Objections to the term "purpuraemia" being applied to the disease known as "haemorrhagic malarial fever" / by R.F. Michel.

  • Michel, R. Frazer (Richard Frazer), 1827-1907.
Date:
[1870?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Objections to the term "purpuraemia" being applied to the disease known as "haemorrhagic malarial fever" / by R.F. Michel. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    TO THE TERM PURPUR>EMIA BEING APPLIED TO THE DISEASE KNOWN AS ^HEMORRHAGIC MALARIAL FEVER. BY R. F. MICHEL As an effort has been made to call the disease which I described at our last meeting as hemorrhagic malarial fever11 purpuraeinia, I desire to enter my objections to this term, as applied to this mal- ady, upon the following grounds: First. That the name purpursemia gives us no idea of the disease. Second. That the presence of purpurme in the urine is by no means pathognomonic of boemorrhagic malarial fever, and is fre- quently found as an ingredient of the urine in many diseases. Third. That the presence of purpurine in the urine of patients laboring under hsemorrhagic malarial fever is exceedingly rare, and must be regarded by pathologists as the exception and not the rulej, while blood has been recognized in the urine of this disease by all who have examined it carefully. Fourth. That the substance purpurine is called by as many names as we have writers upon the subject; and that its true chem- ical character is almost, if not entirely, undetermined in science. In the first place this disease is A fever, most frequently of an intermittent type, and occasionally remittent in its character, with regular intermissions, remissions and exacerbations recognized by all who have seen and described it. It is produced by a poison which we term malaria, and is controlled (if ever) by remedies which are regarded as almost specific in diseases produced by a similar cause. It is the only malarial affection with which I am acquainted that bleeds, or (to use more medical language) in which there is A hemorrhage from the kidneys. Now, with such a picture before us, tell me what signification does purpurgemia cover % The presence of purpurine in the urine cannot be regarded as pathognomonic of hemorrhagic malarial fever, tor we know that it of Montgomery.