A report on small-pox, as it appeared in Ceylon in 1833-34 : with an appendix / by J. Kinnis, M.D., superintendent of vaccination in the Colombo district.

  • Kinnis, John, 1794?-1853.
Date:
MDCCCXXXV [1835]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A report on small-pox, as it appeared in Ceylon in 1833-34 : with an appendix / by J. Kinnis, M.D., superintendent of vaccination in the Colombo district. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    of dropsical swellinn-s of Ihe body and limbs. When snppoFcd to be recoverino- from this complaint, she was altacUed on the 1st February wilii febrfle syniptoms, attended by violent iieadacli and sickness at stomach and, on Ihi? eveninfv of the 3d, the ernplion of small-pox appeared. On the 5lh it was described as very thick and of a malignant nature, accompanied by considerable swelling of the whole budy and urgent thirst. On the 10th, the swelling was a good deal increased, and the vesicles quite flat, communicating with each other; she had torn the skin from different parts of the face and body and complained of difficult breathing. She died on the 14th. The two other cases occurred at Jaffna ; and on them Dr. Boyes remarks that one had very good marks of vaccination and, so far as he could jndu;e, the other also, though they were almost hidden by the erup- tion of small-pox. The lirst appears to have been examined the same day on which he was attacked with fever, the 9th October ; the eruption came out on the 11th, assumed a confluent form, and terminated fatally on the 22d of the month, or twelfth day of the eruption. The second was attacked with febrile symptoms on the 16tli November ; the eru|jtion followed on the 18th, and became also confluent ; but the patient was not seen until the 24th, when, as already observed, the scars were almost hidden by it. This case at least, therefore, is equivocal. The other two we shall suppose to have been examples of fatal small-pox after successful vaccination— remarking at the same time that one of them was consequent upon, if not combined with anasarca, and that the difficulty of determining with certainty the true character of the vaccine vesicle from the ap- pearance of the scar has been acknowledged by the most accurate observers. * We have thus 425 cases of small and modified small- pox, of which 111 had been successfully vaccinated & 2, 86 bore either no marks, or nnsa-] and 5r4 53 tisfactory marks, of vaccination j'19 ^ or 1 to< 4 > of these died 228 had never undergone vaccination, & 88 425 109 J tuo 59 9 W J _ * Unforliinutely llieie is nolliinR siiffirienily (ipecilic in the appem ance of tlio cirnlrix lo ileieniiine wllli certainly tliut tliu insertion of the lyiiipli li.iil exoileii a vesicle of n salisfaclory cliarartor—The luiceriainl) wliicli allenils h iliiisnosis in xU'ii respect, is perluips grcaler in the skins of blacks than in wliiit-s ; and Uie cJiliicoIiy in question is incrensetj by the prnvalence of pocky itch amoni tbfi natixes of Ceylon. This latter disease sonielimes leaves cicatrices which cannot be (lislinnoished from ihe inaiks 1 bat suet ced successlul varcinalion. Sli.ll' Siir(;(?on (nu« D<-piilv Inspector Geuerui) ftJarshttU in EUinburjih ftlccUcal and tjurijicul Journal v, XIX. J). 7T.