ECCHYMOSIS, from εκχυειν, to pour out, or from εκ, out of, and χυμα, juice. It is an effusion of humours from their respective vessels, under the integuments; or, as Paulus Ægineta says, "When the flesh is bruised by the violent collision of any object, and its small veins broken, the blood is gradually discharged
from them." This blood, when collected under the skin, is called an ecchymosis, the skin in the mean time remaining entire; sometimes a tumour is formed by it, which is soft and livid, and generally without pain. If the quantity of blood is not considerable, it is usually resorbed; if much, it suppurates: it rarely happens that any further inconvenience follows; though, in case of a very bad habit of body, a mortification may be the result, and in such a case regard must be had thereto.