A case of typhus or ship fever, with remarks / By Wm. Ingalls.

  • William Ingalls
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A case of typhus or ship fever, with remarks / By Wm. Ingalls. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/32 (page 10)
    Hence we must look to other sources for the origin of the epheme- ra, than to marsh miasma. These are chiefly exposure to atmos¬ pheric vicissitudes, a check of perspiration from “ catching cold,55 inordinate exercise, and unusual excitation of the system arising from the operation of the passions. Great mental excitation, from whatever cause, will produce the symptoms of ephemera, without any evidence of local inflammation, or any perceptible aberration of the mental faculties. A Case.—In the year 1819, a patient came under my care, who labored, as the sequel proved, under the symptoms of an ephemera. On inquiry, I found him under great mental excitement. Fora long series of years he had been very abstemious in his diet, and had abstained altogether from the use of fermented liquors and ardent spirits. He had been uniform in his hours of retiring to rest and rising in the morning. At the time, he had not suffered from atmospheric vicissitudes, or the influence of marsh miasma. On the morning prior to his delivering a discourse before a learned audience, circumstances, which were beyond his control, plainly in¬ dicated it was impossible to acquit himself with honor, or give satis¬ faction to his auditors. While contemplating this unpleasant pros¬ pect, the patient was attacked in the forenoon with an ague which lasted for half an hour. This was succeeded bv a flushed counte- nance ; great heat and an anxious attention to the progress of the disease. The natural firmness of the patient, and the confidence he reposed in his physician, enabled me to refrain from the employ¬ ment of any active remedy : rest and tranquillity of mind were how¬ ever strictly enjoined. During this period, the artery in the wrist was, to the superficial touch, round, hard, and full, but easily com¬ pressible. With the exception, if it can be termed as such, of the attention being diverted from the usual train of thought by watch¬ ing the progress of his symptoms, the functions of the sensorium were not in the slightest degree impaired* Between two and four o’clock the next morning, a diaphoresis, by no means profuse, en¬ sued, which was followed by a quiet slumber, from which at the usual time he awoke somewhat refreshed. The next day, in consultation with a physician, we came to the conclusion, if depletion by copious detraction of blood and the use of cathartics had been resorted to, a state of exhaustion would have been the result, from which the patient would not, in all probability ^ have recovered*