A contribution to the natural history of scarlatina derived from observations on the London epidemic of 1887-1888, being a dissertation for the degree of doctor of medicine in the University of Oxford / by D. Astley Gresswell.

  • Gresswell, Astley.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A contribution to the natural history of scarlatina derived from observations on the London epidemic of 1887-1888, being a dissertation for the degree of doctor of medicine in the University of Oxford / by D. Astley Gresswell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    became normal, morning and evening. Of the patients whose temperatures were carefully and regularly taken for several weeks morning and evening, and who had been admitted to hospital not later than the seventh day, I am limited to those under twelve years of age. Of these there were only eighty-eight, viz., twenty- four who were attacked in November, thirty-four in December, and thirty in January. In regard to others attacked in these several months, it is necessary to say that want of regularity in registering the temperature was due to forgetfulness or actual inability to take it twice (at 8 a.m. and 7 p.m.) each day: it was in no way owing to mildness of attack ; in other words, no par- ticular class of case was selected for thermometric observation. I mention this with the view of emphasizing the fact that the patients about to be referred to were in no way whatever selected. The temperature, taken in all instances at approximately the same times, was normal, or, I should say, was below 99° F., both morning and evening, for the first time, among the 24 Nov. cases in J2-i days from the beginning of the illness as an average 3^ Dec. „ I I.I „ „ „ „ „ 30 Jan. „ 9.8 „ „ „ „ As already said, not one of these patients was admitted later than the seventh day of illness; and it appears that of the whole number (eighty-eight) of them as many as eighty were admitted on or before the fifth day. Age and sex cannot be supposed to have largely, if at all, influenced the above results ; for the patients, all of whom were under twelve years of age, were distributed very uniformly as regards age and sex, as they were also in regard to stage of illness on admission to hospital. In none was the tem- perature above normal for more than eighteen days; so that the monthly differences cannot be attributed to inclusion of cases of exceptional severity. And not one of these patients was treated with stimulants or with oxygen. I am not prepared now to give more complete observations on the febrile period, not having yet had opportunity for examining the many complicating cross-relations, which would need to be considered were an exhaustive exposition of the subject attempted.