Medical Sketches of the Expedition to Egypt, from IndiaMcGrigor, James, Sir
History
Medical Sketches of the Expedition to Egypt, from India
McGrigor, James, Sir
Great Britain. Army -- Sanitary affairs; Medicine, Military
3d, Mr O’Farrel entered the pest-house at Aboukir on the 8th of March.
He continued well and did his duty there till the 3d of April; in the
evening of that day, when he had rigors, which he himself attributed to
cold, and says, “that sudorifics nearly cured him.” He was obstinately
costive, for which he took several drastic purgatives: the rigors
successively returned in the evenings of the 5th and 6th, and he
continued taking antimonial powder. On the night of the 6th, he was
attacked with giddiness, irritability of stomach, and low fever. Mr Dyson
wrote to me, that, on the morning of the 6th, he was delirious, that
he had applied a blister to his head; but that he could not get him
to swallow any medicine: he expired on the morning of the 7th. No bubo
appeared till the day before his death.
4th, Mr Dyson went to assist Mr O’Farrel, at Aboukir, on the 1st of
April. On the evening, of the 5th, he was attacked with lassitude, and,
on feeling his groin, he writes to me, “I discovered some inflammation
of the glands.” After this the succession of symptoms in Mr Dyson was
nearly what has been described in Dr Whyte’s case. The fever continued
for several days, and became intermittent, one bubo came to suppuration.
He obstinately refused every medicine but calomel, which he took as a
purgative, but it never salivated him. Constant nausea and vomiting were
symptoms with him from the second day of his illness, and he was a long
time before he recovered.
5th, Mr Thomas, after being three weeks in the pest-house at Rosetta,
attending the first plague-cases which came from the 88th regiment,
while walking in the garden of the establishment, laid his hand on his
groin by accident, and was alarmed to find a large swelling on one side.
He soon after felt some giddiness and fell down; as soon as he recovered,
he rubbed in mercurial ointment in great quantity, and every hour took
as much calomel with opium as his stomach could bear. His gums were very
quickly affected, his bubo came to suppuration, and, in three weeks, he
was quite well.
6th, Mr Angle, after being about a month in the lazaretto at Alexandria,
was attacked with fever and bubo. The bubo never could be brought
forward, and he died of the disease on the 14th day. I have no notes of
the treatment of this case nor that of Mr Moss; who, after having been
about the same time on duty at the lazaretto of Alexandria, caught the
infection. He likewise lived several days, and his bubo could never be
brought forward.
It is useless to detail more cases, though I am in possession of many
accurately related by several gentlemen. Nor do I mean to offer any
comment on the above.
As particularly prominent and remarkable, I cannot, however, without
some notice, pass over three cases where mercury, early and liberally
exhibited, had very remarkable effects.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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