254 ADDITIONAL NOTES ON CONTAGION. 



Egypt, and who, as a member of the Institute, had the most ample opportunity of obtaining 

 correct informalion relative to the opiuions of the medical staff on this subject. 



Dear Sib, 



I am happy of any opportunity which reminds you of me, and on the subject upon 

 which you desired an answer, 1 am ready to give it to you. 



Comparisons have been made between contagious diseases, viz. the plague of the east, 

 and the yellow fever of America. Opinions have been deduced from the examination of 

 facts in different cases; but facts have not always beeu sufficiently ascertained for us to 

 rest our opinions indiscriminately upon them 



I was in Egypt a witness to many facts which I recollect perfectly. A report that 

 the inoculation of the plague had been attempted in vain must have originated from letters 

 sent from Syria to France, and notes spread afterwards through Europe and America. 



I was every day in the company of medical men, in Cairo, and of people of learning, 

 who devoted a great part of their time to study and observation, and I have heard the 

 report of the inoculation of the plague always contradicted; nor did I ever hear M. 

 Desgenettes relate, as attributed to him in publications, that he had tried to inoculate 

 himself with the venom of the plague. He could not wish for any additional honour 

 which the boldness of an attempt of that sort had, in the opinion of many, reflected 

 upon him: any degree of honour which could gratify him, he had acquired by his fre- 

 quent attendance upon the sick, by his conferring all kind of comforts upon them, and by 

 his daring to feel their pulse, their tumours at their bed, though fatal experience had 

 taught him that most practitioners had fallen victims to their resolution in performing 

 such an office. But among professional men, the importance of the inoculation of the 

 plague had induced M. Desgenettes to authenticate a fact which I consider a mere 

 rumour has circulated. 



From several of my friends and colleagues of the commission of arts, namely, M. Co- 

 qnebert and M. Ciiampy, who died of the plague, M. Potliier, who recovered, having 

 been attended by M. Desgenettes, I have had strong reasons to convince myself of the 

 contagiousness of the plague. The quarantine laws established of old, with a great deal of 

 severity in France, after many distressful events, the preventive means used by the 

 Europeans settled in the cities of the east, who, by shutting themselves and their fami- 

 lies in houses, and by avoiding contact with people, and with every thing from out of doors, 

 except when well washed, and who are never attacked with the disease; while the lose of 

 those who have remained exposed to the contagion is often lamented, have been sufficient 



