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<\/a>Title page from ‘An Essay on the Autumnal Dysentery’ (Medical Collection, Med Coll 616.935 WIL)<\/p><\/div>\n
Wilson went into considerable detail discussing the causes, symptoms, and treatment of patients with dysentery. He offered a fairly gory description of the symptoms, which may not be suitable for those of squeamish dispositions\u2026:<\/p>\n
\u2018This disease is called the Bloody Flux, because more or less blood is generally, tho\u2019 not always, mixed with the slimy fetid stools which are discharged during the course of it. The bloody discharge may be attributed to different causes, according to the degree, malignancy and continuance of the disease; such as, the vehemence of the inflammation, stretching the vessels opening into the cavity of the intestines, and straining red blood thro\u2019 them, which does not naturally pass that length undissolved; the acrimony of the humours which are discharged into these guts during the inflammation, fretting and corroding the blood vessels\u2026\u2019 (pp2.3)<\/p>\n
<\/a>Page 2 from ‘An Essay on the Autumnal Dysentery’ describing the symptoms of the disease<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Page 4 from ‘An Essay on the Autumnal Dysentry’ describing the time of year that dysentery spread<\/p><\/div>\n
Wilson also mentioned how \u2018This disease, like all epidemics, is\u2026 more frequent in cities and towns than in the country; among the feeble than among the strong\u2026\u2019 He also claimed that dysentery was \u2018more frequent among the poor and labourers, than among the wealthy, and those who live better and pay more attention to their health\u2019. As for the reason for this, he suggested that \u2018indigence, but much more especially negligence in the article of cooling after heats by labour, exercise etc., exposes the lower class of people prodigiously to this and many other diseases\u2019. (p.28)<\/p>\n
<\/a>Page 31 from ‘An Essay on the Autumnal Dysentry’ describing the signs of danger when treating patients<\/p><\/div>\n
The second edition of the Essay<\/em>, there is also the hint of medical controversy. In the \u2018Introductory Discourse\u2019 (which was new to the second edition), Wilson mentioned some of the recent publications on dysentery since his work was first published. Of particular interest to Wilson was a study by the Swiss physician Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann, titled A Treatise on the Dysentery<\/em>. Zimmerman had been made Physician in Ordinary in Hanover to George III in 1768.<\/p>\n First iii of the ‘Introductory Discourse’<\/p><\/div>\n Zimmermann\u2019s book was of such interest to Wilson because, in the course of reading it, he \u2018discovered that he had made use of my Essay, and totally supressed his knowledge of it, while he was very profuse in his references to every other latter English writer on the subject\u2019. Wilson argued that he \u2018would be sorry to mention this circumstance upon presumptive evidence only, but he has extracted a pretty long case verbatim from my Essay, which was to be found nowhere else\u2026\u2019 Wilson found this \u2018a very strange way\u2026 of extracting from a writer upon the very subject he was treating of, while he was, almost in every page, citing other authors who had written in English as I had done\u2026\u2019 However, drawing back from a full accusation of plagiarism (perhaps because of Zimmerman\u2019s relationship with George III), Wilson left the question open, and stated: \u2018I make no remarks upon it\u2019. (p.V)<\/p>\n Title page from Zimmerman\u2019s \u2018A Treatise on the Dysentery\u2019 (Medical Collection, Med Coll 616.935 ZIM)<\/p><\/div>\n Newcastle University’s Special Collections have both Wilson\u2019s and Zimmerman\u2019s books here in Special Collections. Reading them and deciding whether there has been any wrongdoing might be a nice way to spend a dark autumn day, but only if you\u2019ve got the stomach for it.<\/p>\n ———————————–<\/p>\n Item references<\/strong><\/p>\n Andrew Wilson, An Essay on the Autumnal Dysentery<\/em> (1777) (Medical Collection, Med Coll 616.935 WIL)<\/strong><\/p>\n Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann, A Treatise on the Dysentery: with a description of the epidemic dysentery that happened in Switzerland in the year 1765 <\/em>(1771) (Medical Collection, Med Coll 616.935 ZIM). <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For many of us, autumn is synonymous with falling leaves, darker nights, and wrapping up in warmer clothes. It\u2019s a time when the clocks go back, and we can enjoy the last of the sunny days before winter sets in. However, … Continue reading <\/a><\/a>