Facts and Observations Relative to the Disease Commonly Called Cholera, as It Has Recently Prevailed in the City of York; As It Has Recently Prevailed in the City of York - Softcover

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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. 1833. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER V. CAUSES OF THE DISEASE. SECTION I.--PREDISPOSING CAUSES. It appears to be a general law, and one that is acknowledged by all medical philosophers, that the propagation or extension of every epidemical disease, whether contagious or otherwise, is very considerably influenced by certain causes, which have been aptly and properly denominated predisposing. That is to say, there are certain circumstances in which persons may be situated, or to which they may be exposed, which have the power of rendering the subjects of them highly susceptible of morbid actions, and, consequently, extremely liable to suffer from any prevalent disease, if sufficiently exposed to the primary, or exciting causes of it; though other persons similarly exposed to them may escape, from the absence of that pre-disposition. Of these, grief, fear, delicate health, want of food, insufficient clothing, extreme labour, fatigue, exposure to cold and wet, are the chief. But it may sometimes be observed, that the efficient, acts also as the predisposing cause. Thus, a person exposed to malaria, though possessed of every personal comfort, and in robust health, becomes, by that exposure, predisposed to be affected by it; and, in that condition, the predisposing will now act as the exciting cause. In no disease whatever has the influence of predisposition been better or more clearly ascertained, than in the one now under consideration. Every where, the most numerous victims to the Cholera have been found amongst the poor, intemperate, timid, aged, or delicate; and it may, perhaps, be safely asserted, that in no case are the effects of fear, especially, more palpable and destructive than in this disease; for, whether we regard its cause as acting primarily upon the nervous system, or upo...

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