A letter to the Presidents of the Westminster Medical Society, on cholera / [John Webster].

  • Webster, John.
Date:
1832
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to the Presidents of the Westminster Medical Society, on cholera / [John Webster]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    hinge; it can be replied, although ague is very seldom fatal at its commencement in this country, being more frequent in hot climates, instances do occasionally happen, where the cold stage is so overwhelming, that the patient even dies in the very first attack. Of this, examples are mentioned in the older authors, and a friend of mine, knew two patients, while practising in GiiicoInsMre, who died in the first, or cold stage of an ague, one. of these, indeed, in his own presence. But surely, no one would contend, because these individuals expired on the first attack, that the disease was therefore a new species of Ague. And if this occurs in intermittent fever, the same variety may also happen in the Cholera of this country* as it will not be denied, that epidemics of essentially the same character, may be occasionally accompanied in dif¬ ferent years, even in the same country, by a variety in its form, and symptoms. The same modification of symptoms is often likewise remarked in other epidemics, such as in the typhus fevers of Great Britain; one year it is mild, and easily treated; in another, it is most rapid in its course, very fatal in the result, and attended with unusual symptoms, as by pete¬ chial spots, hsemorrhagies, or the like; but still it is typhus* And if we compare the accurate description of fever given by Sydenham, with those which have recently, or previously occurred, there will be observed a variety in the type, although the disease be considered by nosologists, as belonging to the same class. Similar reasoning equally applies to Cholera; one year, or for a series, it is mild; at another period, it is frequent and most fatal, depending like other epidemics, upon causes sometimes, it must be acknowledged, difficult to explain. Much has been said on the subject of blueness of the skin, as constituting a pathognomic, and perhaps one of the most characteristic symptoms of the disease. Too great importance has all along been attached to the presence of this formidable feature; the very mention of which has caused the greatest dismay. If however it be taken as a proof of similarity to the disease of India, great misappre¬ hension on that head seems to exist; and in confirmation of this opinion, I would refer with confidence, to the excellent paper on Cholera, published by Mr. Mouat, in