Elements of the practice of medicine / by Richard Bright and Thomas Addison.

  • Bright, Richard, 1789-1858.
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of the practice of medicine / by Richard Bright and Thomas Addison. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    synochus, typhus, and a variety of other names, but which for the present, it will be sufficient to designate, the com- mon continued fever of this climate. The most common symptoms of idiopathic fevers are, a hot skin, usually preceded by a sense of chilliness, or by actual coldness; a frequent pulse; a feeling of languor and weariness, often accompanied by an uneasiness which seems to pervade every part of the body; pain, giddiness, or con- fusion in the head, with diminished powers of memory and reflection; pain in the back and limbs • an impaired or de- praved condition of the senses of taste, touch, smell, and hearing • loss of appetite; thirst j a foul tongue; and some hurry or oppression of respiration. But as the number as well as the degree of these, the most common symptoms, varies very much in different cases, it has been attempted to determine and establish some indi- vidual symptom or symptoms which might be regarded as essentia] to, or characteristic of, all idiopathic fevers. It was with this view that the celebrated Boerhaave collected to- gether the whole of the symptoms that had been observed in idiopathic fevers, and having done so, proceeded to abs- tract from them, in succession, all such as had ever been found wanting. In this way he arrived at the conclusion, that there are three symptoms uniformly present in every fever, —chilliness, a frequent pulse, and increased heat; but that the frequent pulse was the only symptom which was present in everystage of the disorder, and consequently that thefre- quent pulse might be regarded as the one individual sym- ptom essential to and characteristic of fever. It is unquestionably true, that the three symptoms—chil- liness, frequent pulse, and increase of heat, very constantly occur in every idiopathic fever; yet it is equally certain, that to the constancy of each of them there are exceptions. B 2