A letter addressed to His Excellency the Right Honorable General the Earl of Chatham, K. G., governor of Gibraltar &c., relative to the febrile distempers of that garrison / by W.W. Fraser, Esq., inspector of hospitals and medical superintendant of quarantine at Gibraltar.

  • Fraser, W. W. (William Wemyss)
Date:
1826
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter addressed to His Excellency the Right Honorable General the Earl of Chatham, K. G., governor of Gibraltar &c., relative to the febrile distempers of that garrison / by W.W. Fraser, Esq., inspector of hospitals and medical superintendant of quarantine at Gibraltar. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    tagion, terrestrial vapors, and the emanations in the dwellings, or from the bodies of the sick, in their most loathsome con- gregation. It is hypothetically alleged, that an occult aura,'' or a terrestrial vapour pervades those districts, which are the seats of epidemic malady An epidemic influence, it is imagined, may give the frightful vigour to the ordinary distempers, and even render individuals susceptible of the same disease, when exposed near to persons sick of it: at least, this is what I understand by the malady being infectious in an epi- demic atmosphere. Unfortunately, this epidemic influence uniformly accom- panies the form of fever we are considering; therefore, ad- mitting the hypothesis, it becomes perfectly immaterial, in point of practice, whether we fancy that this aura gives to the emanations from the sick a reproductive power, ot that the communicable power is inherent in the peculiar type of disease apparent amongst the sick. The laws observed by typhus amidst a crowded population have long since met the consideration of the faculty, and seem, in our present imperfect state of knowledge, more simply to account for the phenomena. So the means that are practically adopted when typhus fever reigns, appear to be those best calculated to oppose this dreadful scourge. These considerations relative to the communicability of the distemper, lead to the question of importation, and they ap- pear to me to render it, at least, more popularly intelligible. We cannot ascertain how typhus or measles are gene- rated ; we, for the most part, observe them spreading from one individual to another, in a manner we term infectious. Season affects their course, and probably there are many other inscrutable hinderances to the extension of epidemics; but not knowing what is the direct preservative, it is be- lieved few would venture to assert that, persons illl with a disorder typified as the Epidemic of Cadiz or Gibraltar, could be introduced amongst the low population of a city, similarly circumstanced, or predisposed, without manifest risk. For instance, would it be safe to try the experiment between the two places just mentioned ? Assuredly there are grounds to believe, that those labouring under typhoid ferer, or hospital gangrene, cannot be introduced into predisposed districts or places, without the danger of communicating an