Retinal haemorrhages and melanaemia as symptoms of ague / by Stephen Mackenzie.

  • Mackenzie, Stephen, 1844-1909.
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Retinal haemorrhages and melanaemia as symptoms of ague / by Stephen Mackenzie. 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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    RETINAL HAEMORRHAGES AND MELANaEMIA AS SYMPTOMS OF AGUE.* F. V., AGED twenty, of mixed Scottish and Hindoo blood, was admitted into the London Hospital on November 17, 1876. He stated that six years previously, when in India (his native country), he had had an attack of dengue during an epidemic of that disease. For about a year prior to admission he had been making voyages between Calcutta and the Cape as an ordinary seaman, but during this period his health was good. On November 3 he reached London, having had during the voyage from Calcutta, on one occasion only, a fit of ague— that is to say, he shivered and felt cold and then felt very hot. There was no repetition of the attack whilst he was at sea. The day after he reached this country, however, he had a severe paroxysm, which was repeated every day until he came under observation. On the evening of admission his temperature was taken hourly, and was found to rise rapidly from to 107° Fahr. He had the usual rigor, hot stage, and sweating stage of his disease. His spleen was found to be considerably enlarged. There were no abnormal physical signs in his chest, excepting a few rales. The main interest of his case lay in the fact that Mr. Atkinson, the House- ' Physician, found recent haemorrhages in each retina on the night of admission. These presented the streaky appearance so often assumed by haemorrhages in this situation, and were chiefly seen along the course of the larger vessels, especiaUy arteries, which they in places obscured. Sprinkled about the fundus, and most numerous near the disc, were many small round bright spots, resembling pinholes pricked in a piece of paper held up against the light. The retinal vessels were of normal size, and their sheaths did not appear thickened. These haemorrhages were carefully observed day by day, and were seen to fade away gradually ; and as each died away it left to mark its former situation one of the shiny white spots of which mention has been made above. It may be here stated * Kead before the Hunterian Society, March 28, 1877.