On the treatment of hyperpyrexia : as illustrated in acute articular rheumatism by means of the external application of cold / by Wilson Fox.

  • Fox, Wilson, 1831-1887.
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the treatment of hyperpyrexia : as illustrated in acute articular rheumatism by means of the external application of cold / by Wilson Fox. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    15/94 (page 7)
    Some cough now appeared, with purulent expectoration. The lungs were, however, resonant on percussion ; but on the following day moist and sibilant rales became general through the lungs. The cardiac friction and apex murmur were en- tirely unchanged, and there was no increase of the cardiac dulness. The knees now became again slightly painful; the tongue was thickly furred, and she was occasionally sick, but took an abundance of milk, beef-tea, and eggs. Lime-water was given with the milk, and at this time—viz., at 3 p.m. on the 12th, or thirty hours after the last fall of temperature, being the sixteenth day of the disease, the seventh after admission, and the second of this treatment—the pulse becoming weak and increasing in frequency to 120, quininf was again given in doses of five gTains every four hours. At 8.50 p.m. on the 12th, or thirty-six hours after the previous fall of temperatme, and forty-eight hoiu'S after the first rise, this had again risen to ]02‘1°. In thirty minutes later it had risen to 102’2°, and in order to check a fui'ther rise the ice-bag was applied to the spine. Within thirty-five minutes the temperature had fallen to 101*6°, or three fifths of a degree; in three hours it had fallen to 101°, when the ice-bag was removed. It fell another half degree in the quarter of an hour succeeding, and it then again slowly rose with minor oscillations within five hom-s to 102*4°, when the ice-bag was again applied for three hours, producing within this period a reduction of 1*5°. The ice-bag was then removed, and a slow rise of temperature ensued * during three hours and a half to 102*5°, when the ice-bag was reapplied. Its effect this time was less marked. The tempera- ture fell in three hours 1*1°, and continued below 102° for three hours longer ; but although the ice-bag was continuously applied, it rose to 102*2°, and remained nearly at this height during the succeeding three hours; then it fell three-tentlis of a degree, and oscillated between 101° and 101*9° for eight hours longer, when the temperature being only 101*6°, the ice-bag was removed from the spine, after it had been con- tinuously applied during eighteen hours. During this period—i.e., on the third day from the attain- ment of the temperatm*e of 110°—moist rales had appeared throughout both lungs, but had again given way to dry sibilant