The countenance sometimes put on a ghastly appearance in the height of a paroxysm of the fever. The face of a lady, admired when in health for uncommon beauty, was so much distorted by the commotions of her whole system, in a fit of the fever, as to be viewed with horror by all her friends.
VI. The senses and appetites were affected in this fever in the following manner.
A total blindness occurred in two persons during the exacerbation of the fever, and ceased during its remissions. A great intolerance of light occurred in several cases. It was most observable in John Madge during his convalescence.
A soreness in the sense of touch was so exquisite in Mrs. Kapper, about the crisis of her fever, that the pressure of a piece of fine muslin upon her skin gave her pain.
Peter Brown, with great heat in his skin, and a quick pulse, had no thirst, but a most intense degree of thirst was very common in this fever. It produced the same extravagance of expression that I formerly said was produced by pain. One of my patients, Mr. Cole, said he “could drink up the ocean.” I did not observe thirst to be connected with any peculiar state of the pulse.
George Eyre and Henry Clymer had an unusual degree of appetite, just before the usual time of the return of a paroxysm of fever.
A young man complained to me of being afflicted with nocturnal emissions of seed during his convalescence. This symptom is not a new one in malignant fevers. Hippocrates takes notice of it[112]. I met with one instance of it among the sporadic cases of yellow fever which occurred in 1795. It sometimes occurs, according to Lomius, in the commotions of the whole system which take place in epilepsy.
VII. The disease made an impression upon the lymphatic system. Four of my patients had glandular swellings: two of them were in the groin; a third was in the parotid; and the fourth was in the maxillary glands. Two of these swellings suppurated.
VIII. The yellowness of the skin, which sometimes attends this fever, was more universal, but more faint than in the year 1793. It was, in many cases, composed of such a mixture of colours, as to resemble polished mahogany. But, in a few cases, the yellowness was of a deep orange colour. The former went off with the fever, but the latter often continued for several weeks after the patients recovered. In some instances a red colour predominated to such a degree in the face, as to produce an appearance of inflammation.
In Mrs. Vogles a yellowness appeared in her eyes during the paroxysm of her fever, and went off in its remissions.