Copy 1, Volume 1

The works of Thomas Sydenham, M.D / Translated from the Latin edition of Dr. Greenhill, with a life of the author, by R.G. Latham.

  • Thomas Sydenham
Date:
1848-1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The works of Thomas Sydenham, M.D / Translated from the Latin edition of Dr. Greenhill, with a life of the author, by R.G. Latham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    364/390 (page 254)
    CHAPTER V. RHEUMATISM. l. Tus disease may come on at any time. It is commonest, however, during the autumn, chiefly attacking the young and vigorous—ore yovv yAwoov.' It generally originates in some such cause as the following. ‘The patient has been heated by either some over-violent exercise, or by some other means, and has taken cold upon it. The sad list of symptoms begins with chills and shivers ; these are followed immediately by heat, disquietude, thirst, and the other concomitants of fever. One or two days after this (sometimes sooner) the patient is attacked by severe pains in the joints, sometimes in one and sometimes in another, sometimes in his wrist, sometimes in his shoulder, sometimes in the knee—1in this last joint oftenest. This pain changes its place from time to time, takes the joints in turns, and affects the one that it attacks last with redness and swelling. Sometimes during the first days the fever and the above-named symptoms go hand in hand; the fever, however, gradually goes off whilst the pain only remains ; sometimes, however, it grows worse. The febrile matter has, in that case, been transferred to the joints. This is clearly proved from the fact of the fever being frequently lit up afresh after the driving in of the mor- bific matter by the unseasonable use of external remedies. 2. This disease, when separate from the fever, is often called arthritis (gout). Nevertheless, it differs essentially from that disease, as every one knows who knows the two diseases well. This confusion may perhaps explain why it is that medical writers have passed so lightly over rheumatism; unless, indeed, we chose to suppose that the long list of human ailments has lately been increased by a fresh addition, Be this as it may, there is plenty of the disease now-a-days ; and, although it very rarely, when once the fever has been driven off, kill the patient, it is still, from the vehemence of the pain, and from its pro- tracted duration, no contemptible distemper. Treat it badly, ! Theocrat., Idyll. xiv, 70.—[G.]