The modern practice of physic, which points out the characters ... and improved method of treating the diseases of all climates / [Robert Thomas].

  • Robert Thomas
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The modern practice of physic, which points out the characters ... and improved method of treating the diseases of all climates / [Robert Thomas]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    mically it may prevail in certain situations and districts; and although the matter producing it be essentially the same, still we may conclude, I think, that a more aggravated form of disease is occasioned by a more concentrated state of the poison : hence the different degrees of severity of remittent fever at different periods of the year,-and in different climates. It has long been observed, that the natives of any place are much less liable to be affected with the diseases peculiar to the situation than strangers, or those newly arrived; and it may like¬ wise be added, that when they are attacked with any endemic affection, it is rarely so severe as it is found to prevail among strangers, and those not accustomed to the climate. This I had great opportunities of seeing confirmed in the West Indies, in the case of remittent fever, which seldom affects the natives so d, although same mode Preceding an attack of a remittent fever, the patient is usually heavy and languid, and is troubled with anxiety, listlessness, sighing, yawning, and alternate fits of heat and cold. On its accession he experiences severe pains in the head and back, in¬ tense heat over the whole body, with thirst, difficulty of breathing, and great dejection of spirits; the tongue is white; the eyes and skin appear yellow ; there is a pain and sense of swelling about the region of the stomach; nausea, and a vomiting of bilious matter, ensue ; and the pulse is frequent and small. After a continuance of these symptoms for a time, the fever abates considerably, or goes off imperfectly by a gentle moisture diffused partially over the body ; but in a few hours it returns with the same appearances as before. In this manner, with ex¬ acerbations and remissions, it proceeds at last to a crisis, or is changed into a fever of a different type. In warm climates, the remission often occurs so early as the second day; but in cold ones, it frequently does not take place until from the fourth to the sixth or eighth day. The accession of fever which has just been described is, how¬ ever, the mildest form under which it ever makes its appearance; for sometimes a severe delirium arises, and carries off the patient during the first paroxysm ; or the remission, perhaps, is scarcely perceptible, and is immediately followed by another paroxysm, wherein there is a considerable aggravation of all the symptoms. The heat of the body is greatly increased, the face highly flushed, the thirst excessive, the tongue is covered with a dark brown fur ; respiration laborious, the pulse quick, throbbing, and tremulous, and a delirium arises. In some cases there is great gastric de¬ rangement, consisting in inflammation or congestion, or o-reat disturbance of functions in some of the abdominal viscera. At the distance of some time, perhaps, another short or imperfect remission again takes place; but the symptoms return once more with redoubled violence, and at length destroy the patient. severely as it does Europeans not sufficiently naturalise in every respect using the same diet, and adopting the of life.