Lectures on the eruptive fevers : as now in the course of delivery at St. Thomas's hospital, in London / by George Gregory.
- George Gregory
- Date:
- 1851
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Lectures on the eruptive fevers : as now in the course of delivery at St. Thomas's hospital, in London / by George Gregory. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
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![same, the balance of life among those who suffer most by these dis- eases would naturally remain the same, so far as this class of causes is concerned, supposing them to prevail with equal fatality at all times. But other elements must enter into the calculation. The diminution in the number of victims of small pox and the increase of mortality by the other exanthems, at any particular period, will be governed also to a certain extent by the absence of epidemic prevalence of the former, and the existence of such a prevalence of the latter. It is, therefore, neces- sary to examine the subject in several points of view, and also to extend the investigation over a long succession of years, before conclusions deserving of confidence can be reached. Even a limited view of the subject would require more space than could with propriety be devoted to it in this connexion, and we reluctantly dismiss it with this j^assing notice.] Dr. Haygarth once inquired what would be the pro- bable effect of a complete annihilation of small pox. He entertained some extravagant idea of effecting this by a plan of universal inoculation. The result of the calculation was, that in fifty years more than one eighth would be added to the population. On a population of sixteen millions (which we now nearly reach), the increase in fifty years would therefore be two millions and a half In this calculation, the doctrine of vica- rious mortality, though not left out of consideration, was, it is plain, prodigiously underrated. The general character of the exanthemata is derived from the following sources:—1. From the presence and course of the accompanying constitutional disturbance. 2. From the course of the local or cutaneous affection. 3. From the law of universal susceptibility. 4. From the law of non-recurrence. 5. From the law of con- tagious origin. 6. From the law of epidemic diffusion. Fever, eruption, universal susceptibility, non-recurrence, contagion, epidemic diffusion—these are the topics](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21055257_0028.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
