56 THE LIVER. 



9. Jaundice has at various epochs assumed an epi- 

 demic form, more particularly in France and Germany. 



In 1772 it broke out at the market town of Essen, in 

 Westphalia; attacked principally children; assumed 

 an intermittent form, and destroyed a great number of 

 them. 



In 1790 it broke out in Liidenscheid ; there children 

 were all but exempt. It, however, attacked Ix.th men 

 and women; and many of the latter, who were preg- 

 nant, aborted, and died in a few days of general coma 

 and delirium. 



In 1807-8, it appeared in the same form at ( Ireifswald^ 

 and -wards at Chassel 



In 182'-. it ] * re vailed along a Large portion of the 

 coast of the north-west of Germany and of Holland. 



Accompanying the generality of these epidemic visita- 

 tions of Jaii!: '-re observed bilious intermittent, 

 and i T, which usually presented the douhle 



:nitteut type; and the anatomical leiJ 

 found w. derable enlai 



I'lecn, i ^cation of the liv^r ; in ad- 



dition to this conge*' re was found an abundant 



accumulation of Murk , and 



blood. Delirium, coma, and convulsions were frequently 

 found during life. 



In th> nics of I and Chasselay, 



however, wlii--h ran their course without fever, it was 

 found that they commenced with catarrh of the stomach 

 and bowels, and were accompanied by li^ht -coloured 

 stools; ill fact, they were fair samples of simple catarrhal 

 Jaundice frequently met with in this country at certain 

 periods of the year. 



