron Boyer, 

 one of the molt eminent furgeons at Paris at the prefent 

 time, decidedly declares his opinion, that Pouteau's defcrip- 

 tions of the efficacy of the aftual cautery in the cure of 

 white-fwellings do not correfpond with the refults of mo- 

 dern experience. Boyer himfelf gives a preference to the 

 moxa, which is a cone of cotton, burnt upon the difeafed 

 part, fo as to produce an efchar. We confefs, that to us 

 this plan feems to have no material difference from the 

 cautery ; and, what is it but the application of aftual fire 

 in another form ? Indeed, one cannot help thinking, that 

 Boyer decries the cautery, only for the purpofe of after- 

 wards recommending the moxa, which is now a more 

 fafhionable means employed in French furgery. It is 

 curious to find Boyer particularly forbidding the ufe of 

 iffues, and the moxa in cafes of white-fwelling, where the 

 bones and cartilages are difeafed ; the very cafes in which 

 Mr. Brodie, in common with the generality of furgeons in 

 England, exprefsly recommends either iffues or perpetual 

 blifters. Boyer has never feen much good arife from iffues 

 in any cafes, although, as he affirms, he has made extenfive 

 trial of them. The time alfo when he thinks the moxa 

 ufeful, is in that ftage of the complaint which intervenes 

 between the prevalence of inflammatory fymptoms, and the 

 commencement of difeafe in the bones and cartilages. 

 Sometimes, however, the diforder certainly has its very 

 origin in the bones themfelves. 



The late Mr. Crowther introduced the plan of keeping 

 open blifters with the favine cerate, which is a method fre- 

 quently attended with great fuccefs in chronic white- 

 fwellings, and fometimes appears to check the progrefs of 

 the fcrofulous form of the difeafe. Blifters may be kept 

 open with this ointment a long time, and with lefs pain, 

 than what proceeds from the ufe of the unguentum lyttse, 

 and other ftimulating dreffings. It alfo occafions no rifli of 

 bringing on ftrangury, or inflammation of the bladder and 

 wrinary organs, like the ufe of ointments containing can- 

 VoL. XXXVIH. 



W H 1 



tharides. In our opinion, Mr. Crowther had much merit 

 m making known the eligible qualities of the favine cerate ; 

 and, we believe, no better application for keeping up a dif- 

 charge from blifters will ever be found out. Sometimes, 

 however, the repeated application of bhfters has more effeft 

 upon white-fwellings, than a fingle blifter kept open. This 

 is a circumftance which the praftical furgeon ought con- 

 ftantly to remember. 



We might enlarge this article vvith obfervations on iffues 

 and fetons, which are frequently employed in thefe cafes ; 

 but it would be fuperfluous, as they have been already 

 defcribed in other parts of the work. See Issue, and 

 Seton. 



It may be fuppofed, that fcrofulous white-fwellings 

 will require the exhibition of the remedies ufually 

 adminiftered in cafes of fcrofula. (See Scrofula.) 

 Boyer, and fome other writers declare, that this is aftually 

 the cafe. We have never feen thefe remedies, however, do 

 any good to difeafed joints, if we except fea-air, fea-bathing, 

 and the ufe of fea-water lotions and poultices, which fome- 

 times prove ufeful. 



After all, we muft acknowledge that white-fwellings, we 

 mean particularly the inftances accompanied with ulceration 

 of the cartilages, and difeafe of the heads of the bones, are 

 cafes which too generally baffle the utmoft fkill, and render 

 a formidable operation unavoidable. 



White Tail. See Motacilla C^nanthe. 

 White Tartar. See Tartar. 

 White Thorn. See Crat^gus. 



White Thorn, or Hawthorn. See Hedge, and Quick- 

 SKI-Hedge. 



White Thorn Layer, a term applied to fuch plants of 

 the white thorn kind as are laid down in hedges to grow, in 

 the operation of plafhing. Alfo to the young roots of this 

 thorn ufed in raifing this fort of hedges. See Plashikg 

 Hedges. 



WniTE-Throat, in Ornithology, the name of a fmall bird, 

 very common in our gardens and hedges, and feeming to 

 have been defcribed under the name oi fpipola by Aldro- 

 vandus and fome others, though moft approaching to the 

 Jicedula clafs. 



Its beak is black above, and whitifh below ; its feet of a 

 yellowifii -brown ; its neck and back are of a brownilh-grey ; 

 its head more grey than either, and the upper part of the 

 throat white, (he reft reddifh ; its breaft and belly are alfo 

 a little reddifh ; but iu the female, the breaft is perfeftly 

 white. The edges of the long wing-feathers are fome 

 whitifh and others brownifli, and the tail is variegated with 

 black and white, and fome grey or afh-colour intermixed. 

 It is extremely common in our gardens and orchards iiT 

 fummer, and feeds on flies, fpiders, and other infefts, but 

 leaves us in winter. It builds in bufhes, at a fmall height 

 from the ground, with ftubble and horfe-hair, and lays five 

 brownifh-green eggs, with black fpots. Its note is con- 

 tinually repeated, and often attended with odd motions of 

 the wings : it is harfh and difpleafing. This bird is fhy 

 and wild, and feems of a pugnacious difpofition. Ray and 

 Pennant. See Motacilla Sylvia. 



White Trefoil, in Agriculture, is faid, in the third volume 

 of the Effays of the Higldand Society of Scotland, to be a 

 humble but fweet plant, which delights in a dry found field, 

 properly cleaned and limed ; and is alone the delight of 

 fheep. But that a mixture of it, and of the feeds of rye 

 and rib grafs, conftitutes one of the beft fheep-paftures 

 that can be formed by the induftry of man. That this fort 

 of grafs is likewife perennial, and that it enriches inftead of 

 impoverilhing the foil or land. This has generally been 

 a F noticed 



