A letter to the Lord President of the Council, on the best means of preventing the extension of the pestilential disease recently arrived in the metropolis termed cholera-morbus, but more properly called pestilentia-mortalis, or, the mortal pestilence / by W. Hunt.

  • Hunt, W.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to the Lord President of the Council, on the best means of preventing the extension of the pestilential disease recently arrived in the metropolis termed cholera-morbus, but more properly called pestilentia-mortalis, or, the mortal pestilence / by W. Hunt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    20/24 (page 20)
    Ancl who is there who will say it cannot, it shall not reach the abodes of the rich ? disease once engen- dered, rendered powerful by atmospheric causes, will not confine itself to the haunts of profligacy, or the poverty-stricken hut of the wretched. No ! as death is no respecter of persons, it will alike seek the abode of misery, and penetrate the barred gate of the rich man’s palace; and if it has been sent among us as a visitation, may not its effects on the poor be a warn- ing voice to those in other grades of society ? But with this observation I leave every one to reflection, and one fearful reflection will it be to the thinking man, and one subject of infinite meditation. Why should the poor, the forlorn, the wretched, and the destitute be the marked victims of any disease ? It cannot be because poverty is a crime; the chances of life we must all take; the poor man may become rich, he is then no criminal; the rich man may become poor, but does he become criminal too ? Ye philo- sophers, ponder this! But to return ; it is lamentable to find professional men of the first character not yet decided upon this disease; some in authority declare this or that case to be out of the pale of the report, others equally emi- nent declare those were cases of the disease, and this