Considerations concerning the distemper which still spreads itself among the horned cattle in this Kingdom ... / By a physician.

Date:
1749
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Considerations concerning the distemper which still spreads itself among the horned cattle in this Kingdom ... / By a physician. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/146 (page 9)
    contagious, as well as malignant, firft be¬ gan to cxift, is a Qneftion, which how¬ ever probably it may be determined, does mot belong to ourprefent Inquiry^. It is enough * The opinion of the learned Author of the Dif- courfe of the Plague concerning the original of That Poifon is, that it was at firfl generated from Animal -Putrefa^'ion, heightened and increafed by a moft un- wholefome complication of the Two fenfible quali¬ ties of the Air, Heat and Mol/lure, (Page 34. laft Edit.) To which we may add another circumftance, which in reafoning from Analogy feems no lefs necef- fary to the produdfion of This evil, the Con¬ finement of Air thus loaded with noxious Vapours^ in fuch a manner as to interrupt iPs free circulation with the reft of the Atmofphefe. For even in thefo Horthern climates the mere Dampnefs of Air, pent up in Vaults and Cellars, mixed with a fmall degree of Animal Putrefaction, has been often found to create malignant Fevers; as feveral Gentlemen, who have had the good fortune to ftruggle through fome Dif- eafes of That kind, contra61ed by their attendance on DifeCtions in fuch improper places, can more than fufficiently teftify. I cannot therefore but think the reafon given by the celebrated Fcrnelius, why the Plague cannot arife from any Putrefaction, very un¬ worthy fo great a Philofopher. His reafon is becaufe Putrefaction would affeif all Animals alikeBut furely feveral different Species of coitiagious Poifons C may