Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 4, 1802).djvu/404

370J YEL prodigiously flushed ; the eyes are red and watery ; the whole physi-* ognoniy of the patient is ver)- pe- ' culiar, denoting anxiety and de- jeftion of mind ; and this unna- tural appearance continues, till re- covery begins to lake place. Tlie pulse, in the beginning, is frequent, foil, and hard, sometimes irregular; the heat of the body very great ; and the patient labours under great inquietude. This state of the fe- ver continues for a longer or short- er period 5 sometimes only for a few hours; at others, for several days ; and, when the ardent symp- toms begin to decline, if not soon- er, an irritation at the stomach commences, which is hardly, by any means, to be subdued, or even allayed. The patient now feels himself in other respefts well; his pulse and heat being nearly na- tural, and he has seldom any re- turn of fever; but the irritation and anguish at tJie stomach con- tinuing, he at length vomits black- ish matter ; his eyes and neck first become yellow, and then the whole body. Blood flows from the mouth and nose : Delirium, preceded by a hurried, perturbed state of mind, and great restlessness, at length comes on ; ending in total in- sensibility, &c. and ultimately in death." The yellowness of the skin, how- ever, is not a constant symptom ; for sometimes it does not appear, or at least not till after deatli. Dr. Dancer farther observes, that the yellow fever is particularly distin- guished by its sudden attack ; as it is seldom, like other fevers, pre- ceded with any symptoms of lan- guor, weariness, &c. ; by its hav- ing no Very setsible abatement or remission, till it totally subsides; hy the extraordinary angtiish about YEL the fore-part of the chest, ancf 3t the same time a torpid state of the bowels ; so that the strongest pur- gatives, and in large doses, arc often attended with little or no effea. Such are the general symptoms, attending this fever in Jamaica ; but numerous variations often oc- cur ill America, and other warm climates, where it is modified by the season of the year, or other cir- cumstances, which our limits will not permit us to detail : we shall, therefore, briefly n)ention the sup- posed origin of this malady, and exiiibit an account of the treatment that ought to be adopted. The yellow fever is certainly endemial in the West Indies : its cause is reputed to be a peculiat contagion, which very generally afFefts persons re cently arrived from a cold climate, and especially Euro- peans, or those who have not long resided iu hot countries. Female^, and negroes are, in general, exempt from its influence ; but mulaltoes and tawnies, or such as are de- scended from European and black, parents, are equally subject to the fever with the whites. — From the West Indies, this epidemic has been conveyed to America, where it committed dreadful ravages, in the year 1793, especially in the province of Pennsylvania : nor is aiiy person, who has once been seized with with it, secure from a second attack. Cure .- — Conformably to the symptoms above staled, and drawn from aftual observation by Dr. Dahcer, w^e shall first exhibit bi» mode of treatment, in the difltrcnt stages of the jxllow fever, as ap- plicable to the climate of Jamaica. He previously remarks, that his ac- count, though incomplete, is suffr- cicntly