An essay on the nature and origin of the contagion of fevers ... / [John Alderson].

  • Alderson, John, 1757-1829
Date:
1788
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the nature and origin of the contagion of fevers ... / [John Alderson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    vitiates a certain Quantity of Air in a very iliort Time; and Experiments have proved how long an Animal can live in a given Meafure of atmofpheric Air ; but though Phiiofophers have agreed in the Fa6t, each has accounted for it conformably to j his own Theory. Whilft one has fuppofed that fomething is thrown off from the Blood at each Expiration, and mixing with the Air renders it unfit for further Refpiration; another has endeavoured to prove that fomething is attracted from the Air by the Blood as it paffes through the Lungs, and by depriving the Atmofphere of that Part which was alonx' proper for this Procefs, it becomes unfit for the further Purpofes of Life—but as neither of thefe Theories is fmgly competent to account for all the Phenomena which Con¬ tagion exhibits, it is more than probable that a junddon of them approaches the neareft to the Truth; and we may be al¬ lowed to conclude, that the Lungs attrad: from the Air a pure elaftic Fluid found intimately combin’d with the Atmofphere, arid that in return the Lungs give out to the