This disastrous pestilence, which proved, if possible, more fatal and terrific than the cholera, made its first appearance in London, in 1480 or 1483, first showing itself in the army of Henry VII. on his landing at Milford Haven. In London it only broke out a year or two after, and visited that capital occasionally for upwards of forty years. It then spread to Holland, Germany, Belgium, Flanders, France, Denmark, and Norway, where it continued its ravages from 1525 to 1530; it then returned to England, and was observed for the last time in 1551. Dr. Caius calls it a pestilential fever of one day; and it prevailed, he says, with a mighty slaughter, and the description of it was as tremendous as that of the plague of Athens. Dr. Willis states that its malignity was so extreme, that as soon as it entered a city it made a daily attack on five or six hundred persons, of whom scarcely one in a hundred recovered. This malignant fever ran its course in a single paroxysm; and the cold fit and hot fit were equally fatal. If the patient was fortunate enough to reach the sweating stage, he was in general saved. It commenced its attack with a pain in the muscles of the neck, shoulders, legs, and arms, through which a warm aura seemed to creep; after these symptoms a profuse perspiration broke forth. The internal organs grew gradually hot and burning, the pungent heat extending to the extremities; with an One of the most singular features of this malady was its only attacking the English. Foreigners, and even the Scotch and Irish, in England, seemed to be exempted from this scourge, which attacked the monarch himself, and two Dukes of Suffolk, who sunk under its virulence. In Westminster the number of daily deaths averaged one hundred and twenty. It may be easily imagined that this special liability of Englishmen to contract the disease was attributed to Divine wrath for their manifold offences; and we find the following lines in Phemtophius: Coelestia numina nobis Dr. Armstrong has also recorded this peculiar visitation in the following: Some, sad at home, and, in the desert, some, A disease somewhat similar manifested itself in Picardy in 1773, having first appeared at Hardivilliers, five leagues from Beauvais; but, instead of terminating in a single day, it ran on to the third, fifth, and seventh: a fever of the same description was also observed in Gascony. But of all the maladies that affect cutaneous transpiration, diapedesis, or sweating of blood, is the most singular; so much so, indeed, that its existence has been doubted, although several well authenticated cases are on record, both in the ancient and modern annals of medicine. It is mentioned by Theophrastus and Aristotle, while Lucan thus describes it: Sic omnia membra The detestable Charles IX. of France sunk under this disorder, thus described by Mezeray: “La nature fit d’Étranges efforts pendant les deux derniÈres semaines de la vie de ce Roi. Il s’agitait et se remuait sans cesse; le sang lui rejalliait par les pores et par tous les conduits de son corps. AprÈs avoir longtems souffert, il tomba dans une extrÈme faiblesse et rendit l’ame.” The same historian relates the case of a governor of a town taken by storm, who was condemned to die, but was seized with a profuse sweating of blood the moment he beheld the scaffold. Lombard mentions a general who was affected in a similar manner on losing a battle. The same writer tells us of a nun who was so terrified when falling into the hands of a ruthless banditti, that blood oozed from every pore. Henry ab Heer records the case of a man who not only laboured under diapedesis, but small worms accompanied the bloody secretion. The case of Catherine Merlin, of Chamberg, is well authenticated, and worthy of being recorded. She was a woman of forty-six years of age, strong and hale. She received a kick from a bullock in the epigastric region, that was followed by vomiting of blood: this discharge having been suddenly stopped by her medical attendants, the blood made its way through the pores of various parts of her body, every limb being affected in turn. The sanguineous discharge was invariably preceded by a prickly and itching sensation; frequently this itching Dr. Fournier relates the case of a magistrate who was attacked with diapedesis after any excitement, whether of a pleasurable or a painful nature. A singular idiosyncrasy was transmitted to her male children by an American Female named Smith, occasioning a severe hÆmorrhage wherever the skin was slightly pricked or scratched. This loss of blood would sometimes continue for several days. Several of her sons sunk under the affection, which was found at last to yield to the sulphate of soda. What is most singular, all her daughters were exempted from this fearful predisposition. It is probable that this strange disorder arises from a violent commotion of the nervous system, turning the streams of blood out of their natural course, and forcing the red particles into the cutaneous excretories. A mere relaxation of the fibres could not produce so powerful a revulsion. It may also arise in cases of extreme debility in connexion with a thinner condition of the blood. Curious cases are recorded of a sandy sweat, in which the perspiration becomes crystallized on the surface of the skin. Bartholinus, Schunig, and Mollenbroek have related several cases of the kind. It is probable, as Mason Good observes, that this morbid secretion may arise from an excess of uric acid, translated from the kidneys to the skin; this sand is generally of the same red colour as that of the renal secretions deposited in a lateritious sediment. Scented perspiration is another singular peculiarity. This odour, frequently unpleasant, has also been known to shed an agreeable aroma, compared to the perfume of violets, roses, and musk. This quality is common in various animals; in the Simia jacchus, hedgehogs, hares, serpents, and crocodiles. The Viverra zibetha and V. civetta yield this odour abundantly; and it has been observed in a faint degree in our domestic cat. Many insects exhale an agreeable odour; especially the Cerambix moschatus, the Apis fragrans, the Tipula mochifera. The Cerambix suaveolens emits a delicious smell of roses, and the Petiolated sphex a highly fragrant balsamic ether. In the Memoirs of the Queen of Navarre, we read that Catherine de Medicis was a perfect nosegay; and Cujacius and Lord Herbert of Cherbury were equally distinguished by the suavity of their transpiration. The quantity of perspiration secreted by a well-grown adult weighing about one hundred and forty-six pounds, is at the rate of twenty-eight ounces in the twenty-four hours, sixteen ounces during the period usually allotted to waking, and twelve ounces during sleep.[49] It is not so much increased by moderate elevation of temperature as might be imagined; it appears increased after meals and during sleep. While the skin thus secretes so considerable a quantity of watery fluid, its powers of absorption are wonderful, and are frequently resorted to for medicinal purposes. This absorption evidently tends to assist in repairing the strength. A boy at Newcastle who had been greatly reduced for a race, gained thirty ounces in weight in the course of an hour, during which time he had only taken a glass of wine. Dr. Home, after going to bed much fatigued and supperless, gained two ounces before the morning. Keill says that one night he gained eighteen ounces in his sleep. Immersion in water and damp air materially increases this power. Frogs, toads, even lizards, increase in weight although only partially dipped in water; and remarkably so if previously deprived of part of their moisture by exposure to air. The power of absorbing medicinal substances when immersed in their solution has been demonstrated by Dr. Massy, an American physician, who found that if the body was immersed in a decoction of madder,[50] this substance immediately tinged the renal secretion. Dr. Rousseau made a similar experiment with rhubarb. It is now clearly demonstrated that friction is not necessary to produce absorption. The keenness of the deaf and dumb boy in ascertaining the effluvium of various individuals, to which I have alluded, induces me to give a short sketch of this curious individual. His name was James Mitchell; and having no other source by which he could discover or keep up a connexion with surrounding objects than those of smell, taste, and touch, he depended chiefly upon the first, like a domestic dog, in distinguishing |