On the effects of volcanic action in the production of epidemic diseases in the animal and in the vegetable creation, and in the production of hurricanes and abnormal atmospheric vicissitudes : the Parkin prize essay of 1901 / by W. G. Aitchison Robertson.

Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: On the effects of volcanic action in the production of epidemic diseases in the animal and in the vegetable creation, and in the production of hurricanes and abnormal atmospheric vicissitudes : the Parkin prize essay of 1901 / by W. G. Aitchison Robertson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    arisen. Yet the authorities only did what was right in isolating the patients as well as the “contacts,” as they were unable to know whether the atmospheric conditions were favourable to the growth and spread of the organism or not. Even in the case of epidemic plague, great atmospheric changes decidedly influence its origin and progress. When the air is warm and moist, then its attacks are more frequent and the mortality higher (Larrey '). There are a large number of records to show that cases ot sporadic plague do not transmit the disease, while the epidemic form is easily transmissible. A large number of reliable observers do not believe in the contagious nature of plague. Dr. Lachese,1 2 3 for example, says that, unless there be a “pestilent constitution of the air,” a plague patient can at most infect only a few individuals, but those latter in no instance transmit it to anyone else. Dr. Adams, writing in 1809, affirms that the epidemics of plague have subsided, not by any human contrivance, but by an alteration in the constitution of the air.3 Dr. Dali Ingram,4 surgeon and man- midwife, exposes what he calls the absurdity of thinking that plague is contagious or capable of being transported by merchandise. My theory gives a much more reasonable explanation of the term “ epidemic constitution ” of the atmosphere than any I have yet met with. That a certain alteration in the atmospheric conditions is associated with an enormous increase in a particular organism, and that this may result in a special epidemic, seems to me much nearer the truth than to suppose that an alteration in the atmospheric condition alone will lower the resisting power of the individual, and so make him accessible to the organism. I do not mean to deny for a moment that certain atmospheric changes may not lessen the power of resistence of an individual. To deny this would be absurd. The breathing of a cold, damp atmosphere may so lower the vitality of the faucial and bronchial mucous membranes as to allow the passage of organisms, and so end in tonsillar or pulmonary diseases. Or again, the ingestion of fruits (often over-ripe) or vegetables in the warm months of summer or autumn may originate diarrhoea, which, by lessening the vital activity of the cells forming the mucous lining of the intestines, allows of the entrance of the Bacillus typhosus into the tissues. Typhus fever frequently finds its victims amongst those who have been subjected to long continued over- exertion (camp fever), or who have been debilitated by antecedent famine. In these individuals the resisting power to specific organisms is low. While admitting that external circumstances play a very important part in predisposing an individual to disease, yet 1 affirm that epidemics do not, as a rule, arise entirely in this way. If they did, we should in nearly every case be able to trace some slight antecedent disorder. We know that this is not the case, but that the strong and perfectly healthy 1 Larrey, quoted by Dr. Milroy : “ Quarantine and the Plague,” 1846. 2 Lachese : “ Memoire sur la Peste en Perse,” 1836. 3 Adams : “ Inquiry into the Laws of Epidemic Diseases,” 1809, p. 8. 4 Ingram : “ Historical Account of Plague since 1346,” 1755.
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