a. [ad. L. strūmōsus: see STRUMA and -OUS.]
1. Affected with struma; characteristic of or indicative of a scrofulous disposition.
1590. P. Barrough, Meth. Phys., V. xxiv. (1634), 335. King Edward also … was wont marvellously to cure Strumous persons onely by touching them.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, April 1646. The men using more wine are not so strumous as the women.
1802. Med. Jrnl., VIII. 105. The brain I have given a description of was strumous.
1822. Miss L. M. Hawkins, Anecd., I. 303. He had a pale strumous countenance.
1822–9. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 3), I. 471. The first variety occurs … in strumous or other weakly constitutions.
1867. J. Hogg, Microsc., II. i. (ed. 6), 298. With yeast already in a state of exhaustion, we have seen a crop of fungus produced in the head of a strumous boy.
1872. J. C. Jeaffreson, Woman in spite of Herself, I. vi. The son came in the form of a feeble, nervous, ricketty, strumous child.
1875. B. Meadows, Clin. Observ., 67. A young lady, of strumous habit.
absol. 1891. Sat. Rev., 498. When Shakespeare spoke of holding the mirror up to Nature, he surely did not mean so holding it that it reflected only the base and strumous.
2. Of the nature of or caused by struma.
1590. P. Barrough, Meth. Phys., V. xxiv. (1634), 333. Now these strumous tumours are greatly helped by using purging medicines.
1676. Wiseman, Surg. Treat., IV. ii. 249. The similitude will hold good of our Strumous Acidity. Ibid., IV. iv. 298. He had a strumous Ulcer on the outside of his Ancle.
1748. trans. Vegetius’ Distempers of Horses, 160. Strumous Botches … or scrophulous Disorders infest the Throats of Horses.
1802. W. Heberden, Comm. Hist. & Cure Disease (1806), 139. This disorder arises from a strumous swelling of the glands.
1859. J. Tomes, Dental Surg., 71. The subject—a male—from which the maxillæ were taken, died exhausted by strumous abscesses when he was said to be six years old.
1878. W. J. Walsham, Handbk. Surg. Pathol., 41. Strumous ostitis is merely inflammation of bone occurring in an unhealthy or so-called ‘strumous’ subject.
1895. W. W. Cheyne, Tuberc. Dis. Bones & Joints, 18. In describing the morbid anatomy of tubercular diseases of bones and joints, I therefore describe the morbid anatomy of those affections known up till recently as ‘strumous diseases.’
3. Nat. Hist. Having a natural protuberance on some part of the body. Strumous Lizard (see quot.).
1802. Shaw, Gen. Zool., III. 224. Strumous Lizard. Lacerta Strumosa…. Lizard with long round tail, and gibbose projecting breast…. It is a native … of South America.
1846. Dana, Zooph. (1848), 602. Anthelia strumosa. (Ehrenberg.) … Glaucous; polyps inflated below the mouth, strumous.
Hence Strumousness, the state or quality of being strumous.
1883. Ogilvie.
