Volume 1

An account of the rise, progress, and decline of the fever lately epidemical in Ireland : together with communications from physicians in the provinces, and various official documents / by F. Barker and J. Cheyne.

Date:
1821
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of the rise, progress, and decline of the fever lately epidemical in Ireland : together with communications from physicians in the provinces, and various official documents / by F. Barker and J. Cheyne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    67/530 page 43
    I more than thirty-three thousand cases of continued fever ' were admitted to the regimental hospitals in that country, (during the short space of two years and half, from the t commencement of the year 1812 to the middle of 1814. This disease prevailed to a great degree among tlie inha- bitants also:—at Ciudad Rodrigo, one fifth of the inha- bitants died of misery and fever in the year 1812. Baron Larrey, in his descrijition of the retreat from Rus- sia, in the “ Memoires tie Chirurgie Militaire,” thus ex- presses himself: “ Ari-ives dans la vieille Prusse, ou I’armee eut quekjue jours de repos, des alimens a discretion et des asiles chauds, la pi upart des so kbits qui avaient heureusement resiste aux effets funestes diifroid etde la faim, furent attaints presque tout a coup tie la maladie, que nous designerons sous le nom de fih)re meningile catarrhale de congelation. Cette maladie prit, en pen tie temps, un caracterc epid6- mitpie, et lorsqu’ elle etait parveniie au troisieme degre, elle devenait contagieuse, surtout si clle avail pour com- ])licatit)ii des affections gangrtineuses aux extremites.” Tlie symptoms of this tlisease, as detailed by Larrey, cor- respond k ith those of batl typhous fever. Resuming his ac- count of its progress, he observes, “ Cette maladie a failles plus grands ravages dans les premieres villes de la Pologne et de la vieille Prusse ou un grand nombre de nos com- pagnons avaient ete obliges de s’arreter pour cause de fatigue ou de congelation aux pietls,” In his report to the Minister of War, dated December 10, 1818, in allusion to the Epidemic Fever which then prevailed in France, he states, “ On avait beaucoup exagere les efteLs de cette epidemic, que de jeunes docteurs en medecine envoyes de Paris avaient consideree comme pestilentielle et emi- nemment contagieuse : aussi avaient ils propose pour premiere mesui-e, la defense expresse de laisser cojnmu- niquer les niilitaires avec les hahitans des villes et des campagnes.” He mentions its prevalence at Pont a
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3