Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The domain of medical police / by Louis Elsberg. 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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![venience, all communicable abnormal conditions, therefore both conta- gious and miasmatic diseases,) depend: (1.) On the communication to the organism of some material cause of a disease, (materies infec- tionis;) and (2.) On the susceptibility of the organism—i. e., on its capability of becoming affected thereby so that a disease svi generis is the product of the infection: or communication. Without tlie in- fection on the one hand, and the susceptibility on the other, there can be no infectious disease. The best means, therefore, for protect- ing mankind from all existing infectious diseases is that which destroys the susceptibility to become affected thereby, if that can be accom- plished without injury to health. Now, while there are indications, and reasonable grounds for the hope that the unceasing progress of the physical sciences will eventually—aye, perchance very soon, [for even at this moment but a few links are wanting in the chain of evi- dence,]—satisfactorily solve this problem, we already do possess that means in relation to one of the most terrible afflictions of humanity— small-pox—which formerly attacked one-half of the whole human race—and almost regularly either killed or for life disfigured its vic- tims. That the protective means at our command—vaccination—is imperatively required by society, seems superfluous to state—and thai; it is the duty of medical police to use coercion, if need be, to apply it, is (after my remarks on compulsion in the beginning of this paper) self-evident. On the question: How should and can compulsory vaccination be accomplished ? I hope to have at a future time the privilege of ad- dressing you. As to miasmatic diseases, it is urged that quinine, taken during exposure to malarial influences, possesses the power of preventing them. The endemic, Cholera infantum, undoubtedly has, as its causation, the three elements: Intense summer heat, the atmosphere of large cities, and the peculiar susceptibility of infants. (Of these, the second is, of course, most under control, by removal to the pure air of the open country.) Again, the mode of causation of typhus fever appears to be placed beyond a doubt! It seems to depend, in the first place., upon the one essential cause, Ochlesis, or crowd-poison! Yet when shall we hear no more of Jail fever, camp fever, ship fever, and by whatever other synonyms and aliases typhus ravages humanity! Wherever the excreta of human beings from their lungs and skins, as well as bowels aud kidneys, accumulate in an unrenewed atmosphere for a consider-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21117950_0016.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
