An inaugural dissertation on the influenza : submitted to the examination of the Rev. John Ewing, S.T.P. provost ; the trustees and medical professors of the University of Pennsylvania, in order to obtain the degree of Doctor of Medicine, on the eighth day of May A.D. 1793 / by Robert Johnston, of Philadelphia, member of the American Medical Society.
- Johnston, Robert, 1750-1808
- Date:
- MDCCXCIII [1793]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An inaugural dissertation on the influenza : submitted to the examination of the Rev. John Ewing, S.T.P. provost ; the trustees and medical professors of the University of Pennsylvania, in order to obtain the degree of Doctor of Medicine, on the eighth day of May A.D. 1793 / by Robert Johnston, of Philadelphia, member of the American Medical Society. 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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![I h ci'vc years of age, of a ftirring difpefition, fuffered le- verely ; yet efcaped the difeafe, though the reft of the family had been ill Come time, till after bathing with- o- ther boys in a river, and remaining there longer than pru- dent, when he was feized the next day with the influenza. We may add to this, that he was a valetudinarian for a long time before, but had lately overcome in a great meafure all his complaints.*' A young gentleman at Luton [continues the fame au- thor], about twenty-three, of a volatile turn, and lately a valetudinarian, but who, for eight or ten weeks had (o far recovered, as to be able to follow his amufements, and who, for this purpofe, gtmerall/ walked or rode, whether the weather was favourable or not, feveral hours a day, often at the fame time indulging himfelf freely in the glafs, was at laft feized with the epidemic, and fuf- fered feverely(3o). .Of the Exciting- Caufe. As truth is the obje£t of which I am in fearch, and not the purfuit of fame for new difcoyerlts, permit me once more to quote a pafTage from the great commentator of Hippocrates : In our bodies, as it were prepared for difeafe, fome external adventitious circumftance kindles a fever, which of itfelf would not generate a violent dif- eafe, yet from the difpofition of the body, every one of tkefe is rendered, not the caufe of the difeafe but the (qo) Doctor Hamilton after mentioning that foldiersfuter- ed much from the influenza, owing to their irregular living, light cloathing, &c. &c. adds—The delicate alfo, and the valetudinarian, in all my obfervations were great ^\ Fercrs, and ftill greater in proportion as they were expoied to the vichTi- tucles of the weather. Sec Lond. Med. Memoirs from Page 432 to 43S.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21133852_0027.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
