The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1883-04-18
A CARD ERo4 DIR. NELSON.

feel il my duty 20 make Statement,
of the facts. The first case was that OF
MIR. Ton Read recently returned home
from Mississippi, where he had been
working on railroad In the swamps,
and after the food in that section, he
worked on the levees. was called TO
see him at Mrs. Reads house on the
] 18th March, and learned that he had
had or 8 chills before leaving Missis-
sippi; that he was taken with n severe
chill on nth. followed by high fever,
pain in head and back and nausea and
vomiting. The next day I called to see
him and found him still suffering with
the same symptoms and on the same
evening discovered patches Of discolor-
ed skin upon his body, which remained
discolored under pressure. Ga the fol-
lowing day, March Goth, called again
and found his disease fully developed;
the patches Of discolored skin were
larger and more numerous, with large
discharges of blood from the bowels,
and his tongue presented an appearance
had never seen before in q practice of
"a years. II looked as though he had
Tapped it in . cup of cream, only it was
whittier than cream. ! called in DR..
John Howell, who stated that he had
never seen such Q tongue, but that it
certainly indicated very grave disease.
/ returned to my office to investigate
the case and was soon satisfied that the
case was one of hemorrhagic malarial
fever. About this time DR.. David
Shields came to my Office and told him
that / had a patient who was going to
die, that had never before seen such a
case and told the Doctor his symptoms
and my diagnosis. DR.. Shields then
told me that Professor Madden had de-
livered lecture the past winter in
Nashville on henorrhagic malaria, and
that the symptoms which l gave him,
were precisely the ones mentioned by
the Professor as belonging TO that dis
ease and furthermore stated that the
Professor said the creamy tongue was
pathognomonic Of the disease; or in
other words, this peculiar tongue points
unerringly and invariably to malignant
malarial fever and excludes all other
diseases. Drs. Shields aud Howell then
accompanied me to see the patient, and
after a careful examination agreed with
me, that the disease was hemorrhagic
malarial fever. The discolored spots
inferred were hemorrhagic, as they did
not disappear under pressure, which
they would have done had HIS disease
been an exanthem. These discelored
spots became larger and larger and after
his death, which occurred on the 21st
March, nearly the entire surface was
discolOred. The amount of blood pass
ed from the bowels was about one gal
lon. When asked If Mr.. Reads disease
was contagious, 1 unhesitstipgly an
swered no, as any intelligent physician
knows that no malarial disease is conta-
gious.
The next case was that of Mrs Read,
who was taken sick early on Friday
night, March Both, and who vomited al
most necessarily until Sunday morning
April LIST, when l was called to see her.
She complained of no pain whatever,
had no fever and had no symptoms of
disease except the vomiting. Her skin
was a little sallow and her tongue
slightly furred. / did not relieve her
entirely until Monday morning, about
o'clock, at which time she slept an
hour, the first sleep she had since
stricken down. called to see her at
noon and in the evening aud she stated
that she felt as well as she ever did
with the exception of weakness. I eau
toned her about eating, and feeling
that she was entirely out of danger left
her. half after one o'clock, Tuesday
morning, / was called to see her again,
and found her free from all pain--nO.
nausea, no fever, but restless; and she
stated that she could not sleep. I pre-
scribed choral to be repeated every 1t
hours until she slept. Upon visiting
her Tuesday msrning about o'clock, I
was surprised to learn that she had slep
none, but found her still free from pain,
nausea or fever, but very restless.
Upon inquiry, 1 learned the nurse had
failed to repeat the chloral, so gave
another dose and requested the nurse to
repeat 1t every II hours until she slept.
On my next visit, between 10 and
O'Clock, found that she still had not
slept and that from some unaecounta-
BILE cause she had not been given the
chlsral since morning. From her feeble
pulse, purple nails and nose. saw she
was sinking and endeavored in every
way TO bring about reaction, but failed.
All that evening she complained of her
back, but she attributed that to the fact
that she could not wear her jacket
when in bed--she had had spinal dis
ease for long time called in DIR.
Howell late in the evening, told him
what had given her and he remarked
that il that did not bring about reac-
tion nothing would. She died about 10
o'clock Tuesday night, April Sd, in q
state of collapse resulting from gastritis
I-was frequently asked IL Mrs. Reads
disease was contagious and answered
no-and the idea OF gastritis being con-
tagious is simply absurd.
On the first day WAS called to see
Mrs. Read, she requested me to see her
little colored servant, Kate. I found
her with a high fever and pain in head
and back, and tongue furred. Large
doses of quinine seemed TO relieve the
fever and pain in head, but she still
complained of her back, and, learning
from the colored cook that she had
passed no urine for some time, I gave
her large doses of bromide potash,
which acted well upon the kidneys and
relieved her back. On the next even
ing Monday / discovered a few
r.