The modern practice of physic : exhibiting the characters, causes, symptoms, prognostics, morbid appearances, and improved method of treating the diseases of all climates / by Robert Thomas, M.D., of Salisbury.

  • Thomas, Robert, 1753-1835.
Date:
1813
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The modern practice of physic : exhibiting the characters, causes, symptoms, prognostics, morbid appearances, and improved method of treating the diseases of all climates / by Robert Thomas, M.D., of Salisbury. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    formation and evolution of this poison. Hence the heat of summer, scs ia.v from being necessary to produce the miasma of Typhus, is altoge- ther opposed to it, by inducing that freedom in the ventilation of houses, clothes, bedding and furniture, which, by diluting, destroys it in the germ. Typhus, therefore, is commonly a disease of cold climates or seasons, where the habitations of the poor and the filthy are crowded and shut up, and where the exhalations from human excretions, acted upon by animal heat are not dissipated nor diluted by the admission of fresh air. If this view of the process of nature in the constitution of these febrile poisons be correct, it will not be deemed improper, to attempt to distin- guish and characterize them respectively by denominations which point to their several sources and modes of production, and thereby express their relations as well as their differences. Assuming, therefore, the origin and modes of production of the two species of miasmatic poison which have been just described, they must be considered as gaseous fluids floating on the surfaces or surrounding the bodies from which they are respectively exhaled ; and hence, like the ethereal fluids of magnetism and electricity, they may properly be called miasmatic atmospheres. In order to distinguish these two miasmatic atmospheres.^ and, at the same time, duly to fix in the mind the impression of the origin and pro- duction of them, it is judged expedient to designate each by terms which will invariably express the process of nature in their formation. As the Greek language has been generally resorted to in the framing of scientific nomenclature, I shall employ the adjective KOINOS, common or/zziS/fc, to denote the one species of miasma, and lis.\oz., personal or private, to denote the other. The application of these terms will be rea- dily understood. That portion of air charged with miasmata exhaled by solar heat from the surface of swampy grounds, or from masses of filth overspreading the open area of cities, according to this distinction, is de- nominated Atmosphcsra Koino-Miasmatica. And that other small portion of air, contaminated by miasmata emitted from and surrounding the bo- dy, clothes, bedding and furniture of persons immersed in the filth of their own excretions, and of those associated in the same family, with them, accumulated, long retained, and acted upon by animal heat, is de- nominated Atmosph(zra Idio-Miasmatica. Or, in other words, the Koino- viiasviatic atmosphere is that which is derived from a common or public mass of putrefying matter, expanded to the solar influence; while, on the contrary, the Idio-rniasmatic i^Xh^iX derived from a personal oxpirivate source, being produced from the filth of individuals and their habitations, and diffused around them only for a small distance. The former of these atmospheres seems to be appropriately termed*-ffbmo miasmatic ; because the pernicious materials which create it lie open to public view, and may properly be callcd/2u6/ic nuisances ; are collected and suffered to become * 'Thofe who confider these terms as uncouth and unfit for common ufe, may diftinguish thefe febrile poifons by the more simple and familiar titles of local miafmata and perfonat fn'tafmata.