Epidemics : their origin and prevention / by J. Foster Palmer.

  • Palmer, J. Foster (James Foster)
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Epidemics : their origin and prevention / by J. Foster Palmer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    Man has now acquired powers which are apparently of no further use to him ; his only education has been one of war, and his foes exist no longer he feels his energies, greater than ever, working within him, clam- ourous for further employment, and, in this dilemma, he turns his hand against his fellow-man. It is at this point we first come in contact with a condition of things which continues to exist to the present day. We cannot say with certainty that dis- ease and war were contemporaneous in their origin, but there is much to be said in favour of such a state- ment. It is, at least, probable that the earliest germs of epidemic disease found their nidus in the exposed and ill-dressed wounds received in tribal conflicts during the ages of savagery. In any case, as war in- creased in the world, disease must have increased also. Not that we have any proof that war is alone suffi- cient to originate an outbreak of zymotic disease, or is necessarily a precursor of it; but in war all the condi- tions most favourable to the development of such dis- ease, both internal and external, exist in the highest degree. The atmosphere^ impregnated with decom- posing animal matter from the bodies of the slain, becomes a fertile soil for its propagation, and it can hardly fail to flourish if it chance to be introduced. At the same time, the individual, whether soldier or civilian, is in the most receptive condition. The soldier, worn down with fatigue and insufficient food, is an easy prey to disease, while the famine, which is so often the consequence of war, makes the rest of the population almost equally subject to it. We may say with confidence that disease germs, whenever they may have made their first appearance in the world, found the conditions most favourable to their growth wher- ever bodies of men have been engaged in conflict, and that, therefore, if their origin was contemporaneous with that of the human race, they began to make their
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