Remarks on some of the opinions of Dr. Rush respecting the yellow fever which prevailed in the city of Philadelphia in the year 1793 / By William Patterson.

  • Patterson, William
Date:
1795
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on some of the opinions of Dr. Rush respecting the yellow fever which prevailed in the city of Philadelphia in the year 1793 / By William Patterson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    80/112 (page 36)
    ( 3^ ) infedion, it is true, may enter the trachea and its branches with the air refpired ; but it appears, that it is immediately returned by refpiration, diluted with the moifture from the internal furface of the bronchial veficles, and fuperfatured with phlogifton; combination^ which probably alter it fo as to ob¬ viate its noxious operation. * Behdes, from the i effects of the fumes of burning charcoal, of bron- | ing brimftone, and of other mephitick fubllances, j it is clear, that the internal membrane of the bran- | chise and veficles of the lungs cannot bear the ap- j plication of any acrid fubftance, without giving j evident figns of the pulmonary fundions being j more or lefs difturbed. In this manner, nature | appears to have provided againft the introdudion i of contagion by the lungs, otherwife it would have i been almoft impoflible for any perfon to breathe in ] a tainted air without being infeded ; the contrary of which is experienced every day in hofpitals and i other apartments containing thofe ill with conta¬ gious difeafe^. The third way in which it is believed that con¬ tagion gets accefs to the fyftem, viz. through the •medium of the ftomach, feems to be the moft pro¬ bable. In the ad of refpiration the noxious efflu¬ via * This fuppofal does not interfere with the theory of coa¬ lition between phlogillicated air and contagion offered in the preceding fedtion; becaufe a certain portion of that kind ot air may be a proper nidus or vehicle for the contagious principle^ whilft a hyper-phlogiftication may deftroyits powers.