Statistical and pathological report of the cases of fever treated in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in the year ending September 30, 1842 / by Thomas B. Peacock.

  • Peacock, Thomas B. (Thomas Bevill), 1812-1882.
Date:
[1843]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Statistical and pathological report of the cases of fever treated in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in the year ending September 30, 1842 / by Thomas B. Peacock. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    24/32 (page 22)
    disease to have been somewhat more frequently found distinctly defined than in the other cases; on analysing these, however, it appears that there existed a considerable difference between the distinctness of definition in cases of acute and chronic disease. Thus, of the 23 in which the patches are represented to have been distinctly defined and more or less elevated, 18 were cases of short duration, none having existed longer than three weeks, and only 5 were of old standing; while, of the remaining 9, in which they were scarcely traceable, or indistinctly defined, 7 were cases of chronic and only 2 of acute disease; the latter being old persons, 60 and 65 years of age, in whom the glandular structure is always less distinct. It becomes, therefore, necessary to com- pare the degree of development of the plates in fever with their appearance in such diseases only as are of short duration; and, on instituting this comparison, it appears that wdiile, in the for- mer disease, they were distinct in 21 out of 25 cases, in the latter they presented the same character in 18 out of 20 cases. From the calculation in the latter table, all cases under 20 years of age were excluded, while amongst those cases of fever in which the plates were distinctly defined and slightly elevated, are in- cluded two in persons 17 and 11 years of age; and it is well known that, in the young, the follicular structure is more dis- tinctly marked than in advanced life. It is therefore apparent, that in by far the largest proportion of cases of fever in this locality, the elliptic plates are not only not affected by disease, but are found less distinctly marked and less elevated than in persons dying of other diseases of a similar duration. Intestinal Disease.—Of the 3 cases in which the mucous glands were found in a state of recent and active disease, the mean period of death was later than of the rest of those examined,—having been the 16th day; the late period of death will not, however, afford any explanation of the occurrence of this complication,—two of the cases having terminated at early periods of the disease, viz., on the 13th and i6th days; while the mean duration of the 4 cases in which the plates were very indistinctly traceable, was also the 15th day; and of 5 in which death took place between the 16th and 21st days, the elliptical patches were very indistinctly defined in one,—distinctly defined, but not in any degree elevated in 3, —and distinct and slightly elevated, but only in the extremity of the ilium, in the 5th. None of the cases of intestinal disease are reported to have presented any eruption on the skin; and all occurred in females and in persons in early life. None of the pa- tients had been long residents in Edinburgh; one was admitted from North Leith and had left Ireland shortly before; of the other two admitted from Edinburgh, one had come, only four days before her seizure, from Prestonpans; the other had resid- ed on the opposite coast of Fifeshire till shortly before her admis-