Carbuncle
Carbuncle names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Carbuncle in surgery, an inflammation of the true skin and
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
Important: Safety Warning
This page gives first-aid or emergency advice that predates modern medicine and can make an emergency worse. Do not follow it. In any medical emergency, call emergency services and follow current first-aid guidance.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
in surgery, an inflammation of the true skin and tissue beneath it akin to that occurring in boils. It is more extensive than the latter, and instead of one has several cores. It is associated with a bad state of general health, from which condition its danger arises, for it may threaten life by exhaustion or blood poisoning. With regard to the local treatment, the principal thing to be done is to make a free incision into the tumor; as much of the contents as possible should then be pressed out, and a poultice applied. The patient's strength should be supported by nourishing and easily digested food, and tonics should be administered. CARBURETOR. See MOTOR VEHICLE.
Carbuncle The ancients supposed this stone to give out a native light without reflection
An Encyclopaedia of Occultism (1920)
The ancients supposed this stone to give out a native light without reflection, and they ranked it fifth in order after diamonds, emeralds, opals, and pearls. It is among the gems ruled by the sun, and is both male and female-the former distinguished by the brightness which appears as if burning within it, while the latter throws it out. It takes no colour from any other gem applied to it, but imparts its own. The virtue of the carbuncle is to drive away poisonous air, repress luxury, and preserve the health of the body. It also reconciles differences among friends.
Carbuncle a beautiful gem of a deep-red color with a mixture of scarlet
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a beautiful gem of a deep-red color with a mixture of scarlet, found in the East Indies. When held up to the sun it loses its deep tinge, and becomes exactly the color of a burning coal.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's in 1921 could offer only free incision, a poultice, "nourishing and easily digested food" and tonics for a carbuncle, and warned honestly that it might kill by exhaustion or blood poisoning ate was real. We now know the cause is Staphylococcus aureus; since penicillin came into general use in the 1940s the infection has been routinely curable, though drainage of the abscess remains part of treatment and drug-resistant strains such as MRSA have made antibiotic choice a live question. On the gem side, Collier's "deep-red color with a mixture of scarlet" is no longer a mineral name at all: carbuncle is now understood as a cabochon-cut red garnet, usually almandine, and the word survives mainly in older jewellery and heraldry. The Encyclopaedia of Occultism's account of a stone that emits its own light and "reconciles differences among friends" was already reported in 1920 as ancient belief, and is read that way still.
Written for this edition, 2026.