9. Are convalescents subject to repeated attacks from the same infection?
Raymond: Not unless they touch something infected.——Demollins: Convalescents are sent to fumigated chambers, and there is no instance of relapse.——Giovanelli: No instance of relapse, after being well recovered from the first attack, have come to my knowledge; but they are liable to fall into other disorders, such as consumption, hæmoptoe, &c.——They: Convalescents are without doubt liable to a relapse, and authors are full of instances of it. In the plague of Messina M. Cotogno says that a man had successively fourteen buboes, and was cured at last.——Morandi: All convalescents may relapse.——Verdoni: They have it not twice in the same year——Jew physician: Convalescents are often attacked anew, and die; but this does not usually happen from a fresh infection taken elsewere, but from some remains of their own contagion, excited by intemperance in food, or the venereal act.——Fra. Luigi: From irregularities in eating and drinking, bodily fatigues, affections of the mind, especially anger, they are liable to repeated and very dangerous relapses.
10. What is the proportion of deaths, and the usual length of the disease?
Raymond: The mortality is different in different seasons and years.——Demollins: In the plague of Marseilles in 1720, half the inhabitants perished. The usual length of the disease is that of other acute disorders; but longer when the tumours come to suppurate.——Giovanelli: The proportion of deaths is variable and uncertain. As to duration, when the disease is very acute and fatal, the patient generally dies within five days from the first invasion of the fever, or first marks of the plague. When he recovers, no certain termination can be assigned. If the time of healing all the sores be reckoned, it may be to three, four or five months, or more.——They: The mortality is very various. Of ten whom I treated in the lazaretto, three died. I have observed that the fever generally runs on to twenty or twenty-one days.——Morandi: The bills of mortality in places visited by the plague usually amount to thirty per cent, sometimes to fifty. (He seems to mean of the whole number of inhabitants.)——Verdoni: The proportion of deaths varies infinitely. It has been observed that the Jews in Constantinople and Smyrna lose only one third; which is attributed to the care they take of their sick. At Cairo, on the other hand, they are the first attacked and lose more than three fourths. The Turks lose two thirds; other nations a little more or less. Europeans in Cairo lose five sixths. Sometimes it kills immediately; sometimes in twenty-four hours; commonly in three days. When the patient gets over the ninth day there are great hopes of recovery, as the buboes are then suppurated. They may, however, die within the fortieth day, especially if they commit any irregularity, the principal of which is eating flesh, which instantly causes a return of fever, and death. It never passes beyond the fortieth day.——Jew physician: The mortality is various, as also the duration: some in two, three or four days; some hold out six, eight, or more—-Fra. Luigi: Generally more die than survive; but in our hospital of San Antonio of Smyrna, from the care taken of the sick, the number recovering has, for eighteen years past, exceeded that of the dead.
II. What are the means to prevent the plague, to stop its contagion, and to purify infested places?
Raymond: There is no other method of preserving one’s self from the plague, than avoiding the contact of infested things. Goods are purified by exposing them to the open air for forty days; and furniture by a strong fumigation with aromatics and sulphur.—-Demollins: Here, in the lazaretto, infected goods and furniture are exposed to a current of air for forty days. The air of infested places is purified by burning all sorts of aromatics.——Giovanelli: The method of prevention is, to avoid all communication with infected persons or goods. The means of stopping the contagion form a body of police, too extensive to be here mentioned.——They: The means of prevention, besides avoiding infected things and persons, are sobriety in living, the use of vinegar internally and externally, and an issue. Infected places are purified by fumigation and ventilation, by scraping the lime from the walls, (which is then thrown into the sea) and whitewashing them anew with lime and sea-water, by washing the floors, windows, doors, &c. first with sea-water, and then with vinegar, taking great care to leave nothing that is infested. The bodies of the dead are buried in a place set apart for that purpose; and their beds and bedding are burned. As to other things not used during the illness, the linen is washed with soap and ley; the woollen clothes are put into sea-water for two days, and then ventilated for twenty days. Those which would be spoiled by water are hung on a line in the air for 40 days, and fumigated from time to time according to their quality——Morandi: A fire is to be kept constantly in the sick chamber in all seasons. All fæces, &c. are to be immediately removed. Clean sheets and shirts daily. The healthy must avoid commerce with the infected; must purge gently now and then, smoke tobacco, drink pure wine medicated with wormwood, gentian, zedoary, &c. and avoid fear and other passions, and excess of all kinds.——Jew physician: No means of prevention are used in the Turkish dominions.—-Fra. Luigi: Fire, water and air are used for stopping the contagion, and purifying places.——Verdoni: The best preservatives are supposed to be sprinkling the room with vinegar and perfumes, ventilation and fumigation. The Greeks in Smyrna during lent, when they eat only vegetables, are seldom attacked; while among those who eat flesh the contagion makes great havock. Hence the best means of prevention are to eat moderately, and not at all of animal food; to drink water and vinegar; to sprinkle the chamber with the latter; and use frequent ventilation; to change the clothes, especially the linen, daily; hanging in the air such as has been used, for 15 or 20 days. For suppressing the infection every thing is to be washed that can undergo the operation, and the walls of the chamber to be whitened with lime, but after the 24th of June no further care is taken.
FINIS.
ERRATA.
| PAGE. | LINE. | |
| 20. | 23. | For ‘destroying three or four thousand,’ read ‘destroying sixteen hundred out of three or four thousand.’ |
| 39. | 13. | from bottom, for ‘Zabira,’ read ‘Zebire.’ |
| 86. | 10. | for ‘obscured.’ read ‘obscure.’ |
| 153. | 20. | for ‘acid other,’ read ‘acid in the other.’ |
| 202. | 15. | from bottom, after ‘the inhabitants,’ add, ‘Farther east it does not go.’ |
| 280. | 7. | from bottom, for ‘flattering,’ read ‘fluttering.’ |
| 303. | 8. | from bottom (in a few copies) for ‘gout, fever,’ read ‘gaol-fever.’ |
| 309. | 10. | for ‘safety to,’ read ‘safety of.’ |
| 460. | 2. | from bottom, for ‘fluid,’ read ‘fluids’ |
| 480. | 12. | from bottom, for ‘Black assizes,’ read ‘Black Hole.’ |
| 486. | 5. | for ‘Hansforth,’ read ‘Hansford;’ also in pages 489 & 510. |
| 502. | 1. | for ‘parcity,’ read ‘paucity.’ |
| 513. | 1. | bottom, for ‘vol. x,’ read ‘vol. iii.’ |