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
From the influence of occasional showers of rain, in the months of
September and October, the disease was frequently checked, so as to
disappear altogether for two or three days in my circle of practice. It
was observed, that while showers of rain lessened, moist or damp weather,
without rain, increased it.
The cold weather in October checked the fever, but it did not banish it
from the city. It appeared in November, and in all the succeeding winter
and spring months. The weather, during these months, being uncommonly
moderate, will account for its not being destroyed at the time in which
the disease usually disappeared in former years.
The causes which predisposed to this fever were the same as in the year
1793. Persons of full habits, strangers, and negroes, were most subject
to it. It may seem strange to those persons who have read that the
negroes are seldom affected with this fever in the West-Indies, that they
were so much affected by it in Philadelphia. There were two reasons for
it. Their manner of living was as plentiful as that of white people in
the West-Indies, and they generally resided in alleys and on the skirts
of the city, where they were more exposed to noxious exhalation, than in
its more open and central parts.
The summer fruits, from being eaten before they were ripe, or in too
large a quantity, became frequently exciting causes of this fever. It was
awakened in one of my patients by a supper of peaches and milk.
Cucumbers, in several instances, gave vigour to the miasmata which had
been previously received into the system. Terror excited it in two of my
patients. In one of them, a young woman, this terror was produced by
hearing, while she sat at dinner, that a hearse had passed by her door
with a person on it who had died of the yellow fever. Vexation excited it
in a foreign master of a vessel, in consequence of a young woman suddenly
breaking an engagement to marry him. The disease terminated fatally in
this instance.
It was sometimes unfortunate for patients when the disease was excited by
an article of diet, or by any other cause which acted suddenly upon the
system; for it led both them, and in some instances their physicians, to
confound those exciting causes with its remote cause, and to view the
disease without the least relation to the prevailing epidemic. It was
from this mistake that many persons were said to die of intemperance, of
eating ice creams, and of trifling colds, who certainly died of the
yellow fever. The rum, the ice creams, and the changes in the air, in all
these cases, acted like sparks of fire which set in motion the quiescent
particles of tinder or gunpowder.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account