Essays in medical sociology, Volume 2 (of 2)Blackwell, Elizabeth
Science
Essays in medical sociology, Volume 2 (of 2)
Blackwell, Elizabeth
Prostitution; Sexual ethics; Social medicine
Other experimenters have confirmed Dr. Von Pettenkofer’s observations.
On October 17 Dr. Emerich made a similar experiment on himself, with
like results.
Since then, experiments have been made in the Vienna Pathological
Institute, with the following results: Six persons partook of the comma
bacillus in no mean quantity, and not one of them has had the disease.
The six are two doctors, the servant of the Institute, two medical
students, and a private gentleman. Professor Stricker treated them
all. Two did not feel their health impaired at all; one had headache,
was slightly feverish, and could not sleep; two had slight attacks of
diarrhœa; and only one was really ill, but recovered at the end of a
week. These experiments inspire medical men with serious misgivings as
to the theory which considers the comma bacillus as the cause of all
cholera.
The supremacy of sanitation is the lesson which is being gradually
taught by such humane scientific experiments. Dirt in its largest
sense, as matter in the wrong place, whether in air, water, food,
clothing, habitation, soil, or contact, is undoubtedly a main physical
cause of disease.
But in all epidemic disease the emotion of fear must be recognised as a
most potent predisposing cause. The great fact of mind or emotion is a
powerful influence in producing, in preventing, or in curing disease.
This psychological side of medicine is only beginning to receive due
attention. As the fallacies which arise in animal experimentation
from the production of fear, pain, and coma have not yet been fully
recognised, so the inevitable influence of mind in modifying physical
conditions has never yet been studied scientifically in human medicine.
Yet facts exist in unsuspected abundance which need to be collected,
verified, tabulated, and their laws of action diligently studied.
It is known that even that strong muscle the heart may be ruptured by
the agony of intense emotion. At Blackburn the daughter of a woman
charged with theft became dumb with horror at her mother’s sudden
arrest. Hydrophobia, cholera, and even small-pox, appear to have been
caused by fear.
The extent to which even the so-called microbes of infectious
diseases may be produced by fear acting on idiosyncrasy demands very
serious investigation; for as it is now generally conceded that morbid
micro-organisms do not exist _ab æterno_, it is essential to know by
what unhealthy conditions the micro-organisms, or living particles that
always surround us, become disease germs.
One of our most distinguished London physicians has full records of
the following noteworthy case, which is given, not as scientifically
proved, but as indicating a line of research which it is folly to
ignore or refuse to investigate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account