Practical illustrations of the scarlet fever, measles, and pulmonary consumption : with observations on the efficacy of sulphureous waters in chronic complaints / by John Armstrong.

  • Armstrong, John, 1784-1829.
Date:
1818
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Practical illustrations of the scarlet fever, measles, and pulmonary consumption : with observations on the efficacy of sulphureous waters in chronic complaints / by John Armstrong. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    intestines. That excellent author has reported the cases of three boys, who recovered from the fever, and who, in two or three weeks from their convalescence, were attacked with dropsy, to which they all rapidly fell victims.* Similar cases have come under my care; and it has indeed always appeared to me, fatal dropsies are far more liable to supervene the congestive, than the other varieties of this distemper. The irregular congestive differs from the in- flammatory modifications of the scarlet fever, first, in generally having a more protracted stage of oppression ; and, secondly, in having a less per- fect development of excitement afterwards. The danger in this form may be three-fold,—from the partial congestions about the large internal veins, from the unequal distributions of blood to dif- ferent viscera in the capillary arteries, and lastly from the affection ‘of the fauces. The conges- tions, however, of the first stage are not so con- siderable as to occasion any immediate mischief; though they pave the way to future lesions in the organs affected, and predispose them to be more readily influenced by the irregular distributions of blood, which attend the stage of defective ex- citement. Hence we find, that visceral engorge- ments and gangrenes are more frequently the cause of death than the disorder of the throat; at * See Appendix III. p. 66, of Observations on the Utility and Ad- ministration of Purgative Medicines in Several Diseases. By James Hamilton, M.D. Fourth Edition. Edinburgh: 1811.