Notes on the medical topography of the interior of Ceylon : and on the health of the troops employed in the Kandyan Provinces, during the years 1815, 1816, 1817, 1818, 1819, and 1820 ; with brief remarks on the prevailing diseases / by Henry Marshall.

Date:
1821
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes on the medical topography of the interior of Ceylon : and on the health of the troops employed in the Kandyan Provinces, during the years 1815, 1816, 1817, 1818, 1819, and 1820 ; with brief remarks on the prevailing diseases / by Henry Marshall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    I THE PREVAILING DISKASKS. \9'.i and in a few cases it was covered with a white thick fur like cream. In a great pi-oportion of cases the senses soon lost their ordinary acuteness, particularly the sense of hearing. Eventually the voice became comparatively indistinct. Respi- ration was frequently hurried and anxious, and sometimes there was a feeling of great discomfort about the scrobiculus cordis. In a number of cases the disease had made considerable progress before they were admitted into hospital. Under cir- cumstances of this kind the patient seldom made much com- plaint, although the awful progress of the disease was often strongly marked. This was evidenced by great prostration of strength, a collapsed ghastly countenance, cold clammy skin, and weak thready pulse. Sometimes the pulsations of the arteries were scarcely perceptible even wlien the patient was walking about. In general these cases stated that they had vomited a few times, and that they had passed some watery stools. Frequently, however, neither vomiting nor purging was present after admission into hospital. In the advanced Stage of the disease the eyes were dull and inexpressive : sometimes they were suffused with tears. The skin was not only clammy and cold, but in many cases it was soft, and felt more like a wet hide, than an animated sub- stance. Some of those affected complained of a sense of extreme hunger, and earnestly begged for something to eat. These cases hurriedly devoured a portion of the food which was brought to them. One man died while in the act of swallow- ing a morsel of bread which he had chewed. As death approached, many of the patients evinced much uneasiness and anxiety by frequently changing their posture, and tossing their limbs about in bed. Often they could not assign a particular spot where the cause of their distress seemed to originate: sometimes they referred the source of their uneasiness to the epigastric region. The feeble remains of vitality soon disappeared. Many N 3