CHAPTER VI.
SWEATING SICKNESSES.
Ἔστι γὰρ τὸ πάθος λύσις τῶν δεσμῶν τῆς εἰς ζωὴν δυνάμιος.
Aretæus.
Sect. 1.—The Cardiac Disease of the Ancients.
(Morbus Cardiacus.)
Thus by the autumn of 1551, the Sweating Sickness had vanished from the earth: it has never since appeared as it did then and at earlier periods; and it is not to be supposed, that it will ever again break forth as a great epidemic in the same form, and limited to a four-and-twenty hours’ course; for it is manifest, that the mode of living of the people had a great share in its origin; and this will never again be the same as in those days. Yet nature is not wanting in similar phenomena, which have appeared in ancient and modern times; and if we take into the account the great frequency of cognate rheumatic maladies, it is possible that isolated cases may have sometimes occurred, in which repletion of impure fluids, and violently inflammatory treatment have augmented a rheumatic fever, even to the destruction of nervous vitality, by means of profuse perspiration—only, perhaps, that they ran a longer course, (which does not constitute an essential difference,) and under totally different names, whereby attention is misled. Of all the diseases that have ever appeared which can in any way be compared to the English Sweating Sickness, we have principally three to look back upon—the cardiac disease of the ancients, the Picardy sweat, and the sweating fever of Rötingen. The first was, for reasons which have been already mentioned[465], almost unknown to the learned of the sixteenth century; and it is matter of surprise, that Kaye himself, who had chosen for his favourite the best Roman physician, we mean Celsus, could have so entirely overlooked his by no means unimportant statements respecting this disease. Houlier is the only author who ventures a comparison of the English Sweating Sickness with the ancient cardiac disease; his few, and almost lost words[466], remained however unheeded; nor are the differences between the two diseases small: but to return.
The disease of which we are speaking appeared for a period of 500 years, (from 300 b.c. to 200 after Christ,) and was a common, almost every day occurrence, which is often mentioned even by non-medical writers. It was exceedingly dangerous, and even esteemed fatal; and as it was far above the reach of Greek physiology, there were not wanting extraordinary opinions respecting its nature, and bold and singular modes of treatment, to which those who were attacked were subjected. The name Cardiac disease (morbus cardiacus, νόσος καρδιακὴ and probably also νόσος καρδίτις,) was not bestowed by medical men, but by the people; who, in the fourth century before Christ, for the name is as ancient as that period, could not know that the learned would dispute on that subject. Some affirmed, and among them men of great authority, such as Erasistratus, Asclepiades, and Aretæus, that the people were in the right so to call the disease; that the heart was actually the part affected, and that their knowledge of the heart’s functions was by no means small[467]. Others, on the contrary, would only acknowledge in that name an expression indicative, not of the particular seat of the disease, but only of its importance, inasmuch as the heart is well adapted, as the centre and source of life, to indicate this[468]. Others again, who attempted more refined conjectures, wished to represent the pericardium as the seat of the malady, because darting pains were sometimes felt[469] in the region of the heart, or the diaphragm, or the lungs, or even the liver. The opinions were numerous; the actual knowledge was small[470].
The cardiac disease began with rigors and a numbness in the limbs[471], and sometimes even throughout the whole body. The pulse then took on the worst condition, was small, weak, frequent, empty, and as if dissolving; in a more advanced stage, unequal and fluttering, until it became completely extinct. Patients were affected with hallucinations[472]; they were sleepless, despaired of their recovery, and were usually covered suddenly with an ill-savoured perspiration over the whole body, whence the disorder was likewise called Diaphoresis. Sometimes, however, a washy sweat broke out, first on the face and neck. This then spread itself over the whole body; assumed a very disagreeable odour, became clammy and like water in which flesh had been macerated, and ran through the bed-clothes in streams, so that the patient seemed to be melting away[473]. The breath was short and panting almost to annihilation (insustentabilis). Those affected were in continual fear of suffocation[474]; tossed to and fro in the greatest anguish, and with a very thin and trembling voice uttered forth only broken words. They constantly felt an insufferable oppression in the left side, or even over the whole chest[475]; and in the paroxysms which were ushered in with a fainting fit, or were followed by one, the heart was tumultuous and palpitated, without any alteration in the smallness of the pulse[476]. The countenance was pale as death, the eyes sunk in their sockets, and when the disease took a fatal turn, all was darkness around them. The hands and feet turned blue; and whilst the heart, notwithstanding the universal coldness of the body, still beat violently, they for the most part retained possession of their senses. A few only wandered a short time before death, while others were even seized with convulsions and endowed with the power of prophecy[477]. Finally, the nails became curved on their cold hands, the skin was wrinkled, and thus the sufferers resigned their spirit without any mitigation of their miserable condition[478].