Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 3: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the AuthorRush, Benjamin
Science
Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 3: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the Author
Rush, Benjamin
Medicine; Yellow fever -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
Narratives of escapes from great dangers of shipwreck, war, captivity,
and famine have always formed an interesting part of the history of the
body and mind of man. But there are deliverances from equal dangers which
have hitherto passed unnoticed; I mean from pestilential fevers. I shall
briefly describe the state of my body and mind during my intercourse with
the sick in the epidemic of 1793. The account will throw additional light
upon the disease, and probably illustrate some of the laws of the animal
economy. It will, moreover, serve to furnish a lesson to all who may be
placed in similar circumstances to commit their lives, without fear, to
the protection of that Being, who is able to save to the uttermost, not
only from future, but from present evil.
Some time before the fever made its appearance, my wife and children went
into the state of New-Jersey, where they had long been in the habit of
spending the summer months. My family, about the 25th of August,
consisted of my mother, a sister, who was on a visit to me, a black
servant man, and a mulatto boy. I had five pupils, viz. Warner Washington
and Edward Fisher, of Virginia, John Alston, of South-Carolina, and John
Redman Coxe (grandson to Dr. Redman) and John Stall, both of this city.
They all crowded around me upon the sudden increase of business, and with
one heart devoted themselves to my service, and to the cause of humanity.
The credit which the new mode of treating the disease acquired, in all
parts of the city, produced an immense influx of patients to me from all
quarters. My pupils were constantly employed; at first in putting up
purging powders, but, after a while, only in bleeding and visiting the
sick.
Between the 8th and the 15th of September I visited and prescribed for
between a hundred and a hundred and twenty patients a day. Several of my
pupils visited a fourth or fifth part of that number. For a while we
refused no calls. In the short intervals of business, which I spent at
my meals, my house was filled with patients, chiefly the poor, waiting
for advice. For many weeks I seldom ate without prescribing for numbers
as I sat at my table. To assist me at these hours, as well as in the
night, Mr. Stall, Mr. Fisher, and Mr. Coxe accepted of rooms in my house,
and became members of my family. Their labours now had no remission.
Immediately after I adopted the antiphlogistic mode of treating the
disease, I altered my manner of living. I left off drinking wine and malt
liquors. The good effects of the disuse of these liquors helped to
confirm me in the theory I had adopted of the disease. A troublesome
head-ach, which I had occasionally felt, and which excited a constant
apprehension that I was taking the fever, now suddenly left me. I
likewise, at this time, left off eating solid animal food, and lived
wholly, but sparingly, upon weak broth, potatoes, raisins, coffee, and
bread and butter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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