Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 1: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the AuthorRush, Benjamin
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Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 1: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the Author
Rush, Benjamin
Medicine; Yellow fever -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
I saw in several cases a discharge from behind the ears, and from the
nose, with a slight eruption, and no sore throat. All these patients
were able to sit up, and walk about.
I saw one instance of a discharge from the inside of one of the ears in
a child, who had ulcers in his throat, and the squeaking voice.
In some, a pain in the jaw, with swellings behind the ears, and a slight
fever, constituted the whole of the disease.
In one case, the disease came on with a coma, and in several patients it
went off with this symptom.
A few instances occurred of adults, who walked about, and even
transacted business, until a few hours before they died.
The intermitting fever, which made its appearance in August, was not
lost during the month of September. It continued to prevail, but with
several peculiar symptoms. In many persons it was accompanied by an
eruption on the skin, and a swelling of the hands and feet. In some,
it was attended by a sore throat and pains behind the ears. Indeed,
such was the predominance of the scarlatina anginosa, that many
hundred people complained of sore throats, without any other symptom
of indisposition. The slightest occasional or exciting cause, and
particularly cold, seldom failed of producing the disease.
The month of October was much cooler than September, and the disease
continued, but with less alarming symptoms. In several adults, who were
seized with it, the hardness of the pulse indicated blood-letting. The
blood, in one case, was covered with a buffy coat, but beneath its
surface it was dissolved.
In the month of November, the disease assumed several inflammatory
symptoms, and was attended with much less danger than formerly. I
visited one patient whose symptoms were so inflammatory as to require
two bleedings. During the decline of the disease, many people complained
of troublesome sores on the ends of their fingers. A number of children
likewise had sore throats and fevers, with eruptions on their skins,
which resembled the chicken-pox. I am disposed to suspect that this
eruption was the effect of a spice of the scarlatina anginosa, as
several instances occurred of patients who had all the symptoms of this
disease, in whom an eruption of white blisters succeeded their recovery.
This form of the disease has been called by Sauvage, the scarlatina
variolosa.
I saw one case of sore throat, which was succeeded not only by swellings
in the abdomen and limbs, but by a catarrh, which brought on a fatal
consumption.
A considerable shock of an earthquake was felt on the 29th of this
month, at ten o'clock at night, in the city of Philadelphia; but no
change was perceived in the disease, in consequence of it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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