Observations on morbid poisons, chronic and acute : the first comprehending syphilis, yaws, sivvens, elephantiasis, and the anomala confounded with them. The second the acute contagions, particularly the variolous & vaccine / by Joseph Adams.

  • Adams, Joseph, 1756-1818.
Date:
1807
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on morbid poisons, chronic and acute : the first comprehending syphilis, yaws, sivvens, elephantiasis, and the anomala confounded with them. The second the acute contagions, particularly the variolous & vaccine / by Joseph Adams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    piles, who some time ago was attacked with condylomatous ex- crescences about the anus from a venereal taint; to these succeeded a common abscess from inflammation ; and last of all the parts have become cancerous. As all these are obviously in existence at this moment upon the same parts, and as instances of such combination of diseases are occurring daily, &c. We are told, that when Sir Richard Blackmore requested Sydenham to recommend him the books proper for a medical student, none were proposed but Don Quixote. To my con- tracted intellect, there is nothing in the exploits which the hero of La Mancha undertook more extraordinary than in detecting the obvious combination above related. If this mode of writing, for it cannot be called reasoning, is deemed clear, it is not surprising that Mr. Hunter is often thought obscure. A similar instance just occurs to me of the facility of writing clearly, as some people may call it, in another author, who has amused himself and his readers with Mr. Hunter's awkward mode of expressing himself. I had begun to set this gentleman right in his misconceptions, till some of his errors seemed so obvious, that it was difficult to believe he had any wish to be better informed, or to inform his juvenile readers. 1 shall, therefore, content myself with contrasting a single passage as an illustration. In his Treatise on the Blood, Mr. Hunter remarks, that in the earlier period of science, men are naturally too much struck with the more common appearances of the object, the nature of which they are investigating. Finding the blood of the animals, on which they made their experiments, warmer than the atmosphere, and perceiv- ing coagulation to follow exposure, it was natural enough to connect coagulation with cooling, as they found a somewhat similar process in jelly. This term, he adds, has been applied to the coagu- lation of the blood, but I think improperly, for I should only call that jelly which became solid by cold, and fluid again by heat.