been always confined to the eyelids, but, on the contrary, has usually extended over the whole face. All the patients were quickly relieved by ether. The eruption, though generally called nettle-rash, is sometimes papular, sometimes vesicular, but always attended with tormenting heat and itchiness. Several cases of this kind have been related by Möhring. The eruption was preceded by dyspnœa, lividity of the face, insensibility, and convulsive movements of the extremities. All recovered under the use of emetics.[1] This affection, however, may prove fatal. In the cases of two children related by Dr. Burrows, the symptoms began, as in Möhring's cases, with dyspnœa, nettle-rash, and swelling of the face, combined with vomiting and colic; but afterwards the leading symptoms were delirium, convulsions, and coma; and death took place in three days.
In these children it is worthy of remark, that none of the symptoms began till twenty-four hours after eating. In Möhring's cases, on the contrary, the symptoms began in a few minutes.
The other affection is well exemplified in the correct delineations of Dr. Combe. The following is his general summary of the cases, which, with the exception of the instance of peritonitis already alluded to, were all singularly alike in their leading features.—"None, so far as I know, complained of anything peculiar in the smell or taste of the animals, and none suffered immediately after taking them. In general, an hour or two elapsed, sometimes more; and then the bad effects consisted rather in uneasy feelings and debility, than in any distress referable to the stomach. Some children suffered from eating only two or three; and it will be remembered that Robertson, a young and healthy man, only took five or six. In two or three hours they complained of a slight tension at the stomach. One or two had cardi-*algia, nausea, and vomiting; but these were not general or lasting symptoms. They then complained of a prickly feeling in their hands; heat and constriction of the mouth and throat; difficulty of swallowing and speaking freely; numbness about the mouth, gradually extending to the arms, with great debility of the limbs. The degree of muscular debility varied a good deal, but was an invariable symptom. In some it merely prevented them from walking firmly, but in most of them it amounted to perfect inability to stand. While in bed they could move their limbs with tolerable freedom; but on being raised to the perpendicular posture, they felt their limbs sink under them. Some complained of a bad coppery taste in the mouth, but in general this was an answer to what lawyers call a leading question. There was slight pain of the abdomen, increased on pressure, particularly in the region of the bladder, which suffered variously in its functions. In some the secretion of urine was suspended, in others it was free, but passed with pain and great effort. The action of the heart was feeble; the breathing unaffected; the face pale, expressive of much anxiety; the surface rather cold; the mental faculties unimpaired. Unluckily the two fatal cases were not seen by any medical person; and we are therefore unable to state minutely the train of symptoms.
- ↑ De Mytilorum, &c. p. 115.
