Caution to the public, or, hints upon the nature of scarlet fever, designed to shew, that this disease arises from a peculiar and absolute virus, and is specifically infectious in its mildest as well as in its most malignant form : including some cursory remarks upon plague and other pestilential diseases.

Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Caution to the public, or, hints upon the nature of scarlet fever, designed to shew, that this disease arises from a peculiar and absolute virus, and is specifically infectious in its mildest as well as in its most malignant form : including some cursory remarks upon plague and other pestilential diseases. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    In availing ourselves of those visible, and uniform, signs which accompany, and mark, the ordinary indi- cations of specific disease, we possess the surest, and best, guides in detecting its presence, in ascertaining its nature, and in guarding against its propagation. In collecting irregular, and uncertain, symptoms, to which no interest, or importance, can be attached, and from which no knowledge, can be acquired, would tend to accumulate confused, and, in many instances, discordant, evidence, that would serve no other pur- pose, than to unsettle those inductions, which had been drawn from a connected series of facts. But, in discussing this subject, I by no means wish to be understood as delivering, and relying upon, opinions that have solely been the result of my private expe- rience, although I can have little hesitation in pro- nouncing my sentiments upon it with the conviction of certainty, which has been corroborated by the concurring testimony of ancient as well as modern authors. The present subject would have been entered upon with little, if any, expectation of success, had the opinions here entertained been at variance with the generality of those practitioners, who have preceded me in the same path, and whose extensive experience necessarily held them up as safe examples, and guides. It has been remarked, that mankind will often re- sist the influence of arguments taken separately, while they readily yield to the impression made by the weight of a united, and cumulative, force : I therefore feel that I should neither consult the interest of the public, nor do justice to the opinions of others, nor