Some account of the last yellow fever epidemic of British Guiana / by Daniel Blair, surgeon general of British Guiana ; edited by John Davy, inspector general of army hospitals, etc.

  • Blair, Daniel.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some account of the last yellow fever epidemic of British Guiana / by Daniel Blair, surgeon general of British Guiana ; edited by John Davy, inspector general of army hospitals, etc. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    Demerara type would represent a large area on a chart of the disease; so that the collective information which can be fur- nished from the late epidemic may not have to lie useless till our next visitation, but be immediately applicable to the relief of human suffering and the elucidation of disease elsewhere. The pathological drawings are chiefly the work of a young sailor who was admitted to treatment in the Seaman's Hospital.* After he recovered from his attack of the prevailing epidemic, his talents were discovered, and, for a considerable period, he continued to be employed by me as draughtsman for the hospital. It is scarcely necessary to state that the drawings are bond fide representations; and though several are some- what coarse, their verisimilitude Is striking. For assistance In the analysis of the case-books and register, I am much indebted to Dr. Fowler, the present chief resident surgeon of the Seaman's and Colonial Hospitals. The preliminary remarks are intended to show (In botanical language) the habitat of our type of Yellow Fever, and further to identify It by pointing out some of the ordinary influences which the locality and climate seem to exercise over the population. locality, and with obscure circumstances that at present cannot well be appreciated, is proved by extensive experience. The fever of one season, or place, may be far more malignant, — that is with greater tendency to fatal termination,—than of another season, or of another place ; in one epidemic or endemic, the lancet may be used cautiously with advantage, or even boldly ; in another not without the greatest risk of bad effect. These remarks apply to epidemic diseases generally. We are informed, by Sydenham, how difficult he found it, on the breaking out of an epidemic, to determine on the best mode of treatment to be employed in it, — and how he came to a decision only after ingenti adhibita cautela intentisque animi nervis an example well deserving of being followed. A series of monographs exhibit- ing distinctly the varieties of Yellow Fever, in its several complications, could they be written by one observer free from the bias of hypothesis, would be invaluable for practical purposes; but, I fear the absence of such a bias with the possession of every other qualification, is too much to expect.] — Ed. * [Of the drawings which accompanied the MS. only a select number have been published, — some of the most characteristic, — the Editor, to whom a discretionary power was allowed, not considering it right with a view to just economy to insert the whole. He has pleasure in adding that the remainder have been presented by the Author to tlie Museum of Pathological Anatomy of the Army Medical Uepartments, where they can be consulted by inquirers interested in the subject.]—Ed.