Observations on the period of incubation of scarlet fever and of some other diseases / by Charles Murchison.

Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the period of incubation of scarlet fever and of some other diseases / by Charles Murchison. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    7/34 (page 5)
    that the latent period of small-pox is not o constant as is al„ ;1ys maintained. In cases where he had been able to fax t exLtly, it had certainly been most often between ten and lu teen^ays, but in others it had been as long as fourteen days, or as short as from eight to ten days, while m one t was only five days. Zuelzer also found the period of incu- bation in certain (nine) cases of h^h\f%Z^Tit°9 be only from six to eight days* Lastly, the fact that the incubation-period of small-pox is far from being fixed was demonstrated by the late Dr. Otto Obermeier m a memoir containing the largest collection of observations on the latent period of small-pox with which I am acquainted t Of eighteen cases in which the actual moment of infection was determined, in 1 the incubation-period was 5 days. 1 3 6 8 1 » 9 » >3 55 10 11 2 5 55 » 4 „ 5, 12 ,5 1 „ » 16 » Total: 18 cases. ] '.iricella.—I can find among my notes only one case showing the duration of the incubation-period of varicella: in that°case it was eleven days. Most authorities make it longer than this. Thus, according to Thomas, it is from thirteen to seventeen days % ; and, according to Trousseau, from fifteen to twenty-seven days. § The data, however, on which these statements are based are not given. On the other hand, Dr. W. Squire has collected ten cases in which the duration of the incubation-period corresponded with that of mine, being in all from ten to twelve days. || When varicella is produced by inoculation, the incubation- period appears to be shorter than when the disease is con- traoted in the ordinary way, just as in the case of small-pox and measles. Thus, of ten cases in which Professor Steiner of Prague inoculated the contents of the vesicle of varicella, * Ziemssen'a 'Cyclop, of Medicine,' American ed., vol. ii., 1875, p 311. t ' Beitriige zur Kenntniss der Pockcn,' Virchow's ' Archiv fur path. Anatomie und Physiologie und fur klin. Medicin,' Bd. liv. I Ziomssen's 1 Cyclop, of Pract. Med.,' American Trans., vol. ll.> 187o, p. 16. § 'Cliniquo Med.' 1861, tomo i., p. 133. || ' The Period of Infection of Epidemic Disease': London, 1874, p. 28.