Epidemics. ig 



If such really was the case, then a new field of inquiry 

 opens itself for further investigation. 



ist. Can two diseases run parallel in the same body at 

 the same time ? Answer ; Yes. As scarlatina, measles, and 

 small pox : many cases of which have been recorded of late 

 years. 



2nd. Can two diseases amalgamate or coalesce, and out 

 of that coalescence produce one new disease or hybrid. The 

 answer is here given in the affirmative, and subsequent to 

 this being written in MS ; it has been advocated by Dr. 

 James Ross, under the title of "The Graft Theory of 

 Disease," adapting itself to Darwin's Hypothesis of 

 Pangenesis. 



Those diseases of an epidemic or an infectious character, 

 which are here given as of a hybrid character, are the black 

 death, syphilis, and the Athenian plague. 



Black death is supposed to be the blending of an infectious 

 lung disease, endemic in Tartary and the west of China, 

 with the Levant or Justinian plague. 



Syphilis and the Athenian plague are both supposed to be 

 hybrids of leprosy under very differently modified conditions. 



Syphilis is supposed to be the blending of plague and 

 leprosy in one unifaction of disease, upon the whole, leprosy 

 having the greater ascendancy, but nevertheless a hybrid 

 between that and Levant plague. 



On the other hand the Athenian plague is viewed as a 

 hybrid of a certain rubeoloid disease, partaking in a modi- 



