On dengue : its history, pathology, and treatment / by S. Henry Dickson, M.D.

  • Dickson, Samuel Henry, 1798-1872.
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On dengue : its history, pathology, and treatment / by S. Henry Dickson, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    On the third or fourth day, there being no fever present, or a very obscure degree of it, the tongue would begin to be coated with a yellowish fur, and the stomach would become distressed, uneasy, and irritable. The patient was now low-spirited, fretful, and anx- ious. Vomiting came on in some, with great languor, lassitude, and debility, and restlessness at night. This was regarded as the most oppressive and insufferable of the stages of the malady. On the fifth or sixth day from the invasion, the period varying somewhat in different individuals, the annoying symptoms just described were relieved by the coming out of an abundant eruption, met with so constantly and in so very great a proportion of the cases, that it clearly demands to be considered a characteristic and essential circumstance in the histor}' of the disease. It consisted of minute papulae, somewhat elevated, of a florid red, and distributed in irregularly-shaped patches ; the feet and hands being somewhat swollen, with a sense of numbness and thickening. It appeared first on the face, then on the trunk and thighs, gradually spreading to the extremities. It resembled scarlatina more than measles in the hue and aspect of the skin, but was less diffused or confluent than either. When fully developed, it was attended with some itching and burn- ing of the surface, and at this time a second febrile paroxysm came on with return or aggravation of the muscular and arthritic pains. Inflammation and enlargement of the lymphatic glands in the neck, axilla, and groin attended in a good many cases ; these parts being apt to continue swollen and painful for some time after convales- cence was fairly established.* The eruption disappeared after two or three days' duration, becoming gradually paler, with some des- quamation of the cuticle. Of all the symptoms of dengue the affection of the joints was the most tenacious and troublesome, adhering for weeks to some patients, and constituting a sort of permanent lameness or loss of mobility. Nay, even now (January, 1S35), some of the population of cities visited by this plague persist in speaking of the rheumatic or quasi rheumatic decrepitude and pain under which they labour as the effects of the dengue. All classes of persons were subject to this singular exanthem, and all equally and alike. The aged and the young, the infirm and the robust, the native and the stranger, the black and the white, all * In a few instances, suppuration of these tumours took place.