About three weeks before the fever commenced, his stomach-complaints
became worse, and for these he requested the advice of his friend Mr.
Chaldecott. During this gentleman’s attendance, his patient was one day
attacked with slight chilliness, an unusual degree of lassitude,
together with pains in the limbs: but the chilliness never amounted to
rigor; the general pains were not severe; there was no pain whatever in
the head; yet the sudden debility which affected both mind and body was
very striking. Still the mind was perfectly distinct; the sleep was
sound; the expression of the countenance was natural; the tongue,
however, became loaded with white fur; there was some thirst; the pulse
varied from 84 to 96, while the temperature and the softness of the skin
remained in a healthy state. In this manner he went on about eight or
ten days, and, during the whole of this period, he was daily questioned
by his medical attendant and examined with much anxiety relative to the
condition of the organs in the head, chest and abdomen; but he was
steady in affirming that he was free from all uneasiness in the head,
and that he had no pain in the chest; nor could any pain be excited by
the fullest pressure, either in the epigastrium or in any part of the
abdomen. It was observable, however, that he had some cough without
expectoration, and that his respiration was short and hurried. His
appearance, too, indicated more disease than his sensations; he was
obviously worse than he expressed, or than could be accounted for from
the apparent affection of any organ, and this excited alarm both in his
family and in his medical attendants; and it is always a truly alarming
condition.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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