Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 2: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the AuthorRush, Benjamin
Science
Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 2: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the Author
Rush, Benjamin
Medicine; Yellow fever -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
The following winter was unusually mild, insomuch that the navigation
of the Delaware was not interrupted during the whole season, only from
the 7th to the 24th of February. The weather on the 3d and 4th days of
March was very cold, and on the 8th and 9th days of the same month,
the mercury in Fahrenheit's thermometer stood at 4° at 7 o'clock in
the morning. On the 10th and 11th, there fell a deep snow. The weather
during the remaining part of the month was cold, rainy, and variable. It
continued to be variable during the month of April. About the middle of
the month there fell an unusual quantity of rain. The showers which fell
on the night of the 17th will long be connected in the memories of the
citizens of Philadelphia with the time of the death of the celebrated
Dr. Franklin. Several pleurisies appeared during this month; also a few
cases of measles. In the last week of the month the influenza made its
appearance. It was brought to the city from New-England, and affected,
in its course, all the intermediate states. Its symptoms were nearly the
same as they were in the preceding autumn, but in many people it put
on some new appearances. Several persons who were affected by it had
symptoms of madness, one of whom destroyed himself by jumping out of a
window. Some had no cough, but very acute pains in the back and head.
It was remarked that those who had the disease chiefly in the breast
the last year, complained now chiefly of their heads, while those whose
heads were affected formerly, now complained chiefly of their breasts.
In many it put on the type of an intermitting fever. Several complained
of constant chills, or constant sweats; and some were much alarmed by
an uncommon blue and dark colour in their hands. I saw one case of
ischuria, another of an acute pain in the rectum, a third of anasarca,
and a fourth of a palsy in the tongue and arms; all of which appeared
to be anomalous symptoms of the influenza. Sneezing, and pains in the
ears and frontal sinus, were less common now than they were in the
fall; but a pain in the eye-balls was a universal symptom. Some had a
pain in the one eye only, and a few had sore eyes, and swellings in the
face. Many women who had it, were affected by an irregular appearance
of the catamenia. In two persons whom I saw, the cough was incessant
for three days, nor could it be composed by any other remedy than
plentiful bleeding. A patient of Dr. Samuel Duffield informed me, after
his recovery, that he had had no other symptom of the disease than an
efflorescence on his skin, and a large swelling in his groin, which
terminated in a tedious abscess.
The prisoners in the jail who had it in the autumn, escaped it this
spring.
During the prevalence of this disease, I saw no sign of any other
epidemic.
It declined sensibly about the first week in June, and after the 12th
day of this month I was not called to a single patient in it.
The remedies for it were the same as were used in the fall.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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