Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 1: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the AuthorRush, Benjamin
History
Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 1: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the Author
Rush, Benjamin
Medicine; Yellow fever -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
The phænomena of fever have not only received a new title, but several
new terms have been adopted in detailing them, chiefly to remove the
mistake into which the use of Dr. Brown's terms had led some of the
author's readers, respecting his principles. A new order has likewise
been given, and some new facts added, to the inquiry upon this subject.
In the Account of the Yellow Fever of 1793, many documents, interesting
to the public at the time of their first publication, are omitted; and
many of the facts and observations, which related to the origin of the
fevers of 1794 and 1797, now form a part of a separate inquiry upon that
subject, in the fourth volume.
The histories of the yellow fever as epidemics, and of its sporadic
cases, have been published in the order in which they have appeared
in Philadelphia, to show the influence of the weather upon it, and
the impropriety and danger of applying the same remedies for the same
epidemic, in different and even successive seasons. The records of
the first cases of yellow fever, which have appeared in each of the
twelve years that have been noticed, are intended further to show the
inefficacy of all the means, at present employed, to prevent its future
recurrence.
In the fourth volume, the reader will find a retraction of the author's
former opinion of the yellow fever's spreading by contagion. He begs
forgiveness of the friends of science and humanity, if the publication
of that opinion has had any influence in increasing the misery and
mortality attendant upon that disease. Indeed, such is the pain he
feels, in recollecting that he ever entertained or propagated it, that
it will long, and perhaps always, deprive him of the pleasure he might
otherwise have derived from a review of his attempts to fulfil the
public duties of his profession.
Considerable additions are made to the facts and arguments in favour
of the domestic origin of the yellow fever, and to the Defence of
Blood-letting.
The Account of the Means of Preventing the Usual Forms of Summer and
Autumnal Disease, appears for the first time in this edition of the
author's Inquiries. Part of the facts intended to prove the yellow fever
not to be contagious, were published in the sixth volume of the New-York
Medical Repository. The reader will perceive, among many additions
to them, answers to all the arguments usually employed to defend the
contrary opinion.
The Inquiry into the Comparative State of Medicine, in Philadelphia,
between the years 1760 and 1766, and 1805, was delivered, in the form of
an oration, before the Medical Society of Philadelphia, on the 18th of
February, 1804. Some things have been omitted, and a few added, in the
form in which it is now offered to the public.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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