Clinical illustrations of fever : comprising a report of the cases treated at the London fever hospital, 1828-1829 / by Alexander Tweedie.

  • Tweedie, Alexander, 1794-1884.
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Clinical illustrations of fever : comprising a report of the cases treated at the London fever hospital, 1828-1829 / by Alexander Tweedie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    acceleration in the breathing, and a slight increase of the fever; when there had been much disturbance in the nervous system, it was very often so obscure as to be entirely overlooked. It is well known, that in latent pleurisy, unconnected with idiopathic fever, there are often few or none of the ordinary symptoms to point out its existence ; and when it occurs in fever, with much cerebral disorder, it is evident how much this condition of the brain must tend to conceal, still more, the symptoms in the chest. The application of the stethoscope is, in such cases, the only sure method of detecting the state of the lungs ; and under such circumstances its utility is unquestionable. It is to be regretted, that a knowledge of its distinctive sounds is not more easily attained. Of ahdo7iiinal affections in Fever. Of the 523 cases form- ing the subject of this report, 71 had prominent symptoms of abdominal inflammation. And on reviewing the morbid ap- pearances observed on dissection of the cases, it will be found, that in five diere was peritonitis, with effusion of lymph ; in one, slight inflammation of the peritoneum ; ' in one, invagina- tion of the jejunum. In 13 cases there was no disease in any part of the intes- tinal canal, or of any of the abdominal viscera. I shall treat of the various changes that were observed in the mucous membrane when I come to treat of typhus fever. I shall only state, in this place, that I conceive the morbid con- dition of the intestinal mucous membrane, to be one of the specific effects of typhus. Of the changes in the spleen in fever. In a large proportion of the bodies examined after death, a remarkable softness of the spleen was observed, accompanied with considerable en- largement of this organ. Its texture was often so loose that it broke down from the slightest pressure. As we are still in complete ignorance of the use of the spleen, no conclusions can be formed from any alteration in its structure. It seems, however, to undergo very marked changes in fever. We find, in intermittents, that it becomes very much enlarged, while, at the same time, its structure is exceedingly firm ; and from its extreme softness in diseases of putrescency, as in some forms of scurvy, it would appear, that 5