Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/375

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BLOODY SWEAT.
361

blood from the cheeks and the surface of the abdomen in the form of perspiration. The blood exuded in drops, and tinged the linen. This bloody perspiration took place whenever the hysteric paroxysm lasted a considerable time.

J. C. Schilling relates the case of a boy, twelve years of age, who was relieved from a severe comatose and convulsive disorder by a bloody sweat which broke out August 2, 1747.

The following note on this subject is from Dr. Schneider, a celebrated German physician: He mentions having been once summoned to a healthy man, fifty years of age, who, for a period of twelve months in succession, had traveled on foot; during the journey he had perspired much in his feet; and, on examining them at the end of it, they were found covered as high as the ankles with a sanguineous perspiration, which had also soaked into and stained his stockings. He quotes, among others, the following remarkable case from Paulini: While surgeon on board a vessel, a violent storm arose, and threatened immediate destruction to all. One of the sailors, a Dane, thirty years of age, with fair complexion and light hair, was so terrified that he fell speechless on the deck. On going to him, Paulini observed large drops of perspiration of a bright-red color on his face. At first, he imagined the blood came from the nose, or that the man had injured himself by falling; but, on wiping off the red drops from his face, he was astonished to see fresh ones start up in their place. The colored perspiration oozed out from different parts of the forehead, cheeks, and chin; but was not confined to these parts, for, on opening his dress, he found it formed on the neck and chest. On wiping and carefully examining the skin, he distinctly observed the red fluid exuding from the openings of the sweat-ducts. So deeply stained was the fluid that, on taking hold of the handkerchief with which it was wiped off, the fingers were made quite bloody. As the bloody perspiration ceased, the man's speech returned; and when the storm passed over he recovered, and remained quite well during the rest of the voyage.

Erasmus Wilson, in his work on "Diseases of the Skin," mentions two cases which had come under his own observation, and refers to three others. M. Du Gard has recorded the case of a child three months old that was taken with bleeding at the nose and ears, and on the hinder part of the head, which lasted for three days, and afterward the nose and ears ceased bleeding, but still the blood-like sweat came from the head. Three days before the death of the child, which happened the sixth day after it began to bleed, the blood came more violently from its head, and streamed out to some distance. It also bled on the shoulders and at the waist; and for three days at the toes, at the bend of its arms, at the joints of the fingers, and at the finger-ends.

Dr. John Mason Good remarks that ephidrosis cruenta, which he