Spontaneous

A term applied to diseases which take place without external cause.

Sporadic

A general term for diseases arising from occasional causes, such as cold, fatigue, etc.

Sputum, Sputa

Any kind of expectoration.

Sterility

Barrenness. Impotence in the male; inability to conceive in the female.

Sternum

The breast bone.

Stethoscope

An instrument invented by Laennec, to assist the ear in examining the morbid sounds of the chest.

Stillicidium

A discharge of the urine drop by drop.

Stomachic

A medicine which stimulates and strengthens the powers of the stomach.

Stitch

A spasmodic action of the muscles of the side, accompanied by pain, produced by running, and other exertion.

Strangulation

The close constriction of a part. Thus, a hernia is said to be strangulated, when it is so tightly squeezed in the opening through which it has passed, that the bowels cannot act.

Strangury

Discharge of the urine with pain and by drops.

Stricture

A contracted state of some one of the tubes or ducts of the body.

Stupor

A state of insensibility.

Styptic

An astringent application for stopping haemorrhage.

Sudorifics

Medicines which occasion sweating.

Suppository

A medicinal body introduced into the bowel by the rectum.

Suppression

A stoppage of any secretion, etc.

Suppuration

The process by which pus or matter is formed.

Tabes

Wasting or melting; hence applied to consumption, and other wasting diseases.

Taxis

The operation of returning the bowel (in hernia) into the cavity of the abdomen, with the hand.

Tenesmus

Straining; painful and frequent urgency to go to stool, with evacuation of little but mucus.

Therapeutics

That branch of medicine which relates to the treatment of diseases.

Tormina

Griping; the pain which accompanies inflammation of the bowels and diarrhoea.

Torsion

Twisting: sometimes employed to secure arteries, and prevent haemorrhage.

Tourniquet

An instrument for checking the flow of blood, when an artery or arteries have been wounded.

Toxicology

An account of Poisons: their effects, etc.

Trachea - The windpipe.

Tracheotomy

The operation of making an opening into the windpipe.

Transfusion

The operation of transfusing the blood of one person into another.

Tremor

Trembling.

Tumefaction

A swelling.

Tumour

A swelling. Tumours are of various kinds, from a simple boil to a Cancer.

Turgescence

A state of congestion.

Tympany

Dry dropsy, or wind dropsy. An unnatural accumulation of wind in the abdomen, which distends it like a drum.

Valetudinarian

One who is weakly, sickly, or infirm of health.

Vertex

The top or crown of the head.

Vertigo

Giddiness; dizziness, with a fear of falling.

Vesicants

Substances that raise blisters.

Vesication

Blistering.

Vicarious

In the place of another: as where one secretion replaces another.

Voluntary

Applied to muscles which act in obedience to the will.

Vulnerary

A medicine useful for healing wounds.

Whitlow

A Felon; an inflammation at the end of one of the fingers.

Zymotic

A term applied to those diseases which seem to be occasioned by a virus or poison, which is diffused through the frame, and operates upon it like leaven.