Ihc yalidlly of the Doctrine of Contagion in the Plague. 1.9 



nioated by the air only, and renders it highly probable that con- 

 tact is necessary to spread the disease. 



James Frank, M.D. — Has been in countries where the plague 

 existed. Thinks it is highly contagious. Was upon the expe- 

 dition with Sir Ralph Abercronibie in the year 1800, and had the 

 first establishment of the plague hospital at Aboukir. The army 

 landed in the month of March, and was perfectly free from the 

 disease till about the middle of May; when a person from the 

 commissariat depot at Aboukir was reported to be ill, and it was 

 said that he had the plague; he was removed from thence to the 

 hospital, which might be the distance of about a mile, and con- 

 fined in a tent by himself; he had been ill about four-and-twenty 

 hours before at the depot, and it was supposed that he was in- 

 toxicated, and that his disease arose from excess ; he died. On 

 the second or third day, two more persons, from the same depot, 

 in a day or two afterwards, were reported to be sick in the same 

 manner, and they were sent to the same place. It was doubtful 

 whether it was the disease ; and then it became a question how it 

 had got to the depot. There were two reports ; one, that it was 

 imported by a Greek boat from Cyprus with Cyprus wine; and the 

 other,that it was brought fromRhamanehby thcArabs, where it was 

 known the plague had been raging. It was afterwards said that 

 a man had died on board this Greek boat. The impression upon 

 Dr. F.'s mind is, that it was brought by this Greek boat; the 

 disease had been at Cyprus and upon the coast of Syria ; and 

 Brigadier General Koehler, and the detachment of artillery under 

 his command, had fallen victims to the disease, and died at Jaffa 

 three months previous. As before stated, he had the superinten- 

 dance of the plague hospital at Aboukir, and consequently the 

 arrangement for the accommodation of the plague patients, though 

 not the immediate charge of the sick; for it had spread from the 

 attendants, who had caught the disease from those persons above 

 mentioned who had died, to the sick of the hospital. His whole 

 arrangements were made, upon the principle of its being conta- 

 gious, to prevent its sjueading to the army, which was in the 

 lines before Alexandria, at a distance of ten or twelve miles from 

 the depot. The hospital at that time consisted of the wounded 

 men after the actions of the Sth, the 13th, and the 21st of March. 

 There were very few sick, who were placed in some rude huts, 

 which the French had built; for there was no house whatever at 

 Aboukir, the village having been destroyed; and among those 

 sick the plague patients were sent, it having appeared that the 

 disease had been communicated to them by the attendants upon 

 the first plague patients ; and as it was impossible to say who had 

 got the plague or who had not, Dr. F. rcconuricndcd that the 

 whole should be guarded by sentinels, and that the whole should be 

 B 2 throw 



