The common nature of epidemics, and their relation to climate and civilization : also remarks on contagion and quarantine : from writings and official reports / by the late Thomas Southwood Smith ; edited by T. Baker.

  • Thomas Southwood Smith
Date:
[1866]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The common nature of epidemics, and their relation to climate and civilization : also remarks on contagion and quarantine : from writings and official reports / by the late Thomas Southwood Smith ; edited by T. Baker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    PREDISPOSING CAUSES. 1] suffer ? Suppose these same liundred persons took a large dose of arsenic, or an over-dose of chloroform, not only would not one in ten escape, but every individual would certainly perish. It is conceived that the primary cause cannot take effect unless the system be in a state of susceptibility to its ac- tion ; that there is in the body an innate power of resist- ance to all noxious agents of this kind, rendering it, when in full vigour, invulnerable to them; that there are certain circumstances which weaken or destroy this resisting power, and which even impart to the body a peculiar sus- ceptibility to the influence of such agents—and these circumstances are called predisposing causes. The predisposing causes of epidemics may be divided into two classes—External and Internal. The external are those which vitiate the atmosphere; the internal are those which more immediately vitiate the blood. The vitiators of the atmosphere include over-crowding, filth, putrescent animal and vegetable matters of all kinds, exhalations from foul cesspools, sewers, rivers, canals, ditches, marshes, swamps, &c. Causes of this class are also called localizing, because they favour the generation and spread of epidemics in the localities in which they abound. The causes which more immediately act from within are those which either directly introduce pernicious matters into the interior of the body, in the shape of foul water or putrescent food; or which indirectly accumulate noxious matters within the system, by impairing the action of the excretory or depurating organs whose office it is to maintain the blood in a state of purity, by removing out of the system substances which having served their purpose have become useless and pernicious. The earnest attention which has been recently directetl to the first class of causes has led to an advancement in