Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 3: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the AuthorRush, Benjamin
Science
Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 3: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the Author
Rush, Benjamin
Medicine; Yellow fever -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
Hæmorrhages occurred in all the grades of this fever, but less frequently
in my practice this year than in the year before. It occurred, after a
ninth bleeding, in Miss Sally Eyre, from the nose and bowels. It occurred
from the nose, after a sixth bleeding, in Mrs. Gardiner, who was at that
time in the sixth month of her pregnancy. This symptom, which was
accompanied by a tense and quick pulse, induced me to repeat the bleeding
a seventh time. The blood was very sizy. I mention this fact to establish
the opinion that hæmorrhages depend upon too much action in the
blood-vessels, and that they are not occasioned by a dissolved state of
the blood.
There was a disposition at this time to hæmorrhage in persons who were in
apparent good health. A private, in a company of volunteers commanded by
Major M'Pherson, informed me that three of his messmates were affected by
a bleeding at the nose, for several days after they left the city, on
their way to quell the insurrection in the western counties of
Pennsylvania.
II. The liver did not exhibit the usual marks of inflammation. Perhaps my
mode of treating the fever prevented those symptoms of hepatic affection
which belong to the yellow fever in tropical climates. The lungs were
frequently affected; and hence the disease was in many instances called a
pleurisy or a catarrh. This inflammation of the lungs occurred in a more
especial manner in the winter season. It was distinguished from the
pleurisies of common years by a red eye, by a vomiting of green or yellow
bile, by black stools, and by requiring very copious blood-letting to
cure it.
The head was affected, in this fever, not only with coma and delirium,
but with mania. This symptom was so common as to give rise to an opinion
that madness was epidemic in our city. I saw no case of it which was not
connected with other symptoms of the bilious remitting fever. The Rev.
Mr. Keating, one of the ministers of the Roman church, informed me that
he had been called to visit seven deranged persons in his congregation,
in the course of one week, in the month of March. Two of them had made
attempts upon their lives. This mania was probably, in each of the above
cases, a symptom only of general fever. The dilatation of the pupil was
universal in this fever.
Sore eyes were common during the prevalence of this fever. In Mrs.
Leaming, this affection of the eyes was attended with a fever of a
tertian type.
III. The alimentary canal suffered as usual in this fever. A vomiting was
common upon the first attack of the disease. I observed this symptom to
be less common after the cold and rainy weather which took place about
the first of October.
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