7 i 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



livid or mahogany color, and there are frequent haemorrhages from the 

 mouth, nose, eyes, cr even under the skin, forming livid spots and 

 blotches. The body now exhales a cadaverous odor, the tendons of the 

 wrist twitch convulsively, hiccough is constant, the features are jrinched 

 and ghastly, cold sweats come on, and the patient passes awav in con- 

 vulsions or coma, though occasionally he retains his intellectual facul- 

 ties unimpaired to the last. 



Patients may recover in either of the three stages above described. 

 A favorable termination is indicated by a gradual amelioration of all 

 the symptoms, or sometimes by profuse perspiration, sudden cessation 

 of nausea, rapid return of the pulse to its natural fullness and strength, 

 or other marked event, which seems to indicate a crisis in the dis- 

 ease. 



The symptoms of yellow fever vary exceedingly at different times, 

 in different localities, and in different persons. Sometimes a person is 

 smitten with the disease as with apoplexy, falls into a profound col- 

 lapse, and dies in a few hours. Others walk about the room, or even 

 out in the street, and insist that they are perfectly well ; or, if they 

 acknowledge that anything is the matter with them, complain merely 

 of weariness or debility. They often betray no symptom of the dis- 

 ease to the casual observer ; but the physician will see an expression 

 of dullness or listlessness in the face, and a wateriness of the eye, and 

 will find the pulse feeble or even absent. The patient may even be talk- 

 ing, smoking, or reading, when black-vomit comes on, and he is speedily 

 a corpse. To a non-professional person the exceeding variability of 

 the symptoms cannot, perhaps, be better shown than by quoting a line 

 or two from the work of La Loche, of 1,400 pages, on " Yellow Fever: " 

 " The skin is hot, dry, harsh, and pungent, or it may be dry, unctuous, 

 or perspiring, flabby, and cold. . . . The pulse becomes rapid, irregu- 

 lar, and depressed ; or, more generally, it is natural in frequency, or even 

 slower than in health." And this, of the post-mortem appearances, is a 

 gem in its way : " The liver is usually of a light-yellow, nankeen, fresh- 

 butter, straw, coffee-and-milk, gum-yellow, buff, gamboge, light-orange, 

 or pistachio color ; or it may be dark-yellow, brown, red, purple, bluish, 

 slate, chocolate, or livid." Even the characteristic symptoms of yellow 

 skin and black-vomit may occur in other diseases, and they may both 

 be absent in yellow fever. These differences in the disease are largely 

 due, in all probability, to individual idiosyncrasies, and to the simulta- 

 neous presence of other morbid processes. Thus, the present terrible 

 epidemic at the South, from all we can learn, seems to be decidedly 

 modified by the malarial atmosphere of that region, and presents so 

 many of the features of the pernicious malarial fevers that some physi- 

 cians (whether competent or not I do not know) decline to report their 

 cases as yellow fever. 



The disease lasts from three to nine days, and in severe cases re- 

 covery is apt to be very slow. Relapses are not common. The black- 



