Historical notices, designed to illustrate the question whether typhus ought to be classed among the exanthematous fevers / [Charles West].

  • Charles West
Date:
[1840]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Historical notices, designed to illustrate the question whether typhus ought to be classed among the exanthematous fevers / [Charles West]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tlie last few years has led to the adoption of opinions not unlike those of Sydenham. Some authors have described the disease as “ the new fever,” while others, regarding it as altogether of a spe¬ cific nature, have not hesitated to class it among the exanthemata. Anxious to ascertain how far past experience supports the notion that typhous fever is a disease of a specific nature, the writer de¬ voted considerable time to examining the history of epidemics, and has been thereby led to a conclusion unfavourable to that supposi¬ tion, while his investigations have forced upon him the conviction, “ That there is one predominant fever in nature, the knowledge of which is absolutely necessary for the successful treatment of all others; that this fever, though essentially the same, often varies in the lesser circumstances; and that it is sometimes 'accompanied with symptoms which have been supposed peculiar to inflamma¬ tion, and frequently by spots of various kinds, which are consi¬ dered as certain indications of putrefaction ; but these circum¬ stances do not with greater propriety indicate a particular species of fever than the accidental spots on their leaves constitute diffe¬ rent orders of plants.”* Before proceeding further it will be necessary to digress for a moment in order to define the sense in which the words exan¬ thema and exanthematous fever are here employed. Dr Willan, and almost all who since his time have treated of skin diseases, limit the term exanthemata to those appearances which are usual¬ ly called rashes, and define them as “ superficial red patches, vari¬ ously figured, and diffused irregularly over the body, leaving in¬ terstices of a natural colour, and terminating in cuticular exfolia¬ tions.” Earlier writers, however, included under that head a va¬ riety of diseases in which eruptions appeared on the skin; and the definition given of them by Cullen is, “ Morbi contagiosi, semel tantum in decursu vitse aliquem afficientes ; cum febre incipi- entes ; definite tempore apparent phlogoses, ssepe plures, exiguae per cutem sparsm.” Many of the modern advocates for the ex¬ anthematous nature of typhus have used the term in this latter sense, as a synonym for eruptive fevers, and as designating a class which would include alike measles, small-pox, and scarlatina ; and it will, accordingly, thoughout this paper, be taken in that signi¬ fication. The aim of this paper being to disprove the claim of typhous fever to a place among the true eruptive fevers, it will na¬ turally be expected that evidence should be adduced to show that the eruption is not invariably present, nor always of one charac¬ ter, that it runs no definite course, and has no fixed period of de¬ cline. At the same time, the weight of this evidence will be * Observations on the Management of the Prevailing Diseases in Great Britain, particularly in the Army and Navy. By J. Millar, M. D. London, 1783. Part ii. Chap ii. j UBJURY j Wo.
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