Some account of the last yellow fever epidemic of British Guiana / by Daniel Blair, surgeon general of British Guiana ; edited by John Davy, inspector general of army hospitals, etc.

  • Blair, Daniel.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some account of the last yellow fever epidemic of British Guiana / by Daniel Blair, surgeon general of British Guiana ; edited by John Davy, inspector general of army hospitals, etc. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    107/290 (page 85)
    An early alteration of the blood, however, when it did occur, was a vcrv unfavourable sign. Haemorrhages seemed to arise as often from a loss of vital cohesion of the solids as the fluids. Epistaxis was the haemorrhage of least importance. Hiematemesis, or even a tinge of blood in the fluids ejected from the stomach, at the commencement of, or early in the attack, was a most dangerous indication. But hcematemesis succeeding black vomit was favourable, the undecomposed blood probably indi- cating a cessation of the acid formation. Although some of the inhabitants of Georgetown, who passed through the late epidemic, had resided here during the epidemic of 1819, there was no instance of a sufferer from the epidemic of 1819 being attacked by that of 1837 and the following years. Neither do I believe there is an instance of a second complete attack, after a month's perfect restoration to health.* The thinner than usual. The blood for trial was taken by puncturing a vein of the back of the hand, and receiving the drop or two that flowed into a strong solution of common salt. The blood of a person in health, similarly treated, was used for comparison. Black vomit had occurred in most of the cases; one case terminated fatally a few hours after the trial. These results led to the inference, the same as that adopted by the Author, that a tamted or dissolved state of the blood is not the cause, or essentially connected with, the occurrence of black vomit. When the blood was examined by the microscope after death, on the post mortem inspection, however rapidly made, the corpuscles were found to be altered in form, variously puckered. It was sometimes found to be acid, by the test of litmus paper, — sometimes not; sometimes it gave off an ammo- niacal odour when mixed with quick lime,— sometimes this odour was not perceived. In most instances, after death, the blood was dark, thick, and did not coagulate ; nor were coagula in most instances found in the cavities of the heart and great venous trunks ; if found, they were usually very soft: coagulated lymph, fibrinous concretions, were of rare occurrence indeed. In some instances of death from liajmorrhage into the substance of the lungs ( pulmonary apoplexy), I have found the blood destitute of the power of coagulating, even more liquid than in fatal cases of yellow fever.]—Ed. * [Instances of this kind have been brought to my notice by an experienced medical officer, Staff-Surgeon Kichardson ; an esteemed friend, a staff-sur- geon, whom I attended in Barbados, had a narrow escape with life from a second attack, some years having intervened since the first, — but, in the interval, he had been out of the yellow fever zone. It must be admitted, I believe, that a second attack of yellow fever, as of variola, or of other diseases said to occur only once in life, is rare, and the exception to the general rule. Probably it will be found that the proportion of second attacks varies greatly in difl'erent endemics ; in that of 1818, in Trinidad, 13 cases are reported as second attacks of the disease, and these fatal, after complete recovery fi-om the first. The fever was very malignant; in the barracks at Orange Grove, near Port of Spain, in less than two months, viz. from the 28th August to the 13th October, the deaths from it amounted to 42; the number of men stationetl there is not given, but, from the extent of accommodation it could not have been great. In Malta, when small-pox