TRADITION IN MEDICINE 101 



have now a very real interest I have reproduced in the 

 following pages his observations taken from the volume 

 of collected papers issued by his brother after his death 

 in 1871. I have left them all in the original French. 

 Then we come to the modern period (1881) to Dr. 

 Charles Finlay. He also had spotted the stegomyia, 

 and his observations proved of the greatest assistance 

 in directing researches to this insect. Finlay presented 

 his paper, showing that the mosquito carried the infection 

 from man to man, before the Academy of Sciences of 

 Havana in 1881. Beauperthuy, it will be remembered, 

 also believed that it was the domestic mosquito, but 

 held that its virus was telluric in origin. 



There are two parts of Beauperthuy's writings here 

 reproduced to which I wish to direct the reader's special 

 attention. One part is that in which he refers to the 

 hampering effect of tradition in our great profession. 

 He points out in the history of the disease known as 

 Scabies the number of centuries it took medical men 

 before they would confess that scabies was a parasitic 

 affection, and that, too, in spite of the fact that the 

 " poor negro " had recognised its parasitic origin. The 

 other paragraph to which I would direct special attention 

 is that dealing with the common fly. 



Tradition in Medicine 



" The profession said," writes Beauperthuy, that "La 

 gale, la peste, se propageaient, par les inoculations 

 miasmatiques par contact immcdiat ou par les vetements 

 ou autres objets touches par les galeux, par les 

 pestifeiTS : ces menjes objets pouvaient, apres un 



