Miscellaneous works. Of the late Robert Willan. Comprising, An inquiry into the antiquity of the small-pox, measles, and scarlet fever, now first published: Reports on the diseases in London, a new edition. And detached papers on medical subjects, collected from various periodical publications / Edited by Ashby Smith.

  • Willan, Robert, 1757-1812.
Date:
1821
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Miscellaneous works. Of the late Robert Willan. Comprising, An inquiry into the antiquity of the small-pox, measles, and scarlet fever, now first published: Reports on the diseases in London, a new edition. And detached papers on medical subjects, collected from various periodical publications / Edited by Ashby Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    39/528 (page 3)
    before his time. Impressed with such an idea, I was led to examine attentively the statements on the subject, published between the first and sixth centuries. A pestilential disease, with an eruption of anthrakes or carbuncles over the whole body, which appeared in Syria during the reign of Dioclesian, has been particularly mentioned by historians. Another Loimos, or Pestilence, noticed by all, began in the fifteenth year of the reign of Justinian, and continued fifty-two years, spreading from Constantinople far be¬ yond the boundaries of the Roman empire. The Greek physicians of the fourth, fifth, or sixth century, do not describe the above less than three days, under the first symptoms mentioned in the definition, without any appearance of glandular tumors. In some cases, the persons infected die suddenly, even with¬ out symptoms of fever. This is, according to Scripture, Deber by the destroying angel. See 2 Sam. xxiv. 15. and 2 Kings xix. 35. The pestilential sweating-sickness in the 15th and 16th century proved fatal in twenty-four hours. Verulam, Hist, of Henry VII. Holinshed, vol. viii. Sydenham observes, Haec repentina exanimatio nisi in pestis admodum funestae exordio vix contingit. Page 73. The term Loimos, among the Greeks, originally perhaps expressed the same as the oriental word Deber; but it was afterwards applied to every epidemic and fatal distemper, especially to that connected with famine.