52 Dr. Mac Cullocli on Malaria on Ship-hoard. 



ments to make such impression as may be their fortune. As I 

 do not wish to enter here on the question of predisposing causes ; 

 and as I have shown that malaria is really present in thou- 

 sands of cases where it is not now suspected, there will scarcely 

 be any difficulty, with due attention, of tracing the real cause 

 of those fevers which are not contagious. In the case imme- 

 diately before us, I have shown that it exists in ships, even at 

 sea, the produce of the vessel itself, and on the general prin- 

 ciple of vegetable decomposition. 



To conclude, if I do not, myself, perceive the defects in the 

 logic of this argument, I can have no objection to see them 

 pointed out, since my object is to discover Truth ; never yet 

 having comprehended what else there was worthy of the pur- 

 suit of a rational being. And on this ground I may venture, 

 rather, however, for the sake of professional than strictly popu- 

 lar readers, to offer a few remarks, somewhat more specific, on 

 the fevers of nosological and systematic writers. 



I have stated two fevers, or two species (using that word in 

 its widest sense) of fever, perfectly distinguished by their pro- 

 perty of being communicated or not, and equally distinguished 

 by their causes — exciting causes, in medical phraseology. The 

 Plague is another fever of a distinct character : the eruptive 

 fevers, smallpox, scarlatina, and so forth, form a different set 

 of species ; and, besides all these, there is a fever attending on 

 local disorders — on inflammation or disorganization. The 

 question is, are there any other fevers ? any fevers besides 

 these last, which are not modifications of the fever of conta- 

 gion, or the fever of marshes ? If there are any still received, 

 I may safely now, I believe, reduce them to the modern sim- 

 plicity, by ranking them under the Synocha and the Synochus of 

 Cullen. May these not be reduced still lower, or ranked under 

 one or other of the Two Fevers ? I think that they probably 

 can ; and if so, we have but two fevers, and two causes of 

 fever. As to the disorder itself, as it exists, it will then con- 

 sist in nothing but varieties; and if this can be established, it 

 is equally important, both in the view of practice and pre- 

 vention, — to say nothing of the satisfaction which arises from 

 generalization and simplification, and of the facility which 

 these add to all our reasonings, and to our practice also. 



