An inaugural dissertation on the influenza : submitted to the examination of the Rev. John Ewing, S.T.P. provost ; the trustees and medical professors of the University of Pennsylvania, in order to obtain the degree of Doctor of Medicine, on the eighth day of May A.D. 1793 / by Robert Johnston, of Philadelphia, member of the American Medical Society.

  • Johnston, Robert, 1750-1808.
Date:
MDCCXCIII [1793]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inaugural dissertation on the influenza : submitted to the examination of the Rev. John Ewing, S.T.P. provost ; the trustees and medical professors of the University of Pennsylvania, in order to obtain the degree of Doctor of Medicine, on the eighth day of May A.D. 1793 / by Robert Johnston, of Philadelphia, member of the American Medical Society. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    always induced by contagion, according to the common acceptation of that word; that is, the difeafe cannot in thefe inftances, be i'up'pofed to have been propagated by perfonal communication (in- ferring to them, and if credibly affirmed, wherefore is it impro- per to draw any inferences from them i This may be a conve- nient way of getting over objections which militate againft pre-conceived and favourite opinions ; but fortunately for fci- ence, this mode of barely denying fails, is very unfucceisful in producing conviction or of eft ablifhing doctrines, in the pre- sent Rate of medical philosophy. Before we were denied the privilege of inferring from them, it would have been proper to have fbewn that they were not preclfe, or authentic, or that they did not apply. But without even attempting to do this, the com- piler endeavours to elude their force by fuggefting diftruft; not by argument, but by telling us that without pretending to deny the truth of them, the following Anecdote will ferve to jhew that (treat caution is requifite before they are admitted. Mr. Henry of Mancheller, informed the fociety, from what he thought good authority, that a fliip from the Weft-Indies to Liverpool, was by ftrefs of weather driven out of her proper courfe, into a higher north latitude, where her whole crew were feized with the influenza; but wifhing afterwards for more aeurate information on the fubject, he wrote to Doctor Currie of Liverpool, defiring him to make every neceffary in- quiry into the matter ; that gentleman, who took great pains to inveftigate the affair, at lait met with the furgeon of the vef- fel, from whom he learnt that before the crew were feized with the diforder, they had been off the North of Ireland, and had fome communication with the inhabitants of thofe parts. May we not afk if this anecdote proves any thing in point P Is it precife ? At what time did this communication take place; in the winter, fpring, fummer, or autumn, and in what year ?. Were the perfonswith whom the communication was had, then labouring under the difeafe ; or was it then prevalent in that part of Ireland P This anecdote, which was intended to excite in us a diftruft of the truth of the facts before alluded to, proves no- thing except its own want of precifion, and deficient authenticati- on of circumjlances. For unlefs it had been Jhewn that the dif- eafe prevailed among the inhabitants with whom the crew had this communication prior to, or at that time, the fact only goes to mew that fuch a communication took place, and fub- fequent to that the influenza appeared on board the veflel. But fuppofing that Mr. Henry was at firft miftaken, and that the crew were infected by the inhabitants as the anecdote indi- rectly fuggefts, this fuppofition can in no wife affect the authen- ticity either of the facts before mentioned, or of any other facts whatever. (n) But the greateft number concurred in opinion, that