A History of Epidemics in Britain, Volume 2 (of 2): From the Extinction of Plague to the Present TimeCreighton, Charles
History
A History of Epidemics in Britain, Volume 2 (of 2): From the Extinction of Plague to the Present Time
Creighton, Charles
Epidemics -- Great Britain -- History
continued for several days, while in some it went off sooner with a
diarrhoea. He assigned three principal causes for the relapse--overloading
the enfeebled but craving stomach, walking out in the open air too soon,
and giving way to emotion[344].
The references to relapse apply almost certainly to fevers of the shorter
periods (synocha or “inflammatory” fever), and not to those cases of
enteric fever which did undoubtedly occur in the practice of Guy’s
Hospital in the same seasons.
Typhoid or Enteric Fever in London, 1826.
The identification of enteric fever and relapsing fever respectively, or
the separation of each from typhus, became actual in Britain at one and
the same time. I have already said all that seems necessary as to the
earlier appearances of relapsing fever on the stage of epidemiological
history. This will be the fitting point in the chronology, the third
decade of the 19th century, to bring in the question of enteric or typhoid
fever. As to its identification, or recognition as a distinct species,
that was not really completed, to the satisfaction of everyone, until the
elaborate analysis of the symptoms respectively of typhus and enteric
fevers by Sir William Jenner in 1849-51[345]. But, for ten years before
that, the co-existence with maculated typhus of a different long-period
fever, having abdominal symptoms and abdominal lesion, had been
recognised, and the characteristic ulceration or sloughing of the
lymph-follicles of the ileum, with sphacelation of the mesenteric
lymph-glands, had been clearly described by several London physicians and
depicted in coloured plates, in the years 1826 and 1827, during an unusual
prevalence of such cases in London. The authentic history of enteric fever
in Britain really begins with these writings by physicians of St George’s
and Guy’s Hospitals. But, as it is improbable that the type of fever was
absolutely new in the years 1825 and 1826, it may be asked whether the
enteric type cannot be discovered in the old accounts of British fevers,
and if so, whether we may assume in the past as much enteric fever
relatively to spotted typhus, relapsing fever, or simple continued fever,
as in the period after 1850.
Having adverted to this point from time to time in the preceding history
as it arose, for example in connexion with Willis’s fever of 1661,
Strother’s fever of 1727-29, the Rouen fever of 1750, and other instances
both in children (remittent or convulsive or comatose fever of children)
and in adults, I shall not recapitulate farther back than the beginning of
the 19th century.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account