110 BEAUPERTHUY ON THADITION IN MEDICINE 



the non-contagionists. It was chieHy Avitli a view of 

 getting information upon this vexed subject that the 

 1852 Commission was appointed, and upon its findings 

 the quarantine hiws of tlie period re yellow fever 

 were modified where necessary. As a result of their 

 deliberations the Committee reported as follows : 



" That epidemics are preceded by individual and 

 sporadic cases, which cases likewise occur in seasons 

 when no epidemics prevail. That epidemics are very 

 often local, and limited to one part of a town. That 

 epidemics do not spread by gradual progression, but 

 often skip over certain adjacent districts. That in an 

 epidemic the most rigid seclusion affords no protection. 

 That great success attends removal to a non-infected 

 locality. That the exciting cause, whatever it is, is 

 local and endemic. That the means of protection 

 from Yellow Fever are not quarantine restrictions and 

 sanitary cordons but sanitary works and operations 

 having for their object the removal of the several 

 localising conditions. 



( Signed ) " S HAFTESBUllV, 



" Edwin Chadwick, 

 "t. southwood s.aiith. 



''Whitehall, 7 Jy^nV 1852." 



They therefore were decided that } ellow fever was 

 not contagious. Blair held the same view strongly. 

 He went so far as to inoculate the conjunctiva of 

 healthy persons with the mucus taken from the con- 

 juncti\'a of persons suffering from yellow fever — in no 

 instance was yellow fever contracted. He mentions 

 numerous cases where nurses had become smeared 

 with the black vomit of patients and suffered no ill 



