Posts Tagged An historical account of the plague
An historical account of the plague
An historical account of the plague: and other pestilential distempers….. was written by R. Goodwin, Richard Burdekin, published by R. Burdekin in 1832 (Original from Oxford University), digitized for Google books on Apr 19, 2006 and is 78 pages long.
To view the full version of the book, or to download it, visit this page at Google Books – An historical account of the plague.
The information presented below is from the Googles digitized version of “An historical account of the plague.” Its important for modern mankind to understand how plagues have affected our ancestors. Its only through understanding the past, can we plan for the future.
PESTILENTIAL DISTEMPERS,
Flag Ok, or Pestilential Fever, is a very malignant, and contagious disease; being a putrid fever of the worst kind, and seldom failing to prove fatal; though it is generally denned a malignant fever.
That the plague is a poison, or rather carries a poison along with it, is acknowledged by all physicians; but of what kind and nature it is, and whence it proceeds, is left in obscurity.
The plague, it is generally believed, seldom or ever originates in Britain, but is imported from abroad, especially from the Levant, Lesser Asia and Egypt where it is very common. Dr. Sydenham, in his works, has remarked that it rarely infects his country oftener than once in forty years, and happily we have been free from it for a much longer period.
Authors are not yet agreed concerning the nature of this dreadful distemper. Some think that insects are the cause of it, in the same way that they are the cause of blights, being brought in swarms from other climates by the wind, when they are taken into the lungs in respiration ; the consequence of which is, that they mix with the blood and juices, and attack and corrode the viscera. Mr. Boyle, on the other hand, thinks it originates from the effluvia or exhalations breathed into the atmosphere from noxious minerals, to which may be added stagnant waters and putrid bodies of every kind.