ILLUSTRATIONS. 141 



preceding inflammation, we conceive too early attention cannot be given to the 

 premonitory symptoms which announce the inflammatory stage, but which are 

 frequently so inconsiderable, being seated in the less sensible, the cellular por- 

 tion of the lungs, that both physician and patient are alike regardless of the 

 present symptoms, and of the consequences to which they lead. Instead, there- 

 fore, of trusting to sirups, anodynes, pectorals, or ptisans, to ajjay the occasional 

 dry hacking cough and pains of the chest, which indicate the first approach of 

 the disease, we earnestly recommend the same active treatment by blood- letting, 

 blisters, and other means of diminishing excitement, as are employed in the 

 treatment of a pleurisy, or any other acute inflammation ; and we could add, in 

 confirmation of our view of this subject, many recent cases, in which the practice 

 here recommended has been attended with the most happy results. 1 

 Mfdical and Philosophical Register, vol. 2. 



NOTE 39. 



Contagion and infection are subjects which have been fertile of discussion anc 

 controversy. Their peculiar character, and the agency which they exert ic 

 giving origin to, and modifying the form of, diseases, seem to have attracted, at 

 a very early period, a large share of attention. Among the ancient physician* 

 we find Galen, in express terms, stating the manner in which plague is commu , 

 nicated ; et quidem quod aeris pestilens febrem afFerre consuevit, nemo sanse men- 

 tis dubitavit, sicuti et pestilenti morbo laborantium conversatio periculosa, ne 

 inde contagium contrahatur, quemadmociuir. ex scapie et lippitudiue. (Galen, 

 de Differ. Febr.) Livy, the historian, appears to have been duly sensible of 

 the power of contagion ; et primo teraporis ac loci vitio, et aegri erant, et mo- 

 riebantur : postea ruratio ipsa et contactus cegrorum vulgabat morbos ; and in 

 describing a pestilential disorder which prevailed in the early part of the fourth 

 century, A. U. C., he again remarks, vulgatique contactu in homines morbi. 

 (Lib. iv. cap. xxx.) Soon after the restoration of learning, when the stock of 

 knowledge preserved by the arabians was increased by new facts and discoveries 

 and medical science was augmented by the laborious investigations of that pro- 

 lific age, we find Diemerbroeck and others devoting especial attention to this 

 subject. Though a difference of opinion existed, it is manifest that a large ma- 

 jority of physicians naintaine3 the general doctrines of contagion. 



At a more recent period the great mortality which accompanied the different 

 attempts at colonization in the Wrt-Tndia ilnnd. and on the coast of Africa 



