'Festschrift' in honor of Abraham Jacobi, M.D., L.L.D : to commemorate the seventieth anniversary of his birth, May sixth, 1900.

Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: 'Festschrift' in honor of Abraham Jacobi, M.D., L.L.D : to commemorate the seventieth anniversary of his birth, May sixth, 1900. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    I observed in a severe case of pneumonia that the nurse and a sister of the patient were attacked with the disease. I have also at different times seen ordinary pneumonia occurring in an epidemic form, and several epidemics have been described. These epidemics of ordinary lobar pneumonia are, however, decidedly different from the epidemic which is described in this paper, since the former shows a much shorter stage of incubation, occurs especially in adults, and is usually fatal in a large percentage of cases. The cases of the epidemic here described had all the characters of an acute, very contagious disease, like measles, scarlet fever, mumps, varicella. Imperfect though my observations are, we can recognize a distinct stage of incubation from eleven to thirteen days; a stage of manifestation of disease, lasting generally four to six days, with varying general symptoms, but regular localization in the lower parts of the lungs, and a rapid decline. We have also in Case 4 a very mild abortive form, such as we see not rarely in scarlet fever, whooping-cough, measles, and other infectious diseases. We have further cases with sequelae, such as a kind of peripheric neur- itis in Case 1, and great weakness of the heart with anaemia in Case 2. We have further a case of that peculiar form of delirium of the decline in febrile diseases, such as we occasionally meet with in ordinary lobar pneumonia, in measles, scarlet fever, and other acute infectious dis- eases (.Med.-Chir. Transactions, vol. xlviii., p. 199, “ On Delirium or Acute Insanity, during the Decline of Acute Diseases, especially the Delirium of Collapse ”). I am not acquainted with a description of a similar affection, although such a description may exist and may have escaped my notice, in which case I would beg indulgence for my ignorance. I am inclined to think that through peculiar circumstances existing in the school a variety of a microbe may have been produced which caused this variety of a contagious affection. Although the occurrence of the disease in this epidemic was con- fined to children, it does not follow that it may not occur also amongst adults, as we observe it in mumps, measles, etc. The mildness which characterized these cases need likewise not always exist. My son, Dr. Parkes Weber, has directed my attention to epidemics of jaundice in children, of which several descriptions have been given by different observers, and quite lately by Friquet in Presse Mddie ale, July, 1899 (Epitome of British Medical Journal, 26th August, 1899), and more fully by A. A. Kissel] in Jahrbuch d. Kinderkrankheiten, vol. xlviii. (“ Ueber infectiosen Icterus bei Kindern ”). Similar epidemics have been described in adults, and it is quite possible that epidemics of the disease here described may also occur occasionally amongst adults.