Medical Report of the Hardwicke Fever Hospital for the year ending on the 31st March 1818, including a brief account of an epidemic fever in Dublin / by John Cheyne.

Date:
1818
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical Report of the Hardwicke Fever Hospital for the year ending on the 31st March 1818, including a brief account of an epidemic fever in Dublin / by John Cheyne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    would open his mouth, and after various unsteady motions, at length force out his tongue, and when this was accomplished it was not again drawn within the mouth until he was repeatedly admonished to that effect; and when he attempted to lay hold of any thing, he either overshot the object, or he was short of the mark. After continuing in a soporose state, with partial intermissions for a longer or shorter time, generally for two or three days, the bowels being soluble all the while, sleep became calm and natural, with considerable intervals of waking during the day. About the period at which delirium set in, the tongue had often a dark yellow or brown stripe in the middle, the edges being clean and thinly covered with white mucus. In tw7o or three days more it w7as black, shrivelled, and, as it w7ere, dried up, the gums and lips being sordid and black from incrusted mucus., As the soporose state went off, the blackness and dryness of the tongue wrent off also, leaving that organ in a more natural condition, more expanded, and again white with florid edges, and moist from a return of secretion, which wTas sometimes copious. The expression of the patient daily improved., The temperature gra- dually approached the point of health, the flushing subsided and the inflammation of the eyes, also the complexion became clearer as well as paler, and the eye more expressive. After some of the very severe cases, the pupil for a time continued dilated, and a considerable degree of the deafness, wThich took place about the height of the disease, remained, and the pulse fell below its natural frequency. The patient