The yellow fever epidemic of 1878 in Memphis, Tenn. : embracing a complete list of the dead, the names of the doctors and nurses employed, names of all who contributed money or means, and the names and history of the Howards, together with other data, and lists of the dead elsewhere / by J.M. Keating.
- Keating, John McLeod, 1830-1906
- Date:
- 1879
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The yellow fever epidemic of 1878 in Memphis, Tenn. : embracing a complete list of the dead, the names of the doctors and nurses employed, names of all who contributed money or means, and the names and history of the Howards, together with other data, and lists of the dead elsewhere / by J.M. Keating. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![always albumen, the amount, however, varying very much. There were also granular casts. The amount of albumen and casts was in proportion to tlie severity of the disease, and furnished a valuable aid in prognosis. Vibrios and bacteria were found in the breath and the blood. Tiie i)ro})ortion of white blood-corpuscles was increased. Black vomit occurred in half the cases, and did not prove so very unflivorable a symptom, as a third of those thus affected got well. There were meltenic stools, as usual. A hemorrhagic tendency was constant, but was easily controlled by a spray of IMonsel's solution. The blood oozed from tlie month, eyes, nose, ears, etc. Just before death, the tempera- ture generally fell to 97°. After death it gradually rose, sometimes to 106^ in the axilla, the body remaining warm for twelve hours. The average dura- tion of the disease was four days. Very careful post-mortem examinations were made, the kidneys and liver giving the most uniform lesions. The stomach showed no erosions, congestion, or catarrh. The hemorrhages from it were passive ones. The liver was enlarged, and generally of some shade of yellow. The microscope showed more or less fatty infiltration and fatty de- generation, with occasionally increase of connective tissue. The kidneys always showed, under the microscope, the tubules choked with finely granular dibris and epithelium, or in other places empty and denuded of epithelium. There were no important changes in the other organs. The treatment consisted in at once exerting the emunctories to action, esj)ecially the skin and kidneys. The patient was then kept cinchonized, and the various symptoms com- bated as they arose. The cases brought to the hospital were uniformly bad ones, the disease generally being in the second stage when they Avere received. The patients liad previousl}' suffered from neglect and exposure, and the mortality therefore of thirty-one is not considered high. None of the physicians, attendants, or visitors at the hospital caught the disease^ although no especial pains were taken in the Avay of protection and disinfec- tion. Dr. Chopin, President of the New Orleans Board of Health, in his instruc- tions to the people of that city, at the outbreak of the late epidemic, says of the yellow fever, that its onset is more apt to be sudden and violent than that of the other fevers which prevail here, and more apt to occur at night. Frequently, but not invariably, a chill precedes the fever. There is violent pain in the forehead at the beginning, soon followed by severe pain in the lower part of the back. The eyes are red and glistening. Any individual affected as above described, should immediately go home, go to bed, and send for a physician without delay. Without waiting for his arrival, a hot foot- bath should be taken, and ])erspiration eneournged by Avarm drinks and a moderate cover in bed. If there should be any delay in the arrival of the physician, a simple purgative should be tnken; and, if the attack comes on soon after eating, an emetic of ipecnc or mu'^tard would be advisable. Prompt treatment is of the utmost importance in this disense; and it should be under- stood that persons ought not to walk nbout after falling sick, nor get up at all after once going to bed, until the attack is over. Dr. AVilliam H. Fall, of Cincinnati, gives his method of treatment as fol-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20394858_0066.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
