Some account of the last yellow fever epidemic of British Guiana / by Daniel Blair ; edited by John Davy.

Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some account of the last yellow fever epidemic of British Guiana / by Daniel Blair ; edited by John Davy. 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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    The few following cases give a connected view of the contents of stomach and alimentary canal:— Case 2804. One quart of black vomit in stomach, with a few grains of barley. Fluid like tar in duodenum and jejunum ; scanty yellow mucus in lower part of ileum 5 in caecum and ascending and trans- verse colon, grey mucus; in rectum, deep brown and crimson mucus. 2806. Black vomit in stomach ; yellow mucus, becoming paler towards lower part, in small intestines ; dark green feculent mucus in colon and rectum. 2811. Bloody black vomit in stomach ; light coloured mucus in small intestines ; bloody black matter in large intestines. 2816. Black vomit in stomach; black vomit and green mucus in duodenum and upper part of jejunum ; lighter coloured in lower part of jejunum ; a little yellowish mucus in an otherwise empty ileum ; greenish black mucus in caecum ; greyish fasces in colon and rectum. Cases. Liver:— recorded as natural - - _ _ . - 3 recent adhesions of peritoneum and diaphragm * - - 1 „ „ diaphragm - - - 1 ,, enlargement of - - - . - 20 enlargement of right lobe of - - - - - 4 unusually small - - - - - - 4 remarkably elastic - - - _ - 4 flabby and elastic - - - - . 1 friable - - - - - - - 17 much softened f - - - - - - 2 hard and grating - 1 after death from yellow fever are mainly referable to deficiency or excess of blood in the parts; such, for instance, as the pale hue of the liver, the variously coloured surface (as to degree) of the prima? viae, &c. The ra- pidity of attack,—the rapid manner of recovery,— are nowise favourable to the notion that any of the viscera are seriously altered in their organisation ; and the same inference seems to be applicable to the composition of the fluids. At the same time, for the sake of inquiry, it ought to be kept in mind that a small change, whether in the solid structure of the body or in the circulating fluid, may have the most serious effects, even to death. Who, d priori, would imagine that the exclusion of atmospheric air from the lungs for three minutes could prove fatal ? or that certain animal and vegetable substances (proved by experience to be intense poisons), could rapidly pro- duce death, even though they have no appreciable effect on any of the tex- tures of the body when destitute of life ?] —Ed. * In this case terrific hiccup during life. f In one of these cases the liver was so soft and friable it could not be held by the hand.