Notice of a febrile disorder which has prevailed at Edinburgh during the summer of 1843 / by David Craigie.

  • Craigie, David.
Date:
[1843]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notice of a febrile disorder which has prevailed at Edinburgh during the summer of 1843 / by David Craigie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    5/14 (page 411)
    presents not the usual febrile eruption of red spots wliich takes ])lace in typhus. 3f/, It shows not the same tendency to violent disorder of the brain and its membranes, which, in several cases of genuine ty- phus, is observed to take place. And 4//^, While it affects great numbers of jMjojde, it shows not nearly the mortality with which ty- phous fever is attended. The mode in which this fever proceeds and its leading characters, may be understood by the following description. The patient is attacked with loss of appetite, sometimes sickness and vomiting, and always thirst, accompanied or speedily followed by pains in the head, back, limbs, and joints generally, and an over- whelming sense of feebleness. When patients are examined in this state, they generally lie moaning as if from great distress and cor- poreal suffering, and when interrogated, answer that the whole body is in pain. The pulse varies from 90 to 96 or 104 on the first two days, with a sense of fulness and tension; but on the third or fourth it may rise to 120. The skin is at first hot and rather dry, but be- comes more or less moist about the third or fourth day, yet without eflFecting a solution of the disease. 1 he tongue is at first covered with a whitish moist fur, which afterwards becomes thicker and a little dry, assuming a colour slightly brownish. The patient is during the whole of this time, that is, for three, four, or five days, without sleep, and is restless; yet delirium is very uncommon. The epigastric region is always tender or painful and does not bear pressure well. In a certain proportion of cases there is pain in the right hypochondriac region ; in several there is pain in the left hypochondriac region ; and, in a few, pain in the umbilical or infra- umbilical region, is the subject of complaint. No eruption of spots is observed similar to that observed in genu- ine typhus. But, in a certain proportion of cases, an eruption of dark-red spots, like those of purpura, was observed on the persons of the patients. In some instances these bore so close a resemblance to flea-bites, that they were entirely disregarded or ascribed to this cause. In others, however, they appeared connected with the state of the individual's health. At length, it was impossible to doubt, from the frequent occurrence of these purple spots, that they were connected with the disease. They were seen in the first attack alone ; and as that declined, these spots disappeared. They did not, so far as I am aware, appear in the second stage or relapse. In some instances the rose-red spots of typhus were observed ; but these were regarded as instances of a fever quite different. After the symptoms now mentioned have continued for four or five days, an abatement takes place about the fourth or fifth day, and be- comes more com})lete on the sixth or seventh. Either in consequence of the use of medicine, or spontaneously, diaphoresis comes on, some- times partially, sometimes generally and profusely; the patient shows the disposition to sleep ; the tongue becomes moist, thirst abates, and tlie pulse becomes less frequent by about 10 or 12 beats, until in the course of twenty-four hours more, as the other symptoms sub- side, the pulse falls to its natural standard. As the ciiange now mentioned proceeds, the pains in tlie head, back, and limbs in ge-