[Contagiousness of yellow fever in the Netherlands between 1820 and 1825. Medical and sanitary aspects of a polymorphic disease].

Shortly after 1800, the question of the contagiousness of yellow fever was quite a topic. In the Netherlands, as was the case in France, the government feared the introduction of contagious diseases, especially of the yellow fever. This growing fear was prompted by the increasing number of yellow fever appearances in the mediterranean ports of France, Spain and Italy, as well as in some French Atlantic ports. In 1821, Thomassen ai Thuessink (a leading expert on epidemic diseases in the Netherlands), Bernard and Van Stipriaan Luïscius were invited by the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences, Literature and Arts (Amsterdam) to assess two treatises on yellow fever, written by Jean Devkze. Devhze's treatises were meticulously analysed. After careful considerations they took the side of Devhze's opponents, and so was the character of their advice to the Dutch government. As a result, already existing sanitary laws were maintained and were even laid down more strictly. Not until several decades later, the senselessness of the distinction between infectious and contagious (as being used by early nineteenth-century scientists) would be generally admitted, although the earliest rumours were already heard shortly after 1800.