Literary notes about Infection (AI summary)
The word "infection" in literature operates on multiple levels, both as a literal descriptor of disease and as a potent metaphor for the spread of ideas, emotions, or behaviors. In medical and scientific texts, it is employed with precise detail—for instance, as in discussions of scurvy and secondary infections where its physical manifestations are documented (e.g., [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]). At the same time, authors like Shakespeare and Dostoyevsky extend the term into the symbolic realm, using it to signify the contagious nature of moods, language, and moral decay—illustrated in examples where an "infection" of tone or ideology spreads among characters (e.g., [6], [7], [8], [9]). This dual usage underscores the term’s enduring flexibility, enabling it to capture both the tangible ravages of disease and the intangible, often insidious, spread of influence.
- It is not necessary, however, for infection to exist to bring about a rupture of the small vessels.
— from Scurvy, Past and Present by Alfred F. Hess - The fluid is clear and straw-colored, or, in the event of secondary infection, becomes cloudy and fibrino-purulent.
— from Scurvy, Past and Present by Alfred F. Hess - It must be remembered that the pathologic as well as the clinical picture of the scurvy of Lind and his time was generally complicated by infection.
— from Scurvy, Past and Present by Alfred F. Hess - Infection is the most important condition which may suddenly and precipitously induce scurvy.
— from Scurvy, Past and Present by Alfred F. Hess - An important factor in the prognosis of scurvy, as in that of other disorders due to a lack of vitamines, is the marked susceptibility to infection.
— from Scurvy, Past and Present by Alfred F. Hess - “You’ve not been long with them, but you’ve caught the infection of their tone and language.
— from The possessed : by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - As I mingled with the crowd and caught the infection of the universal joyful excitement, I felt unbearably sore on Ieronim’s account.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - And that beyond commission; and I find it, And that to the infection of my brains And hard'ning of my brows.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - The corruption of men who have casually risen to power has a coarse and vulgar infection in it which renders it contagious to the multitude.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville
