Remarks on the etiology of sunstroke (siriasis) : not heat fever, but an infectious disease / by L. Westenra Sambon.

  • Sambon, Louis Westenra, 1865-1931.
Date:
1898
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on the etiology of sunstroke (siriasis) : not heat fever, but an infectious disease / by L. Westenra Sambon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Reprinted for the Author from the British Medical Journal, March 19th, 1898. REMARKS ON THE ETIOLOGY OF SUNSTROKE (SIRIASIS) : NOT HEAT FEYEB, BUT AN INFECTIOUS DISEASE. By L. WESTENRA SAMBON, M.D.Rome, London. Very different conditions have been described by authors under the designation of “sunstroke,” and at onetime apo- plexy was frequently accounted as such. In recent works we find two distinct conditions—heat exhaustion and thermic fever-'-classed together under the common title of “ heat stroke,” and most writers describe heat exhaustion as an initial stage of thermic fever. I believe heat exhaustion to be nothing more than syncope and thermic fever, a specific infectious disease which I shall mention in this paper by its oldest name, “siriasis.”1 Syncope. When syncope occurs in an overheated atmosphere, it is commonly called heat exhaustion ; but this appellation is misleading, because heat is by no means its primary cause. Syncope is really a symptom, not a disease. It occurs in persons of unsound constitution, and especially in those suffering from organic diseases of the heart. The original disease may have been latent, and the sudden prostration, under the stimulus of fatigue, excitement, alcohol, or heat, may be its first manifestation. Numerous necropsies prove this statement.2 Syncope is common among old stokers—“ stokers’ collapse’’—who are greatly liable to cardiac affections on account of their laborious occupation and of their free indulgence in strong drink. It is very frequent among soldiers, who likewise suffer exceed- ingly from circulatory disorders, as is well known.3 Soldiers fall unconscious from syncope at parades or even in barracks but far more frequently on the line of march, especially when oppressed by tight-fitting clothes and heavy accoutrements and when obliged to march in “close order” and breathe the foul air which surrounds a close column. Striking examples are on record to show the effects of excessive exertion under unfavourable conditions. On July 4th, 1859, among the