Miss Shortall had an eruption of pimples on her breast, such as I have described in the short account I gave of the yellow fever of 1762 in this city, in my account of the disease in 1793.
The blood exhibited its usual appearances in the yellow fever. It was seldom sizy till towards the close of the disease.
The tongue was generally whitish. Sometimes it was of a red colour, and had a polished appearance. I saw no case of a black tongue, and but few that were yellow before the seventh day of the disease.
The type of this disease was nearly the same as described in 1797. It now and then appeared in the form of a quartan, in which state it generally proved fatal. It appeared with rheumatic pains in one of my patients. It blended itself with gout and small-pox. Its union with the latter disease was evident in two patients in the city hospital, in each of whom the stools were such as were discharged in the most malignant state of the fever.
The remedies for this fever were bleeding, vomits, purges, sweats, and a salivation and blisters.
There were few cases that did not indicate bleeding. It was performed, when proper, in the usual way, and with its usual good effects. It was indicated as much when the disease appeared in the bowels as in the blood-vessels. Mr. Roan, in whom it was accompanied with symptoms of dysentery, lost nearly 200 ounces of blood by twenty-two bleedings.
I found the same benefit from emetics, in this fever, that I did in the fever of 1798. They were never administered except on the first day, before violent action had taken place in the system, or after it was moderated by one or two bleedings.
Purges of calomel and jalap, also castor oil, salts, and injections were prescribed with their usual advantages.
In those cases where the system was prostrated below the point of re-action, I began the cure by sweating. Blankets, with hot bricks wetted with vinegar, and the hot bath, as mentioned formerly, when practicable, were used for this purpose. The latter produced, in a boy of 14 years of age, who came into the city hospital without a pulse, and with a cold skin, in a few hours, a general warmth and an active pulse. The determination of the disease to the pores was evinced in one of my patients, by her sweating under the use of the above-mentioned remedies, for the first time in her life. A moisture upon her skin had never before been induced, she informed me, even by the warmest day in summer.