On the origin, habits and diffusion of cholera, and what may be done to prevent or arrest its progress, and to mitigate its ravages / [by J. Fayrer].

  • Fayrer, Joseph, Sir, 1824-1907.
Date:
[1886]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the origin, habits and diffusion of cholera, and what may be done to prevent or arrest its progress, and to mitigate its ravages / [by J. Fayrer]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    IS If 3 many places, is endemic in Bengal and other localities, and rages from time to time over various parts of the world in an epidemic form. The same may be said of the plague, small-pox, scarlet fever, and some other diseases. I use the term epidemic in its simple technical sense, as applied to disease prevailing and spreading among the people. As to what else may be implied hypothetically in the term, I have only to say that I understand it to mean something superadded, whether of atmospheric or cosmic origin, with- out which disease would not be generally diffused. This has been called (by Dunglison) “ the epidemic constitution,” whilst Leon Colin describes it as “ a something isolated, impersonal, detached from the disease itself, the epidemic genius [constitution, influence], a certain creative force of the different epidemic affections, compelling, directing, extinguishing them.” These definitions, however, define nothing; the fact is we do not know the real nature of that which is implied in the term “ epidemic influence or intensity ”; but we do know that it means a potent—often the most potent—factor in diffusing disease. It may be, I suppose, referable to certain meteorological conditions, taking that expression in its widest sense; something either propagated in great telluric or aerial currents, or prevailing in cyclical periods simul- taneously in various regions of the earth’s surface ; co- operating with local causes in conferring on the disease its quality of epidemicity, in some cases, perhaps, the combi- nation itself acting as a cause. Whatever this influence really be, epidemic prevalence does not occur without it, and this is so not only in such diseases as influenza or cholera (where the question of con- tagion is at least doubtful), but in the most contagious, such as scarlatina and small-pox ; for it seems pretty certain, that whatever part contagion may play in the etiology of dis- ease, it is of small importance relatively to this influence in diffusing the disease. Dr. Southwood Smith has pointed out that there is much in common in the nature of epidemics, however they may vary in their special characters; that, in their propagation, development and diffusion they are subject to this influence. That in some, such as scarlatina and small-pox, there is a special exciting cause such as has conferred on them the term zymotic, cannot be questioned; but in others such as influenza or cholera, this is not so certainly made out, and