Pneumonia : its supposed connection, pathological and etiological, with autumnal fevers, including an enquiry into the existence and morbid agency of malaria / by R. La Roche.

  • La Roche, R. (René), 1795-1872.
Date:
1854
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pneumonia : its supposed connection, pathological and etiological, with autumnal fevers, including an enquiry into the existence and morbid agency of malaria / by R. La Roche. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    a period of observation of thirty years, made them illustrate the etiology of epidemic and endemic diseases in general, which he ascribes, as every one knows, to marsh and other exhalations.^ From that day to the present, the existence of a poisonous mat- ter floating in the atmosphere of febriferous localities, and its spe- cial agency in the production of autumnal fevers, have been admit- ted by professional men of all countries. The sources whence it is derived, the atmospheric conditions which favour, retard, or prevent its development, and the laws by which it is governed, have been in- vestigated; its geographical and altitudinal limits have been traced; the baneful influence it exercises, the various characters it assumes— as shown by the diversified forms of fever it produces—the modifi- cations it imparts to other complaints, and the particular mode of treatment it renders necessary, have been pointed out in many didactic works, and in more numerous publications of less pre- tension. The agency of malaria not universally admitted.—It is scarcely necessary to remark, that however evidently well founded the in- ference respecting this agency has appeared to professional ob- servers in all parts of the world; however universally, indeed, the doctrine which ascribes autumnal or periodic fevers, of all grades and types, to the morbific influence of malarial exhalations, has been recognized, during along succession of years, as placed beyond the possibility of donbt or disputation, its advocates have not been left in undisturbed possession of the field. Doubts as to its correct- ness have been expressed; objections have been raised; and, by more than one writer, the very existence of malaria, or its agency in the production of autumnal fever, has been denied. And why should it be otherwise? The reader must be aware that it would be difficult to discover an admitted fact in practice, or a correct or plausible point in theory, whether on pathology or etiology, which has not, at some time, or in some place, encountered greater or less opposition, or whose correctness has not been flatly denied. Who does not know that the doctrine of the circulation met for years with the most strenuous opposition, and could not obtain a footing in some of the most renowned schools of Europe ? The remedial effects of antimony, of mercury, of the lancet, and other therapeutic ' Dc Noxiis Paludum Effluviis. Disscrtatio de Nativis, deque adventitiis Romani coeli qualitatibus, 16.