[33] “6. Mem. Scav. Etrang. p. 528.”
[34] “Mem. Par. 1777, p. 146.”
[35] Columbian Magazine, for October, 1786.
[36] Observations on the Air and Epidemic Diseases, vol. I. p. 5.
AN ACCOUNT
OF THE
BILIOUS REMITTING FEVER,
AS IT APPEARED
IN PHILADELPHIA,
IN THE SUMMER AND AUTUMN OF THE YEAR 1780.
Before I proceed to describe this fever, it will be necessary to give a short account of the weather, and of the diseases which preceded its appearance.
The spring of 1780 was dry and cool. A catarrh appeared among children between one year, and seven years of age. It was accompanied by a defluxion from the eyes and nose, and by a cough and dyspnœa, resembling, in some instances, the cynanche trachealis, and in others a peripneumony. In some cases it was complicated with the symptoms of a bilious remitting, and intermitting fever. The exacerbations of this fever were always attended with dyspnœa and cough. A few patients expectorated blood. Some had swellings behind their ears, and others were affected with small ulcers in the throat. I met with only one case of this fever in which the pulse indicated bleeding. The rest yielded in a few days to emetics, blisters, and the bark, assisted by the usual more simple remedies in such diseases.