(From articulus, and pus). This word is variously used. Dr. Aitkin, in his Elements of Surgery, calls inflammation of a joint phlegmone articuli. By this name, in another part of the same work, he means an abscess in a joint; and, in a third place, uses it as synonymous with inflammation in the loins, particularly in the cellular membrane lying under the psoas muscle.

In Dr. Cullen's System it is a genus of pyrexiae, of the order phlegmasia; and its synonyms are the lumbago psoadica, lumbago apostematosa, lumbago ab arthrocace, ischias ex abscessu, and morbus coxarius. In this disease, he says, there are pains in the joint or the muscular parts, which happen often after bruises; they are deep, dull, of long continuance; the swelling is either slight, or but little diffused; no inflammation; the fever at first is gentle, but at last hectic; and the part at length suppurates. See Abscessus dorsi et lumborum, and Ischiaticus, under Abscessus; also Psoas. Bell's Surgery, vol. v. 419. Kirkland's Med. Surgery, vol. i. p. 427.