author

J. (James) Gillkrest

d. 1853

A 19th-century medical writer and army hospital official, he is remembered for works that argued fiercely against the idea that cholera spread by contagion. His surviving books capture a moment when doctors were struggling to understand epidemic disease in real time.

1 Audiobook

Letters on the Cholera Morbus. Containing ample evidence that this disease, under whatever name known, cannot be transmitted from the persons of those labouring under it to other individuals, by contact—through the medium of inanimate substances—or through the medium of the atmosphere; and that all restrictions, by cordons and quarantine regulations, are, as far as regards this disease, not merely useless, but highly injurious to the community.

Letters on the Cholera Morbus. Containing ample evidence that this disease, under whatever name known, cannot be transmitted from the persons of those labouring under it to other individuals, by contact—through the medium of inanimate substances—or through the medium of the atmosphere; and that all restrictions, by cordons and quarantine regulations, are, as far as regards this disease, not merely useless, but highly injurious to the community.

by J. (James) Gillkrest, William Fergusson

About the author

James Gillkrest, usually listed in library records as J. (James) Gillkrest and noted as having died in 1853, was a 19th-century medical author whose work focused on epidemic disease. Catalog and bibliographic records link him to books on cholera and yellow fever, including Letters on the Cholera Morbus (1831) and Report on yellow fever (1852).

His best-known work, Letters on the Cholera Morbus, was published with William Fergusson and presents a strong case against the belief that cholera was spread from person to person. Another later work, Notes worth noticing, relative to the cholera, identifies him as an inspector-general of army hospitals and a corresponding member of the Paris National Academy of Medicine, suggesting a writer with substantial medical and military experience.

Very little easy-to-verify biographical detail about his personal life appears in the sources I found. What does come through clearly is his place in the heated public-health debates of the early 1800s, when physicians, officials, and writers were trying to explain cholera and decide whether quarantines helped or harmed.