Epidemics : their origin & prevention / by J. Foster Palmer.

  • Palmer, J. Foster (James Foster)
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Epidemics : their origin & prevention / by J. Foster Palmer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    causation of disease standing at opposite poles of thought. One is that every case of disease is directly due to divine anger on account of some sin committed, and, therefore, avoidable ; the other is that epidemics form an essential part of the constitution of the world, as independent of causes and as stable in foundation as the world itself, and consequently entirely out of the power of man either to control, modify, or avoid. All other views of the origin of disease may be looked upon as intermediate between these two, at a greater or less distance from one or the other. That neither of these extreme views, nor any of those lying between them, can be looked upon as representing more than a partial and one-sided view of the case will be at once admitted; but we can hardly say with certainty that anyone of the numerous causes to which epidemics have been attributed are entirely without foundation. All these different causes have their enthusiastic exponents, and the theory of the origin of disease held by a particular observer will often depend on the original cast of his mind and the particular training it has undergone. One observer affirms that all epidemics are caused either by ex- cessive heat or excessive cold, and classifies them accordingly.* Another, that they originate in the decomposition of animal and vegetable matter conta- minating the air and water. Some attribute them to the emanation of noxious vapours or fogs arising from the earth or from volcanoes or earthquakes ;-f others to the influence of comets and meteorites; while others again see them only as signs of a certain con- * Dr. Fuchs. The Epidemic Diseases of Europe in their Eela- tion with the Phenomena of Terrestrial Magnetism, with Chanf^es in the Condition of the Atmosphere, and with the History of the Civilised Races of this Hemisphere. Weimar, I860. t Parkin. Causation and Prevention of Disease. 1859. C