INFECTION AND CONTAGION.

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sick by turns, and even to sit up with them aJJ night. It would bea miracle indeed should such always escape. Experience teachesus the danger of this conduct. People often catch fevers in thisway, and communicate them to others, till at length they becomeepidemic.

It would be thought highly improper for one who liad not hadthe small-pox, to wait upon a patient in that disease ; yet manyother fevers are almost as infectious as the small-pox, and not lessfatal. Some imagine that fevers proVe more fatal in villages thanin great towns, for want of proper medical assistance. This maysometimes be the case ; but I am inclined to think it oftener pro-ceeds from the cause above-mentioned.

Were a plan to be laid down for communicating infection, itcould not be done more effectually than by the common methodof visiting the sick. Such visiters not only endanger themselvesand their connexions, but likewise hurt the sick. By crowdingthe house, they render the air unwholesome, and by their privatewhispers and dismal countenances, disturb the imagination of thepatient, and depress his spirits. Persons who are ill, especially infevers, ought to be kept as quiet as possible. The sight of strangefaces, and every thing that disturbs the mind, hurts them.

The common practice in country-places, of inviting great num-bers of people to funerals, and crowding them into the same apart-ment where the corpse lies, is another way of spreading infection.The infection does not always die with the patient. Every thingthat comes into contact with his body while alive, receives the con-tagion, and some of them, as clothes, blankets, «fee. will retain itfor a Jong time. Persons who die of infectious disorders oughtnot to lie long unburied ; and people should keep as much as pos-sible at a distance from them.

It would tend greatly to prevent the spreading of infectious dis-eases, if those in health were kept at a proper dittance from thesick. The Jewish Legislator, among many other wise institutionsfor preserving health, has been peculiarly attentive to the meansof preventing infection, or defilement, as it is called, either from adiseased person or a dead body. In many cases the diseased wereto be separated from those in health ; and it was deemed a crimeeven to approach their habitations. If a person only touched adiseased or dead body, he was appointed to wash himself in water,and to keep for some time at a distance from society.

Infectious diseases are often communicated by clothes. It is ex-tremely dangerous to wear apparel which has been worn by a per-son who died of an infectious disease, unless it has been wellwashed and fumigated, as infection may lodge a long time in it,and afterwards produce very tragical effects. This shows thedanger of buying at random the clothes which have been worn byother people.

Infectious disorders are frequently imported. Commerce, togeth-er with the riches of foreign climes, brings us also their diseases.These do often more than counterbalance all the advantages ofthat trade by means of which they are introduced. It is to be re-gretted, that so little care is commonly bestowed, either to preventthe introduction or spreading of infectious maladies. Some atten-

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