Remarks on the classification and nomenclature of continued fevers / by Charles Murchison.

  • Murchison, Charles, 1830-1879.
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on the classification and nomenclature of continued fevers / by Charles Murchison. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    climates are typhoid or pythogenic. Already Drs Scriven1 and Ewart,2 of the Bengal Medical Service, have proved, by post-mortem examinations, the existence of pythogenic fever in India and in Burmah. Dr Scriven, who studied the characters of the disease under Dr Jenner at University College, has given figures of the in¬ testinal lesion, and has written me that he has met with several other cases of the same fever since the date of his papers. It will be im¬ portant to ascertain what are the precise circumstances under which such cases are observed in India, and whether they are not different from what are known to develop the more prevalent malarious fevers. With regard to these last, the common opinion at present is, that, although the putrefaction of vegetable matter is a frequent con¬ comitant, it is not an essential part of the process of the development of malaria. This opinion is founded on the facts recorded by Chis¬ holm3 and Fergusson ;4 * but both the facts and the opinion require reconsideration.^ Without entering into this question at present, I would merely record my opinion, that it is highly probable that vege¬ table putrefaction is the source of malarious fevers, while the putre¬ faction of animal matter begets pythogenic fever. All the continued fevers which have been described by authors under so many different names, may be referred to one or other of the four species already spoken of. The following synonyms I have arranged under each of the fevers to which I believe they belong, after having referred myself to the works of most of the authors quoted. I have likewise given briefly the leading distinctive charac¬ ters of each fever. I.—Typhus Fever. Characters.—A disease generated by contagion, or by overcrowding of human beings, with deficient ventilation, and prevailing in an epidemic form in periods, or under circumstances, of famine and destitution. Its symptoms are : more or less sudden invasion marked by rigors or chilliness ; a small, weak, usually frequent pulse ; dry, brown tongue ; in most cases, constipation ; skin warm and dry; a morbilliform rash, appearing between the fifth and eighth days, fre¬ quently accompanied by true petechia?, and lasting until death or recovery ; great and early prostration; delirium coming on early, and for the most part low and wandering; contracted pupils; duration of the fever usually about 14 days, seldom or never more than 21. In the dead body, no specific lesion, but great congestion of all the internal organs. Synonyms. Tv<Pog ? (Hippoc.) ;6 Febris typhodes? (Frosp. Alpin.} 1611 ; Recalchus, 1638 ; * Med. Times and Gaz., Jan. 28, 1854, p. 79 ; and Ind. Ann. of Med. Science, No. viii., 1857. 2 Ind. Ann. of Med. Sc., No vii., 1856. 3 Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. vi. 4 On Marsh Poison. Edinburgh Philosophical Transactions, vol. ix. See my remarks on the Origin of Marsh Poison, in my paper on “ The Diseases of Burmah,” Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. lxxxii., p. i 9. c Probably a different disease.