Report on the epidemic fever of Edinburgh : an account of the symptoms and treatment / by William Henderson. Analysis and details of forty-seven inspections after death / by John Reid.

  • Henderson, William, 1810-1872.
Date:
[1840-?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the epidemic fever of Edinburgh : an account of the symptoms and treatment / by William Henderson. Analysis and details of forty-seven inspections after death / by John Reid. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    derable difference of opinion. In frequency the pulse, except in children, rarely rose so high as 140, but in the worst cases; in one adult female, it beat 156 times a minute on the thirteenth day, although no other unfavourable symptom was present, and the case ultimately did well. The common range in the height of the disease was from 110 to J 30, the higher amount of fre- quency being usually the result of a gradual, but not regular, in- crease from day to day, from the commencement. In a very few cases it rose little above the natural standard. 2, State of the Head.—The head was almost universally the seat or source of symptoms in the course of the fever. These con- sisted of every diversity in degree, from the slightest uneasiness to severe pain, and from mere oppression, languor, and confusion of the faculties, to stupor and violent delirium, with vociferation, and attempts to get out of bed. Headach.—Among 132 females, the state of the head in re- gard to pain was carefully noted in 108 cases. Of these, 104 were affected with headach in the course of the disease. Ninety-two of them were kno^vn to have had headach at the commencement of the illness ; in twelve, the earlier symptoms were not fuUy as- certained, but the existence of headach was recorded at an after period ; in four cases, there was no headach at any time. Of fifty- one cases among the male patients, in which particular notice was taken of the state of the head, forty-nine had headach. Delirium, S^c. in female patients.—In twenty-five females there was a notable degree of delirium; in thirteen much stupidity and indifference to external circumstances approaching to stupor; in fifteen there was deafness; in two considerably impaired visdon at the commencement, with intense headach. The remaining cases had either no degree of those symptoms, or, as was common- ly the case, were affected with inconsiderable confusion or slug- gishness of mind, or muttering and moaning in sleep. Carpholo- gy, subsultus tendinum, and convulsions were rare; the two former mostly in the cases which ultimately were fatal, the last only once, and in a fatal case. Of involuntary evacuations no pre- cise records have been kept; but, except towards the close of the fatal cases, there were few who could not give notice to the atten- dants, or express uneasiness when about to evacuate the bladder or bowels. Retention of urine occurred in three, who had no other very unfavourable symptom. Date, persistence, 4-c. of these symptoms.—In a few cases headach in some degree continued throughout the course of the disease. It very generally persisted throughout the first week, nicans having been resorted to for its removal in few before the lapse of that period. The average duration of this symptoni,'dc-