Account of an epidemic fever, which occurred at Gibraltar, in the years 1804, 1810, and 1813 : taken from official documents, military and medical, and from the communications of Joseph D.A. Gilpin, M.D., deputy inspector of hospitals.

  • Medical and Chirurgical Society of London.
Date:
1814
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Account of an epidemic fever, which occurred at Gibraltar, in the years 1804, 1810, and 1813 : taken from official documents, military and medical, and from the communications of Joseph D.A. Gilpin, M.D., deputy inspector of hospitals. 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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    merely add, that innumerable circumstances have brought a degree of conviction to my mind, that is not to be shaken by any arguments or reason- ings on the side of non contagion, that I have hi- therto read or heard of. In endeavouring to account for the production of the disease in this garrison, many difficulties no doubt arise, which I do not by any means pre- tend t© solve, but merely to state some of those, which in my opinion militate against the idea of the disease having originated in Gibraltar. I find a difficulty, for instance, in viewing it as an endemic proceeding from marsh miasma or other noxious exhalations, as a considerable number of persons entirely escaped the disease, though strictly con- fined to the only situations where I conceive these effluvia may be supposed to exist, the Dock Yard and Navy Garden*. I find a difficulty too, in at- tributing it to the peculiar state of the atmosphere at the period of its appearance: for during the number of years t that have elapsed, since we have held this rock, surely the state of the atmosphere, and supposed prevalence of marsh miasma, &c. must frequently have been as they were in the years * The following certificate is in proof of this assertion : The undersigned has a daily report from the health guard placed at the point of communication with the Dock Yard; and it does not appear that from the commencement of the existing fever, there has been one case among the workmen there. Gibraltar, 8 Dec. 1813. H. SWEETLAND, DR. GILPIN. Pratique Master, t Gibraltar came into possession of the English, in 1704.