Letters upon cholera morbus, with observations upon contagion, quarantine, and disinfecting fumigations / by William Fergusson.

Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Letters upon cholera morbus, with observations upon contagion, quarantine, and disinfecting fumigations / by William Fergusson. 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.

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    homeward voyage, so as by any possibility they could have in- troduced the disease into an English port. Now will any person pretend to say that this has been done, or that it could not have been done, or deny that it was a measure, which, if properly executed, would have thrown light upon the true character of the disease, not only for the information of our own government but .of every government in Europe ; that deputations from the Board of Health, backed and supported by all the power and machinery of government, with the suspected ships locked up in quarantine, and the persons of the crews actually in their power, could not have verified to the very letter, the history of every hour and day of their health, from the moment of their arrival at Hamburgh till their return into port ? This measure was so obviously and im- periously called for, as constituting the only rational ground on which the importing contagionists could stand, or their opponents meet them in argument, that after having waited in vain for the report, I raised my own feeble voice in the only department to which I had access, urging an immediate, though then late, in- vestigation. No good cause, having truth for its basis, could have been so overlooked, and without unfairness or illiberality, we are irresistibly forced to the conclusion, that had the enquiry (the only one, by the bye, worth pursuing, as bearing directly on the question at issue) been pushed to the proof, it would have shown the utter nullity of quarantine guards against atmosphe- rical pestilence, the thorough baselessness of the doctrine of importation. Without entering into the miserable disputes on this subject, wliich, amidst a tissue of fable and prejudice, self-interest and misrepresentation, have so often disgraced the medical profession at Gibraltar; I shall now proceed to shew, by reference to general causes, how baseless and mischievous have been the same doctrines and authority when exercised in that part of the British dominions:— Within the last thirty years, yellow fever has, at least four times, invaded the fortress of Gibraltar; during wliich time also, c 2