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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    Dr. Zimmerman appears to have confounded epide- mic with contagious diieafes; nor fliould this be thought extraordinary, for notwithfLandinpj his abilities and cha- racier, he has been frequently niiftakcn in his opinion refpeding the remote caufes of other difcafes. Among other millakes, he fays the fcurvy is propagated by con- tagion,* and that putrid fevers are occaiioned by the exhalations from putrid animal'Tubftances, and the plague at Grand Cairo, by the ftench from fwarms of dead and putrid grafshoppers and locufls.f Laiicifi who was phyfician to Pope Clement XI. was fo nuich iniliaken in the real caufes of dilt^afes, that he aicribed the pefiilence which prevailed more or Icis at Grand Cairo annually, to the efliuvia of hemp andfi;!:., which happened to be ftored in granaries near that city, at a time when the difcafe was more general than ufual; he has alfo afcribed a fever which depopulated one end of Rome, to the putrid effluvia from hcrfes lit- ter or Ihible dung.| i hat the plague never originates in that way, but is derived from fpccific contagion, generated in tlie cities of the Eafi, is clearly fnov/n in Mead's Short Difcourfe on the Plague, publilhed in the year 1721; and in Ruilers treaiile on the fame, publi&ed in the year 1791. '1 he other opinion of Lancifi, viz. that one end of Rome was depopulated by a fever, which originated from the putrid effluvia of horfes litter, &c. Profeflbr Rufli has refuted in the 2nd Vol. of the American Philoibphical Tranfiidions, page 211 and 212: Thefe arc his words. Offal matters, efpeciaily thofe which are of a vegetable nature, fiiould be removed from the ncighbour- * Experience in Pliyfic, page I2J of Vol. 2ncl. f Mead on the Flagne, fays it originates from heat and iwolf tnve. aclin on dead animal matter, vvhicli is alfo erroneous. Jd the ri-art^ fays he, it can be generated in this jnanner, but not ia the temperate climates of iuirope. If that were the cafe the dif- eafe woald be propagated by the atmofphere, to a certain extent, lo imrabers at once, and not from one to another in fuccefiion. t Vol. III. page 350.