An essay on the history, causes, and treatment of typhus fever : to which the annual prize for the year 1829 was awarded by the Medical Society of the State of New York / by Alfred T. Magill.

  • Magill, Alfred T. (Alfred Thruston), 1804-1837.
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the history, causes, and treatment of typhus fever : to which the annual prize for the year 1829 was awarded by the Medical Society of the State of New York / by Alfred T. Magill. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    TYPHUS FEVER Ex Principiis aascitur probabilitas; ex factis vero Veritas. Medical Society of the State of Kcw York.—The committee on prize questions and dissertations, consisting of Drs. Manley and Watts ot New York, and Drs. Eights, T. Ronieyn Beck, and James McNaughton, of Albany, have unanimously awarded the premium of $100 for the best Essay on Typhus Fever, to the disserta- tion having the motto Ex principiis nascilur }>robabilitas; ex factis vero Veritas.'' On opening- tho sealed note accompanying, the successful candidate was found to be Alfred T. Magill, M. D., of Winchester, Virginia. By order, JOEL A. WING, Secretary. The word Typhus, according to most writers, is derived from the Greek noun tfutpos-, stupor, a symptom which frequently supervenes, sooner or later, in the progress of the disease; oftener, however, com- ing on towards its termination, than existing in its earlier stages. The learned and scientific Good, however, refers the derivation of the term to the verb ru<po, which signifies to smoulder, or to burn and smoke without a vent, and thinks it admirably expressive of the general nature of the fever to which it was applied at first, and which it designates at present; which burns not with open violence as the cauma, but with a sort of concealed and smothered flame.* There are, however, various other appellations by which this fever is known; such as the jail, camp, hospital, and ship fever. It has also been de- nominated the putrid, malignant fever, and from the frequent presence of petechias it is called, on the continent of Europe, febris petechialis, and constitutes the contagious fever of Lind, the febris inirritativa of Darwin, and the nervous fever of other writers. The history of this fever is rather obscure. The ancient authors on medicine make no particular mention of it, from which we may conclude, that they were either unacquainted with it, or, considering it merely as a variety of the common fever of their respective coun- tries, did not deem it worthy of special notice. Sydenham was pro- Goad's Study of Modicine, vol. 2. p. 138