A contribution to the natural history of scarlatina derived from observations on the London epidemic of 1887-1888 ...

  • Gresswell, D. Astley (Dan Astley)
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A contribution to the natural history of scarlatina derived from observations on the London epidemic of 1887-1888 ... Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. CHAPTER I. SCARLATINA IN ENGLAND: HISTORICAL. It was in large or chief part owing- to observations on Scarlatina as it manifested itself in England that this disease came to be dis- tinguished from other diseases with which it had previously been confounded. It was Scarlatina as it appeared in London during the years 1661 to 1675 that formed the ground-work whereon Sydenham: founded his differentiation of this disease: but, though then differentiated—it had previously been described by Ingrassias and by Sennert^—it was not until Heberden, Fothergill, Willan, and Withering added their testimony to that of previous writers that the disease came to be recognized as distinct, separate, and specific. The stress laid upon the throat mischief tended, however, to confound Scarlatina with Angina maligna ; and it seems doubtful whether this confusion has not continued in England, not only to within registration times, but even up to quite recent years. Hence, for a trustworthy continuous record of the behaviour of the disease, we are not able to go back very many years; in fact, we are limited to the more recent of the Poor-Law returns, of the reports of the various hospitals into which the patients have been admitted, of those of the Registrar-General, and to the still more recent notification returns for towns where notification has for * After speaking of small pox and measles (in Lib. iv. cap. 12. De febribus) Sennert desci'ibed another fonii of fever, which was clearly Scarlatina: and it may be noted that in his description of this other form he refers to the articular determinations, which are apt to arise, thus: ' In declinatione tandem materia ad articulos extre- morum transfertur, ac dolorem et ruborem, ut in arthriticis ezcitat.' VI B