Paper, 'Experiments made on the bile of people who had died from the plague' by Dr [Antoine] Deidier

Description

Deidier describes 12 experiments undertaken using bile extracted from the gallbladders of bodies infected with [bubonic] plague. These experiments include infecting dogs through injection and feeding of human bile. Deidier also undertakes two experiments in which the bile of an infected dog is injected or rubbed into the wounds of healthy dogs. Half of these experiments result in the deaths of the dogs. Deidier goes on to describe the physical state of the corpses from which the bile was extracted.

Subject: Virology / Toxicology

Published in Philosophical Transactions as 'An account of some experiments made with the bile of persons dead of the plague at Marseilles, with what appear'd upon the dissection of the bodies; as likewise some experiments made with the bile of persons dead of other diseases'

Read to the Royal Society on 11 January 1721

Reference number

CLP/14ii/8

Earliest possible date

1721

Physical description

Ink on paper

Page extent

4 pages

Format

Manuscript