Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 4: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the AuthorRush, Benjamin
History
Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 4: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the Author
Rush, Benjamin
Medicine; Yellow fever -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
It has been said, exultingly, that the opinion of the importation of the
yellow fever is of great antiquity in our country, and that it has lately
been admitted by the most respectable physicians in Britain and France,
and sanctioned by the laws of several of the governments in Europe. Had
antiquity, numbers, rank, and power been just arguments in favour of
existing opinions, a thousand truths would have perished in their birth,
which have diffused light and happiness over every part of our globe. In
favour of the ancient and general belief of the importation of the yellow
fever, there are several obvious reasons. The idea is produced by a
single act of the mind. It requires neither comparison nor reasoning to
adopt it, and therefore accords with the natural indolence of man. It,
moreover, flatters his avarice and pride, by throwing the origin of a
mortal disease from his property and country. The principle of thus
referring the origin of the evils of life from ourselves to others is
universal. It began in paradise, and has ever since been an essential
feature in the character of our species. It has constantly led
individuals and nations to consider loathsome and dangerous diseases as
of foreign extraction. The venereal disease and the leprosy have no
native country, if we believe all the authors who have written upon them.
Prosper Alpinus derives the plagues of Cairo from Syria, and the
physicians of Alexandria import them from Smyrna or Constantinople. The
yellow fever is said to have been first brought from Siam (where there
are proofs it never existed) to the West-Indies, whence it is believed to
be imported into the cities of the United States. From them, Frenchmen
and Spaniards say it has been re-shipped, directly or indirectly, to St.
Domingo, Havanna, Malaga, Cadiz, and other parts of the world. Weak and
absurd credulity! the causes of the ferocious and mortal disease which we
thus thrust from our respective ports, like the sin of Cain, "lie
exclusively at our own doors."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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