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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![The obvioiis tendency of burnt brandy and other hot liquors, taken down in fuch cafes, would be to increafe an inflammation already begun ; to flop the cough, or at leafl the execretion of mucus from the lining of the bron- chiae ; to produce difficult refpiration from the fwelling of the inflamed membrane ; and, an unavoidable effect the foregoing, increafed fever- The manner in which the difeafe muft necejfarily ori- ginate, will likewife fhew that thefe fymptoms arife from the proximate caufe here laid down ; and that the degree of this accounts for every variety obfervable in the influ- enza. For, whether the morbid miafmata which confli- tute the exciting caufe, be-emitted from the body of one who has the difeafe, or be engendered in the atmofph ere, or exhaled into it from putrifying fubflances, animal or vegetable, or in fhort, in whatever manner they may get there—it cannot be queflioned, but that they flout in that element (38), and enter with it in infpiration and deglutition ; and being retained by the tenacious mucus of the nofe, fauces, lungs, ftomach, and inteflines, ir- ritate and inflame thefe parts, thereby producing in the firfl inflance, or fecondarily, the train of fymptoms which (?3) We have many examples to prove, that the air can- not hold, nor yet convey contagion to any diftance. If it be mixed with atmofpheric air, it is foon diflipated, perhaps che- mically decompofed, if it be a compound body [pojpbly he would have been nearer the truth had he faid recompound- ed, or neutralized'], and its nature altogether changed. Lond. Med. Mem. Vol. 2. Page 459. Upon firfl reading this paflage, I doubted whether the author meant ferioufly, as it ap- peared to me to be trifling, if not with common fcnfe, at leafl with common experience, and with the teflimony of fome of the greateft authorities in medicine. See the quotations from Hil- danus, Ruflel, &c.at pages 16 and 18— It is well known, the flench of putrid carcafes, gangrened limbs, the polluted {link- ing ^ir of jails, &c. bring on malignant peftilential fevers, juft as the putrid lanies of a gangrened limb, abforbed into the blood, brings on a fever of the lame kind. Kuxham on fe- vers, page 243. See likewife on the fame fubject, Ferriar's Med. kflays, p. 236.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21133852_0032.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
