The mole, too, is a scirrhous tumour, forming sometimes at the mouth and
sometimes in the body of the womb, conveying to the touch the sensation
of stone, and being attended with retraction of the parts above, and
emaciation, paleness, loss of appetite, retention of the menses, and
swelling of the breasts, so as in certain cases to raise suspicions at
first of a conception; but in process of time the true nature of the
complaint is developed. Sometimes also it raises suspicions of dropsy,
from which it is to be distinguished by the hardness of the swelling,
and from there being no sound of water when tapped by the fingers, as
is the case in dropsy. In certain cases, however, the disease actually
terminates in dropsy, which for the most part proves incurable. In some
cases, it also brings on a discharge of blood. In general, therefore, it
is proper that the patients should lie in a small, dark, and moderately
cool house, upon a firm couch, with their feet raised, and in a state of
quietude; for motion provokes discharges of every kind. And the swelling
and hardness are to be cured by the remedies which we have mentioned
for scirrhus and scleroma of the uterus; dropsical effusions by those
recommended for dropsy; and hemorrhages by those for the flux. Some call
by the name of mole an unorganized mass of flesh which forms on the coats
of the womb, and is delivered like the fœtus. This species is to be
managed by a relaxing treatment, so as to be speedily discharged.
* * * * *
COMMENTARY. By the first species of mole, fibrous tumour of the ovaria
and perhaps also scirrhus of the neck of the womb are meant to be
described. The other species is now well understood, and is described
by many ancient authors. See an account of it at the end of Aristotle’s
‘History of Animals;’ also Pliny (H. N. vii, 15, and x, 64); Hippocrates
(de Steril. xx); Plutarch (t. i, 252, ed. Xylander); Nonnus (212); Rhases
(ad Mansor. ix, 88; Cont. xxii); Moschion (de Morb. Mul. 125); Actuarius
(Meth. Med. i, 56.) Galen and Avicenna agree in representing the true
mole as a corruption of the male semen, and consequently they believed
that it never occurs in virgins. Hanneman and other modern authorities
maintain the contrary. See ‘Dissertations on the Mole’ by Van Swieten
(Comment. 1326), by Ambrose Paré (de Hom. Genit. xxxiii), by Martinus
Akakia (ap. Gynæc. 773), by Lodovicus Mercatus (ap. Gynæc. 1013), by
Leonardus Jacchinus (Comment. in Rhasis, ix, 71), and by Ruysch (Anat.
Chirurg. Cent.)
Aëtius gives an account of the former species, but it is little different
from our author’s. He recommends, in the first place, emollient
applications of all kinds, namely, baths, pessaries, and fumigations, and
afterwards dropaces, sinapisms, and the like. The same plan of treatment
is pursued by Avicenna. Haly Abbas and Alsaharavius describe the two
species of mole in exactly the same terms as our author. Rhases also
describes the two species of mole, namely, the one which is hard and
round, and the other or soft species to which the name is now generally
restricted.
Hippocrates relates a curious case of a calculus which was discharged
from the uterus of a woman sixty years old, who had long felt pain in
that region _dum venere uteretur_. Aëtius also makes mention of the
uterine calculus. Lodovicus Mercatus gives a curious account of this
subject (Gynæc. 969.) Michaelis Angelus Morus relates a singular case of
a woman who died of uterine calculi. (Mangeti Bibl. Chirurg. xviii.)