A Letter from Pierce Dodd, M. D. Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London, and Physician to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, to the President of the Royal Society, concerning a Person Who Made Bloody Urine in the Small-Pox, and Recovered

long enough to reach to the Ground on the other Side, where it must be hooked into a Ring I, to be screwed into the Floor, for that Purpose. XI. A Letter from Pierce Dodd, M.D. Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London, and Physician to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, to the President of the Royal Society, concerning a Person who made bloody Urine in the Small-pox, and recovered. SIR, Making bloody Water is universally esteemed as terrible a Symptom as any that can happen in the Small-pox; and all who have wrote concerning that Distemper, do unanimously agree, that it is a certain Forerunner of approaching Death. Dr. Cade, indeed, says, in his Letters to Dr. Freind, concerning Purging in that Distemper, that he has sometimes cured this Symptom, by the Help of Camphire, and a copious Quantity of Acids; but then he adds, that this Relief was only temporary; and that, to confess the Truth, he never knew any body, that made that sort of Urine, who ever survived the 16th Day from the Eruption: And there is nobody whom I know, that has been conversant with this Distemper, but has constantly experienced, sooner or later, the like Fatality in consequence of it. I mean, when this sort of Urine has pro- proceeded from a broken Crasis and Contexture, or, as it were, a thorough Dissolution of the whole Mass of Blood: For I know very well, that you shall now-and-then have several Streaks, and sometimes larger Quantities of Blood in the Urine, from the Acrimony of the Spanish Flies, upon the Application of Blisters, which are frequently used, and so frequently likewise absolutely necessary, in one or other of the Stages of this Distemper, and yet the Patient shall do well. And Dr. Browne, who was a worthy Predecessor of mine in St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and a Gentleman of Learning and Eminence in his Profession, gives an Account of a Gentlewoman, who lived in Dean's-yard, Westminster, who made bloody Urine in the Small-pox, Four or Five Days together; which made Dr. Needham, who attended her, to forsake her; and yet she recovered: But they found afterwards, that this bloody Water was not occasioned by the Malignancy of the Distemper, but by a sharp Stone, which was at that time descending from one of the Kidneys through the Ureters into the Bladder, and which she afterwards voided.——This I have from some Adversaria of his, a good Number of which I have had the Fortune to be in Possession of several Years, and amongst which there are several remarkable Cases, that occurred to him during the Course of a long and extensive Practice; and which I do not know, but may, some time or other, be communicated to the Public, together with some others that have happened to fall within the Compass of my own Observation, since I have had the Honour to have something to do in the Faculty, in that Hospital, and elsewhere. But But to return to our Subject: It cannot but be a Satisfaction to a Person of your Humanity and Goodness therefore, to hear of an Instance in which this frightful Symptom has not been attended with its usual Fatality: It was in the Case of a young Spark, about 15 Years of Age, Son to a Gentleman of a very considerable Fortune in Jamaica. He was taken with a Fever, and great Pain in his Head, April 20th last, and had the Small-pox come out upon him the Day following, notwithstanding which the same Symptoms still continued, and nothing almost would stay upon his Stomach, and his Head likewise was very delirious: He was obliged therefore to be blooded, and to take a Vomit, and to have Blisters applied to his Neck and to his Arms; which, together with a proper Quantity of Pulvis e Chelis Cancrorum comp. and Nitre, were the first things, that I had an Opportunity of ordering for him. The next Day every thing was more quiet, and so again the Third Day from the Eruption; but the Small-pox were very numerous all over him, and of a little, rank, angry Sort; as they generally are, I think, upon the West-India Constitutions: But this young Gentleman had besides over-heated himself a little before, by performing a Part at the Mountain, near Eton, where he was a Scholar. Things continued in much the same State the 4th Day, but towards the Evening there were a few Streaks of Blood mixed with, and subsiding in his Water; which did not much alarm me, because I did not know but it might be caused by the Blisters. I had but one Reason to doubt the contrary, and that was, he had had little or no Strangury: But as cer- tain Persons do aver, there is sometimes such, or even a more bloody sort of Waters, occasioned by the Flies, even where there shall be no Strangury at all, I was willing to hope the best, and so made no other Alteration in my Process, than to direct a very free Use of Spirit of Vitriol. What was ordered, happened to succeed: We had no more of that Sort of Water, either that Night, or the next Day, or the Morning following: But I was sent for in a great Hurry that Day, viz. the 6th, in the Afternoon, and found his Friends in the most terrible Consternation; not only because it returned, but began to increase upon them, and was pouring off in a free Manner. It was necessary therefore to proceed in another Method, and I accordingly ordered some Gum Arabic, Olibanum, and Pulvis Amyli, and Alum, together with a Mixture of Black Cherry-water and small Cinnamon, and Treacle-water, with some Tinctura Antiphtisica and Terra Japonica in it, and the Tincture of Roses, strongly acidulated and sweetened with Diacodium; upon the Use of which it began to abate, and the next Day the Urine returned to its usual State and Colour. There was nothing farther observable in the Course of this Case, except that the Distemper was of the Coherent kind, and accordingly attended with many other dubious Symptoms likewise: For though it is generally thought, that the Coherent sort is not so formidable as the Confluent; yet, as Dr. Freind has judiciously observed, and Moreton before him, there is not so much Difference between them, but they are almost always attended with much the same Appearances, and the same same Fevers plainly at the time of Maturation: For that the Danger does not arise so much from the Sort, as from the Number of the Pustules; which if it be great, there is the like Reason to be fearful of the Event, whether they flux, or whether they only cohere: All which notwithstanding, this young Gentleman had the good Fortune to escape. I have nothing farther to detain you with at present, but one short Request; and that is, that you will be so good as to believe me to be, with all the Respect and Esteem imaginable, SIR, June 23. 1743. Your most Obedient, Faithful Servant, Peirce Dod. June 23. 1743. the Society adjourned to Oct. 27. LONDON: Printed for T. Woodward, and C. Davis, over-against Gray's-Inn-Gate in Holbourn; Printers to the Royal Society. M.DCC.XLIV.