Cholera : an analysis of its epidemic, endemic, and contagious character; with original and peculiar views of its mode of propagation and the means of counteracting it. Showing also by analogy that the means of preserving organized bodies from decay point to the only true curative principles in the treatment of fevers generally, and more especially cholera / by Henry Stephens.

  • Stephens Henry surgeon.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cholera : an analysis of its epidemic, endemic, and contagious character; with original and peculiar views of its mode of propagation and the means of counteracting it. Showing also by analogy that the means of preserving organized bodies from decay point to the only true curative principles in the treatment of fevers generally, and more especially cholera / by Henry Stephens. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    10/52 (page 6)
    AN EXAMINATION OE TIIE PROBABLE MODE IN WHICH THE EPIDEMIC, ENDEMIC, AND CONTAGIOUS POISONS ARE INTRODUCED INTO THE SYSTEM. Without going into the nature of epidemic, contagious, or malarious poisons, or dwelling longer upon the general signs of epidemic, contagious, or malarious disorders, I shall proceed to an analogical reasoning on the manner in which these diseases appear to me to he introduced into the system, and to influence the health and functions of the body. It will, I think, be readily conceded that the dis- orders of the health produced by these peculiar diseases, are the effect of a something, whether floating in the atmosphere, exhaled from the earth, or concocted in the elements, or generated in animal bodies, matters not; but that this something is prejudicial to the healthy and vital functions of the human body. We will, therefore, for the sake of a definition, call them Poisons. The next question is, Are these poisons generally or particularly prejudicial? Have they a common pestiferous influence, the different effects being produced by one agency, and modified to their different appearances by the different constitutions of the individuals they affect ? or, have they an individuality and character of their own, producing on their introduction to the human body, a chain of specific effects, constituting one particular and