Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 4: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the AuthorRush, Benjamin
History
Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 4: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the Author
Rush, Benjamin
Medicine; Yellow fever -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
About the middle of August the disease revived, and appeared in different
parts of the city. A publication from the academy of medicine, in which
they declared the seeds of the disease to spread from the atmosphere
only, produced a sudden flight of the inhabitants. In no year, since the
prevalence of the fever, was the desertion of the city so general.
I shall now add a short account of the symptoms and treatment of this
epidemic.
The arterial system was in most cases active. I met with a tense pulse in
a patient after the appearance of the black vomiting. Delirium was less
frequent in adults than in former years. In children there was a great
determination of the disease to the brain.
I observed no new symptoms in the stomach and bowels. One of the worst
cases of the fever which I saw was accompanied with colic. A girl of
Thomas Shortall, who recovered, discharged 9 worms during her fever. It
appeared in Mr. Thomas Roan, one of my pupils, in the form of a
dysentery.
A stiffness, such as follows death, occurred in several patients in the
city hospital before death.
Miss Shortall had an eruption of pimples on her breast, such as I have
described in the short account I gave of the yellow fever of 1762 in this
city, in my account of the disease in 1793.
The blood exhibited its usual appearances in the yellow fever. It was
seldom sizy till towards the close of the disease.
The tongue was generally whitish. Sometimes it was of a red colour, and
had a polished appearance. I saw no case of a black tongue, and but few
that were yellow before the seventh day of the disease.
The type of this disease was nearly the same as described in 1797. It now
and then appeared in the form of a quartan, in which state it generally
proved fatal. It appeared with rheumatic pains in one of my patients. It
blended itself with gout and small-pox. Its union with the latter disease
was evident in two patients in the city hospital, in each of whom the
stools were such as were discharged in the most malignant state of the
fever.
The remedies for this fever were bleeding, vomits, purges, sweats, and a
salivation and blisters.
There were few cases that did not indicate bleeding. It was performed,
when proper, in the usual way, and with its usual good effects. It was
indicated as much when the disease appeared in the bowels as in the
blood-vessels. Mr. Roan, in whom it was accompanied with symptoms of
dysentery, lost nearly 200 ounces of blood by twenty-two bleedings.
I found the same benefit from emetics, in this fever, that I did in the
fever of 1798. They were never administered except on the first day,
before violent action had taken place in the system, or after it was
moderated by one or two bleedings.
Purges of calomel and jalap, also castor oil, salts, and injections were
prescribed with their usual advantages.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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