A treatise on relapsing or famine fever / by R.T. Lyons.

Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on relapsing or famine fever / by R.T. Lyons. 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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    mental depression migM be left out of account altogether, and it will not appreciably affect the state of health or the rate of mortality among prisoners. I have formed this conclusion after some years of observation made on prisoners derived from all ranks of native society. A certain amount of civilization or individual refinement appears to be necessary before mental emotions become capable of exercising an appreciable influence over the physical nature. 12. Neglect of medical treatment, of sanitation, and generally of care of the sick, have had the most potent influence of any causes in augmenting the mortality of the disease after it has been set up. To over-crowding and destitution are, perhaps, to be chiefly attributed the high mortality of the disease amongst prisoners and the village population. (c.) Prognosis from the Presence of certain 8ym]jtoms or Complications, In judging of the probable termination of an attack of relapsing fever, the following points, which are chiefly those specially indicated by Murchison, deserve attention. 1. A very rapid pulse, on the first or second day of the disease, is not, as in typhus, a cause of alarm. 2. Profuse perspiration, accompanied by a rapid pulse, is not, as in typhus, a dangerous symptom. 3. Jaundice and minute petechise do not, in themselves, indicate danger, unless they be accompanied by cerebral symptoms. Some observers, as Bernard and Bateson, regard very intense jaundice as a sign of danger, especially, according to the latter, when the symptom is prominent directly on the manifestation of the fever, when, he states, the termination was invariably fatal. Generally speaking, an epidemic in which jaundice is common, is more severe and attended with greater mortality than when this symptom is rare or not common. 4. Purpura, spots, and vibices, are only met with in severe cases. 5. Copious hemorrhages, particularly from the stomach and bowels, are dangerous symptoms.