Epidemics considered with relation to their common nature, and to climate and civilization : in two lectures delivered at the Philosophical Institution, Edinburgh, November 1855 / by Southwood Smith.

  • Thomas Southwood Smith
Date:
1856
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Epidemics considered with relation to their common nature, and to climate and civilization : in two lectures delivered at the Philosophical Institution, Edinburgh, November 1855 / by Southwood Smith. 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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    EXTENyiVE RANGE OF EPIDEMICS. true character wlien the first stroke of the disease does not prove fatal, and time is allowed for the full development of its successive stages. 'J’he common Epidemics of the day—Ordinary as distin- guished from Extraordinary Epidemics—typhus, scarlet fever, small-pox, measles,—are so universally recognised as fevers that the popular notion of fever is derived from the external, characters which these maladies present. 2. E])idemics resemble each other in the extent of their I’ange. Ordinary diseases attack single individuals, and if, from season or other causes, several cases occur simultaneously, they are still isolated and scattere<l. They never prevail at the same time among several members of a family, or among the inhabitants generally of a court, street, or town. Epi- demics, on the contrary, as I have just said, derive their name from their attacking large numbers at once. The great Epidemics of all ages have been strikingly cha- racterized by their wide spread course. The Black Death ex- tended from China to Greenland, and desolated in its course Asia, Europe, and Africa. The Bubo-Phigue of the middle ages often extended beyond its proper seat. In the l.'ith century it spread seventeen times over difierent European countries, and extended to the most distant northern nations. The Sweating Sickness prevailed simultaneously or in rapid succession over England, France, Germany, Bru.ssia, Poland, Russia, Norway, and Sweden. “ It extended,” say the chronicles of the day, “ like a violent conflagration which spread in all directions; yet the flames did not issue from one focus, but rose up everywhere as if self-ignited.” The Influenza of the middle ages took a range which may be said to have been universal. In our own day Ave have .seen the same disease attack almost every family, in nearly every city, tOAvn, and village; spread within a short period over the whole of Europe, and then extend through the vast continent of the New World.