On some of the most important diseases of women : with other papers / prefatory essay by R. Ferguson.

  • Robert Gooch
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On some of the most important diseases of women : with other papers / prefatory essay by R. Ferguson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    264/302 (page 202)
    ' clotlies; when we visited the sick, we approached them witliin the ' distance of a foot, using no other precaution than tliis—never to ' touch their bodies, clothes, or beds/ The physicians, who only inspected the patients, generally escaped the disease; but of the surgeons, who were obliged to touch them, two died in the city, and a number of assistant-sui'geons in the hospitals. Wliile the disease was raging in the city, the Toundling Hospital afforded a signal example of the salutary efi^eCts of seclusion. It contained one thou- sand children, and four hundred adults. All conununication witli the people was cut off, and the plague never penetrated witliin -the building; One night four attendants, and as many soldiers, escaped from the hospital. These, on their return, were attacked by the disease, but they were separated from the rest of the house, and it spread no further. Compare the fate of this estabhshment with that of the Toundling Hospital at Marseilles; the contrast of the two cases is one of the most striking circumstances on record. The last ])lague which we shall notice is that of Malta, in the year 1813, of which the history has been given by Dr. Calvert in the ' Medico-Cliirui-gical Transactions,' and by Sir Eobert Brook Taulkner, both of them eye*witnesses. Yaletta had not been visited by the plague for one hundred and thirty-seven years, when a vessel, called the San Nicolo, having left Alexandi-ia, where the plague was prevalent, arrived at Malta on tlie 29th of March, 1813. During her voyage, two of her crew had died of a rapid disease, one with a black tumour on his neck. In consequence of these deaths, the hatches were shut down, and the crew kept on deck dm-ing the rest of the voyage. Upon the arrival of the vessel, the crew were sent ashore to the lazaretto, the captain and his servant being sepa- rated from the rest. The day after, the captain was seized with headache, giddiness, and other symptoms of the plague, and died in thirty-six houi's. His servant, who had assisted the two sick men during the voyage, was seized with similar symptoms, and died in the same length of time. These circumstances created considerable alarm in Valetta, but the rest of the crew continued well, and the San Nicolo having returned to Alexandria with a new crew, the apprehensions of the Maltese soon subsided. On the 19th of April, however, a Maltese physician was taken to visit a cliild of the name of Borg, which had been ill for five or six days, and was dying with a cai'buncle on its breast. On the 1st of May he was sent for to see the mother of the dead child, who was iU with fever, and a