Observations on the causes and cure of remitting or bilious fevers : to which is annexed, an abstract of the opinions and practice of different authors ; and an appendix, exhibiting facts and reflections relative to the synochus icteroides, or yellow fever / by William Currie, Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, &c.

  • Currie, William, 1754-1828.
Date:
1798
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the causes and cure of remitting or bilious fevers : to which is annexed, an abstract of the opinions and practice of different authors ; and an appendix, exhibiting facts and reflections relative to the synochus icteroides, or yellow fever / by William Currie, Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, &c. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    and not to the influence of one epidemic over another. For example : In the warm and impure air of autumn, when interniittcnts prevail, plcurifies are rare, but on thi approach of winter the intermittents decline, and pleurifics increafe. Is this owing to the influence of the one difeale over the other, or is it owingr to a chptnge in the ftmfible quaUties of the air ? I'hat fe- brile difeafes derived from contagion, and thofe from niarfli effluvia, ofteii prevail in the fame place, and at the lame lime, is known to every perfon acquainted wiih medical hiflory. Even Sydenham has recorded inftances, (though they contradict his dodrineof occult caufes) of fcveral difrafes different in kind, being epi- demic in the fame place at the fame lime*. Change offeafon always baniflies fome kinds of difeafe, and fa- vours'the generation and propa ;alion of others. This is fo fimple and obvious, that none but a man wedded to the moll extravagant theory, would have looked into the bowels of the earth, or up to the fl;ars for the caufe. W^ien however I reflecl that philofophy was only beginning to emer;-';e from gothic darknefs, in which it had long been funk, at the tin;c Sydenham publillied his ol'fervalions ; 1 am willing to make due alloivancc for his errors:—But the prefent cera, when philofophy has arrived at a (late of improvement, v.'hich approaches to perfedion, fuch errors are not entitled to the fame toleration. I flrall now tranfcribe a few remarks from other au- thorities, which will remove every doubt, that two con- tagious difeafes, different in kind, may prevail in the fiime place at the fame time. Examples of this kind are mentioned by the experienced Dr. Lind, in his Ob- fervations on the Difeafes incidental to Europeans ia Hot Climates, page 126, 5th Edit: And RuiTel on the Plague, at page 24 and 48, relates that the remitting fever prevailed at Aleppo in Augufl 1760, when the plague * See his Account of the Epidemic Conftitution of 1670, 71, and JZ, at page i.]2, Edit. ;d. trann-ated by Swan.