On the nature and causes of fever : especially that termed yellow fever that is not a disease "sui generis", neither is it a malady of "modern origin" read at the meeting of the Epidemiological Society, in May last / by Edward Bascome.

  • Bascome, Edward
Date:
1852
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the nature and causes of fever : especially that termed yellow fever that is not a disease "sui generis", neither is it a malady of "modern origin" read at the meeting of the Epidemiological Society, in May last / by Edward Bascome. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    One Hutchinson, also, in his description of this ]:>estilence, says that the Massachusetts tribe of Indians, of 30,000, were reduced to 300! ’’ Gorges writes that the disease occurred in summer and autumn for several years, com- mencing in 1618, and ending about 1623. He thus describes the symptoms—a spotted, putrid fever, with yellowness of the skin and eyes, haemorrhages from the nose, ears, &c. “ With deadly blast the fatal south wind blew, Infected all the air, and poison’d as it flew.” This distemper evidently was of domestic origin, as no known intercourse had been had with any part of this new continent; in short, it was an endemic biUous pestilence, or Yellow Fever. So much in furtherance of the opinion as to the nature of Yellow Fever—that it is not “ a specific disease, a malady sui genevis; further- more, that it can by no means he considered to he a disease of “modern date or origin;” and with reference to the alleged fact that Yellow Fever—the true pestilence—the Vomito Negro the Hsemoegastric Pestilence—the Bulam Fever having originated at the new settlement in Africa, Bulama, a little more than half a century ago, it was known in Spain and Africa nearly 3,000 years back, having ravaged towns and places in both countries, particularly those places situated on