The Volcanic Origin of Epidemics. By John Parkin, M.D. Popular
Edition. (Sampson Low.)—From the earliest times observant minds have noticed that the most dreadful epidemics have been preceded or accompanied by aerial phenomena of se striking a nature as to preclude the supposition of merely ac2i- dental coincidences. Dr. Parkin, having remarked on the con- nection between the direction of the wind and the virulence OF the disease, next proceeded to weigh all the existing theories, and having found them insufficient to account for the regularity and direction of epidemics, as a last resource turn e d his attenticn to the seeming connection between volcanic t d sturbance and epidemic disease. Rejecting the nebular hypo'A sis, he adopted Werner's, which derived volcanic action, not from an igneous centre, but from beds of inflammable matter, excited by contact with water and air. He then advanced the hypothesis, resting on data collected from the movements, periodicity, rate and direction of epidemics, that volcanic action and epidemics were merely common effects of a common cause, and that as volcanic energy is propagated along well-known lines, so are those vast outbreaks of cholera, the movements of which from east to west and vice vend, seemed to him a powerful argument in favour of their intimate connection. It is a theory of singular boldness and plausibility, and reasoned out with great ingenuity.
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