The Sun.
London, England, 1825-09-07 00:00:00

THE PLAGUE.

PARIS ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES-SEC-
TION OF MEDICINE.
At a sitting of this Institution in the last month,
M. Lassis presented a Memorial to the Academy,
stating his reasons for considering the plague and
yellow fever not contagious.

" Ancient Rome (said M. Lassis), like France, was un-
known to America and to the East, but nevertheless they both
suffered from the yellow fever and the plague. Whenever an
epidemical disease exists, it is produced by local causes, which
cannot always be explained. The yellow fever is nothing but
a very intense fever, accompanied by the laundice—the plague
is nothing but an intense fever, attended with buboes, paro-
tides, &c. These pestilential buboes are absolutely the same
as the pustules of the nature of carbuncles which we notice in
all parts of France, and which are in a manner endemic in
some of the provinces. The disorders called yellow fever
and plague appear continually in all parts of ranee ; but
as they are called by another name, no mention is made of
contagion, and no precaution is taken. It is for this reason
that they are not attended with the fatal consequences which
always follow the official declaration of these maladies. The
measures which are called sanitary, occasion all the accidents
which they profess to prevent. At Cairo, as at Constantinople,
when the plague has a contagious influence, it ravages only cer-
tain quarters, whilst others more healthy are always exempt
from it. The plague which exists in Lower Egypt never pene-
trates into the Upper."
M. Lassis then made some observations relative to the late
epidemy at Barcelona. A Committee was formed, which de-
clared unanimously that contagion was but a chimera ; this
Committee published the reasons upon which they had formed
this opinion, which were so conclusive that they effected the
conversion of a celebrated physician, who had before been at
the head of the contagionists. M. Lassis presented a list of
ten communes in Barcelona, inclosed within the cordon sani-
taire, in which 300 sick took refuge. The inhabitants commu-
nicated constantly with the city, but no alteration took place
in their health. M. Lassis concluded by declaring that he not
only did not believe that either the plague, the yellow fever, or
any other typhus, was contagious, but he denied also the exist-
ence of infection, and he thought that the adoption of this latter
opinion did not cause less- calamitous results than the idea of
contagion itself.
At the conclusion of the memoir, a very interesting discus-
sion took place in the Academy relative to contagion. M.
Laennec commenced the discussion, and interrogated the au-
thor as to whether he absolutely denied the exitence of conta-
.

gion in every species of disease, without restriction.
M. Lassis replied, that he always excepted the measles and
syphilis, but he excepted those only.
Since M. Lassis," continued M. Laennec, " assimilates
the malignant pustule of Burgundy to the pestilential buboes
of the plague, and as he pretends that these two disorders are
the same, would it not be better, according to him, to begin by
making experiments on the disorder which we have now be-
fore us ; and thus arrive at the conclusion which, in the opi-
nion of non-contagionists, might be legitimately extended to
the plague ?"
N. Lassis replied, that the malignant pustule of Burgundy
is not more malignant than the plague ; but that the experi-
ments which might be made on it could not undeceive the pub-
lic. " 'We must strike at the root of the evil," said he ; It
is the plague of the Levant which is feard, and it is to the
plague of the Levant that we must address ourselves."

111. Geoffrey Saint Hilaire observed, that he would commu.
nicate to the Academy the result of the observations which he
had himself made in Egypt. " I have never made them pub-
lic," added he, " either in my lectures, or by means of the
journals; and though the communications which lam going
to make do not positively refer to the fundamental merits of
the question, yet I think they are not entirely devoid of all in-
terest. The plague does not reign exclusively in Lower
Egypt ; it ravages sometimes the Lower and sometimes the
Upper, but never both at the same time ; and it is always
subordinate to the influence of the overflowing of the Nile.
If this river rises very high, Upper Egypt is attacked by
the plague, because it is influenced by the exhalations which
rise from the damp earth heated by the sun. The lower
country. On the contrary, situated beneath the place where
the emanation of deleterious gases takes place, is exempt from
it. The upper country remains healthy, because it is exempt
from humidity • but Lower Egypt being in its turn subject to
the influence of' damp and heat, is ravaged by this destructive
scourge. It is, therefore, to the Nile alone that we must at-
tribute the plague in Egypt ; and to deliver that country from
it, it would be necessary to take away that river. The Nile,
throughout the course of the year, dominates over the health
of the country ; and its variations totally change the medical
constitutions of the regions which it waters ; and it results
that these constitutions have an energy of which we have no ex-
ample in this country. This energy is such, that when there WI
a reigning disorder, any cause of interruption to the health I
whatever, produces always that disorder, and no other." Al.
Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire supported this position by a number of
facts, among which is the following :—A waterman, after vio-
lent exertion, had the imprudence, whilst in a state of perspira-
tion, to throw himself into the river. In any other situation he
would have contracted a cold or a pleurisy. In Egypt, however,
the plague being raging at the time, he died the day after com-
mitting this rash act, as was predicted by M. Geoffrey Saint-
Hilaire at the moment when it took place. The same thing
happened to a soldier who was addicted to drunkenness, who
having one day escaped from the vigilance of the persons ap-
pointed to watch him, drank to excess ; his misfortune was also
predicted. "It would be useless," said M. Geoffrey Saint-
Hilaire, " to enter minutely into the detail of other facts which
I could cite. I have in my remembrance five or six cases
exactly similar to those I have detailed. With another con-
stitution,
the same men who died of the plague would have con- I
tracted the ophthalmia of the country, or perhaps an affection of
the intestinal canal ; in short, in every month, whatever we
may do, we can never contract any thing but the reigning I
malady; and it is possible to say with certainty before-hand
such and such month I shall have such a disorder, and such and
such month another.
M. Louver-Villermey related a circumstance which appeared
to him to strengthen the opinion as to the identity of the plague
with the yellow fever. " One of the most enlightened men of
America," he observed, " told me that at New York, when-
ever the yellow feVer manifested itself at the sea-side, the inha-
bitants of the port alone were affected with it ; whilst merchants
and persons in easy circumstances who lived upon higher situa-
tions were preserved from it. Those alone who came into the
plains contracted it."
A similar circumstance as to a street which traverses New
York, and separates the healthy from the unhealthy part of the
city, was mentioned by M. Desormeaux.
M. Bose related the same fact, but stated that persons might
descend into the port every day without contractin the Conta-
gion, but that they could not with impunity make it their usual
residence, or even sleep there.
M. Laennec observed, that in spite of all that had been said,
as to the climate being as powerful an agent in the production of
the plague as the yellow fever, he thought there was no reason
to believe that an identity existed between those two disorders.
It was requisite then to divide the question, and to make iso-
lated experiments.
The author then reverted to his first proposition, relative to
the malignant pustule of Burgundy, and observed, that re-
searches on contagion should commence with an inquiry into
this.
111. Pariset said, he was astonished, that in this discussion
the most notorious facts relative to the late epieenly at Barce-
lona alone should have been brought forward. It seemed to
have been forgotten that Tortosa was infected by a patient,
who, on leaving Barcelona, took refuge there ; as was also
Palma ; and that in the port of Mahon similar communi-
cations had caused the same disorder. A vessel from Lara,
finding the ports of Spain shut, put into the lazaretto at
Marseilles. This vessel had communicated with Mahon, and
almost the whole of the crew perished at Marseilles. " There
is
sillangoe in thet'perh world
aps continued 111. Pariset, " a more healthy
' than Carlotta. Situate on the declivity of
a hill, and removed from all species of forest or stagnant
water, the air there has a free circulation, the streets being
sixty feet broad ; and yet this spot, so healthy and delightful,
has suffered from the yellow fever, which had been brought
there by patients affected with it. It has been said that the
villages in the vicinity of Barcelona were exempt from yellow
fever, in spite of the number of sick who had perished there ;
but it is certain, on the contrary, that when an infected person
is assiduously taken care of, either by a parent or a friend,
the person who had constantly come in close contact with him
is sure to contract the disorder. It is, however, true, that the
new patient would scarcely ever transmit the disorder himself,
for all contagious disorders lose their force in passing front
an individual, other than the one who first propagated it.—
Numerous facts might be cited of muleteers who, in trans-
porting merchandise, had brought the disorder into places
where it not before existed. These facts are notorious, and I
can assure you, upon my honour, that the great majority of
Spanish physicians do not in any way doubt the reality of con-
tagion."
The President observed, that as the Academy of Medicine,
were to discuss the subject of contagion when the report
was presented, it would be desirable to close the debate upon
the subject.
M. Lassis, who was about to address the Academy be-
fore closing was ordered, contented himself with observing,
that it would not be difficult to refute the assertions of M.
Pariset.