On the origin, habits & diffusion of cholera and what may be done to prevent or arrest its progress and to mitigate its ravages / by Sir J. Fayrer.

  • Fayrer, Sir Joseph, 1824-1907.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the origin, habits & diffusion of cholera and what may be done to prevent or arrest its progress and to mitigate its ravages / by Sir J. Fayrer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    in the middle ages, that it will take its place among the records of the past. The subject of my lecture, then, will be the Natural His- tory of a pestilence which is becoming yearly of greater interest, and I hope to tell you something which I trust may modify erroneous notions as to its character and attri- butes, and to shew you how you may help in preserving yourselves and others from its evil effects. I have to tell you of a pestilence which sweeps over vast areas, leaving desolation in its track ; whose origin, nay, even pathology, is still involved in obscurity ; whose breath is fatal as the shade of the fabled Upas tree; whose mission is like that of the destroying angel of the Apocalypse. But I have also to tell you how its fatality may be diminished, and how a country—when duly prepared—may regard its approach with confidence, if not with indifference, not trust- ing in quarantine or other oppressive and restrictive mea- sures, which are as noxious as they are futile, but placing firm reliance on the efficacy of Sanitary Science to cope with and overcome the evil, if only its practical teaching be attended to, for on that alone can any reliance be placed. It may be well to make a few preliminar)' remarks for the benefit of those who do not already possess the knowledge, on what is meant by the terms epidemic, endemic, sporadic and zymotic. The term epidemic is of Greek origin and signifies upon the people ; it is applied to disease either when it is dif- fused far and wide, ranging over extensive countries and often leaping as it were by bounds to others, or when it spreads among more limited communities, following a de- finite track, dying out rapidly, or after one or more revivals or recrudescences, in the localities in which it had previously prevailed. The toxm endemic^ow the other hand, is applied to disease which is peculiar to certain localities, is always present, and depends on local causes; it may, under some conditions, assume the epidemic character, when it passes its ordinary limits and is diffused far and wide in varying degrees of intensity. Sporadic, (from ciz^ipo,, I sow) is applied to isolated cases which may occur anywhere, from causes peculiar to each case; such often herald the approach of the same dis- ease in an epidemic form. Cholera assumes all these forms ; it occurs sporadically in