Cases of small-pox, which occurred in the Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb: with an account of the re-vaccination of all the children in that establishment / [B.G. Babington].

  • Babington, B. G. (Benjamin Guy), 1794-1866
Date:
1836]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cases of small-pox, which occurred in the Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb: with an account of the re-vaccination of all the children in that establishment / [B.G. Babington]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    was 120, and full. He complained of nausea, pain in the epigastrium, headache, and general indisposition. An erythematous eruption, which might have been mistaken for scarlatina, had not the cases which had already occurred demonstrated its nature, appeared over the whole surface of his skin; and his eyes glistened with that peculiar brightness which, with redness of the tarsi, seems to me very charac¬ teristic of variolous disorder. He had not any soreness of the throat. Mary Webster complained of headache, nausea, and pain in the epigastrium: her pulse was 110: her tongue whitish : she had no sore-throat: her countenance was suffused: her eyes heavy ; and erythematous patches appeared on the back of her arms. Both these individuals were marked with cicatrices, the remains of former vaccination. Regarding their cases as those of incipient small-pox, under the peculiarity with respect to erythema, which had now manifested itself in all the cases that had occurred, I accepted, with the concurrence of the principal of the establishment, Mr. Wheeler's offer, on the part of the Small-pox Hospital, to receive them, as well as Mitchell, into that Institution. This measure seemed desirable, on account of the healthy children; from whom it was, of course, an object to remove, as far as lay in our power, the sources of contagion. In consequence of the removal of Mitchell, Banton, and Webster, I no longer attended them professionally ; but I can state, both from having visited them on several subsequent occasions, and on the high authority of Dr. Gregory, that Mitchell went through the regular small¬ pox, without any modification, yet with no remarkably urgent sym¬ ptoms, considering the quantity of the eruption. In the latter stages of the complaint, he suffered from superficial abscesses; but not to such a degree as to interrupt the progress of his recovery, which was complete. William Banton grew materially better on the day after entering the Small-pox Hospital. His feverish indisposition, in fact, gradually subsided; and by Saturday the 1st of March he was convalescent. On this day, the rash had faded so as to be scarcely distinguishable on the face, though it was still visible on his chest and extremities. Both the rash and all signs of indisposition left Mary Webster on Friday the 29th: she had, in fact, been more slightly indisposed than the rest; though still, when considered with reference to the ether cases, sufficiently affected to justify, in my opinion, the belief that her disorder was of a varioloid character. On examining' the body of Charles Mogg, forty hours after death,