The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1819-06-01 00:00:00

CON TA G/0/, Fb E

The epidemic fever oh;chi during the latter weft
of the year 1816, the whole of 1817. and part 01.
1818, preva.led in London and rattersl of the
ma-
nefacturing ills:riets (of Great Britain. aid el 1141
during the same time raged in (reline). owl .til
continuer i•ccasionally to start up 111 dint nart
United Kingdom. liars rtliaiotolv engages! the Iv—
tentioes of almolt every re flecti•or min I no 0,4
country. In the Sesoion of 'bpi it waa male e
subject of Inquiry by a gelret Committee of Ili.-
House of Continuos. slid) led to the adoption rut
some milutary legialittive provisions. The cll'lrArt• •
of the contagion hiss been investigated atilt term,' •
moo assidot.y Isy the medical burly. to whose t tie•g) •
skill. and humanity. nu so distressing sit peomini:.
the country can u. ver br stifiivientiv grateful. I• •
deed it is impossible Is look hack upon the melon.
clittly period to which we hate alluded, without ••
tninglyd seneition of pride said tatintration ; fr•
never before. or in any Ober t:Mintry. war 11. e hale.l
of charity so widely and mai servedly ritteridrii It •
every class of society, to whom Providence het(
given the mran• of lending assistance to their suf.
fell..m.yrratures.
The Sixty-second Number of Tke Ftlinketet
Review, nisi. h has been just Il I pit )..i a.se..l . co5.1••Ii.• a a
excellent popular treatise on this vohject, c
ing some tery useful remarks on the can't.. tree.-
meld, said wee...limn or contagious fever, As .0.11:1
advsoitage ought he derived from giving /hem 1b..:
axteusive publicity w Inch the culutuo. of a New, .
piper can beat afford, we hats thought It ri6lll t $
make the follow lii( • *tracts ;--
" Fools history we learn, that in no aka of She world Ir:
society hero 'tempted front epidemic fever.; hot it has a'•
ways committed its chief ravages at those rhs•re• tone joie,.
tures when war and scarcity had hen extending-the domouth-,
of evil berated its ordinary Ilnaito. Fur efample. efo'r • 5.5 e
irruption of the Gulls. tutu the Human provinces, rpidenson
siektita. was sure 10 folkiW, anti to thiit the remains or popish..
lion which she sword haul spaced. taileril, as wow liera.iir
of general or local calamity, whether in asit4ent or mud. r I
limes, contagion has made knows its oriaetw. ;
and In this way has the poison home preprioatrd hors are I •
mce, and from year to y• ar From the remotest rriod.,
down to the pre,elit (ley, it has hero reprioloreJ so itidal••'
number of times. and iti an infinite variety of constitution,'
without any peicepillo:e alteration is its character or la•• .
Sono:liners it has • letenoled only to a few: at other tows •1
has spread amosiozst moat yet, with 4h:el./eve oriti,l
tif operation it lons appeared—allether epidemical, sod r
vaging a kingdom, or confined to le hamilet or a hut— t
has never become wholly extinct ; but bat. luok•d a, a fat 1
spark among the neglected embers of society; o•rety to bar-t
forth Mtn a blaze at 'rely favuuralde orpert runty.
" It will not he irrelevant to Add 11 ft w words on the tat' •
tier in whiels the wetter o•folootagiou may hr ad timed 10..
ale body. It May be coots/eyed into the Phoning) by Ilse sant ;
tor it may be abseilhrd, by the skin, in sunue instancet; has t
we are conviueril, that by to the mist .ur.liwtry way Or nib .
lotion by the lungs. It is on this way applaid t • Ilea ,-•
rite niconbranons expansion which cuvers ~It the mina- •
10110.1.Vtalle,!a dish ibu t• d asib sorb an infinitude • f h• uel
aomind the air.cells of the lons. We have Mile .',meth h.
that the poison, thaw applied, is absoo best by the lol•ool, at I
inns fiuds its way into the cemr,e of the colasl olon. k -
sided its general effects on the sympathies Of the
/plata, it arrnis to deteriorate use m'•...,1 hl-aid U.. If, a'
reader It Unlit to inointson the irritooholily of the beast, eo I
the oecitability of the brain. •••• the id..-1 •
phenomena, particularly in the last ahem• of fevers, are 1- .
I. rattle mutely to this depravation • t the blood. tho
matter, bowever, we shall take uccaiiun to say inure het'.
after.

" The symptom in fever that first alarms s p.
frieuda, is debility; and, lo remuve it, all tli.;r II
elinrla are earliest dirrNed. But it is dreadful in oh•i.k .e: I
what lamentable epuseyneoe.•n they are ..ft. u wire 1..1. tt .
firmly believe, that the fear of &bib. y has been 11,e .
tins ethossands of liver, by the rash treatment 711 nh•rh
has given birth. It is gnats a hawed a•i.,pt ...mimes: I o
poor, that weakness lutist Oasis he met mid t .1 I y
cordtak ; WO that stietigiti can mily he coo.muute de 1 :
the lauctitil frame Ibiniiiels the snedinus of se••er..ur .1. r.
MVP often du we w e th.ir fevers, doom. the IL 4 timer r
fou► days, when alone medical •r,at•drut r.toi •tr of moil ,1
sessli nut wierrlk arel.•. tad, but -whet is iuliurt. ly armee -
voided taro mstiguity by stiosio'airte treatment Ssr la -
happy patient is put to warm tes.ilt !moor, tis s
Spirits soil stater, are aulusteissertil at int. rt-Is. sii.l
stomach Is loaded with omits...biers l.rotfia ..r c.•nhd' p •isaits ;
and Mite 'wily thine a Muir el ou from It:iff to wort,. 'lt •
ems ;warmly runcrtts sop Obi( 11411 b. 1.2 s f
of society at lame, than 5.. eormicre le: orms r..l prejam .
per►uus of the 1•olly suit Jaw,* such pf:*4l MY. T..
admonitions et the mYtt 11 q !IVY 4,

imMIP

ii:sf ear ; cc they comply with them very imperfectly, and
• 110.013,19, art is direct anti ilitzgerl opposition. This
sett a. II it s4-11VMs the lid iar.tf the hams-tile and enlightened.
It is only from the kind advices or those who, front their
rank in society, or other cativo, have 11111111,61 C. over the
minds of the lower orders', that we can expect irsalutaryve-
form in this purt,calae.
Tlore is, among this class of suci,iv, anothereardinal
error; to wit, that of forcing a perspwatton in fever, to
carry it off, as lb. it ph•Ree is. Misled, in the first tostamm,
by th, score of chilliness generally present, all.l by the as at
sod 111.11, p. Maps, enspb.ys as ale stems.
of d.sso'v mg the febrile paroxysm. they bury the unlneky
t in hrd.clnN es, and every refreshing access of air
is
• "v .setn.led: perhaps, to old to Isis tempura's, a tire is
.edi .t, a..d et.e so'. err lies sweltering in clammy &engi-
n..., mtrepsration, panting for breath, and rapidly hecomitag
exliaosted by the murderous kindness' exercised 1011/11111s hint.
Surely, then this, nothing can be more cruelly injodieitms;
for every rtier'ica man, with the least prelims 00000 to expe.i.-
yore, most 'et sets cases on eases slut re, even after the
prol'iuse perspiration', shells- r breaking eat naturally
or elicited by ad, nu vrmancrit relit r of the febrile syrup.
tents h.• Cahoon!. This system of forcing perspiration,
theft, is use.lesa, arid worse than useless ; far it is sore to du
loom, by niegmeating and filling deterruisiations of blood to
the Wain and amber parts essential to life, and by causing an
seetirmilation of the stimulus ire morbid heat. If perspire-
titm bra desirable object, se hnow of no more likely means
4.! la, inging it nut, than to take off the febrile stricture of
the skin by he free admission of cool air, the use of cool
drink and light bed.cloth. : but, indeed, sweatiog is gene-
rally to be regarded rather as the effect than the cause of
the departure of fever. This should sever be Ms gotten.
14 The ase of emetics at the beginning of the disease has
been sari-fumed by so many great pieraciana, that it has
sow heroine a popular practice, and it erten resorted les at
%rat, without any reviler medical advice. 'the practice in
this indiscriminate way, is certainly liable to many grave
obj. etions. The civilities of vont:their powerfully prowls
the hbool to the Mani, and sometimtv gives s ise to such an
irritability of stomach as •II our subsequent i flirts cannot
allay. Surely the more obvious b. milts of emetics as eva-
connts, may be set:mud, in ninny cases, by wordier', stitch
do not expose the patient to the same dangers. We do nut
tl. ray their great utility in many cases; fur example, where,
pi moose', to fever, the stomach has bees tore. beaded by in.
tbgestible food: we also admit that the summit" their
op• ration gives to Ilse *hole system re useful in removing
tow erd congestions of blood, awl 'heehawing the necessary
and salutary stage of moderate reactium What we contend
fo. is, that the unlimited, and therefore empirical., sui.loy-
mem of them in all eases, even when the cold stage is gone
by, .s foego.soly sinner. wary, and sometimes true.
o '1 he 'Ammo. ration of cold water as drink, M also a
most in theist import meat. for who h se are indebted to
modern times; and in the use u( it, happily, there is has
need tor serspuloututst titan in the rase of its re testiest em.
ploynacnt. Its free exhibition was first suggests(' by the
Laban phrdei,•.s. and Dr. cyi illus of Navies published a
'paper Ist the lobilusuphrcal Transactions (Yu. 410 p 142 )
raortaaly rceonornending it is itltunt any oilier remedy shat.
some, Its oar oats a.unhy also shout tkr begisming of
`l4sl Cl nlary, anti preemie* to Dr Cyrillus't paper, Dr. Ilan-
vorke publisled a treatise on its efficacy, under the affected
tole of ' &hangars Magnum.' Yet it is wily wiibiu the
last twenty ..11' thoty years that cold aster, or evell cool
di inks, have het slue general tianoilies. The lower orders du
not regard them wish tar same aversion as cold allusion;
indeed the eagernessa.th aloch n 'lure craves them, and the
tklil4ll.llr re... diluent they afford, are enough to subtitle pre-
jiediers, eves the !Mal Ills. aerate.
" 1•:1' next guest 41111 rad.eil adY3:1(t'111,111 in the treat.
anent of keel., of which moderu Imes eau justly boast, is
biii-41 6lung This remedy appear., front Use of
ii.riurraies, to have Leen very freely employed in that age.
Ev. is 1.. the. country, until 11w middle or last century,
it
was zetterally rusted to, add bad Hee St. tibia of Hie
Sy.ll. plum. H. Maciplis were nut silt w nit the merits of
this practice, as is evident from some or the early medical
wriiincs of last eestary. We know nut well haw so power-
ful a remedy leave fallso item disease ; but we be-
lieve it was chiefly owing to the ingot-sec of those eminent
toes, Futhergill, Pringle, Lind, Dr. Juhii Hunter, Cullen,
auJ BtOWCI, who gave the tune to medical doctrine, and
spread a fear of the laser( all over Europe, by propagating,
iu their parketten' and ay. itings, the fake notion that typhus
Is a disease of direct debility. The pinnies, after a period
of unmerited eclipse, is now happily revived, and has Mate-
4ially Itstenuf the mortality of our ordinary fevers."

IVRER.N INTELLIGENCE.