Ulcer

(ül's ur.) [ Lat. ul cus.] (Med.) A purulent solution of continuity, in any of the soft parts of the body, attended with a secretion of pus, or some kind of discharge. Ulcers arise from a variety of causes, the immediate cause, however, being usually perverted nutrition; the formative cells losing their plastic power. They are variously denominated; as fistulous, gangrenous, cancerous, scrofulous, carious, . The treatment consists in removing, by appropriate means, the internal and the local causes which keep up the ulceration, and in exciting the ve els of the part, where nece ary, by appropriate bandaging, . [s. 916]