Editorial

摘要

Being ‘sometimes engaged in the Summer Seasons to attendnLadies in the Country’, Sir Richard Manningham (1685–1759)n‘MD FRS and of the College of Physicians, London’ thought itnhelpful to make more widely known some cases of ‘thenFebricula’ characterized—in the worst examples—by giddiness,n‘mist before the eyes’, listlessness and weariness all over thenbody ‘so that they lie without sense or motion’, difficulty innbreathing, flying pains, loss of memory, delirium and fits. Oftenncarelessly mistaken for ‘an apoplexy’, the inappropriate letting ofnblood invariably ‘closes the melancholy scene’ in fits and death.nBut should Sir Richard arrive in time, cordial poured down thenthroat or the application of volatile salts and spirits to the nosenhastens recovery; and with the subsequent application of blisters,na complete cure is likely. But what to call the disease?