652 
logy and revelation’ alike justify the 
belief, that the human race may, in 
general, attain to this period, with suf- 
ficient vigour for active exertion. 
Diseases decrease with civilization, 
and increase with oppression. The 
plague, which requires the greatest 
combination of evils for its production, 
first disappears; other diseases, less 
malignant, follow, or are reduced in 
violence ; others again take their place, 
more complex, more mental, but less 
destructive. 
a 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
On Contacious and Eripemic Dis- 
Eases. By Dr, Robertson, of Bou- 
logne-sur-Mer. 
A T no period of our history has the 
nature of epidemic disease formed 
a more interesting subject of inquiry 
than inthe present era: but it is 
greatly to be lamented that it has been 
discussed in recent times, seemingly 
rather with the view of establishing 
some preconceived opinion, or early 
adopted prejudice in regard to it, than 
to elicit the truth by a patient analysis 
of the facts presented for examination. 
Hence, the advocates for contagion as 
the sole cause of epidemics, by attach- 
ing their explanations to isolated in- 
stances; and, inferring, upon partial 
facts, often incorrect statements, 4 
general conclusion, not warranted by 
circumstances, afford ample ground in 
favour of.a more recent opinion of the 
cause of epidemics, Hence, it is at- 
tempted to show that with the ex-’ 
ception of certain eruptive diseases— 
as small-pox, measles, &c., no febrile 
epidemic disease, not even the plague 
or typhus, is ever occasioned by con- 
tagion, There can be no doubt that 
the endeavours of the contagionists 
to establish their opinion, by proving 
too much, and by shutting their eyes to 
the most palpable facts in opposition 
to the doctrine they so vehemently 
force upon us, have procured an atten- 
tion to the arguments of the non-con- 
tagionists, which would never have 
been bestowed upon them but for this 
cause. In the first place, the conta- 
gionists maintain, not only that the 
plague is a contagious disease, but that 
it is peculiar to countries within cer- 
tain latitudes,* Yet its appearance in 
Ethiopia, and other warm countries, 
would naturally Jead to the inference, 
"* 40° to 60°, See Blane, Diseases of 
Seamen. ; 
Contagion of Plagze. 
by people of ordinary comprehension, 
that it might therefore be propagated 
throughout the torrid zone.» In like’ 
manner, the ravages of the plague in 
Moscow, in the winter of 1770; and 
the fact that both Iceland and Green- 
land were depopulated by that disease 
at the commencement of the fifteenth 
century, would be held as proof, by any 
unprejudiced person, that the plague 
may again appear, as it has already 
existed, in the coldest regions of the 
earth. And from these facts alone, I 
conclude that no region, or climate, 
exempts. its inhabitants from the ra- 
vages of that disease. Again, the con- 
tagionists affect to consider what is 
commonly called the yellow fever as 
being, in every instance, occasioned by 
contagion. [Yellowness, I may here ob- 
serve, is not a distinctive mark of a 
particular type of fever—it is perceived 
in’ intermittent, remittent, and con- 
tinued fever ; and in‘ the last too, even 
when it arises from specific, or fronr 
local causes.] Upon this opinion, the 
plague haying its limits without the tro- 
pics, the yellow fever is supposed to 
prevail with peculiar violence within 
the torrid zone.. Now, this is an asser- 
tion so openly in the face of facts, that 
really one can hardly believe it could 
have been seriously advanced. That 
the yellow fever may occasionally ap- 
pear within the tropics as a contagious 
disease, no one will dispute. I appre- 
hend that this may be frequently the 
case in slave ships; but when we reflect 
that a hot temperature of the atmo- 
sphere, like that of intense cold, is ex- 
tremely unfavourable to the continu- 
ance of any contagious disease, I con- 
sider myself warranted in saying, that 
for once that yellow fever is met with 
as a contagious disease, it has, at least, 
in 999 instances its origin from local 
circumstances. With regard to its 
limits within the tropics, it has been 
noticed, in the Mediterranean, for more 
than 2,000 years, and excited by local 
causes. Nine men died of it in Gos- 
port in 1798: and it has been met with 
in many other places in Britain, and in 
the north of Europe. But such is the 
pertinacity of certain persons in up- 
holding this opinion of the contagious 
nature of yellow fever, that even that 
fever, as it occurred some years ago at 
Gibraltar, has been asserted to have 
arisen from this cause, in opposition to 
the sentiments of nearly every English 
practitioner in the garrison at the time, 
and in the face of overwhelming proofs 
to 
