Small-pox and its diffusion / by Alexander Collie.

  • Collie, Alexander.
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Small-pox and its diffusion / by Alexander Collie. 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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    which she had a little knowledge from having visited sick people, she determined to return to London, which she did. She took her seat, closely veiled, in a crowded carriage, and when she reached London, this writer was asked to see her. She was the subject of confluent small- pox. The young man who could not give the least hint as to how he came by his small-pox, did not know that the charming barmaid whom he was chaffing over his beer was admitted into the small-pox hospital the morning after. The old gentleman who could not imagine where he had caught his small-pox, did not know that the omnibus conduc- tor who gave him his change was the subject of small-pox. The old lady who had not been out of the house for years, could not imagine where she had caught her small-pox. She did not know that the last dress she had was made in a small-pox room where, for want of ventilation, the atmo- sphere was pestilential. The city merchant, living in his beautiful suburban villa, who had been nowhere but be- tween his home and his office in the city, had certainly seen no sick person, could not imagine where he caught his small- pox. He did not know that the man who sat next to him in the railway carriage had been the day before discharged from a small-pox hospital where they were not too particular about disinfection. But is it necessary to continue ? Is it at this time-of-day necessary to show that infectious disease passes but a very few feet from the sick person and that it is invariably carried by the infected person or by the infected thing. Dr. Gull stated that he had carried small- pox to a friend whom he met in the street, after having visited a small-pox patient. It is, of course, possible. Nobody requires to be informed in respect of a well-known fact. If Dr. Gull imagined that he was giving the Royal Commission and the profession information, he was mis- taken. If he meant simply that medical men may carry infectious disease, no one who knows anything of infec- tious disease will contradict him ; but if he meant that they must, this writer dissents. With well-known and easily taken