Cerebro-spinal meningitis in Massachusetts : being a succinct history of the epidemic of 1873 : with an analysis of upwards of 500 cases, collected from every part of the state / by J. Baxter Upham.

  • Upham, J. B. (Jabez Baxter), 1820-1902.
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cerebro-spinal meningitis in Massachusetts : being a succinct history of the epidemic of 1873 : with an analysis of upwards of 500 cases, collected from every part of the state / by J. Baxter Upham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    in common. It was not, indeed, till repeated post-mortem investigations revealed the unmistakable and striking lesions which belong to the disease in question, that its true character was recognized and established. To give, in briefest form, a portraiture of the disease as it is now understood by the medical profession, I quote the fol- lowing definition from a recent admirable monograph on this subject by Dr. Meredith Clymer,* as follows, viz. : ^An acute specific disorder, commonly happening in an epidemic, general or limited, and, rarely, sporadically,—caused by some un- known external influence,—of sudden onset, rapid course and very fatal; its chief symptoms, referable to the cerebrospinal axis, are great prostration of the vital powers, severe pain in the head and along the spinal column, delirium, tetanic and, occasionally, clonic spasms and cutaneous hypermsthesia, loith, in some cases, stupor, coma and motor paralysis, attended fre- quently with cutaneous hcemic spots; the morbid anatomical characters being congestion and inflammation of the membranes of the brain and spinal cord, particularly the pia mater, although there is reason to believe that the evidence of these changes may be wanting, even in cases of long duration.''^ To this succinct and comprehensive, but purely technical, definition, it may not be out of place to add here some account of the essential characteristics of the disease, its habits, symp- toms, progress and pathology, as seen in its epidemic and most prevalent form in this country. In its mode of attack it is commonly sudden and without premonition, the patient, for the most part, continuing about his ordinary duties and making no complaint till the very day of his seizure. The subjects of the disease, in most cases, among adults, and males especially, are those who have previously been in the enjoyment of sound and robust health, and have endured hard- ship and exposure with impunity. The symptoms at the first are headache, referred mostly to the back part of the head, of a severe, oftentimes excruciating, character; conjoined with this, or soon following, are violent pains in the nape of the * Epidemic Cerebro-spinal Meningitis, with an Appendix on some points on the Causes of the Disease, as shown by the Histoiy of the recent Epidemic in the city of New York. By Meredith Clymer, M.D. {Univ. Penn.), etc., etc. Phila- delphia : Lindsay & Blakiston. 1872.