ILLNESS. 361 



December 10 and 11 he reported that he felt very well. On December 

 12 he reported that he felt weak and that his throat was a little sore. 

 His temperature at 5^ 45"" a. m. was 99.6° F. He was therefore ex- 

 cused from the respiration test and stayed in bed with a headache and 

 a poor appetite. December 13 he reported himself as feeling better, 

 with a temperature of 100.5° F. in the early morning. The tempera- 

 ture, taken at 2 p. m. by a local physician, was reported as 102° F. 

 and the pulse rate as 120. At 6^ 30™ p. m. the temperature was 

 102.5° F. and the pulse-rate was 102. The physician and two others 

 suspected typhoid fever and advised him to return home. On 

 December 15, although he still had a high fever, he went to his 

 home at Andover, Massachusetts, and the case was pronounced 

 typhoid fever by his local physician. The subsequent course of 

 the disease is best recorded by the charts of the temperature, pulse, 

 and respiration (figure 87), and by the reports kindly furnished us by 

 the subject's physician. Dr. W. D. Walker, of Andover. 

 The treatment given Spe, as outlined by Dr. Walker, is as follows: 

 "Warm bath every day; cold sponge for temperature; mouth irrigated with 

 Dobell's solution every 2 hours; swabs of Tr. Myrrh frequently; gargle and 

 spray before and after feedings; drops in the eyes three times a day." 



The physician adds that his patient had 24 days of temperature, 

 a very sore mouth for two weeks and a cough. Through Dr. Walker's 

 kindness we are permitted to quote from his letters further as follows : 



"Wesley G. Spencer came home from Springfield with a diagnosis of 

 typhoid fever. At the end of nine days he had a crop of what I supposed were 

 rose spots, but their subsequent behaviour leads me to conclude that I was 

 wrong. They were at first rosy red, much larger than the ordinary rose spot 

 and Speedily became vesicles. They were all over the body, but more 

 especially on the penis and scrotum, where they caused considerable irrita- 

 tion. All this time the patient's mouth was in a most deplorable state in 

 spite of constant care. A bronchitis was present. The temperature chart 

 you have. There were no abdominal Symptoms. A slight trace of albumin 

 was present in the early part of the fever. Widal reactions taken at weekly 

 intervals negative. Urine and stools negative for typhoid bacilli. I conclude 

 that he did not have typhoid, but I cannot make a diagnosis.' ' 



Subsequent correspondence with Dr. Walker, with special reference 

 to the character of the vesicles, is as follows : 



"The eruption in his case came on the ninth or tenth day, first on the ab- 

 domen and arms. It was at first very much like large rose spots, but these 

 in a day or two became vesicular. There was no bleeding. I should say 

 there was no ulceration, except on the scrotum and glans penis, where the 

 eruption was abundant and marked. There was some pigmentation after 

 the vesicles dried up and the spots were still visible after several weeks. 

 The mouth ifirst became involved about the sixth or seventh day of the dis- 

 ease. I am not quite clear as to the progress of this condition, but the whole 

 inner surface of the cheeks and tongue was involved and covered with a 

 dirty greyish membranous coating which finally peeled off after at least a 

 week and possibly longer. There was considerable bleeding from the areas 



