the WHITLOW, in surgery, is an abscess at the end of the fingers. According as it is situated more or less deep, it is differently denominated, and divided into species.

It begins with a slow heavy pain, attended with a slight pulsation, without swelling, redness, or heat; but soon the pain, heat, and throbbing, are intolerable; the part grows large and red, the adjoining fingers and the whole hand swell up; in some cases, a kind of red and inflated streak may be observed, which beginning at the affected part, is continued almost to the elbow; nor is it unusual for the patient to complain of a very sharp pain under the shoulder, and sometimes the whole arm is excessively inflamed and swollen; the patient cannot sleep, the fever, &c., increasing; and sometimes delirium or convulsions follow.

1. When it is seated in the skin or fat, in the back or the fore part of the finger, or under or near the nail, the pain is severe, but ends well. 2. When the periosteum is inflamed or corroded, the pain is tormenting. 3. When the nervous coats of the flexor tendons of the fingers or nerves near them are seized, the worst symptoms attend. If the first kind suppurates, it must be opened, and treated as abscesses in general; but the best method of treating the other two species is, on the first, or at furthest the second day, to cut the part where the pain is seated quite to the bone: if this operation is longer deferred, a suppuration will come on; in which case suppuration should be speedily promoted, and as early a discharge given to the matter as possible. As the pain is so considerable as to occasion a fever, and sometimes convulsions, the tincture, &c., may be added to the suppurating applications, and also given in a draught at bed time. The second species proves very troublesome, and sometimes ends in a caries of the subjacent bone. The third species is very tedious in the cure, and usually the phalanx on which it is seated is destroyed.