On the occurrence of the malignant pustule in England / by William Budd.

  • Budd, William, 1811-1880.
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the occurrence of the malignant pustule in England / by William Budd. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    bat he continued to sink, and he died about throe hours after my first visit. The disease ran its course in seven days.” Three other cases, of which the particulars have been communicated to me, may be mentioned here as inter- esting in relation to the question of cause. The subject of one wo-s a tanner; of another a shepherd, who had been engaged in tending diseased sheep; while a third was seized with malignant pustule in the hand immedi- ately after being employed in unloading hides. In all three the disease was fatal. In the five cases which form the subject of this note, therefore, the circum- stances not only pointed strongly to an animal origin, but brought the sufferers into aotual contact with things which are recognised as common sources of the malady of which they died. Of the cases related in the body of the paper, there were two in which the contagion was implanted by flies (a well known mode of communication), and one in which it was derived from contact with the carcase of a sheep that had died in a field. The callings of four other subjects were equally suggestive, one being a bullock jobber in a lai’ge way, another a great flock mas- ter, a third a provision dealer, and a fourth a shepherd. That is to say, in twelve out of thirty cases, without any inquiry being once directed to the point, the disease was ascertained to occur, under the circumstances, or in the conditions of life, in which the malignant pustule of the continent is known most to happen. As it is impossible to suppose this to have been the work of chance, the only rational explanation of the fact is that these conditions and circumstances operated m developing malignant pustule in these twelve persons.