A Treatise on the Plague and Yellow Fever With an Appendix, containing histories of the plague at Athens in the time of the Peloponnesian War; at Constantinople in the time of Justinian; at London in 1665; at Marseilles in 1720

The text of this e-book has been preserved as in the original, including archaic and inconsistent spellings (although the archaic 'long s' has been replaced with an ordinary 's'...

In the year 767 B. C. we hear of a universal pestilence; but the imperfect state of history in those early periods affords few accounts that can be depended upon, either concern...

_Of the Countries where the Plague is supposed to originate.--The Influence of Climate in producing Diseases--And of the Moral Conduct of the Human Race in producing and influen...

No doubt these accounts are calculated to inspire us with dreadful ideas of the countries mentioned in them. What could be done by the putrefaction of dead animals and vegetable...

There can be no doubt that excess in drinking hath put an end to the lives of many individuals; and it hath been observed, that such as attempt to preserve themselves from the p...

The dreadful defeat given to the Goths did not long preserve the tranquillity of the empire. New invasions took place, and new massacres ensued. At last, on the accession of Dio...

The new sultan instantly thought of destroying other sultans and potentates; for which purpose he opened a passage for his countrymen from Armenia to Persia. The Sultan of Babyl...

As to disease in general, physicians have differed very considerably in their definitions; and, though many have been given, few seem to be unexceptionable. That of Dr. Fordyce...

19. _The nerves._ These, which constitute such a remarkable and important part of the human body, are white cords, of a soft pulpy substance, defended by a tough skin which goes...

We have now taken a review of the several parts of the human body, slight and superficial indeed, but such as the limits of this work would allow, and sufficient to furnish to t...

In one of the inferior stages of this distemper the body is affected with those eruptions named buboes and carbuncles. Dr. Patrick Russel, in his treatise on the plague at Alepp...

5. In consequence of the chemical action of the medicine, the mode by which it is expelled out of the body will be different; for, as all medicines are extraneous substances, th...

Whether the simoom is always preceded by these whirlwinds we know not; but Mr. Bruce mentions an extreme redness of the air, pointed out by his attendant Idris, as the sure pres...

1. Nobody can reasonably suppose that hydrogen air is the cause of the dark colour of the blood in the veins, because there is no source from which it can be derived; and, besid...

From all that has been said, we may fairly conclude, that no proof can be brought sufficient to prove the existence either of oxygen air or any other species of aerial fluid, in...

It was next considered whether the air did not contribute to the generation of this heat; and our author determined that this could not be the case; because the quantity of heat...

The air is so evidently connected with human life, that it has been from the earliest ages accounted the source of pestilential diseases, though, as none of the more obvious qua...

To the same purpose I subjoin the very respectable opinion and testimony of Dr. Patrick Russel. “In some epidemical distempers, the sudden alternations of the air have constant...

On other cases of a similar nature it has been remarked, that the miserable sufferers were “for the most part advanced in years, remarkably fat, and had been much addicted to th...

“If a person (says our author) be affected with any disease, it will necessarily be communicated to every other person who comes within the infectious distance, and _is not at t...

From this discovery it appears, that, whatever may be the cause of the frequency and violence of epidemics in warm climates, it _is not_ the want of oxygen. Nay, we should rathe...

“Poisons, (says Dr. Girtanner) remedies, and, in general, all surrounding bodies, acting only on the irritable fibre, it follows that they act upon the system in a similar manne...

On the subject of contagion Dr. Russel observes, that the vague manner in which the word has been used has given rise to much confusion. Some, taking advantage of the inaccurate...

3. It is objected that the disease was not brought from the Levant by infected goods. “Captain Chataud’s vessel, supposed to have brought the infected goods, arrived with a clea...

“When the plague raged at London in 1665, it was conveyed to the remote village of Eyam near Tideswell in Derbyshire. In this place it broke out in September 1665, and continued...

In the instance formerly quoted from Dr. Guthrie at Petersburg, we have a notable example of this sudden seizure by a stroke. His information was derived from the physician-gene...

From a careful attention to all these histories, it is plain that the plague is naturally an eruptive disease, as, in all the animals in which it was artificially brought on, er...

“But, as no disease incident to mankind is in its nature more terrible and destructive, so none is more difficult to observe. Its symptoms are scarcely in all respects alike in...

We have now detailed, at considerable length, the symptoms of the plague as mentioned by authors of great eminence. To give a detail of _all_ that has been said upon this subjec...

“No change in the habit takes place previous to the action of the contagion, but the body is from the first equally susceptible of it as of the itch, or any other infectious dis...

The celebrated Dr. Mead, though an enemy to the cruel mode of abandoning the sick, or treating them with any kind of harshness, was perfectly sensible of the necessity of using...

Here we are involved in difficulties much greater than before. It appears that even the fine climate of China is healthful only to its own inhabitants. They can bear the _viciss...

[130] Here, I hope, it will not be thought unreasonable to digress a little in favour of the sensations of humanity which on all occasions ought to predominate in our minds. Bir...

[134] This _doctrine_ of _fancy_, or _imagination_, ought undoubtedly, as Dr. Russel says of the imagination itself, to be under some management. The indiscriminate use of the w...

9. A stout, healthy Armenian youth, about 20, was visited on the first day, and took a vomit of ipecacuanha, which brought up a good deal of bile. An anodyne was given at night,...

2. Hildanus, also a respectable writer, has an high opinion of issues as a preventive. He says he never knew but one or two (and those of a very bad habit of body) who had issue...

“This war and pestilence are frequently spoken of by the historians of New England, as remarkable events, in the course of Providence, which prepared the way for the establishme...

According to our author, the stomach seems to bear the principal burden of the disease, and accordingly, after death, appears to have been principally affected. Great heat is pe...

The symptoms enumerated by Dr. Jackson are in general the same with those already taken notice of. He mentions likewise a degree of confusion frequently joined with _grimness_,...

From this tedious account it is plain that the evidence relative to the importation of the fever into Grenada by the Hankey is quite contradictory, and subversive of itself, bec...

The urine in this disease was sometimes plentiful and high-coloured, sometimes clear, and sometimes turbid; sometimes discharged with a burning pain, as in a gonorrhœa; sometime...

Convulsions, though very frequent in the yellow fever, yet, according to Dr. Russel, were very rare attendants on the access of the pestilential fever. Even hiccup was seldom ob...

“On the other hand, if, as the French physicians pretend, this is nothing else than the malignant putrid fever, often prevalent in Hispaniola, how happens it that those medicine...

The evidence here seems so strong, that no counter-evidence that can be brought appears likely to invalidate it. The coincidence of the commencement of the fever with the arriva...

A third example of the effects of want of air, though conjoined with other causes, may be reckoned the case of the Hankey, formerly related. The people there were not indeed con...

Some particulars above related may perhaps appear, to those who deny the existence of contagion, in rather a ludicrous point of view. It is indeed too common for people to laugh...

[180] Dr. Seaman, having at last, as he thinks, completely overthrown his adversaries, and ranked himself with the _more considerate_ and _reasonable_ part of the community, lik...

[187] At Strasburg, in Germany, our author says that he saw a man who had been an idiot for more than a year from a stroke of the sun. The 8th of July 1707 was so hot in England...

“How many died of this disease in the whole, I have forgotten; as, through fatigue, and debility of body and mind, I kept no notes: I think rather more than half of those who ha...

In the yellow fever, as in the plague, where an attack is frequently made with such violence as to bring on death in twenty-four hours, or even a still shorter time, it is plain...

The good effects of nitrous vapour used in this way is also confirmed by Mr. David Paterson, now surgeon in Montrose in Scotland. The trial took place in the prison wards at For...

7. _Cooling medicines, external and internal._ The good effects of cold water applied to the body in fevers has long been known. Dr. Jackson observes that it was first introduce...

Having remained alone in the desert for eight or ten days, he was found by chance by some Arabian women, who brought him to their place of residence, washed his sores with water...

This was a plague which almost consumed mankind; of which Procopius concludes there was no other cause than the immediate hand of God himself. For it neither came upon one part...

We shall not doubt of the good intentions of the physicians: of their success we may judge from what Dr. Hodges himself says, that many died while prescribing cures for others....

My fellow-sufferer, Mr. Abraham, was in violent agony this day; he cried out repeatedly that a fire was consuming his bowels, and that he was in exquisite torture. The captain o...

_Raymond_: The infected are safely conversed with across a barrier, which separates them only a few paces.----_Demollins_: The air round the patient is infected more or less acc...

acccording → according ackowledged → acknowledged an an → an and and → and and thing → anything attemps → attempts authoriry → authority bails → balls bemost → be most bilous →...