"William Morris, aged thirty-two, servant to Mr. Cox of
Almondsbury, in this county, applied to me the 2d of April, 1798.
He told me that, four days before, be found a stiffness and
swelling in both his hands, which were so painful it was with
difficulty he continued his work; that he had been seized with
pain in his head, small of the back, and limbs, and with frequent
chilly fits succeeded by fever. On examination I found him still
affected with these symptoms, and that there was a great
prostration of strength. Many parts of his hands on the inside
were chapped, and on the middle joint of the thumb of the right
hand there was a small phagedenic ulcer, about the size of a
large pea, discharging an ichorous fluid. On the middle finger of
the same hand there was another ulcer of a similar kind. These
sores were of a CIRCULAR form, and he described their first
appearance as being somewhat like blisters arising from a burn.
He complained of excessive pain, which extended up his arm into
the axilla. These symptoms and appearances of the sores were so
exactly like the cow-pox that I pronounced he had taken the
distemper from milking cows. He assured me he had not milked a
cow for more than half a year, and that his master's cows had
nothing the matter with them. I then asked him if his master had
a GREASY horse, which he answered in the affirmative, and further
said that he had constantly dressed him twice a day for the
[Footnote: HC--Vol.88] last three weeks or more, and remarked
that the smell of his hands was much like that of the horses's
heels. On the 5th of April I again saw him, and found him still
complaining of pain in both hands, nor were his febrile symptoms
at all relieved. The ulcers had now spread to the size of a
seven-shilling gold coin, and another ulcer, which I had not
noticed before, appeared on the first joint of the forefinger of
the left hand, equally painful with that on the right. I ordered
him to bathe his hands in warm bran and water, applied
escharotics to the ulcers, and wrapped his hands up in a soft
cataplasm. The next day he was much relieved, and in something
more than a fortnight got well. He lost his nails from the thumb
and fingers that were ulcerated."
The sudden disappearance of the symptoms in this case after the
application of the escharotics to the sores is worthy of
observation; it seems to show that they were kept up by the
irritation of the ulcers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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