The cholera spasmodica, as observed in Paris in 1832; comprising its symptoms, pathology, and treatment / [Ashbel Smith].

  • Smith, Ashbel, 1805-1886.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The cholera spasmodica, as observed in Paris in 1832; comprising its symptoms, pathology, and treatment / [Ashbel Smith]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ee 2 ‘¢ ee 27 continued type. Ido not deny that genuine typhus may succeed cholera; so far from it, that I am clearly of opinion, that this latter disease may be, and sometimes is, converted into the former. I only wish to say, that I have not seen in cholera some of the symptoms which I consider essential characteristics of an exquisitely marked typhus. The epidemic, as I have before remarked, has presented some slightly modified appearances at different epochs. 'T'y- phus symptoms were of very frequent occurrence about the middle of April, when the epidemic was at its maximum of intensity. The disease then often simulated that form of typhus described by Hildenbrand. For some time after-_. wards typhus symptoms were rare. As theepidemic became greatly aggravated, about the middle of July, it often. pte- ie sented another form of typhus, almost identical, in many of its leading symptoms, with the very rapid disease known on Connecticut river under the name of spotted fever. The most constant, unmanageable, and fatal symptom, - one, indeed, which I am, at times, disposed to think charac- teristic of this state of reaction, is the cerebral congestion. Most of the other symptoms seem to depend directly from this, and they increase or diminish in intensity in proportion to its severity or mildness. While the case is apparently proceeding very favorably, this symptom creeps on very insidiously, first showing itself in a degree of drowsiness, which, if not obviated soon, augments to stupor; and it occurs with great pertinacity, after having been repeatedly subdued. We find, accompanying the cerebral congestion, or in some rather rare cases existing alone, other local affec- tions; sometimes of the lungs, indicated by a slight cough ; more frequently there is some inflammation of the stomach, producing tenderness of the epigastrium. 'These latter affec- tions are generally slight, often absent in the severest cases, and bear no relation to the intensity of the previous symp- toms.