103 



tous parts ; and thus relieving the respiration to a degree which gains 

 time for the favourable operation of other remedies, and which may- 

 obviate the necessity of resorting to tracheotomy. But we will allow 

 the memoir drawn up by Dr. Buck, and herewith presented, as a 

 supplement to this report, to speak for itself. — (B. 1.) 



In entering on the second part of their report, or that relating to 

 the progress of epidemics, &c, during the term of their service, the 

 committee lament that circumstances, before alluded to, have pre- 

 vented them from collecting the materials necessary to enable them 

 to give a full circumspective view of the subject. Indeed, it maybe 

 questioned whether the topics now referred to, comprehending in 

 their range the nature and effects of the endemic, epidemic, contingent 

 and climatic influences which are operative in producing and modi- 

 fying popular diseases in the United States, do not collectively form 

 a theme too extensive in its details to be examined and reported upon 

 by a central committee within the time allotted for the accomplish- 

 ment of the task. In the case of your present committee, it is felt, 

 that, had there been no impediment to the prosecution of their duty, 

 their utmost diligence would scarcely have enabled them to compass 

 even an outline of the subject. 



In the observations to which the committee invite the attention of 

 the Association, epidemics are regarded as arising from three general 

 sources, to wit, contagion, infection, and meteor ation; and in ac- 

 cordance with this view of their etiology, they may be divided into 

 contagious, infectious, and meteoratious, and defined as follows: 



1. Contagious Epidemics are those distempers which arise from 

 poisons, generated by specific morbid actions in the human body, and 

 which are communicable from the sick to the healthy by mediate and 

 immediate contact. To this division belong scarlet fever, measles, 

 small-pox, and a few other diseases. 



2. Infectious Epidemics are those diseases which originate from 

 the emanations or miasmata from decomposing organic substances, 

 including the excrementitious or effete animal matters thrown out of 

 the body in health and disease. The disorders referable to this 

 class are intermittent and remittent fevers, yellow fever, typhus, 

 malignant puerperal fever, and some varieties of dysentery and ery- 

 sipelas. 



3. Meteoratious Epidemics are those wide-spreading maladies 

 which arise from certain latent influences of the general atmosphere, 

 and which have no special relations or connections with seasons, 



