THE Parotides borrow their Names from the Glands affected, which grow behind the Ears; but these Tumours are not to be distinguished from others but by their Situation, and therefore require not any particular Description here, so that amongst many Instances I shall give but one to discover their Nature; In a certain Youth there arose a Parotis on each Side, behind the Ears, which after Suppuration and Incision, let out great Quantities of Pus, and were afterwards by a Surgeon healed up; but the musculous Flesh was at this Time so wasted, as to discover a Sight as pleasant as strange, viz. the external jugular Veins, with the Arteries under them, the recurrent Nerves, the Tendons, the OEsophagus, and in short all the Vessels quite bare and untouched; but upon the Patient’s Recovery all filled up as before with new Flesh.
A Conjecture of Diemebrooeck comes here in our Way to examine; he will have it that Buboes are produced from an Ebullition
of a saline and an acid Humour meeting together, like a Mixture of Salt of Tartar and Spirit of Vitriol: But whence can such a vast Coagulation arise? Indeed I do not deny but that a Tumult and Bustle may be occasioned by the Concourse of such Principles, as also that from such a Colluctation some saline Particles may be precipitated; and it must further be allowed, that a Part will inflate and swell while such Fermentation continues; but yet I cannot apprehend how Pus can be generated by such Means; for by an Effusion of such a Mixture the Serum would be more changed into a Lixivium, than a purulent Matter; after the Conflict likewise is over, the Tumour would immediately subside and vanish; but, on the contrary, Buboes daily and gradually come to their Height of Suppuration: But I shall not detain the Reader on this Head any longer, but proceed to a Description of a Carbuncle.
A Carbuncle then is a small Eruption, whose Contents are soon discharged, after which it appears in a crusty Tubercle about the Bigness of a Millet Seed, gradually spreading, and encompassed with a very red
and fiery Circle; arising first of all from an ichorous Humour, afterwards with great Pain and Heat, from a lixivious and caustick Poison.
THAT I may dispatch as much as possible in a few Words, it now lies before me to describe the common Method of its Eruption; in the Beginning is a sharp pricking Pain upon the Part affected, which in a little Time grows very hot, and then lifts up the Cuticle into a Blister, containing a thin Ichor; but after the Vesicle is by rubbing or any other Accident broke, and the contained Fluid by Heat dissipated, its caustick Quality leaves an Eschar behind, which crusts over, in some sooner, and in others later; its Extension is various, sometimes more broad, and at others more contracted; nor is its Colour more certain; in the greatest Degree of Inflammation it is extreamly red, but for the most Part it is dusky, very often livid, and sometimes, from the peculiar Virulence of the pestilential Poison, even quite black.
BUT as there is a Quality in the pestilential Venom not yielding even to an actual Cautery, and from which in the
Production of Carbuncles Eschars are generated, I take it to be of Consequence to know how such a sharp, burning, and caustick Humour comes to be bred in an humane Body; and by what Contrivance of Nature it comes to be thus separated and thrown out?
AND in an Affair of this Difficulty, I expect to be candidly set right by any one who thinks me mistaken. The whole Tribe of Diseases an humane Constitution is subject to, does undeniably prove that our Bodies are capable of producing many venomous Taints, even equal to any Thing in the Air or the Earth; nay, the Histories of Physick give many Instances of poisonous Insects and Animals bred within us; and no one can be ignorant, that besides the Disposition of corrupted Humours within us to generate such Creatures, that their Semina are often brought to us from without: And this is very manifest in a private Pestilence, (if that Term may be allowed me) where, without any Help from external Contagion, not only a poisonous Seminium may be generated, but Carbuncles also may break out; that is, from the peculiar
caustick Quality of saline Particles in the Body.