Report on the first eighteen months of the fourth yellow fever epidemic of British Guiana / by Daniel Blair.
- Blair, Daniel.
- Date:
- [1856]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report on the first eighteen months of the fourth yellow fever epidemic of British Guiana / by Daniel Blair. 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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![the remedy, and a repoi't of results to be forwarded to the Goverumciit secretary's office. The statements of the circulars contained abundant evidence of scientific ignorance, and were re])lete with absurdities. But still it was possible that a savage or an ignorant person might stumble on a great medical discovery—the cinchona, for example—and be unlucky in the expounder. I therefore set about obtaining information which wotild lead to a knowledge of the plant really meant. As the genus verbena is pretty extensive, including even East India teak in its family, it was not so very easy to determine the species and variety so highly recommended. At length, having obtained an entire plant of what was admitted by those, who should know, to afford the genuine remedy, I discovered, through Mr. W. H. Campbell, whose name is a sufficient guarantee for its accuracy, that this treasure was the stachytarplia Jamai- c<^isis. The nauseous and disgusting compound was prepared and admi- nistered precisely according to directions, and, it need scarcely be added, tihsuccessfuUy. Its want of success, however, was less matter of concern, as . about this time the worthy vice-consul, ever anxious, as he declared himself, for the welfare of mankind, announced through the newspapers the discovery of another sovereign and infallible remedy for the same complaint. • :'It requires apology for referring to this ridiculous affair, but the vei'- bena of Madame Orfila has been, I perceive, the subject of grave conver- satibn in the London Epidemiological Society. CHAPTER XVI. ' (There is a, material link in the chain of evidence yet to be supplied before the following definition can be dignified by the epithet of theory. It must be demonstrated to be a fact, by submitting the arterial tubes ^iid capillaries to microscopic examination, that the epithelial covering of t^ie^Vesseis'does fe^ the desquamatory process which is so jaoticeable in the. open mucous tissues. This has not yet been attempted, and till accomplished, the generalization now offered, though it explains th6) chief morbid phenomena and their order, can be received only as an ibypothesis. ■ TJw. efficient cause of the disease knoim as yellow fever is an dierial poison^ probabhj organic, which requires a certain temperature for its 'hmera'tion a'rid' eadst&hce^ md affects special localities and persons. This^ ppi^o^ 'tfttiii;^'. Uskf^ ii> Wi^'. mmom' surfaces of the huvian body. One of ':^lie '';pn7m^ when the rptantity is adequate, is to '^'m<se.Oie system into febrile reaction, and to excite through the stomach mid inimines an efforl-to expel th noxious. agent. There is reason to believe tfmh this compulsory effort is sometimes successful unassisted, but is maieriaUy aihled' hy Oce aUion 'of cet-tain medicinal substances. In the event of Oie ''^mUory effort belhg icnsticcessfAl, th^ effect of this poison is to act destruc- 'Meth ok the epithelial structures of the body by iitdn<nng a specific irHtation uUf^<^}'^Gfmud vicriibrane, by ichirh, and by alliixl consecutive Imvns, the I(ir«^-jW Wi^ oa./>fey an n ,i..,ired, the r^sc&ra become <MngM^ the'hUod ihc^diy mnuimmM. H >^mwM[m<^}f^^^^ «f 'oiiMUKfhi -jffJ ■flo avl- -eM: Tf](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22283614_0090.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
