Contagion : its meaning and its limitations, to the editor of the Philadelphia medical journal / [Lawrence F. Flick].
- Lawrence Flick
- Date:
- [1899]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Contagion : its meaning and its limitations, to the editor of the Philadelphia medical journal / [Lawrence F. Flick]. 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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![[Reprinted from Tuk riULADKi.riilA Mbdicai, .Ioi'Rnal, January 21, 1899.] CONTAGION; ITS MEANING AND ITS LIMITATIONS. c To the Editor of the Philadelphia Medical Journal:— There is perhaps no question in medicine upon which the profession is so much at sea as that of contagion. There has been so much quibbling about the meaning of the word contagious, and so many hairsplitting distinctions made between it and the word infectious, that the general reader of medical literature has become bewildered and is really at a loss to know, when he encounters the words, what is actually meant by them. It may be well, therefore, to again take soundings upon the entire subject and to seek the chan- nels of thought that can be used by all of us so as to bring our observations within reach of common intelligence. The word contagion is derived from the Latin word con- tingere, which means to be in contact with, to touch. As applied to diseases it conveys the idea of communicability by contact, from one person to another, from a human being to an animal, from an animal to a human being, or from one animal to another. The communicability must be by contact, direct or indirect, and consequently the environment under which communicability becomes operative must be circumscribed. The Century Dictionary defines the word as follows: First, infectious contact or communication ; specifically and com- monly the communication of disease from one person or brute to another. A distinction between contagion and infection is some- times adopted, the former being limited to the transmission of a disease by actual contact of the diseased part with a healthy absorb- ent or abraded surface, and the latter to transmission through the atmosphere by floating germs or miasmata. There arc, however cases of transmission which do not fall under either of these divisions and there are some which fall under both. In common use no pre- cise discrimination of the words is attempted. Webster, in defining the word contagion, quotes from Dunglison, as follows: The actor process of transmitting a disease from one person to anot ln;r by direct or indirect contact. For a second definition he gives : That which serves as a medium or agency to transmit disease : pestilential influence.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21456021_0003.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
