The Philosopher's Mite to the Great Exhibition of 1851.

Date:
[1851?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Philosopher's Mite to the Great Exhibition of 1851. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Gibbon remarked, “ that this fatal security, like the predestination of the Turks, aided the progress of the fifty-two years’ epidemic, from 542 to 594, for no restraints were imposed on the free and frequent intercourse of the Roman provinces; and from Persia to France the nations were intermingled by wars and emigration.” What would he say now? Procopius, speaking of that same malady, observed, “ that it always spread itself from some sea-port to the inland country; and in the repetition of its visits it at last showed itself exclusively in those places and classes which had before escaped.” “ This is a matter of fact,” says Dr. Friend, “ which is a better argument than any reasoning how far this distemper may be imported and spread by commerce and communica¬ tion.” “ Flitting about the world,” says Howell, “for fifty-two years, it was one while declared to be conta¬ gious, and at another not communicable, so capricious was its character.” Gibbon seems puzzled that, while the fellow-citizens of Procopius were satisfied by some short and partial experience that the infection could not be gained by the closest conversation, Euagrius records that it was for the most part catching. Nature has enacted these seeming contradictions over and over again, and has thus delighted to set the multitude at variance, while the few truly learned know that it is a mere question of amount of an infec¬ tious power, varying under varying circumstances, but still always to be considered at a value, sometimes high, sometimes very low and obscure. Csesar, in his “ Commentaries,” speaks of the pesti- b 2