On the spread of influenza by contagion / by Richard Sisley.

  • Sisley, Richard.
Date:
[1891]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the spread of influenza by contagion / by Richard Sisley. 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.

    6/12 (page 4)
    nuinl)or of people witliout the previous existence of isolated cases oC the disease ; finally, that where there was little human intercourse, villages and country districts directly between large towns, often escaped infection till some time after the towns were affected. The last-mentioned observation disproves the theory that the infection is entirely wind-borne. A valuable observation bearing on this matter was made during the Epidemic of 1782, and was recorded by Dr. Gray on the authority of Dr. Ruston, of Exeter. Writing of the spread of the disease, he says : At Dartmouth it began much sooner, and at Tinmouth, which lies between both, much later, than at Exeter. * I do not think that the importance of such facts can be overlooked in a considei-ation of the method of spread of the disease ; i.e., as to whether personal contact or what is called aerial infection forms the chief means of conveyance. The idea that contagion plays a great part in the spread of the disorder is a very old one, and as early as 1743, when Rome was affected, the Pope ordered a land quarantine to check its spread. In the same year at Messina a ship suspected of being the means of conve^nng the disease was burnt, and all letters from foreign parts were perfumed, f The records of the old English medical writers are full of facts pointing to the spread of Influenza b}' contagion. In 1782, according to the evidence of Dr. Clark, the disease was imported to Shields from London by a ship.J * Mcilical C'oiiiiminiciilioiis, Vo]. I., j). 01, iioto. London, 1784. t Gentlemen's Miipazine, Vol. XIII. X Medical ConiiiHinications, \'ol. I., ]). C.T, note. London, 1784.