CHAPTER I.
PREVALENCE OF DOCTRINE OF ATMOSPHERIC CONTAGION, INJURY TO PATIENT, ATTENDANTS AND VISITORS.
Atmospheric contagion, to which public attention is directed, has been regarded for many ages as the cause of a great proportion of the pestilence incident to the human race; and, at the present day, most of the diseases which are wont to be widely spread, and to be very mortal, are usually considered as depending on that agent, both by the unprofessional and the medical world: indeed, so extended has been thought its sphere of action, that it is suspected to be operating in almost every case that occurs, of those diseases which usually attack many at the same time; and, in nearly every instance, its existence is positively inferred, where previous cases can be shewn to have been prevailing, though at the distance of several miles.
It is a fact familiar to many, that, on the occasion of the late prevalence of Cholera Morbus in the years 1831 and 1832, that infection, through the medium of the air, was considered the most common cause of the propagation of that scourge; and every mother is taught to regard every case of scarlet fever, common fever, hooping-cough, and many such disorders, as a very centre of infectious air that possesses qualities subversive of the health of her children.
Ordinary conversation, too, marks well the common belief in the positive injury that agent inflicts. In general, it seems a matter quite out of the question to suppose, that the patient may have got his sickness from the operation of other and distinct causes, as is sufficiently evident from such common questions as these, “Had he visited any person ill of the same complaint?”—“Where, and from whom, did he get the infection?” and likewise from the ordinary replies, “He got it from a friend, at whose house he called to inquire after his health,”—“He caught it when passing through a street in which a person lay ill of the same distemper.” Such inquiries and replies are made not only by the public, but by the medical profession also, who are, in general, sufficiently satisfied if such answers and solutions as those above be given. Were it necessary to say more to prove the important position infection holds as a cause of disease, and as the chief instrument of its propagation, references might be made to thousands of instances, narrated, too, on medical authority, where whole visitations of pestilence have been attributed to its operation, and volumes might be filled with the most skilful artifices, devised, and actually carried into execution, to deprive the air of its invisible poison; but these steps are deemed unnecessary here.
The belief in the doctrine of atmospheric contagion is hurtful to the patient by its direct influence on his mind, and the gratification of his wishes.
The patient laid on the bed of sickness, having many wants and occasions for a thousand little offices, but being unable to assist himself, generally desires, and, where apprehension does not cause desertion, obtains the aid of good and gentle friends, whose very presence affords a gratification to the sufferer which none can sufficiently value, who have not, like him, felt its blessings. Their assistance and constant presence is absolutely necessary to supply his several wants, and to render a situation, often painful, and ever irksome, less acutely so.
But not more necessary is such assistance to the mitigation of the sufferings of the body, and the soothing, the calming of a fevered mind, than is it urgently wished for, and longed for by the patient, to whom even the momentary absence of the ministering being from his bedside is frequently the cause of much mental agitation and of pain.
But where, as we have often seen, the patient has still his senses left, and dearly loves the objects around him, what must be the amount of that bitterness of mental struggle going on in his breast, alternately heaving with desire for their presence as his greatest comfort, and with the alarm every amiable being must feel, lest those most dear to him should fall the victims of their tenderness, and be cut down themselves, in their holy endeavours to relieve his sufferings?
The apprehensions of the patient lest those kind and beloved friends ministering to his wants, and nobly incurring on his account all the risk of a dangerous situation, should unhappily derive from him, through the medium of Atmospheric Contagion, the same disease,—are calculated to produce a state of excitement highly injurious and directly opposed to that calm and cheerful state of mind so favourable to his recovery. But these apprehensions are often changed for the dreadful reality, and no little mental suffering has been produced, and no trifling obstacle to the convalescence of a patient has been raised up, by the intimation that a dear friend has caught the pestilence from him, and has in consequence been deprived of life.
The belief in the doctrine of Atmospheric Contagion is hurtful also to the friends and attendants of the patient—by its naturally conveying the impression that he is a centre of a poisonous agent, whose immediate tendency is to propagate the distemper and diffuse itself through the atmosphere, extending to it, its deleterious attributes, to be felt by all who respire it.