Epidemiology

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1880 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER I. THE EEMOTE CAUSE OF EPIDEMIC DISEASES. That the causes, hitherto assigned for the production of epidemic diseases, are insufficient to account for either their origin or propagation, is a truth that has heen acknowledged hy the majority of writers, whose opinions are of any weight. Referring to the epidemic cholera, the Committee of the Academy of Medicine, in Paris, remarks: "The precise, specific, cause of the disease, --that in virtue of which the epidemic exists, and without which it would not have arisen--remains entirely unknown, in spite of all the speculative opinions that have been put forth on the subject." A writer in the Lancet, also, in the historical sketch that was given, in 1832, of the epidemic cholera, observed, while referring to the origin of the disease: "What this cause is, we know not, and we know, that no one else understands it. We cannot speculate upon it; we believe it, in short, to be beyond the reach of human knowledge." "Does the epidemic cholera," asks M. Bouillard, "enter into the number of those diseases of which we know the real cause? Where is the physician, who, with his hand upon his heart, dares to answer in the affirmative. It is necessary to proclaim it openly, the real agent, under the mortal influence of which the cholera morbus has burst upon us, with the rapidity of lightning, has, up to the present moment, completely concealed itself from our researches." It is refreshing, after wading through all Report on the Epidemic Cholera. the vain speculations, that have been broached on the subject, to listen to such avowals as these. "It is something," as M. Morin Desbrosses remarks, "to discover our ignorance, and to dare to confess it with honesty. He, who has optical illusions, will...