The progress of preventive medicine and sanitary measures : being the Thruston speech on the Wendy Commemoration at Caius College, delivered on May 10, 1856 / by A.W. Barclay.

  • Barclay, A. W., 1817-1884.
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The progress of preventive medicine and sanitary measures : being the Thruston speech on the Wendy Commemoration at Caius College, delivered on May 10, 1856 / by A.W. Barclay. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    Accumulations of filth, and especially of decomposing organic remains, and as a necessary part of the same evils, imperfect drainage, are, no less than deficient ventilation, recognised as causes of the spread of epidemic diseases. But as yet the evidence upon which this conclusion rests, is far too general to admit of the same definite proof. The most satisfactory evidence is probably that already alluded to in the history of campaigns, where it was found that carelessness on these Important subjects was invariably followed by a more rapid spread of camp diseases; where, without any other change in the circumstances of the soldier, the simple abandonment of a spot already contaminated by these festering elements, certainly checked for a time the progress of any prevailing disorder; and where too the dis- ease again renewed its devastations, as soon as similar con- ditions had arisen in the fresh ejacampment. Without any very great stretch of imagination, we may conceive that a poison which shows such an aflfinity for the human body in its integrity, may attach itself to all animal matter whatsoever. This is a point in animal chemistry which may not be within the reach of experiment; but every advance in knowledge of the laws of life, leads us to the belief that they have a chemistry of their own, which only awaits for its discovery, the same pei'severing search which has already crowned with success the illustrious names of the chemical Inquu-ers of our own day. Not less than these, the unfortunate alliance of poverty, dirt, and bad living are alike fruitful sources of the spread of epidemic diseases. These, however, must in all probability rather cooperate in lowering the tone of the frame, and rendering it less capable of resisting the impi-ession of the poison; and in this they are manifestly aided by those already mentioned. Foul air, whether generated by the presence of many pei'sons in a confined space, or by the