Contagious magic

“ How far any such disease may have been prevented from invading new countries, or from spreading from any particular center, by measures directed against contagion. Above all, to determine what is the nature, and what the true value, of the evidence supposed to show that the specific poison of a contagious disease may originate spontaneously, or be generated de novo. "What we most want to know," adds Budd, "in regard to this whole group of diseases is, where and how the specific poisons which cause them breed and multiply." ”

“ That the termination of epidemics is peculiar, since they cease suddenly at the exact period when the greatest number of persons is affected by them, and when the greatest mortality prevails. This fact is inexplicable under the supposition that epidemics owe their spread from person to person. To suppose that a disease which is propagated by contagion can rapidly decline and even suddenly cease, just when most persons are affected and the mortality is greatest—that is, when the contagious matter is proved to be in its most active and malignant state—is utterly absurd. ”

“ The quantity of the turbid liquid which attaches itself to the finest needle-point suffices to infect any amount of the infusion, just as the vaccine lymph taken up on the point of a surgeon's lancet spreads disease through the whole body. Here, also, as in the case of contagious disease, there was a period of incubation. In proof of what the lecturer had stated that the contagion of these communicable diseases was not gaseous or liquid, but solid particles, he would describe an experiment he had made only a few weeks since. ”

“ They are dangerous because they contain the germs which have been produced in them. What we see happen in the larger particles of skin happens also in many of the much smaller particles of contagion.
By the adoption of these various measures, by rigorously isolating the sufferer, and by having the room well ventilated, much, very much may be done to check the spread of contagious fevers. The matter of which organisms are composed is one of the most perishable things in nature. Contagion is no exception to the rule. By exposure to the air much of it is destroyed ”

“ The contagious disease, spreading from the head to the members—from the Pope to lesser prelates—has spread far and wide, so that scarcely any one is to be found who does right, and who is free from infection. ”

“ The theory is, that any contagious disease can be eradicated; or, at all events, limited within a very slender area; and that various diseases are in reality contagious, such as typhoid fever and consumption, where the ordinary medical and general mind does not admit the fact of the contagiousness. If we resort to the primitive processes of counting noses, or listening for the largest amount of shouting, we shall decide against the theory ”

“ If the one would consent to restrict their use of the term contagious, for which there is the best authority and ancient custom, to those diseases which arise from a specific contagion, and would call those which arise from every other poison infectious, there would be an end to this apparently interminable, and in many respects mischievous, controversy. ”

“ It may be proper to ask here how long it may be supposed men might have the seeds of the contagion in them before it discovered265 itself in this fatal manner, and how long they might go about seemingly whole, and yet be contagious to all those that came near them. ”

“ Whether they transformed a non-contagious into a contagious disease by repeated and violent asseverations, which played upon and hypnotized the professional and public mind, is a subtle point for psychological investigation, not likely to be made by the present generation of doctors.
Can a non-contagious disease become contagious by mental action? The power of fear to modify the currents of the blood and all the secretions, to whiten the hair, to paralyze the nervous system, and even to produce death is well known. ”

“ As the disease always appears with the same symptoms, it is not probably spontaneous, but the consequence of a particular contagion.——They: Some contagious fevers come of themselves; others proceed from the communication of contagion. The plague is thought to have originated in Egypt, and spread itself from thence.——Morandi: Contagious fevers do not arise of themselves, but are always the product of a peculiar poison—Verdoni: I know no fever that can properly be called contagious, and doubt if even the plague can be considered as such. ”

“ If you go into the company of persons that are sick with the measles, hooping-cough, smallpox, or any contagious disorder, in a short time you will be taken with the same disease. The very atmosphere of the room where they stay is full of contagion, and you will draw it in with your breath. ”

“ He shows, on the contrary, that the atmosphere of a room such as that spoken of in the passage just quoted must have the power of inducing fever in others besides the patient. He even says that "the poison formed by the exhalations given off from the living bodies of those affected by fever is by far the most potent febrile poison derived from animal origin."
Then, it might be asked, of what consequence is it to insist on the disease being non-contagious? If fever-patients can give fever to others, it is a mere matter of words whether you choose to call it "contagious" or "infectious." ”

“ Shall we content ourselves with finding a heap of decomposing vegetable or animal matter, or rest satisfied by discovering an escape of sewer-gas from some untrapped drain into one or more of the houses? Since we—the reader and I—are scientific and reasonable people, we can not adopt the theory that the disease is contagious—an opinion held by some able but rather easy-going physicians—and having once effected a lodgment in the community is capable of infecting all who have systems favorable to the development of the poison. ”

“ The word infection is applied to the vehicle by which a malady is transmitted from one person to another by the air, and with or without actual contact. The type of infectious disease is small-pox, and this is also, as is well-known, a highly contagious complaint. Scarlet-fever, measles, whooping-cough, mumps, etc., are likewise both contagious and infectious, and make up the class of disorders popularly known as diseases which are "catching." ”

“ Many dead bodies have been thus opened and dissected, and it is found that all who have died thus suddenly have had their lungs infected and have spat blood. The contagious nature of the disease is indeed the most terrible of all the terrors (of the time) , for when anyone who is infected by it dies, all who see him in his sickness, or visit him, or do any business with him, or even carry him to the grave, quickly follow him thither, and there is no known means of protection. ”

“ So also, when it passes through a house, it occasionally attacks one person after another. But if it is introduced in this way it afterwards develops with marvelous rapidity, for we cannot discredit the accounts of many thousands of persons being attacked within a day or two, which is quite different from the comparatively slow spread of the contagious diseases. ”

“ That when the Constitution of the Air happens to favour Infection, it rages there with great Violence: that at that time more especially diseased Persons give it to one another, and from them contagious Matter is lodged in Goods of a loose and soft Texture, which being pack’d up and carried into other Countries, let out, when opened, the imprisoned Seeds of Contagion, and produce the Disease whenever the Air is disposed to give them force ”

“ Every spot which the sick had touched, their breath, their clothes, spread the contagion; and, as in all other places, the attendants and friends who were either blind to their danger, or heroically despised it, fell a sacrifice to their sympathy. Even the eyes of the patient were considered a sources of contagion, which had the power of acting at a distance, whether on account of their unwonted lustre, or the distortion which they always suffer in plague, or whether in conformity with an ancient notion, according to which the sight was considered as the bearer of a demoniacal enchantment. ”

“ We simply do not obey its behests. The germ theory—now no longer a theory in the case of tubercular consumption—tells us that we have to do with a contagious disease. Now there is no theoretical reason why a purely contagious disease like tuberculosis cannot be exterminated. If we can prevent the spread of contagion at all, we can prevent it entirely. The enormous value of preventive measures, isolation, disinfection, and quarantine, is well illustrated in history of cholera, typhus fever, and yellow fever in the United States. ”

“ The second type of the disease, prevailing during the epidemic time, also had a continued fever, with apostumes and carbuncles at the external parts, principally on the axilla and in the groin; all such attacked usually died in five days.
“The malady was so contagious, especially that form in which blood-spitting was noticed, that one not only caught it from sojourning with the sick, but also, it sometimes seemed, from looking at the disease, so that men died without their servants and were buried without priests. ”

“ Russel has observed, that those who die in a very short time are much less ready to communicate infection, than those who live longer. He also takes notice, that “the plague, though a contagious disease, is not equally contagious in every period of the pestilential season. In the beginning those frequenting the sick often escape unhurt, or one only, out of several, is infected. ”

“ Except in the case of the relatively rare pneumonic form, plague, though " catching," is not nearly so contagious as are scarlet fever, measles, or small-pox. Medical men, and even nurses, in clean airy hospitals rarely contract the disease, provided they have no open wounds and do not remain too long in close proximity to their patients. In cities the cleanly districts are generally spared. ”

“ Scarlet fever, while contagious at all periods, is probably most so during the period of desquamation. The organism may cling to furniture, clothing, etc., and reproduce the disease after very long periods. The contagion may be carried by persons coming in contact with the sick, or the disease may be transmitted through the air of the sick-room or through clothing, utensils, etc., which have been used by the sick. ”

“ Every epidemic that sweeps through our communities is a testimony to the crying need of education in regard to such simple facts as the source of infectious material, the methods of its distribution, and the means of rendering it harmless.
PREVENTION IN INOCULATION. It has long been recognised that in most cases recovery from one attack of a contagious disease renders an individual more or less immune against a second attack. It is unusual for an individual to have the same contagious disease twice. ”

“ Then the physicians began to consider, for they did not at first dream of a general contagion. But the physicians being sent to inspect the bodies, they assured the people that it was neither more or less than the plague, with all its terrifying particulars, and that it threatened an universal infection, so many people having already conversed with the sick or distempered, and having, as might be supposed, received infection from them, that it would be impossible to put a stop to it. ”

“ The disease might have an incubation period of nearly fifteen years, judging by the length of time it had taken to hit Durwood. It must spread from person to person during an early contagious stage, leaving widening circles behind Durwood and those first infected. When matured, any other sickness would set it off, with few symptoms of its own. But without help, it still killed its victims, apparently driving them madly toward frenzied physical effort.
He studied the culture on a slide again. ”

“ By the rupture of these vessels, or by a new construction of their apertures, purulent matters are secreted of various kinds; which are infectious the first time they are applied to the skin beneath the cuticle, or swallowed with the saliva into the stomach. This contagion acts not by its being absorbed into the circulation, but by the sympathies, or associated actions, between the part first stimulated by the contagious matter and the other parts of the system. Thus in the natural small-pox the contagion is swallowed with the saliva, and by its stimulus inflames the stomach ”

“ The contagion of the plague itself seems to be of a heavy, sluggish nature, incapable of rising in the air, but attaching itself to the walls of houses, bed-clothes, and wearing apparel. Hence, scarcely any constitution of the atmosphere can dispel these noxious effluvia; nor does it seem probable that pestilential distempers ever cease until the contagion has operated so long, and been so frequently communicated from one to another, that, like a ferment much exposed to the air, it becomes vapid, communicates a milder infection, and at last loses its strength altogether. ”

“ Arm’s length is the striking distance of a contagious disease. There’s a truth for all of us to remember all the time.”
“If it is a truth,” challenged Mrs. Sharpless. “One of the surest and one of the most important,” averred the Health Master. “The only substance that carries the contagion of diphtheria or measles is the mucus from the nose or throat of an infected person. As far as that can be coughed or sneezed is the danger area. Of course, any article contaminated with it is dangerous also. But a hygienically conducted schoolroom is as safe a place as could be found. ”