Wart

“ When a wart-hog is at home, he lives down a hole. Of course it has to be a particularly large hole. He turns around and backs down it. No more peculiar sight can be imagined than the sardonically toothsome countenance of a wart-hog fading slowly in the dimness of a deep burrow, a good deal like Alice's Cheshire Cat. ”

“ WART (Lat. verruca) , a papillary excrescence of the skin, or mucous membrane. The ordinary flat warts of the skin occur mostly upon the hands of children and young persons; a long pendulous variety occurs about the chin or neck of delicate children, and on the scalp in adults. Warts are apt to come out in numbers at a time; a crop of them suddenly appears, to disappear after a time with equal suddenness. Hence the supposed efficacy of charms. A single wart will sometimes remain when the general eruption has vanished. The liability of crops of warts runs in families. ”

“ A wart consists of a delicate framework of blood-vessels supported by fibrous tissue, with a covering of epidermic scales. When the wart is young, the surface is rounded; as it gets rubbed it is cleft into projecting points. ”

“ The wart is a form of human trouble which appears to have been at all times and in all countries a special subject of charms, both in connection with wells and with pins. Where a well of the requisite virtue is not conveniently near, the favourite form of charm for wart-curing is in connection with the wasting away of some selected object. Having first been pricked into the wart, the pin is then thrust into the selected object—in Gloucestershire it is a snail—and then the object is buried or impaled on a blackthorn in a hedge, and as it perishes the wart will disappear. ”

“ Rub saliva on the wart, tie a string around the hand so that the knot comes on the wart. Take off the string and hide in a hollow stump.
Southern Indiana.
927. Kill a toad, and put its blood on the wart. The warts will go away in three weeks.
Marquette, Mich.
928. Warts are cured by tying a knot in a string for every wart, and putting under the eaves of the house. The warts go as the string rots.
Ohio.
929. Warts may be cured by applying to them water standing in the hollow of an oaken stump.
Boxford, Mass., and Ohio. [106]
CHAPTER XIV. WEATHER
COLD.
930. ”

“ Anatomically, a wart consists of a connective-tissue growth as a basis, with papillary and slight epidermic hypertrophy, the interior of the growth containing vascular loops. In the acuminated or venereal wart there is considerable connective-tissue growth, the papillæ being markedly enlarged, the cells of the mucous layer highly developed, and the vascular supply abundant.
There is rarely any difficulty in the diagnosis, as the formations are well known and their characters pronounced. Prognosis is favorable; as a rule, the growths respond rapidly to treatment ”

“ No, sir, you can bet he didn’t, becuz he’s the wartiest boy in this town; and he wouldn’t have a wart on him if he’d knowed how to work spunk-water. I’ve took off thousands of warts off of my hands that way, Huck. I play with frogs so much that I’ve always got considerable many warts. ”

“ Verruca, ve-rū′ka, n. a wart, a glandular elevation: one of the wart-like sessile apothecia of some lichens.—adjs. Verrū′ciform, warty; Ver′rūcose, Ver′rūcous, covered with little knobs or wart-like prominences: warty; Verrū′culose, minutely verrucose. [L. verruca, a wart.]
Verrugas, ve-rōō′gas, n. an endemic disease of Peru, characterised by warty tumours on the skin. [Sp.,—L. verruca, a wart.] ”

“ When it is running away from a pursuer, and wishes to see whether it is gaining upon him, the wart-hog presents a most ridiculous appearance, for its neck is so short that it cannot turn its head round to look behind it. ”

“ Northern Ohio. [101]
CHAPTER XIII. WARTS.
CAUSES.
872. Blood from the warts on a cow’s bag coming in contact with a person’s hands will cause warts to appear on them.
New Hampshire.
873. Blood from a wart, especially if applied to the tongue, will cause warts to appear.
New Jersey.
874. To count another person’s warts will cause them to appear on you.
General in the United States.
875. If one counts stars while lying on his back, he will have as many warts as he has counted stars.
New York and Trenton, N. J.
876. To drink the water in which eggs have been boiled will cause internal warts. ”

“ Wart, wawrt, n. a small, hard excrescence on the skin: a protuberance on trees.—adj. Wart′ed.—n. Wart′-hog, a kind of hog found in Africa, having a very large head and the cheeks furnished with large wart-like excrescences.—adj. Wart′less.—ns. Wart′weed, the sun-spurge; Wart′wort, a common name for certain lichens having a warty thallus: the wart-cress or swine-cress, the cud-weed.—adj. Wart′y, like a wart: overgrown with warts. [A.S. wearte; Ger. warze; prob. allied to L. verruca.] ”

“ Every wart has a crimson speck on its summit; and as these are small and numerous, they impart a general red hue to the whole body. The tentacles are not numerous, and are chiefly marginal; they are pale pellucid-yellowish in one variety, and in another lovely rose-colour, but in either condition are studded with transversely-oval specks of opaque white; these organs are usually much spread horizontally, with their tips often curled inward. Another remarkable peculiarity of this species, is the degree to which it becomes transparent, by distension with water. ”

“ Then rub the part thoroughly over with lunar caustic, and one effective operation of this kind will generally destroy the wart; if not, you cut off the black spot which has been occasioned by the caustic, and apply it again; or you may apply acetic acid, and thus you will get rid of it. Care must be taken in applying these acids, not to rub them on the skin around the wart.
WENS.—Take the yoke of some eggs, beat up, and add as much fine salt as will dissolve, and apply a plaster to the wen every ten hours. It cures without pain or any other inconvenience. ”

“ Spenser alludes to spitting on a person for luck, and I have experienced the ceremony myself.
H.
Charm for Warts.—I remember in Leicestershire seeing the following charm employed for removal of a number of warts on my brother, then a child about five years old. In the month of April or May he was taken to an ash-tree by a lady, who carried also a paper of fresh pins; one of these was first struck through the bark, and then pressed through the wart until it produced pain: it was then taken out and stuck into the tree. Each wart was thus treated, a separate pin being used for each. ”

“ Light a match or taper and apply the flame for a second, till you feel a sting, to the top of each wart, for 3 days in succession, when a watery blister will form round each wart, which you must burst, and throw all the warts away, which will be found to be quite loose, causing no pain; they will never return again, and no trace of them will be left after a short time. ”

“ To cure Warts, the following charm is used:—A wedding-ring is procured, and the wart touched or pricked with a gooseberry thorn through the ring.
To cure Epilepsy, take three drops of sow's milk.
To cure Blisters in a cow's mouth, cut the blisters; then slit the upper part of the tail, insert a clove of garlic, and tie a piece of red cloth round the wound. ”

“ Warts are more common on the hands than anywhere else. Of their cause we know but little. Irritation sometimes causes them, and they are to a certain extent infectious from place to place. We used to be taught that lady-birds produced or cured them, according to which version of the story we heard. There is about an equal amount of truth in each doctrine.
The best way to treat warts is to first soak the hand in hot water, and clean it thoroughly with soap. Then paint the skin surrounding the wart with vaseline, and drop on to the wart itself one drop of glacial acetic acid. ”

“ The formation may be the size of a small pea, or may attain the dimensions of a fist.
What is the cause of warts?
The etiology is not known. They are more common in adolescent and early adult life. Irritating secretions are thought to be causative in the acuminated variety. It is highly probable that a parasitic factor will finally be demonstrated. They are doubtless mildly contagious.
Fig. 33.
Verruca Acuminata—about the anus. (After Ashton.)
State the pathology of warts.
A wart consists of both epidermic and papillary hypertrophy, the interior of the growth containing a vascular loop. ”

“ In after life a wart on the hands or fingers is usually brought on by some irritation, often repeated, even if it be slight. Warts often occur on the wrists and knuckles of slaughter-house men and of those much occupied with anatomical dissection ”

“ So saying, he bowed with great solemnity all round, and retired to his own lodgings, where he applied a caustic to the wart; but it spread in such a manner as to produce a considerable inflammation, attended with an enormous swelling ”

“ As for Stones of Healing, with qualities resembling those abiding in certain wells, they appear in many shapes. Now it is a maenhir, against which the afflicted peasant must rub himself; now it is a pebble which he must carry in his pocket. The inevitable wart reappears in this connection; the stone which cures the wart is found by the roadside, wrapped in a bit of paper, and dropped on a cross-road; to him who picks it up the wart is transferred. Children in Pembrokeshire will not at the present day pick up a small parcel on a cross-road, suspecting the presence of the wart-bearing stone. ”

“ Chimney-sweeps and workers in coal-tar, petroleum, &c., are subject to warts, which often become cancerous. Warts occur singly in later life on the nose or lips or other parts of the face, sometimes on the tongue; they are very apt to become malignant. ”

“ For Uncle says that will do, and as the beef rots, so the warts will waste away.”
“Daniel,” said the Father, “those can be no lawful charms that begin with stealing; I could tell thee how to cure thy warts in a better manner. ”

“ The virtues and properties attributed to saliva among various peoples have been numerous and exalted. To lick a wart on rising in the morning used to be one of its well-recognized cures, and is to-day a popular remedy for any slight wound. ”

“ You must not let the vaseline get on the wart. It is painted on the skin to prevent the caustics applied to the wart from injuring the adjacent skin. Now drop one drop of glacial acetic acid on to the wart; leave it one minute, and then rub the wart thoroughly with a stick of lunar caustic. This treatment may need to be repeated, but it rarely fails if properly done. Solvine is also of value in removing warts. Warts are frequently due to irritation of the skin, and are undoubtedly locally infective. ”

“ After the wart is removed, cauterize the cut surface with a hot iron. Caustic Potash or Silver Nitrate should be applied two or three times at the intervals of two or three days to insure the entire extermination of the wart. This treatment applies to all classes of warts located in various places. ”

“ Wart or warty growths are to be differentiated by attention to their history and course. Long-continued observation may be necessary before a positive opinion is warrantable. The appearance of any tendency to crusting, to break down or ulcerate is significant of epitheliomatous degeneration. ”

“ Although for some years the unremitting labour of experts has been devoted to the investigation of Wart Disease, and innumerable experiments have been undertaken, no effectual remedy has yet been discovered. ”

“ Morbid Outgrowths on the Genital Organs.
σαρκώδη βλαστήματα, verrucae. (fleshy outgrowths, warty excrescences) .
The general name θύμος (thymus,—warty excrescence) , or according to Celsus perhaps more correctly θύμιον (small warty excrescence) , appears to have been used by the Greeks to designate all morbid outgrowths, and particularly those of the genitals and fundament, while they appropriated the expressions σῦκος, ἀκροχορδὸν, and μυρμήκια (fig or figlike excrescence, wart with a neck, wart growing directly on the skin) to signify the different subordinate species. ”

“ And then the warts will go away from me, and come upon the hands of the person that picks up the beans.”
“Nay boy,” the Father made answer; “that charm was never taught by a white witch! If thy warts are a trouble to thee, they would be a trouble to any one else; and to get rid of an evil from ourselves Daniel, by bringing it upon another, is against our duty to our neighbour. ”

“ I inquired whether her child had any marks by which he could be recognised. She answered, that she made most particular inquiries of the people who attended her, and that one of the women had stated that the child had a large wart upon the back of its neck: this however was not likely to remain, and she had abandoned all hopes of its discovery.
I observed that warts were easily removed when contracted accidentally, but that those which appeared at the birth were no more to be removed than moles. I then turned the conversation, by stating that I could not consider her conduct criminal ”

“ A lady at Andreas has a still simpler method of getting rid of warts. She rubs a snail on the warts, and then places the snail on one of the points of a blackthorn, and, in fact, leaves the snail to die, transfixed by the thorn; and as the snail dies, the warts disappear. ”

“ Charm for Asthma.
Place the Bible for three successive nights under the bolster of the sufferer, and it will cure him.
Charms for Warts.
1. Drop a pin into a holy well and your warts will disappear, but should anyone take the pin out of the well, the warts you have lost will grow on his fingers. ”