The results of the influenza epidemic of 1891-92, as seen in the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh / by A. Lockhart Gillespie.

Date:
[1892?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The results of the influenza epidemic of 1891-92, as seen in the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh / by A. Lockhart Gillespie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    rapidly, and it was supposed that its presence was due to some vasomotor disturbance of the adjoining blood-vessels. Two patients developed acute pericarditis, one with severe diarrhoea at the same time. A male patient, with a very liigh temperature, passed a large quantity of blood in Iiis urine for two days. He recovered speedily. Two male and two female patients exhibited marked post- influenzal debility. 1/ Patients attacked while in Hospital. Only 54 cases were reported to have occurred among patients already in the medical house suffering from other complaints. Of these, 5, or 9'25 per cent., died. The distribution of the different types was as follows:— vSimple, Males. 6 Females. 6 Total. 12 Arthritic, . 13 6 19 Respiratory, . 5 6 11 Anomalous, . 7 5 12 The lieight of the temperature was recorded in 42 cases. It did not rise above 100° Fahr. in 5, above 101° in 5, nor above 102° in 6. In 17 it lay between 102°—103°, in 8 between 103°—104°, and in 1 case it rose above 105°. The fever lasted on an average for ten days, but in 2 the temperature fell after twenty-four hours, in 1 after forty-eight ] lours, in 7 after three days, and in 6 after four days. Of the individual cases belonging to the first two types, nothing need be said. Of the third, 2 developed lobar pneumonia, the rest bronchitis. Some peculiar effects of the influenza poison were noticed among the last class. On 6th November, a female patient, ffi*t. 20, who was suffering from both diabetes mellitus and exophthalmic goitre, became worse, her temperature rose to 102°*2, and she com- plained of great pain in tlie liead. The sugar in her urine increased largely in amount, she developed diabetic dyspnoea, and died on the fourth day of the attack. On post-mortem.