The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1876-08-01
Unparalleled Heat The Thermometer
Ranges from los TO ~ In tho
Shade
The Disease from Medical Standpoint,
Causes, symptoms, Treatment and
Prevention More than Half OfAll
Cases Fatal Three Deaths
on Sunday


of sunstroke took place. From eleven
to four o'clock the mercury began To
mount higher and higher until 1t
reached at one time Ia degrees in the
shade The oldest inhabitant does not
remember to have ever experienced
such weather.
In addition TO several eases which
were fatal many occurred in which the
extreme heat entirely Frustrated and
exhausted persons.
Among the deaths, thus far, are Mr..
David l.. Williams, clerk of the
Crutchiield House, who was found un-
conscious in ms room and died about
seven o'clock.
Nat. Hogan, said to be from Yer
mont, but recently employed in the
Planters House in st. Louis. He was
taken i'll in the morning and died in
the afternoon about four o'clock.
James Burke, II day laborer, with n
family dependent upon him, who was
in the employ of Mr.. II. l.. james, and
lived in camp near where the Central
switch crosses the ravlne near the
Lonergan foundry, was found dead by
his daughter who went to wake him
up
A man by the name of George
O'I'rien, forty.iive years Of age, was
found in m inscnsible condition near
u boiler not far from Parker's n.ill, and
was sufficiently restored to be carried
to the City Hospital. lie was shot IN
the head during the war, and his skull
Is supposed TO have been fractured.
suNsrRoKE.
Sunstroke, Latin salts ictItS; French,
coup dc soteji; German, SonncnStjch, J
also called insulation, heat appoplexy,
heat asphyXia and solar asphyxia, is
nm affection which suddenly attacks
persons exposed to the continual hot
rays of the sun or other sources of heat.
SYMPTOMS.
The symptoms vary considerably, ac-
cording to the nature and extent of the
injury. The patient Is usually attacked
In the midst of his employment, nj.
thnuuh pnn nt iunuu Ln iy ,,,, ,,n;,,,.l Am
In the night, especially il occupying
heated and badly ventilated quarters
There is loss ofConsciousness, and gener-
alstertorious breathing and commissions
and in worse cases there Ia extreme
prostrntion of the vital powers, and
the voluntary muscles are motion
less from the parayzed condition Of
the nervous system, the greatly imped-
ed functions of respiration and circula-
ton being the only signs of life.
ATTACK.
The attack usually comes in the
afternoon, partly because this is the
hottest part of the day, and also because
the subject has been laboring for many
hours and his vital powers are more
or less exhausted. The attack may be
Immediately preceded by premonitory
symptoms such rs feeling OF iullness
In the head ami oppression at the pit
OF the stomach, sometimes attended
with nausea and vomiting, and feel
ing of weakness in the lower eXtrem-
tiles, vertigo and dimness of vision.
CASES.
In sixty eases reported to the New
York Hospital by DR.: III. s. Swift,
t'New York Journal of Medicus 1854
surrounding objects appeared ola uni
form color, and generally blue or pur-
pie, but sometimes red, and at others
green. In light cases the insensibility
may be momentary, but In severe
cases the patient rapidly becomes
asphyXiated or comatose. The pupils
are sometimes dilated, and sometimes
contracted, and there may be dila-
ton and contraction at different stages
in the same case There is considera-
BILE and often very great increases in
the temperature OF the body. In cases
observed in Bellevue Hospital, New
York, in July, 1868, 1t frequently rose
to lOS,5o degrees Farenheit, and in
one instance to HOS degrees, and still
higher temperatures are recorded.
When it reaches l07 degrees, recovery
Is scarcely to be expected, although il
took place in the one instance at Belle.
yue, where it reached ll0.5 degrees.
vomiting during the unconscious peri-
cd, and In voluntary evacuation of the
bowels, are very grave symptoms.
Although in many cases as has been
observed, the symptoms vary with the
extent of the LESSONS. In the more pro. |
nounced cases, they are rather uniform,
the patient being completely without
sensation or motion, except that of res
piration, which is stertorous, though
less than in true apopleXy. The eyes
are fixed and turned upward, with a
CLASSY appearance, the pupils are great
ly contracted, and the conjunctives
are congested. Sometimes the whole
system OF voluntary muscles will be
and more rarely the pa.
tients appear to be in state analogous
to somnambulism, but the more fatal
eases are often entirely free from mo-
ton of the voluntary muscles.
In reports of cases occurring In the
British army In InGia, by Mr.. Long.
more, in which he designated foul air
Of badly ventilated quarters as an
active cause. The pathological condi.