Observations on the laws governing the communication of contagious diseases : and the means of arresting their progress. Read before the Literary and Philosophical Society of New-York, on the 9th of June, 1814.

  • Hosack, David, 1769-1835.
Date:
1815
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the laws governing the communication of contagious diseases : and the means of arresting their progress. Read before the Literary and Philosophical Society of New-York, on the 9th of June, 1814. 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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    the vitiated atmosphere extends, in which they may be engendered, or into which they may be introduced; and that, in this respect, they differ from ordinary epidemics, which appear in different and distant parts of the same place, and at the same time. That the plague, when once generated, whatever may be the sources whence it derives its origin, is communicated by a peculiar virus secre- ted by the diseased body, will not, I trust, be questioned at this day. Independently of the facts contained in the writings of Thucydides, Lucretius, Mead, Dr. Patrick Russell, and others, showing the conta- gious nature of the plague, the communication of this disease by inoculation, as performed by Matthias Deggio,* Dr. Whyte,f and the Russian surgeon, noticed by Sonnini,J have recently established the fact of its propagation by a specific secretion, beyond all possible con- troversy. It has been observed, by Assalini, that Dr. Desgenettes, while in Syria, had in vain endeavoured to inoculate himself with the virus of the plague; and by the same writer it is incorrectly added, that Dr. Desgenettes made the experiment under the persuasion that the disease was not contagious; but from the account of the facts as stated by Dr. Desgenettes himself, it appears that the experiment was not made under that persuasion. On the contrary, he expressly declares, that its conta- giousness was demonstrated by a thousand examples, and observes, con- trary to the opinion of many, that the same person was liable to a second attack of it, as was the case with the convalescents whom he em- ployed to attend upon the sick: furthermore it appears, from his own account, that he inoculated himself with matter taken from a person who * See Med. Com. vol. 8. p. 349. f See Wilson's Expedition to Egypt, and M'Gregor' Sketches. | See Travels into Greece and Turkey, p. 497.