ry irritable, rejecting
every kind of food, and all drinks, except, perhaps, a few drops of ice
water. There is a peculiar distressed feeling in the stomach, often a
burning sensation, so that, if suffered to do so, he would take large
quantities of ice or water. One remarkable feature of the cases noticed
in the epidemic, as it existed in New Orleans the past season, was, that
the patients had a great desire for food, notwithstanding the nausea and
distress at the stomach.
Sooner or later, varying from a few hours to several days, in the
ordinary course of the disease, the fever subsides. From this time the
patient may recover without any further symptoms, but this is, by no
means, the usual result. If the subsidence of the fever is accompanied
by natural pulse, a free, but not profuse or prostrating perspiration,
a genial warmth of the surface, natural appearance of the countenance,
eyes, and tongue, with little or no soreness on pressure over the
stomach, we may safely look for a speedy recovery. But if, on the
contrary, the eyes, face, and tongue, become yellow, or orange-colored,
the epigastrium is tender to pressure, the urine has a yellow tinge, the
pulse becomes unnaturally slow, with the least degree of mental stupor,
we have reason to know, full well, that the lull of the fever is only
the calm preceding a more destructive storm. The fever has subsided,
only because exhausted nature could re-act no longer. It may be in a few
hours, or not until twelve or twenty-four have elapsed, the pulse
becomes quickened, even to the frequency of 120 to 140 in a minute, but
very feeble, the extremities of the fingers and toes turn purple or
dark, the tongue becomes brown and dry, or is clean, red, and cracked,
sordes may be on the teeth, the stomach become more irritable, nausea
and vomiting are extreme, the substances vomited being, at first,
reddish, afterwards watery, containing floculae, like soot, or coffee
grounds; the breath becomes foul, and the whole surface emits a
sickening odor. The pulse becomes very small, though the carotid and
temporal arteries beat violently. The urine fails to be secreted, and
later, blood is discharged from the mucous surfaces, involuntary
discharges from the bowels, clammy sweats; and death follows.
The disease runs its course in from three to seven days, sometimes
proves fatal in less than a day, and at others, assumes a typhoid form,
and runs for weeks. Occasionally it sets in witho
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