Typhus syncopalis, sinking typhus, or the spotted-fever of New-England : as it appeared in the epidemic of 1823, in Middletown, Connecticut / by Thomas Miner.
- Thomas Miner
- Date:
- 1825
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Typhus syncopalis, sinking typhus, or the spotted-fever of New-England : as it appeared in the epidemic of 1823, in Middletown, Connecticut / by Thomas Miner. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![seven days. [Sec Appendix, Note I.] In some of the severest cases, the disease arrived at its height on the third day, and under careful management, the patient appeared subsequently to be free from danger. Not one, this year, that was suddenly attacked, died; the recovery, in most instances, being the evident conse- quence of the promptness and decision of the treatment, and of the necessity which both patients and attendants felt, of following prescriptions scrupulously. In the insidious cases, the subjects of the disease were affected with the symptoms about to be described, in a mild degree, for a greater or less length of time, and many seemed to labour under a kind of infatuation concerning the malady and existing danger, and were almost invariably inclined, for several days, to ascribe their indisposition to some other cause, than the prevailing epi- demic 5 and if, at the instigation of friends, a physician was called, they could not be induced, without the greatest difficulty, to fol- low any regular plan of treatment, till violent symptoms occurred, sometimes as early as the third or fifth day, or more commonly, as late as the seventh. A few insidious cases continued two or three weeks, before there was apparent danger. The whole number of deaths, this year, happened among the set of insidious cases. One of the adults died on the third day; one, on the fifth ; one, on the ninth; one, at the end of the second week ; one, at the end of the third week; and one, on the fifth week. Be- sides, in one of these fatal cases, the disease was complicated, at first, with Dysentery; in one, with Gout; in one, with a chronic hepatic affection ; and two had haemorrhage from the lungs. [See Appendix, Note 2.] The other did not substantially vary from the common insidious cases. Some of the children died at the end of a week; the others, at the end of a fortnight. A few of the cases were complicated with Dysentery; some, with Colic ; two or three, with Cholera ; some, with Cynanche ; some, with cough or Pneumonia; two or three, with Rheumatism ; one, with Gout; a few, with severe pain, and passive inflammation of some of the extremities. The great majority, however, had no apparent local affection, except of the brain, and of the parts that more directly sympathise with that organ. During the prevalence of this epidemic, chronic diseases nearly disappeared, and when they did exist, their acute paroxysms were invariably blended with the prevailing epidemic. For eight or nine months, it was difficult to find a case of acute disease, that](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21141496_0008.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
