Practical observations on continued fever, especially that form at present existing as an epidemic : with some remarks on the most efficient plans for its suppression / By Robert Graham.

  • Graham, Robert, 1786-1845.
Date:
1818
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Practical observations on continued fever, especially that form at present existing as an epidemic : with some remarks on the most efficient plans for its suppression / By Robert Graham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    14/84 (page 14)
    and was often., followed, in spite of every en¬ deavour to check it, by sloughing to a greater or smaller extent, for the most part only super¬ ficially, but sometimes to the destruction of a joint or two of the toes. When this symptom was neglected, I have seen the most frightful effects result. One young woman was brought into the Infirmary with mortification as far up as the calf of one leg; after amputation she recovered. Another was brought in, after both the feet had dropped off, and while sinking under the extent of the purulent discharge from the sores. Both legs were amputated with immediate benefit, but her recovery is still doubtful. I ought to observe of this case, that the previous history could not be correctly ascertained, but I conjecture, she had been affected with fever, as the only way in which I can suppose that life was preserved, while she lay for several weeks without attendance, and little food, among some straw in an out¬ house. A man was brought in, with both his legs in a state of mortification for some way above the ankles, and as his strength could not be supported, he died. Another man was brought into the surgeon’s ward, convalescent from fever, but having lost all the toes from both his feet. I feel confident, from the recovery of one most unpromising case under my ow,n care, that these miseries can in almost every instance be avoided