some well known diseases, but actually 
whether they are contagious at all. Dr. 
CuisHoLm, who has always maintained 
the contagious property of yellow fever, 
has published a letter to Dr. Haygath, 
of Bath, “ exhibiting further evidence 
of the infectious nature of the pestilential 
(usually termed the yellow) fever in Gra- 
nada, during the years 1794-5, and 6, and 
in the United States of America, from 
1798 to 1805; in order ta correct the 
pernicious doctrine promulgated by Dr. 
Edward Miller, and other American phy- 
siclans, relative to. this pestilence.” It is 
not a jittle remarkable, that. whilst the 
Americans are becoming more and more 
convinced, that the yellow fever is indi- 
genous among themselves at certain sea~ 
sons of the year, the learned author 
should so pertinaciously accuse them of 
ignorance. Itis:-true Dr. Chishoim has 
resided for many years in the West In- 
‘dies, and has alse visited America. This 
may therefore entitle him to form his ewn 
opivion ; but we cannot help thinking 
that it would better become him to pay 
some deterence to the observations of 
others, who are so much interested in 
the question, whe once were of the same 
opinion with himself, but whose judg- 
ment may be matured by the perpetual 
eaccurrence of facts, aud ccrrected by mu- 
tual opposition, To us in England, the 
question is less important, in as much as 
na one pretends to assert, that the dis- 
ease has ever been climatiz ed among us. 
.We must therefore leave the question to 
those who have the largest opportunities, 
and who from necessity must improve 
them. But though the variable climate of 
England may protect us fiom this epide- 
mic, yet such is not the lot of the south- 
ern parts of Europe, the summer heat 
in which is sometimes permanent above 
80°. Gibraltar and Cadiz have experi- 
enced all the horrors of this dreadful cala- 
mity ; and the question is still at issue, whe- 
ther the disease was imported or in- 
digenous. It has been discovered, as 
appears by a letter from Dr. Ro- 
binson, of Bristol, that the general 
opinion at Gi ibraltar was in favour of the 
contagious property of this fever, in op- 
position to Dr. Nooth, the principal army 
physician of that place. Some families, 
_we are told, who secluded themselves, 
escaped the danger to which those who 
exposed themselves fell a sacrifice. In 
Dr. Haygarth’s letter tao, appears by the 
account of Dr. Fellowes, that one San- 
cho arrived from Cadiz at Gibraltar, 
where he kept agrocer’s shop in the heart 
654 Retrospect of Domestic Literature—Natural History, &e. 
of the town; that he fell ill of the fever 
after his arrival, and that in that part 
of the town the malady first appeared. 
All this is highly probable. Whether 
the disease appeared first on Sancho, er 
some of his neighbours, it is not easy to 
determine; but the heart of a popu- . 
lous town is the usual seat of the com- 
mencement of every epidemic. Those 
who secluded themselves, of course ab- 
sented themselves from every crowded 
part. But in all these cases, as we shall © 
presently see, it is not enougli to ascer- 
tain the probability of contagion; we 
must mark earetully the period at which 
the diseased state of the town commences 
and declines. If the commencement 
is during that temperature which is found 
necessary for the existence, if not for 
the production, of such fevers, and if the 
cessation has occurred as sgon as that 
temperature ceases, we shall then at least 
admit, that such fevers are only canta- 
gious under certain seasons and tempe- 
ratures, which will be one point gained 
in distinguishing them from the more 
common contagions, ta which we are ac- 
customed in England, 
We have been led to these last reflec- 
tions by the perusal of Dr. Apams’s 
« Enquiry into the Laws of Epidemics,” 
a work of much greater importance to 
the English reader, In this we have a 
comprehensive: view of those diseases 
which, trom .their universality, are 
pretty generally deemed contagious. 
Our author distinguishes these into such — 
as are only produced by some changes 
in the atmosphere, as the influenza; such 
as arise from a.peculiarity of soil, which 
is only injurious at certain seasons, as 
the ague; such as may be excited by 
the accumulation of the sick, or the want 
of ventilation in clase ewer. as the 
jail, or hospital fever; and such as can 
only be excited (as far as the evidence of 
our senses informs us) by their own spe- 
cific matter, or effluvia from it: of these 
smail-pox, measles, and scarlet fever, are 
the most remarkable. These last, he 
considers only as contagious. ‘This dis- 
tinction he urges is of the greatest import- 
ance, because the means by which we 
may extinguish the infections, that is 
hospital, aud some other fevers, will be 
found insufficient to protect us from the 
contagions. This rule he extends to all 
the other epidemics. The plague, it is 
well known, has never raged in Lon- 
don during the winter season, ‘The 
ague is only knewn- in marshes, dur- 
ing spring and autumn., Yellow fever has 
its 
