Lincoln telegraph. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1836-1846, 1840-02-20
So ALE pUx.
next week

G-4 n LIZ EOAs
The ;ollowne extracts of a letter from DR.,
McKeen, to gentleman in this Town, Oh the
subject Of Small Por, will be read with interest.
ToPsuAM, Feb. Is, 1910.
DEAR SIR In reply to your inquiries, viii
state that on Thursday the 9Th inst was re-
quested to visit the wife of Mr.. Thomas Percy of
Bath, in consultation This lady had sickened
some days previously with disease, which some
had supposed Small Pox, and others Erysipcas.
Before answering your nterrogatories directly,
let us glance at the we'll known physical signs of
Erysipelas, and Small Pox, and then with their
established standard compare the cases in cues
ton.
Erysipeas, as is we'll known, comes with
severe shiverings, and the ordinary symptoms of
fever, which may be considered the formative
stage of the disease, and which lasts from 80 to
60 hours; at the close of this period, go to so.
hours) sense of soreness and burning heat is
felt in some one part of the body; it may be upon
the head, the face, perhaps one of the extremi-
ties. The skin such part, if examined, is
found red, tense, somewhat swollen, and little
painful when pressed This red surface, is con-
tinuous and unbroken; the skin too is smooth !;
there are neither pimples, pustules, spots or
patches intermingled with the natural skin. This
uninteruptedly red and swollen surface may for
some days extend its border, but it is invariably
bound by distinct margin, which terminates
abruptly in the sound skin.
This latter feature Of the disease, is peculiar
and remarkable, and assists us in discriminating
Eryspclas, from a thousand other affections
which have some of its characters in common.
After the second stage has continued about 30
hours the redness, pufiness and soreness increas.
ing all the while, small fiat elevations appear,
which upon examination, prove to be little bis.
in diameter, and sometimes they are as large as
quarter Of dollar They lool. as if Spanish flies
had been rubbed upon the skin, until the blister
ing process had commenced.
So far as the skin is concerned, have stated
most Of the characters which are necessary for
the purpose Of identifying Eryspelas--they have
been confirmed by personal familiarity and Oh
servation Of the disease for 20 years.
Let US now examine the external physical
characters of Small Pox, and we shall find that
the two diseases are totally dissimilar, and that
they always are so, with such exceptions as will
be stated. Nature is particularly tenacious of
uniformity in all her operations, and the grand
outlines of all diseases, and even their more mi
mute physical characters, are respectively and in
remarkable degree the same.
In the onset there is a sense of cold, and the
usual phenomena Of fever with more or less dis
tress. This preparatory stage lasts from three to
four days On the evening of the Sd, or the
morning of the 4th day, the skin becomes itchy,
and minute red spots, and sometimes patches,
are observed on the face the forehead, about
the upper lip, the sides Of the nose, and the chin
and then on the neck, breast and upper extrema-
ties; next on the belly and back, and last of all
on the lower limbs
Soon after the eruption shows itself upon the 4th
day, if the hand be brushed over the pimpes,
they are found to feel they look, like rough
and hard little knots in the skin, forming nota
bic contrast with the slaoothness observed in
Erysipelas. These pimples enlarge at their
margin, with slight redness of damask colour
in the neighboring skin, and then, their level or
fattened SUBMITS begin to show whitened points,
as if the uplifted cuticle contained within it, q
semi-transparent fluid. On the eighth day, the
original pimpes have passed through their vesic-
ular or watery form, and have become naturcd
pu3tules.
When the pustules are few in numb r, and
patches Of healthy skin intervene between them,
the disease is then called Distinct Small Poo.
When they are numerous and coalesce together,
it is said to be Continent. The latter is much the
more violent and dangerous, and the several pro-
cesses succeed each other with greater rapidly,
The eruption on the skin, for example, shows it
self from twelve to twenty-four hours earlier, in
the Continent, than it does in the Distinct Small
Pox
While there is, as has already been stated, a
remarkable uniformity in the general characters
of Small Pox, it is not pretended but that there
are material differences observed in the phenom-
ena and progress of individualcascs. These are
mostly referable to the character of the subject.
If he be healthy and ful-bloodei, and accustom-