A letter addressed to His Excellency the Right Honorable General the Earl of Chatham, K. G., governor of Gibraltar &c., relative to the febrile distempers of that garrison / by W.W. Fraser, Esq., inspector of hospitals and medical superintendant of quarantine at Gibraltar.

  • Fraser, W. W. (William Wemyss)
Date:
1826
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter addressed to His Excellency the Right Honorable General the Earl of Chatham, K. G., governor of Gibraltar &c., relative to the febrile distempers of that garrison / by W.W. Fraser, Esq., inspector of hospitals and medical superintendant of quarantine at Gibraltar. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    18/68 (page 10)
    acquaintance ; the interment of numbers; and the desolate appearance of the place, work this effect: all eloquence is trivial compared to these silent monitors, which incessantly present the most forcible appeak to the imagination. Notwithstanding the salutary effects of the arrangement for the dispersion of our low population, it did not seem to be yet understood, that the prevention or relief of individual malady is the sole source of general preservation. Anxiously searching into every question regarding the Epidemic, this assertion presents itself as incontrovertible. The features of the Epidemic in Gibraltar, in 1813; its course through families, the early and almost universal seizure of the Medical Officers, of,the Clergy and Rabbies, and of those immediately employed about the sick, both friends and attendants, if not emancipated by previous at- tack ;—the sickening of washerwomen ;—the good effects of seclusion, especially the remarkable escape of a few indi- viduals who took particular precautions ;—such occurences as these, led to, and finally confirmed, the belief of the infectious nature of the malady. It is surprising that, of the number of medical authors who deny the contagious properties of the disease in their closet, many yield to the ineffable impression made by the immediate view of epidemic calamity, and acknowledge its communicability, both by words and deeds;—by their personal manners ; their care of those dear to them ; the placing of their patients under observation, and the adoption of other means, which could solely originate in a latent belief of contagion. Dr. Jackson gives his opinion, that there is an influence in the presence of those who are ill of the yellow fever, which is more or less allied with an infection which obtains the name of contagion. The Doctor's words are, The instances of persons who have lived in apparent good health in simple epidemic atmospheres, and who have yielded to indisposition soon after they have entered into the apartments of the sick, are numerous; and they are so marked, even within my own experience, that, contrary as the fact is, at first sight, to the opinion in which I believe, I cannot 'abstain from stating it, and even from adding to it, that there exists an influence in the presence of those who are ill of the yellow fever, which is more or less allied with an infection, that