[Two months of fever duty in Glasgow Royal Infirmary].

  • Gairdner, W. T. (William Tennant), Sir, 1824-1907.
Date:
[1865]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: [Two months of fever duty in Glasgow Royal Infirmary]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    the cases were watched and noted during my absence, and I have the same confidence in his observations as in my own. I wish I could have spared the reader the trouble of looking over these abstracts; but it did not appear possible to communicate the facts of this paper in a trustworthy form, without a brief notice of each case being furnished for reference. The more important cases, however, may be singled out by reference to the notes, and to the remarks which follow at the end. I.—MALES. In the male ward there were 68 cases numbered in series as admitted during the period above-mentioned, and of these 58 were either certainly or very probably cases of typhus fever, 3 (cases 26, 33, 59) of enteric fever, 4 (cases 23, 27, 34, 50) of febricula or fever of undecided type, 1 (case 16) of scarlet fever, and 2 (cases 45, 56) of pneumonia. One case not included in the numerical series was that of a child admitted with its father under suspicion of fever, but found to be in fact free from disease. These are literally all the admissions, during the period stated, to the male ward (No. 16), not excluding even those admitted only to die. And I proceed now to give a con- densed summary of each of these cases, extending the extracts from the journals, or the added remarks, according as the cases, in the narratives before me as I write, present features more or less particularly demanding attention. The following general statements, however, are applicable, more or less, to the whole of the cases, whether in the male or female department, and therefore need not be repeated. I have noted as “ typhus ” only cases presenting what is now so well known as the typhus rash, or, in default of this, cases so closely associated with others having the rash as to leave no doubt of the character of the fever. A somewhat similar remark applies to the cases noted as “ enteric fever,” and to the single case of scarlet fever. Under the head of “febricula” I have been com- pelled to include one or two cases which may have been typhus, but in which no conclusive evidence existed of the character of the disease, and in one of the instances noted as “ pneumonia,” in the male ward, a possible doubt may perhaps be admitted as to the pre-existence of typhus fever not evidenced by eruption. The diagnosis of these various diseases was in all cases estab- lished and noted as soon as possible after admission, and in no case can the diagnosis be said to have been contingent on the event of the disease, or left to be settled by post mortem exami- nation or otherwise, after the patient’s death or dismissal. The reader has therefore before him, as completely as is possible in a