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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    shared the same sufferings. Very young children were liable to the disease, even from a few days after birth ; nay, some were sup- posed to be actually born with it. The circumstances of these latter cases are described as follows :—The mother having recently passed through the attack, or still labouring under it, the skin of the infant at delivery was observed to be of a scarlet red, the tongue and lips smooth and fiery ; it was obviously in pain, and could not bear to be disturbed, screaming violently if lifted, or if its limbs were moved ever so gently. Below the fifth year of age, convulsions very often attended the invasion, and in some instances were re- peated with frequency throughout the whole course of the attack. In very advanced life, there was, from the first, great debility and extreme prostration. Some old people were afflicted with erysi- pelatous inflammation of the lower extremities, supervening after the eruption had disappeared. Pregnant women when attacked were very liable to abortion, and a remarkable number of miscarriages and premature labours occurred. The violent pains in the back and loins, which came on so generally at the invasion, extended downward into the thighs, and the uterus being thus excited, the foetus was ultimately expelled. A sore mouth was among the frequent symptoms of dengue, and one or two instances of pretty severe glossitis occurred. In the worst of these, the appearance of the organ has been completely altered, and its functions much impaired, indeed nearly abolished ; the articulation being extremely indistinct, and the capacity of ap- preciating taste and flavours singularly defective. The surface of the member is intersected with deep lines, which divide it in every direction, like flesh which has been chopped for culinary pur- poses. The ulcers formed in the mouth were often very irritable and painful, and healed slowly and with difficulty. Then followed a free flow of offensive saliva, with lividness and sponginess of the gums, offering considerable resemblance to the symptoms of mer- curial ptyalism. In a few cases hemorrhage occurred from the gums and fauces. Pathology.—Dengue is to he classed properly among the ex- anthemata. It is an eruptive fever of distinct and specific character. Its essential symptoms are, in the first stage, a painful affection of the joints and muscles; and in the second, divided by an interval obvious and sufficiently regular, a cutaneous eruption. The arthritic inflammation of the first stage was attended by fever of the ordinary