These,  I  have  already  said,  were  often  very  obscure  and  unaccountable,
and  excited,  during  the  prevalence  of  the  epidemic,  a  degree  of  alarm,
which,  to  one  who  now  peruses  coolly  the  histories  of  such  cases,  and
reflects  on  their  comparative  rarity,  seems  altogether  groundless.  A "
moment's  consideration  will  suffice  to  convince  any  one,  however,
that  such  panic  was  natural  and  not  unreasonable.  Stories  were
every  day  circulated,  subject  to  the  indefinite  exaggerations  of  com-
mon rumor,  which  were  based  on  facts  truly  impressive.  Some  of  the
victims  of  the  pestilence  were  struck  down  while  at  work  in  the
fields,  and  died  before  their  friends  could  convey  them  home.  Others
again  seemed  to  be  taken  off"  by  the  most  inadequate  ailments,
"dying,"  as  the  phrase  was,  "of  a  pain  in  the  foot  or  knee — in  the
ankle  or  wrist."

A  singular  variety  of  the  epidemic  is  described  in  the  "Report  of
the  Committee  of  the  Massachusetts  Medical  Society,"  as  occurring
chiefly  or  exclusively  among  females,  where  the  symptoms  were,
"universal  deadly  coldness,  the  skin  as  white  and  smooth  as  polished
marble,  the  countenance  perfectly  placid,  not  one  distorted  muscle,
the  pulse  imperceptible  at  the  wrist,  respiration  only  by  gasping,  and
that  not  frequent."  I  know  not  in  what  language  could  be  conveyed
a  more  graphic  picturS  of  exquisite  congestion — intense  and  perfect
caj)illary  paralysis.
