Some observations on the varioloid disease, which has lately prevailed in Edinburgh, and on the identity of chicken-pox and modified small-pox, in a letter addressed to Dr. Duncan, junior / [John Thomson].

  • Thomson, John, 1765-1846
Date:
[1818]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some observations on the varioloid disease, which has lately prevailed in Edinburgh, and on the identity of chicken-pox and modified small-pox, in a letter addressed to Dr. Duncan, junior / [John Thomson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    small pox or cow-pock, or had had the disease communicated t© them by inoculation. In watching the appearances and progress of the eruption in these persons, I was for a considerable time inclined to regard it as chicken pox, till having an opportunity of observing its severity and fatality in those who had not under¬ gone small-pox or cow pock, I was compelled to abandon that idea, and to believe that in all the different forms under which this eruption has appeared, it could be no other than the small¬ pox. This epidemic has attacked three different classes of persons. Those who had passed through small pox; i2dlyt Those who had had cow pock ; and, 3^/y, Those who had had neither small¬ pox nor cow-pock, and in all ol these it has appeared to possess some common characters. It has usually commenced in a vesi¬ cular form, or in a papular speedily becoming vesicular, and has become pustular only in some cases in its progress. The pustules have appeared sometimes with, and sometimes without a central depression. The eruption has been irregular in size and form, as well as in the place of its first appearance, and in most instances it has appeared to occupy only the surface of the skin. It has in almost all instances come out in successive crops, some of which have appeared on the body after the eruption was at the height on the face. It has in general appeared even in severe cases to have arrived at the height on the face by the 6th day ol the eruption, and in the milder not unfrequently by the 4ih or 5th day. The fluid contained in the vesicles and pustules has in a great number of instances appeared to be lymph rather than pus, even to a late period of the disease, and has generally dried into horny scabs covering tubercular elevations ol the skin, which, in several instances, have been followed by pits or depressions of that texture. In the decline of the eruption, vesications upon an inflamed basis of a greater or less extent, have frequently appeared upon the extremities, generally filled with lymph, but in a few instances with air $ and, in some instances, small abscesses have formed in the subcutaneous texture. This eruption has rarely had any of the smell peculiar to small-pox. It has produced but very little temporary blindness, and has seldom been accompanied by the symptoms of secondary fever. In four of the eight patients who had had small-pox, this epidemic has appeared in a highly aggravated and somewhat malignant form. Comparatively but few, I believe, have ever recovered of primary natural small-pox who have had them in number and form similar to those described in Nos. 12, 13, and 14, of Mr Hennen’s cases. The disease in his 4th case*