London Medical Gazette Volume 21; Or, Journal of Practical Medicine (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1838 Excerpt: ...instituted for the removal of that which does not exist. In speaking of the isolation of goods, I remarked that they are all exposed to the air, and made to undergo certain purifying processes in the yards and warehouses of the Lazaretto. Amongst others the bales of cotton brought from Egypt are each opened, exposed, and manipulated by a particular class of labourers, who remain in quarantine during the period required lor the goods on which they are employed. These are, for the most part, healthy, active, young men, wbo, labouring in their vocation in the very heart and centre of the supposed infectious material, are yet preserved from the disorder in a very remarkable manner, supposing any danger of contagion to exist. It would be desirable to ascertain with accuracy how many cases of plague have occurred among these people during the last twenty years. The period during which the quarantine of goods is to be prolonged, does not appear to be fixed according to any rules either of experience or of inference. It varies in different countries, and is much more severe in the Austrian ports than at Marseilles, and seems to be dictated merely by caprice, or to suit tbe particular views of the legislators. When, indeed, we recollect that it was once gravely stated that the plague in Paris was derived from some old rags which had lain several years undisturbed in an old well, and that it is now as seriously urged that 20, 30, and even 60 days are occasionally necessary for the removal of the contagious fomites from cotton or feathers, we cannot but be desirous of ascertaining on what grounds these decisions have been founded j there can be no reason for disbelieving the story related byAlex. Bencdictus, in bis book " de Peste," of the feather-bed which ...