Description of the distinct, confluent, and inoculated smallpox, varioloid disease, cow pox, and chicken pox / By John D. Fisher.

  • Fisher, John D. (John Dix), 1797-1850.
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Description of the distinct, confluent, and inoculated smallpox, varioloid disease, cow pox, and chicken pox / By John D. Fisher. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    date of the inoculation, is well represented in figure 1, plate III. The ori¬ ginal pustules or those of insertion, as represented in the figure, are ir¬ regular in form, and have angulated and jagged margins. They vary in size and measure from two to four or five lines in diameter. Their fluid contents increase in quantity, grow whitish and purulent, and assume a light straw or cream colour. The pustules are flat and flaccid, rising but little above the inflamed surface of the tumour, and are soft and yielding under pressure. They now resemble little abscesses and are deeply plant¬ ed in the true skin. The virus, from the time it commences to be se¬ creted, is contained in one single cavity and readily flows out when the pustule is ruptured. The depressions in the surfaces of the pustules grow darker and deeper, and matter frequently oozes from them which soon concretes into thin scales or crusts. The secondary local pustules oftentimes multiply on this, and even on the following day, so that the tumour is frequently thickly studded with them. Some of the oldest of these have slight depressions in their centre, and all of them are round and regularly circumscribed. As the symptoms which usher in and accompany the general eruption decline, the efflorescence that surrounds the pustules of insertion begins to lose its bright roseolous tint and to decrease a little in breadth ; see figure 2, plate III. which represents the local tumour as it usually appears on the eleventh day after the operation. The pustules of insertion commonly grow larger, fuller and more irregular until the present period, and their surfaces become drier and more scaly, so that irregular and reddish brown scabs are form¬ ed and cover the central portion of them. The secondary local pustules spread out and flatten a little, and their fluid contents grow thicker, yellow¬ er and more purulent. From this time the inflammation, swelling and sore¬ ness of the arm gradually decline, and about the thirteenth ox fourteenth day the local tumour with its eruptions presents the appearances represented in figure 3, plate III. The size and form of the original pustules during the last named period do not undergo any essential variations, but the pus con-