Edit page | Page history | Printable version

scrofula

(Science: medicine) A constitutional disease, generally hereditary, especially manifested by chronic enlargement and cheesy degeneration of the lymphatic glands, particularly those of the neck, and marked by a tendency to the development of chronic intractable inflammations of the skin, mucous membrane, bones, joints, and other parts, and by a diminution in the power of resistance to disease or injury and the capacity for recovery. Scrofula is now generally held to be tuberculous in character, and may develop into general or local tuberculosis (consumption).

Origin: L. Scrofulae, fr. Scrofa a breeding sow, because swine were supposed to be subject to such a complaint, or by a fanciful comparison of the glandular swellings to little pigs; perhaps akin to Gr. An old sow: cf. F. Scrofules. Cf. Scroyle.