PURPURA

An eruption of small purple specks and patches, caused by extravasation of blood under the cuticle; it is generally attended by constitutional debility, and often by fever. Aperient medicines, and sometimes purgatives, carried to a greater or le extent, followed by mild tonics, and in some cases by wine, bark, and acids, are the principal remedies; but, "in the treatment, much will depend upon the concomitant symptoms. In Zoology, purpura is a generic name of the univalve Gasteroppd which secretes the purple fluid which formed the base of the Tyrian dye. [s. 1013]