Board of Health, 1796. 57 



infirmary. If such contagious patients had been distri- 

 buted in the public-houses and poor lodging-houses 

 through this city, the consequences to many of our in- 

 habitants must have been dreadful.' 



An extract from a letter written by a Medical Student 

 in Edinburgh^ whose name is not given, will also show the 

 kind of advice given and the state of opinion in a promi- 

 nent place. 



* The establishment of fever wards has been opposed as 

 if it were to give birth to a new evil, whilst it is obvious 

 that we have only to inquire whether the baneful effects 

 of a contagion that already exists will be augmented or 

 lessened by the measures of the Board of Health, and our 

 conclusion must be founded on a fair comparison of the 

 present state of the diseased poor, as favourable or other- 

 wise to the diffusion of febrile infection, with that which 

 will be produced by their collection into a hospital. 



* Contagious disorders, we all know, may be com- 

 municated either immediately by the effluvia surrounding 

 the sick, or by fomites.^ Now will either of these sources 

 of disease be rendered more destructive than at present 

 by the establishment of fever-wards } 



* To the active virulence of the first, circumstances could 

 scarcely be more favourable than before the institution of 

 the House of Recovery. Confinement of the exhalations 

 from the sick, the great origin of all contagion, was an evil 

 which in many of their dwellings that I have seen could 

 not be remedied ; and the foulness of the surrounding 

 atmosphere gave additional malignity to their diseases, 

 and strongly promoted the copious generation of this 

 subtle poison. 



' ' Fomites consist of the contagious matter from the bodies of the sick, 

 accumulated and combined with the foul apparel, furniture, walls, &c. ' 



