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MEDICINE, SURGERY, ANATOMY, &c. 
Art. XVI. dn Account of the Epidemical Catarrhal Fever commonly called the Influenssas 
as it appeared at Bath in the Winter and Spring of the Tear 1803. By W. Fauconer,; 
M.D. F.R.S. pp. 46. 
THE epidemic which prevailed so uni- 
versally in the beginning of last year, has 
given rise to several publications on its 
nature and treatment. The ample oppor: 
tunities which have been so universally af- 
forded, of witnessing every part of its phe- 
nomena, might reasonably be supposed to 
have elucidated every circumstance con- 
cerning it. We still however find, that 
there is considerable difference of opi- 
nion, not only with regard to some par- 
ticulars of its treatment, but on its mode 
of propagation ; many conceiving it to 
be of a contagious nature, and therefore 
capable of being communicated from an 
individual to another, while others con- 
sider it as arising from an epidemic con- 
stitution of the air to which all are equal- 
ly exposed. ‘ihe question is one of con- 
siderable difficulty, and we are not yet 
in possession of evidence sufficient to de- 
termine it. 
opinion, with which authors for the most 
part content themselves, cannot be ad- 
mitted as having much weight in an in- 
quiry, which is only to be successfully 
prosecuted by a minute attention to facts, 
in the examination of which there are 
numerous sources of error. Some ob- 
servations of Dr. Haygarth’s, on the na- 
ture of the epidemics, of the years 1775 
and 1782, which are published for the 
first time in an appendix to the account 
of the influenza now before us, seem to 
afford an example of the only proper 
way, by which the contagious nature of 
so universal a disease can be clearly as- 
certained: Information was carefully 
sought for and obtained, from various 
respectable persons, whether in the pro- 
fession or not, of the particular periods 
at which the epidemic made its appear- 
ance, both in Chester, and the different 
towns and villages in its neighbourhood, 
and of the sources from whence it was 
supposed to have arisen. In the year 
‘1775, the first person afflicted with the’ 
influenza in Chester, was the landlady of 
a principal inn, to whom it was suppos- 
ed to have been communicated by some 
travellers from London; in a short 
time. it spread through the whole town. 
In the year 1782, a gentleman ill of the 
influenza, went from London to the 
same place, and communicated the dis- 
ease toa lady into whose family he came ; 
in about a fortnight the complaint was 
The mere statement of an’ 
general. In villages and scattered 
houses in the country, the disease always 
appeared later than in neighbouring 
towns, and its introduction could fre- 
quently be traced, without difficulty, to 
a particular individual. The followin 
was the result of the information which 
Dr. Haygarth received on the rise of the 
epidemic tn several towns in the neigh~ 
bourhood of Chester. 
‘© 1. That the first patient who had the dise 
ease in Frodsham, was seized with it as he 
was returning from Manchester.—2. That at 
Malpas, the first patient was the landlady of 
the inn and her family, a week sooner than 
any other patient in the town.—8. That the 
first person who had the distemper in Mid- 
dlewich brought it from Liverpool.—4. That 
the first person affected with the influenza at 
Mold, had been at Chester a few days before, 
in a family ill of that distemper.—5. Thata 
gentleman arrived at Oswestry, ill of the in- 
fluenza before the inhabitants were attacked. 
—6. That at Tarporley, the first person seiz- 
ed was a postilion who had driven a‘ chaise 
thither from Warrington, where the distem- 
had previously appeared.—7.. That at 
Vrexham, the first patient came fronr Ches- 
ter, and the second from Shrewsbury. But 
my correspondents at Holywell and Ruthin 
did not recollect by whom it was brought in- 
to these towns.” 
Reasoning from the analogy of the 
former epidemics, and comparing their 
progress with what has happened in 
1808, Dr. Haygarth has no doubt of the 
late influenza eared been contagious, 
but in order to ascertain the fact -by the 
most correct evidence, he advises prac- 
titioners to institute enquiries similar to 
those which he made, in order to disco- 
ver the very individuals by whom the dis- 
ease was transported from one place to 
another. This kind of evidence is cer- 
tainly necessary to set the question at 
rest ; and it is to be lamented, that the 
enquiries of Dr. Haygarth have not 
been equally directed to the investiga- 
tion of the nature of the late influenza, 
as to that of the former one; or that 
other medical men of experience and ob- 
servation, have not prosecuted the sub- 
ject ona similar plan. 
The principal circumstances which 
characterize the account given in this 
pamphlet, of the influenza as it appeared 
in Bath, and its neighbourhood, are the 
disposition which frequently shewed it- 
