TELA ARANE^. 



The original article of Dr. Robert Jackson, so often referred to 

 in the foregoing articles, appeared in The Medical and Physical Jour- 

 nal, London, England, in May, 1809. In that year cobweb was revived 

 as a therapeutic agent, through a discussion in the British medical 

 journals, following the aforenamed article by Dr. Jackson, from which 

 we extract and condense, as follows, using, for historical purposes, 

 the language of the author.* 



By Dr. Robert Jackson: 



"The spider's web (vulgarly cobweb) is known to many of the common 

 people as a cure for ague and fever; but 1 believe that few of the regular 

 practitioners have yet employed it on that, or any other account. 



"In the year 1800, the late Dr. Gillespie, physician in Edinburgh, a man 

 of sound professional judgment, and of great candour and sincerity of char- 

 acter, mentioned to me, by accident, that once, when baffled by the ob- 

 stinacy of an intermitting fever, he had recourse tothis vulgar remedy; and 

 with the most perfect success. In the same year, and soon after I went 

 to Chatham to the army depof, I met with some intermittent?, which, if 

 suspended for a time by bark or arsenic, were still liable to recur, and which 

 I did not on that account consider as effectually cured, or disposed to be 



* Dr. Robert Jackson enjoyed a conspicuous reputation in clinical practice, as well as in 

 an official position in the English Army and Navy service. He began his professional career 

 in 1774, in charge of the medical department of the first battalion of the 6oth regiment in the 

 island of Jamaica, although he had been a practitioner of medicine, in a general sense, pre- 

 ceding that date. In 1778 he volunteered for service in the war with America, and was at- 

 tached to the 71st regiment. He made a specialty of the study of fevers, in which his service 

 in Jamaica and the southern portions of America gave him exceptional opportunities. In 1791 

 he published "A treatise on the Fevers of Jamaica, with Observations on the Intermitting 

 Fever of America," embodying therein the results of his studies between the years 1774 and 

 1782, together with his studie? thereafter to the date of publication. He next traveled over 

 a great portion of Europe, surveying medical and literary institutions, establishing himself 

 finally at Stockton-upon-Tees, in the County of Durham. 



At the time of the French Revolution, in 1793, Dr. Jackson took service with an expe- 

 dition under the command of General Sir George Gray, accepting the Surgeoncy of the tliird 

 regiment of foot, then embarking for the West Indies, where he hoped to study tropical 

 fevers, but in this he was disappointed, by the deviation of the regiment to Flanders, wiiere 

 he had the opportunity of studying contagious fevers, instead. In 1795, before he had the op- 

 portunity of publishing his observations on contagious diseases, he was ordered to the Island 

 of Saint Domingo, where he studied endemic diseases, writing continuously his observations 

 of the history of diseases and clinical cases at the bedside. In 1798 he published the results 

 of his fatiguing researches, under a long title, including Fevers, Contagious and Endemic, 

 Yellow Fever, etc., etc. 



In the year 1799 he was appointed superintendent of medical concerns of a Isody of 

 17,000 Russian troops.^ His success in this direction led to his appointment as head of the 

 Army Depot Hospital, in Chatham, from which he subsequently resigned, retiring to his former 

 residence at Stockton. In 1803 he published a work on the Medical Department of the Britisli 

 Army and its Hospital Management, with an Appendix concerning fevers and tlie operation of 

 remedies in effecting a cure. This work was followed, in 1805, by "A System of Arrangement 

 and Discipline for the Medical Department of Armies" 



In iSii, Dr. Jackson leturned to the army medical service, engaging therein in the 

 Barbadoes and other islands and colonies. In 181 5 he returned to England, and issued a 

 further study of the History and Cure of Febrile Diieases, followed, in 1820, by a two- 

 volume work, largely devoted to tropical and other fevers. In 1819, the yellow fever having 

 broken out in Cadiz, Dr. Jaickson sought service in that location. Failing to secure an ap- 

 pointment, he traveled through the Orient, visiting such places as Constantinople, Smyrna, 

 and the islands of the Archipelago, studying fevers, the plague, and similar diseases. In 

 1825 he published an article on Epidemic Yellow Fever, as it appeared in the Southern coast 

 of Spain since the year 1800, thus completing almost, a lifetime in the study of febrile dis- 

 eases, although continually experienced in the direction of general medicine and medication. 

 Dr. Robert Jackson died on the 6th of April, 1827, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. 

 He was exceptionally _ entitled to credit as an authority on fevers, for which reason 

 authorities m all schools of medicine gave him due recognition, even into the present day, as 

 is evidenced by the continual references to Dr. Jackson's commendation of cobweb as a fever 

 remedy, in every phase of literature concerning that disease. This fact also renders it just 

 that his report on cobwebs should not be passed without due regard to his experience and bal- 

 anced opportunities in that direction. 



Do not confuse this Dr. Robert Jackson, whose publications appeared from London, with 

 the Dr. Robert Jackson, also an eminent authority, whose publications appeared from Edin- 

 burgh; nor yet with Dr. Samuel Jackson, of Philadelphia, who, in the Ireginning of the 

 last century, formulated the compound known as "Taol.-son's Cough Syrup," yet lingerin'Kly 

 prescribed throughout America. " . ." ' 



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