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
21. The _arthritic_ or _gouty_ state of fever differs from the rheumatic,
in affecting, with the joints and muscles, all the nervous and lymphatic
systems, the viscera, and the skin. Its predisposing, exciting, and
proximate causes are the same as the rheumatic and other states of fever.
It bears the same ratio to rheumatism, which the yellow fever bears to
the common bilious fever. It is a fever of more force than rheumatism.
22. The _cephalic_, in which are included the phrenitic, lethargic,
apoplectic, paralytic, hydrocephalic, and maniacal states of fever. That
madness is originally a state of fever, I infer, 1. From its causes, many
of which are the same as those which induce all the other states of
fever. 2. From its symptoms, particularly a full, tense, quick, and
sometimes a slow pulse. 3. From the inflammatory appearances of the blood
which has been drawn to relieve it. And, 4. From the phenomena exhibited
by dissection in the brains of maniacs, being the same as are exhibited
by other inflamed viscera after death. These are, effusions of water or
blood, abscesses, and schirrus. The hardness in the brains of maniacs,
taken notice of by several authors, is nothing but a schirrus (sui
generis), induced by the neglect of sufficient evacuations in this state
of fever. The reader will perceive by these observations, that I reject
madness from its supposed primary seat in the mind or nerves. It is as
much an original disease of the blood-vessels, as any other state of
fever. It is to phrenitis, what pulmonary consumption is to pneumony. The
derangement in the operations of the mind is the effect only of a chronic
inflammation of the brain, existing without an abstraction of muscular
excitement.
23. The _nephritic_ state of fever is often induced by calculi, but it
frequently occurs in the gout, small-pox, and malignant states of fever.
There is such an engorgement, or choaking of the vessels of the kidneys,
that the secretion of the urine is sometimes totally obstructed, so that
the bladder yields no water to the catheter. It is generally accompanied
with a full or tense pulse, great pain, sickness, or vomiting, high
coloured urine, and a pain along the thigh and leg, with occasionally a
retraction of one of the testicles. It exists sometimes without any pain.
Of this I met with several instances in the yellow fever of 1793. I
include diabetes in this state of fever.
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