An essay on the history, causes, and treatment of typhus fever : to which the annual prize for the year 1829 was awarded by the Medical Society of the State of New York / by Alfred T. Magill.
- Magill, Alfred T. (Alfred Thruston), 1804-1837
- Date:
- 1834
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An essay on the history, causes, and treatment of typhus fever : to which the annual prize for the year 1829 was awarded by the Medical Society of the State of New York / by Alfred T. Magill. 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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![have more weight than would be attached to them under other circum- stances; as a man is not to be suspected of insincerity or improper bias when he gives evidence against himself. But to the testimony. Trotter, who was a zealous advocate for the contagious origin of ty- phus, mentions, in his Medicina Nautica, many instances of it, which could not be traced to contagion. On board the Niger, he says, It first appeared among the marines, but latterly affected the seamen. Its origin could not be exactly traced.* In the Glory, also, We could not trace it distinctly to its source.f No imported contagion was duly authenticated! as the cause of the fever which broke out on board the Edgar, while at sea. Of that on board the Pompey, at sea, No satisfactory account could be obtained of its origin.|| Trotter says, Mr. Johnson remarks in relation to the fever which occurred on board the Saturn, I could not trace this fever to any infection import- ed by any of the people.§ In the Magnificent, the surgeon says, the fever spread more than he had expected; but still I cannot trace it satisfactorily to a contagious cause.IT Trotter says, when speaking of the typhus on board the Captain, No imported contagion has been suspected here.** Of the same on board the Uranic, he says, It does not appear that any imported contagion has been suspected as the cause of this fever.ff Speaking of the same vessel again, he says, It does not appear that any imported contagion could be suspected here. In giving the result of his experience for many years, he says, |'It is very certain that this fever is generally spread by contagion; but it is equally certain, that it frequently arises in places where there could be no suspicion of communication with infected persons or clothing.^ The above facts are taken from a treatise on pathologv and therapeu- tics, by John E. Cooke, M. D., professor of Transylvania University, in which this subject is discussed with the most masterly ability. I shall mention but one more case of this kind, to be found in Assalini's work on the plague. He says, that in the years 1799 and 1800, An epidemic disease spread its ravages in the hospitals of the army of Ita- ly, and carried offriaily its numerous victims. The fever spreading rapidly, and much alarm being created, the public authority (says he] thought proper to consult the school of medicine of Montpelier, which hastened to calm their inquietude, and reanimate their drooping spi- rits, by proving that this fever, falsely regarded as pestilential, was not at all different from the fever of hospitals, the typhus carccrum of Priri- gle, or the fevers of camps and armies, febris castrenis. With re- gard to this disease, the majority attributed it to rains and fo*s. A ■ Medicina Nautica, vol. 1, p. 153. H Ibid. p. 167. h!l Pi a no *Mbid.D.(iO. I lb?in r4'pG3- tt Ibid. p. 151. CI-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21138643_0056.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
