The influence of the atmosphere, more especially the atmosphere of the British Isles, on the health and functions of the human frame : embracing observations on the nature, treatment and prevention of the principal diseases resulting from sudden atmospherical transitions ; and unfolding original views and fundamental principles for the prolongation of life, and conservation of health. To which are added practical researches on the pathology, treatment, and prevention of gout and rheumatism in all their proteian forms. An essay / by James Johnson, M.D.
- Johnson, James, 1777-1845.
- Date:
- 1818
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The influence of the atmosphere, more especially the atmosphere of the British Isles, on the health and functions of the human frame : embracing observations on the nature, treatment and prevention of the principal diseases resulting from sudden atmospherical transitions ; and unfolding original views and fundamental principles for the prolongation of life, and conservation of health. To which are added practical researches on the pathology, treatment, and prevention of gout and rheumatism in all their proteian forms. An essay / by James Johnson, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
![case, Ihen, it is a natural and just inference that the operas tion of marsh and human effluvium on the human frame bears a very considerable analogy to the operation of those causes enumerated as genersiWy predisposing to, but some« times actually p.iccit'mg fever. This may give us a clue to assist in unravelling' the ratio symptomatum hereafter % but before entering on Ihe effects, ^\e shall say something of the causes themselves. Human Effircium or Contagion.—-The existence of this febritic miasm as the cause of fever does not appear to have been known to the ancients, since Hippocrates makes no mention of it, and the strict prohibitions against contact with unclean or diseased persons recorded in the Mosaic €ode, do not seem directed against febrile, but chronic oe local infection—probably against cutaneous or genital de- fa3datinns. it is curious, h'lwever, that Pliny, wheii describing the pro(?ress of an e^rdcmic fever, apparently solves a question which, to this moment, gives rise to the most violent altercations—namely, whether endemic fevers ever become contagious ? Et primo temporis ac loci vitio, et i^egri erant, et moriebantur ; postea, ciiratio ipsa et contactus jesrorom vulgabat morbos, Lib. xxv, ch,!26. Biit more of this hereafter. Notvvithstanding the exertians of Dr. Bancroft and some others to invalidate certain testimonies respectins the gene-- ration of contagious effluviam, facts too stubborn to be swept away by the brUvsh of sophistry attest that i\\Q effloviura is- suing from the bodies of a number of human [)eiags con- fined too closely, iviiethcriu a state of health or disease, will occasionally produce a coiit lo-ior. which is capable not only of exciting fever among those so confined, but of propa- gating; itself afterwards from them to others Setting asiile the testimonies of Baco:), Lind, Pringle, and others, the transports which received and conveyed home the wretched remna?it of Sir John Moore's army, after the battle of Corunna, afforded tlie most decisive and melan- choly proofs tliat bodies of men confined close together be- tween the decks of a ship in stormy weather, will sooa become sickly, and that their diseases may l?e commu- nicated to nurses and others, after they are landed, washed, and placed in i]\Q most clean and airy hospitals. It will hardly be contended that these men could have carried any infection on board, either in their persons or clothes, after a rapid retreat, during which, almost every N](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21061117_0105.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
