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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    and tliat they manifest themselves by unmistakeable signs. Among such signs may be reckoned,—a disturbance of the regular and ordinary condition of the atmosphere; an inversion of the seasons—summer in winter, and winter in summer; long-continued drought succeeded by torrents of rain, causing rivers to overflow, and the seed to rot in the earth; cloud, mist, fog, favouring excessive dampness, under the influence of which spring up inordinate growths of the lower species of plants, producing mouldiness, and the blood-spots, and other coloured vegetation that adhere to houses, and household furniture, and wearing apparel, and personal ornaments, and the person itself; under which also, fostered by a steadily elevated temperature, spring into being and activity, myriads of the lower tribes of animals— locusts, caterpillars, flies,* frogs, covering the face of the earth, and devouring every green thing that the deluge of rain had left; and, as the sequence of these antecedent con- ditions, dearth and famine, closing the long series of the year’s calamities. Such, in all ag’es and countries, have been the recognized portents and precursors of a coming- year of pestilence. And there is truth in this. It is quite certain that such atmospheric changes do take place, and prepare the way for pestilence. It is quite cer- tain that there is an epidemic meteorology. This epidemic condition of the atmosphere is at length coming within the range of science. The first step towards this result, which promises to be of the highest practical value, we owe to the well-devised and patient observations of Mr Glashier, con- tinued through the three recent Cholera epidemics. * During the autumn following the extraordinary summer of 1865, and in which the Cattle Plague appeared, there was a very marked preponderance of insect life as compared with ordinary seasons. It is asserted hy Mr McDougall, of Manchester, that no case of this plague is known to have occurred where his disinfectant, which arrests decomposition, had been freely applied to and about the cattle. [Ed.]