The illness and death of Henry Prince of Wales in 1612 : a historical case of typhoid fever / by Norman Moore.

  • Moore, Norman, 1847-1922.
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The illness and death of Henry Prince of Wales in 1612 : a historical case of typhoid fever / by Norman Moore. 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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    fever, of which the focus was below the liver in the prima? viaj, and recognised the malignity which accompanied it to proceed from the rottenness which, being in a sovereign degree, held the place of poison. The ioth, all the accidents increased, and the tremblings passed into convulsions, the sweating being greater and the sighing worse with the fever, which, with all the other ills, grew worse towards the evening. In the morning bleeding was pro- posed, which being disapproved by the majority, more powerful cordials and a clyster were tried, by which was driven out a quantity of fluid ill-smelling matter, and his Highness discharged stones of grapes which he had eaten ten or twelve days before. All was without effect, and the night of this day his High- ness began (the fever being augmented) to sweat more than ever and to toss himself hither and thither ; he wished to leap out of bed, singing when asleep and plucking his bedclothes. The convulsions with which from the 5th day the sweating- had been accompanied were more violent, the tongue, although like all the throat dry and black, did not incite his Highness to ask for a drink : a certain sign that the seat of reason suffered greatly. At last, during all the 1 ith all went from bad to worse (notwithstanding a very slight remission), and the most part of the council of consultation was of opinion that the crisis ought to be awaited, although postponed and without appearance. The night of the 10th, cupping-glasses with scarification were applied to the shoulders and pigeons on his shaved 'head. The nth, a cock split by the back, and the cordials were doubled in number and quantity, all without any profit. Then the danger appeared indubitable which had been long predicted. To obviate which, as far as the art would allow and the condition of the disease seemed to call for it, the 12th morning, the doctors, Mayerne, Hammon, Atkins, and Butler, were driven yet again to blood-letting. Some among them suggesting that the blood being cast violently in the opposite direction and filling the brain, caused acrimony by its malignity, and by the quantity the sweats and convulsions, always without pain, because the spirit was troubled. Which accidents placed his Highness in imminent danger more than the sighing, the cause of which was in the ventricles, as the above-mentioned blood, warm and bilious, to the mem- branes. And as by consequence there was no more immediate remedy than to open the vein, which the forces seemed not to contra-indicate, for the pulse was sufficiently strong, and as his Highness arose to go to the chaise percee, and there remained a long time without any feebleness, which he had not done since