Excerpt from Philadelphia Medical Times, Vol. 8: A Bi-Weekly Journal of Medical and Surgical Science; April 13, 1878 Varicocele is, as you know, an enlarge ment of the spermatic veins. How is her nia to be distinguished from varicocele? (i) Varicocele occurs almost always (in 999 cases out of 1000) on the left side; hernia may be present on either side. (2) When you take hold of a varicocele you find, not a smooth and elastic, not even a doughy feel, but it is as if you had taken hold of a bundle of knotted skeins. A hernia is a smooth and elastic mass. (3) Let the patient take the recumbent position. Both hernia and varicocele would spontaneously disappear. But now press your finger on the external abdom inal ring, and let the patient stand up again and cough. Varicocele will descend again, but not hernia. So much for the special symptoms of inguinal hernia. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.