The practice of medicine, according to the plan most approved by the Reformed or Botanic Colleges of the U. S : embracing a treatise on materia medica and pharmacy ; illustrated with numerous engravings ; designed principally for families / by J. Kost.

Kost, J., 1819-1904.

Date:: 1847

Credit: The practice of medicine, according to the plan most approved by the Reformed or Botanic Colleges of the U. S : embracing a treatise on materia medica and pharmacy ; illustrated with numerous engravings ; designed principally for families / by J. Kost. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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$in the pit of the stomach, want of appetite, slight giddiness and nans a, pale, shrunk, and dejected countenance, dull and heavy eyes, often tremor of the hands, and a general feeling of weariness, debility, and disinclination to mental and cor- poral action. These premonitory symptoms usually continue from thre » to six days, terminating in those which mark the stage of invasion,—viz; slight chills, alternating with flushes of heat; an entire disgust for every kind of food; tongue cov- ered with a thick whitish fur; considerable nausea, and some- tim s vomiting; a quick, small, and irregular pulse; a confus- ed and heavy sensation in the head, and increased mental and physical d pression. This stage generally occupies from six to twelve hours, and terminates in the stage of excitement. The febrile heat now increases considerably, the face is slight- ly flushed, the pulse rises in strength and fulness; the skin be- comes dry, and th) lips parched: there is a consid rablc thirst for cool drinks, the tongue becomes more furred and slimy, the bowels ar \ usually torpid, the mind is mor3 confused, the pa- tient fretful, r stless, and watchful, with an anxious expres- sion of the countenance; the urine is small in quantity and reddish, the head fe Is heavy, much confused and vertiginous; during the first two days of this stage, occasional manifesta- tions of slight delirium occur during th? night. About the end of th: second or during th^ third day of this stage, slight catarrhal symptoms usually supervene, such as suffused and injected yes, moderat ly inflamed fauces, somewhat painful deglutition, more or less oppression in th? chest attended, gen- erally, with a short dry cough. There is often some tension and tenderness in the hypochondrium, [side of the stomach,] especially the right one. Pains in the back, loins, and extremities, are rarely absent in this stage, and in most cases a g neral soreness is experi- enced throughout the whole body. Towards the close of the third day cf th i stag i of excit mient, there is usually much gid- diness and sensorial obtuseness [dullness]} resent; the patient appearing, even at this early period of the disease, as if under the influence of some narcotic. The c :r bral functions now become more and more disturbed, hearing becomes obtuse, delirium more frequent and considerable, and the general tor- por gradually increases. Hildebrand asserts that a peculiar milliary exanthema [eruption] occurs on the surface about the fourth day of this stage, which he considers essential to the perfect and regular dev lopement of the disease. The same observation is made by Hartman. One of the most striking characteristic phenomena in typhus,is the almost insurmoun- table aversion to corporeal and intellectual exertion manifes-$