Buchanan’s Journal of Man, Vol. II, No. 5-November 1850
Confessions of a Physician pages 153-155
A Singular and Fatal Disease
Dr. C., of Lawrence County, Ohio, writes as follows:
“In the month of February 1848, a disease broke out in the county, about seventeen or nineteen miles from Gallipolis, and fourteen to seventeen miles from the river among the citizens of what is now called Greasy Ridge and continued to the middle of April.
I saw in all 71 patients, five of whom died. The first 30 cases commenced with a swelling of the left eye like an erysipelas swelling until it was swelled shut but extended no further.
The pain in the forehead which commenced with the swelling and was very intense seemed to deprive the sufferers of all perception of time and passing events but not of judgment whenever their attention was called to anything.
They could not be persuaded to complain of anything, but at the commencement of the pain in the forehead until perceptions become dull. Pulse seemed unaffected. An emetic and brisk cathartic seemed to resolve and restore in every case where used forthwith.
The patient was, to all appearances, as well as ever in 24 hours. Towards the latter part of March and on the 11th day of April, were about 40 persons sick with the above symptoms except the swelling of the eye. All recovered with the same treatment with the addition of stimulants which were absolutely required to recover from the shock of the disease
The onset was so sudden that frequently in one half-hour it was apparent to all that it must be help or death; not a house and but very few individuals escaped and not an instance was known out of the small area of two and one-half square miles.
Of the five who died, four were apparently well in 12 hours after the attack but were again attacked in 24 to 36 hours and died in six hours without complaining of anything (one only appeared demented,) but exhibiting the most terrible agitation or jactitation.
I do not like either to think of the disease or of the persons who died with it, much less to write about it. But the idea was fixed upon my mind, and I cannot get rid of it, that this disease was gangrene of the Corpus Callosum, it seemed like a willful separation of soul and body.
I was sick with it myself and, during that time, was prevented from seeing the death of one of the most vigorous men I ever knew, who was 22 years old – he took no medicine whatsoever.
But the most fatal part remains to be told. The disease revisited the same location in February, March, and April 1849, in a much milder form until in July, upon the accession of cholera, with which it seemed to associate itself, its actions seem to defy all descriptions.
I will just state that in a case in which Dr. Hibbard of Gallipolis was called, one or two were dead when he arrived. He stayed three hours, during which one neighbor in perfect health came in to assist and died in one hour and 30 minutes.
Hubbard declared the disease was not cholera and told them to take care of themselves the best care they could for he could do them no good. He traveled eight miles toward Gallipolis and died.
You will excuse me for giving you the above disconnected and irregular glance of what would, if circumstantially recorded, make a small volume. It is impossible for me to give you more than one idea in regard to it: viz: “a serious disease truly.”
I seem to lose all calmness or steadiness whenever I think of that disease but am possessed with inquietude bordering toward that extreme Jactitation, which seemed to be to be the essential symptom of that disease.
Yours, &c., J. L. C.
“I forgot to say that my object in giving you the above is to give from you any opinion or information in regard to the proximate cause, &c., that you shall see fit to favor me with, though I have quit regular practice, and hope I shall not have occasion again to take it up.”
The foregoing is a very interesting narrative to the neurological inquirer. The swelling of the left eye and the pain in the forehead would indicate that the front lobe must have been affected. The eye is ultimately connected with the intellectual organs, the portion of brain behind the eye being connected with intellectual and moral manifestations.
The power of recognizing time and passing events is located in the forehead, about an inch above the eyes. The pain in that region and the swelling of the eye account for the loss of memory. The organs of reflective judgment being located higher, we’re not much affected.
Whether the Corpus Callosum was affected or not I cannot say. The jactitation is described as a symptom that has arisen from the division of the Corpus Callosum, but it may also arise from the conductor organs behind the eye and face.
The prostrating character of the disease and the calmness or submissiveness of its subject is perfectly in character with its location in the anterior part of the brain. The relief given by immix cathartics and stimulants offer also coincides with the pathological tendencies of that region.
NOTE: Dr. Benjamin Cory and Dr. M. Canterbury were the only Doctors during the 1840s. It seems as if the above Doctor’s name will never be known, as he quit practicing medicine after this mysterious illness.
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