44 Dr. Mac Culloch on Malaria on Ship-hoard, 



not communicable, with great consequent commercial injury, 

 and with great expense and inconvenience ; — and hence, also, 

 collaterally or incidentally, the excitement of a temper which, 

 j)artly justified by the results as here stated, has generated a 

 kind of party spirit against all quarantine regulations ; and has 

 even gone so far, in recent times, and in the hands of a few of 

 violent tempers, or misapplied political feelings, or anxious for 

 notoriety, or else delighting in universal opposition, as to pro- 

 pose, and persist in, the propriety of suppressing all quarantine 

 or sanitary regulations, even in the case of the plague. 



Of the last case to which I have here alluded, Alicante offers 

 an example : while, if I dare not quote further illustrations, 

 so I cannot venture either to enter into more minute details of 

 the several grievous consequences which have resulted from 

 the errors which I have here pointed at. It woidd require 

 long detail to render these fully sensible to popular readers, 

 ignorant of the facts and ignorant of medicine ; and though 

 such detail might be rendered very interesting, I dare not so 

 far infringe on my allotted space. Such readers would also ill 

 comprehend how the medical practice must be affected by 

 correct or false views as to the true nature of such a fever ; 

 and if the differences required in the treatment are not always 

 very considerable, there are many cases where they really are 

 most important; while I need not suggest to any philosophical 

 mind, that no physician can act correctly under vague, hesi- 

 tating, or false views of the nature of the disorder which he is 

 treating. 



As far as our own country is concerned, the results of this 

 error are evil in a less proportion, as the diseases, of whatever 

 nature, are less numerous and less severe. I will pass over 

 what relates to the practice or the medical treatment, though 

 it is by no means unimportant. It ought to be obvious, also, 

 that if a non-contagious disorder shall be judged a contagious 

 one, the precautions which prudence would suggest on this 

 view, and which a correct practitioner would follow, if too 

 often omitted from ignorance or carelessness, are of a nature 

 to be attended with great inconvenience, and often with consi- 

 derable expense as well as alarm. Such is removal ; such, 

 separation, nurses, and much more ; matters which, expressed 

 in so many simple w^ords, carry no weight, but the vexa- 



