*E 
ce 
ct 
4 
f 
; 
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4 
ase. 

_ perfon. 
i “ing it enter 
termed the plague of the Weft ; that the 
felfifhnefs, it not the fympathy of Europe, 
might be aroufed to a thorcugh invetti- 
gation of the nature and means of coun- 
geracting the inviible and creeping pro- 
greis of a peltilence which may, iooner 
er later, find its way to our. own fhores. 
Alarmed asthe United States are, upon 
this fubje@,1 donot think they are alarmed 
fuficiently. Too credulous reliance feems 
fo be pa id to the fufpenfion-of the conta- 
gion, the mere torpor of the ferpent ; and 
it is furprifing that the executive of ae 
rica, whole eyes ought to be like thofe of 
2 nurfing mother over the health and con- 
fequent happinefs of the people, does not 
offer, or get ‘itfelf impowered to offer, a 
large reward, not narrowly reftricted to 
profcflional men, or to inhabitants of the 
United States, but to fcientific men of 
all nations ; fome of whom, by the help 
of an accurate, authenticated hiftory of 
the complaint, might hit upon 2 method 
of cure; or, what. is better, of effeCiual 
prevention, which has hitherto efcaped 
the fagacity of practitioners and phiiofo- 
phers on the fpot. The aétive and_be- 
nevolent in ntelligence of a Rumford might 
difcover what Prieftley appears either not 
able or not willing to inveftigate. 
The queftion agitated fo much by, and 
which fo much agitates, the faculty, whe- 
ther the fever be imported, or original, 
feems to me of finall coniparative im- 
portance. -There it has been—There it 
Jurks— There it will become endemic. 
Of what importance, at prefent, where 
the {mali-pox or meafies originated ? The 
great object is an effectual method of cure 
in the individual patient, and the ftill 
greater blefiing would be a perfect means 
of prevention, the cure uz1verfal. 
‘This preventative cure is to be at- 
tained Py inveltigating the means of de. 
tompoling, or difpating, or totally de- 
ftroying the f fomes, or fuel of contagion, 
which refts in the fabfances receivit ng it ; 
and is there, for a length’ of time, kept 
aciive, adhering to the body-cleaths, to 
the bed-cloaths, to the furniture, to wool 
and cotton moft tenacioufly, and acguir- 
ing in all thefe fubftances a more active 
malignity than it- pofiefied in the infected 
Thus contagion multiplies its 
force; but were means found out of ex- 
tinguifhing the fomites of fever, the pa- 
tient wouldthen be confined, as it were, 
im the lazaretto of his own perfon. 
_ The vapours of various fluids, par- 
ticulerly of the acids, have been pro- 
pofed in order to dilute, cr to neutralize 
this poifon, or to render it inert by mak- 
into fome new combina- 
Dr, Drennan on the Yellow Fever. 
tion. But is not the moft penetrating 
and moft powerful decompofer , the fini- 
ple element of HEAT? and is it not to 
this, that other fluids are indebted for 
their apparent effects as neutralizers or 
‘alteratives of contagion ? There appears 
to be acertain limited and definable range © 
in the fcale of heat, within which the per- 
fon may be nurfed or -cherifhed into ac- 
tivity, and. above which degree, as well 
as below it, this adtivity or life is loft; 
and, as at a certain degree of cald in the 
atmolphere, the poifon feems blunted and 
deadened ; is there not ground from ana- 
logy, as well as from the hiftory of con- 
tagion, to infer that a certain high tem- 
perature may be as effectual in altering, 
“or in decompofing fuch fomites of fever, 
without, at the fame time, injuring the 
texture or deftroying the fubftances. in 
which they are lodged. It is a certain 
degree of heat which hatches the poifon, 
g December, 
and therefore may perhaps be deemed the _ 
realfomes ; but it is probable that thefe 
midimata or morbific feeds may partake 
fo much of the feminal quality as to lofe 
their produétive or multiplying power, 
when expofed a fufficient time to a de- 
gree of heat above that which is fuitable 
to their peculiar life and activity. 
Contagions of different kinds feem to 
require a partitular temperature which 
fuits their nature and modifies their force. 
The {mall-pox and meafles feem to have 
their particular feafons. The marfk mia- 
finata, vernal and autumnal, are extin- 
guifhed by the fummer heat, as Well 
as the cold of winter.. With refpect te 
the plague itfelf, the very latef traveller 
(Brown, page 78) exprefsly fays, that 
the extremes of heat and cold both ap- 
pear to be adverfe toit. In Conftanti- 
nople it is often terminated by the cold 
of winter; and in Kahira or Cairo, by 
the heat of fummer. 
In evety apartment, therefore, where 
the yellow fever had occurred, on the re- 
moval of the patient by death or reco- 
very, ought not the room to be heated 
by the uf ef a portable furnace to a” 
certain high temperature, which, with- 
out injury to any article, might be 
fufficient to penetrate to all parts inper- 
vious to any yapour, and thus decom- 
pote, or at leaft fo much alter the nature 
of this adhering poifon, as to render it 
harmilefs in future ?> Might not fuch an 
experiment be tried on. the next occur- 
rence of the puerperal fever in the wards 
of the lying-in-hofpital ; a difeafe fo fa- 
tal and fo remarkably contagious as ta 
infeét ail women who happen to be de 
livered in the fame room; and a poifon fo 
erinanently 
