Notes on some early references to tropical diseases / Charles Singer.

  • Singer, Charles, 1876-1960.
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Notes on some early references to tropical diseases / Charles Singer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Year. In reading the rules for cleansing the streets, it should be remembered that the gutters were in those days in the middle of the roadway, and conducted a flowing stream which acted as the common sewer. In the course of the ‘ Ordonnance’ the doctrine of fomites will be found implicitly involved, although it was several years before Fracastor gave it precise formulation. POLICE ORDINANCES FOR THE CITY AND SUBURBS OF PARIS to prevent spread of the Plague, to regulate trades, to provide for Physicians, Surgeons, Barbers and others to visit and treat those sick of the disease, from which may God preserve us by His holy grace. Published at Paris, September i6th, 1533. Extract from the Registers of Parliament The Chamber, convoked by his Majesty during the recess, (after recitation of the deliberations of the council for provision against the plague now raging in this city of Paris and its suburbs, and having summoned the Procureur-General of the King, the Deputy- Provost of Police, the Inspector of traders and the Aldermen) commands and enjoins as follows : General Enactments . . . All proprietors or tenants of houses in which there have been cases of plague during the last two months, and all who after the publication of this ordinance may have such cases in their houses, shall place in the window or other conspicuous place a wooden cross, and shall fix or raise a second cross in the middle of the front door or entrance, so that everyone may know of it and may abstain from entry. It is forbidden to remove these crosses or cause them to be removed within two months of the time when they were affixed,—on pain of summary fine. Furthermore all who have suffered from this disease and who may be hereafter afflicted thereby, and all members of households and families where there have been or may hereafter be patients sick of the plague