Evils of Quarantine Laws, and Non-Existence of Pestilential Contagion; Deduced from the Phaenomena of the Plague of the Levant, the Yellow Fever of Spain, and the Cholera Morbus of Asia.

MACLEAN, Charles.

Edité par London: Printed for T. and G. Underwood [and 5 others in London, 2 in Scotland, 1 in Dublin, and 1 in Philadelphia,] 1824

A propos de cet article

First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author to Lord Eldon on the half-title, "The Lord Chancellor from the author." Maclean, an East India Company surgeon, was a vocal participant in early 19th-century debates over the causes of disease and argued that quarantine measures brought few medical benefits at great economic expense. Maclean (c.1765-1824) joined the company in 1788 and served in Bengal and Batavia, but his anticontagionism hindered his career prospects. In 1809, however, he became a company lecturer on the diseases of hot climates and an outspoken defender of its India monopoly. "From 1815 to 1817 Maclean travelled in Spain, Turkey, and the Levant, and he studied the plague at the Greek Pest Hospital at Constantinople, in the service of the Levant Company. Maclean restated his opposition to the theory that epidemic diseases were contagious, adding that the quarantine measures then imposed routinely in most Mediterranean ports against vessels sailing from the Levant had no basis in medical fact" (ODNB). The present work turned out to be the last of his many publications; he died unexpectedly later in 1824. John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon, held the lord chancellorship almost continuously between 1801 and 1827 and acted as a trusted advisor to George III and George IV. "Eldon was not only a prominent political figure for over forty years but also the greatest lawyer of his time. Philip Francis described him as early as 1788 as 'the great luminary of the law' (Memoirs of … Wraxall, 5.75)" (ODNB). His bookplate is on the front pastedown. Octavo, pp. xxxii, 444, [1] (advertisement), [1] blank. Original drab boards, printed spine label. Residue from removed bookplate on front free endpaper verso. Minor losses to label, extremities bumped, almost entirely unopened: a fine copy.

N° de réf. du vendeur 184713

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Evils of Quarantine Laws, and Non-Existence of Pestilential Contagion; Deduced from the Phaenomena of the Plague of the Levant, the Yellow Fever of Spain, and the Cholera Morbus of Asia.
• Éditeur: London: Printed for T. and G. Underwood [and 5 others in London, 2 in Scotland, 1 in Dublin, and 1 in Philadelphia,] 1824
• Édition: Edition originale
• Signé: Signé par l'auteur