Report on the first eighteen months of the fourth yellow fever epidemic of British Guiana / by Daniel Blair.

  • Blair, Daniel.
Date:
[1856]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the first eighteen months of the fourth yellow fever epidemic of British Guiana / by Daniel Blair. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    epidemic were frequently observed in its course. The first of these hills occurred iu the last half of the month of March, and the first exacerba- tion in June. By the end of August, another lull, but of short duration. In February and Mai-ch, 1853, the epidemic power was intense. It moderated again till June, when it was renewed with great virulence. These lulls in the epidemic were as illusive as the lull of symptoms in the fatal progress of the disease j and it was often my painful duty to dis- courage the hopes that were so eagerly entertained by the authorities and the ijublic, of the entire and speedy disappearance of the epidemic, and to resist, with apparent pertinacity, the repeated proposals for the return of the white troops to the military service of the colony. During the periods of exacerbation, threateniugs in the hospital became numerous. These were cases which occurred in the persons of patients admitted for other ailments, and who, during these periods, seemed to be in an explo- sive condition. Such cases presented all the appearances of an invasion of the disease. They were almost all aborted by prompt treatment; but there was seldom any record kept of them, unless they resisted one or two doses. Although the epidemic sprung up at a delightful season of the year, when the general health was excellent, and, perhaps, irrespective of wea- ther, yet in its course it seemed materially influenced by meteorological conditions; and sometimes even diurnal variations were observable in the condition of the whole of the patients in the hospital, which could only be referable to atmospheric causes. A cool, dry, brisk air seemed to have a mitigatmg effect; while a hot, sultry, close, moist air increased the number of admissions, and aggravated the type of the disease, i^articu- larly on its immediately following the other meteorological state. Although, when the epidemic influence was strong, intermittent fever and its sequelae disappeared, it sometimes seemed to blend itself with that disease. It impressed itself sometimes on other diseases, and was itself impressible. Although the influenza came suddenly and disappeared suddenly, about the month of August, 1851, it still left some traces of its influence in the manifestations of disease, and might be detected modi- fying the yellow fever. In Surinam, the two epidemics were contempo- rnueous; and we find, by the medical report of the chief medical officer of that colony to the governor, that the two formed a completely mixed disease. A phlogistic constitution of the atmosphere was often observed with us, indicated, through the populaticm non-susceptible of yellow fever, by the prevalence of pleui-itis, hepatitis, and dysentery. This condition was found to impress itself on the epidemic, and to influence local con- gestions and determinations in the progress of the disease. During the exacerbation of the epidemic in June, 1853, small-pox became very pre- valent, and was suspected in some cases of spontaneous origin. Mixed ca-ses of the two diseases occasionally happened, the small-pox always predominating. Sometimes the yellow fever would engraft itself on the secondary form of small-pox, after the stage of desquamation commenced, and then it had its own sway unmolested. The co-existence of pneu-. monia and pleuritis with yellow fever, sometimes the one being primary, sometimes the other, was of frequent occurrence, particularly among the