Dangerous infectious diseases / by Francis Vacher.

  • Vacher, Francis, 1843-1914
Date:
[1897]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dangerous infectious diseases / by Francis Vacher. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    bacteria referred to in the papers as “insects,” and I once saw them described in print as ■“terrible little black beasts.” Treating of that which infects in this manner is of course no less misleading than describing it as a subtle essence. The question to be considered may, therefore, take this form—What are the diseases which may be communicated from the sick to the sound by particles discharged from the body of the sick ? The following list, so far as this country is concerned, may be taken as fairly complete Small - pox, chicken-pox, measles, rubella, scarlatina, diphtheria, erysipelas, puer- peral fever, epidemic pneumonia, influenza, whooping-cough, cholera, epidemic diarrhoea, typhus fever, typhoid fever, relapsing fever, mumps, tubercular disease, actinomycosis, teta- nus, hydrophobia, anthrax, and glanders. Thus, all these may be regarded as infectious ■diseases, and, because infectious, dangerous. However, only nine of them are named in the Infectious Disease (Notification) Act, 1889, as diseases to which the Act applies, viz., small- pox, scarlatina, typhus, relapsing fever, diphtheria, typhoid fever, cholera, erysipelas, and puerperal fever. Membranous croup is also named in the Act, and owing to this many cases of diphtheria are brought to the attention of the Local Authority which would otherwise escape notice. Enteric (a synonym for typhoid) fever is also named; and also “ continued ” fever, under which term cases of typhoid fever are •often notified, and rarely cases of typhus. Among the diseases which have been added to
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