The fever at Boa Vista in 1845-6, unconnected with the visit of the "Eclair" to that island / by Gilbert King.

Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The fever at Boa Vista in 1845-6, unconnected with the visit of the "Eclair" to that island / by Gilbert King. 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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    ducing such irrelevant gossip into this discussion was to evade or neutralize the effect of a disclosure of dates, adverse to many of his ingenious statistical details. Be this as it may, the document is still in my possession; I have referred to it in these pages without scruple, and the more readily as it is well known that John Jamieson is at hand, with Dr. McWilliam, in the Customs Department. Having thus fulfilled a most painful duty, I have only to add, that if, in the preceding pages, there appears any undue display of acrimony, I hope it will not be attributed to an uncharitable spirit, although I have been sufficiently provoked by Dr. McWilliam in his Remarks on my Report, and in his late papers on the Boa Vista fever. The remote cause of epidemic fever is beyond our knowledge or control; it might be expected, therefore, that gentlemen—members of the profession—could give an honest opinion, if not without the risk of being charged with prejudice, at all events without the imputation of delinquencies of a graver character. I have been impelled by no other desire than to reveal the truth, and to clear up a matter which has been long obscured by misrepresentation and imagina- tive speculations. Having obeyed the dictates of duty, and of duty only, I appeal to the judgment of mankind, and calmly wait the result.