Name/Title
PROOFS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE YELLOW FEVER,Description
Academy of Medicine of Philadelphia: PROOFS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE YELLOW FEVER, IN PHILADELPHIA & KENSINGTON, IN THE YEAR 1797, FROM DOMESTIC EXHALATION; AND FROM THE FOUL AIR OF THE SNOW NAVIGATION, FROM MARSEILLES: AND FROM THAT OF THE SHIP HULDAH, FROM HAMBURGH, IN TWO LETTERS, ADDRESSED TO THE GOVERNOR OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, BY THE ACADEMY OF MEDICINE OF PHILADELPHIA. Philadelphia: Thomas & Samuel Bradford. 1798. [4], 49, [1 blank] pp.
The Academy seeks "to controvert the opinion of the College of Physicians, respecting the origin of our late Epidemic." This pamphlet includes Governor Mifflin's letter to Benjamin Rush, requesting the Academy's counsel, which is that the yellow fever is "the bilious remitting fever of warm climates excited to a higher degree of malignity by circumstances to be mentioned hereafter," i.e. "putrid exhalations from the streets," and putrefactions from several ocean-going vessels which had docked in Philadelphia. Public health measures are suggested. The College of Physicians' report is included; it argues that the yellow fever is essentially different from the bilious fever.
Miner: The short-lived Academy of Medicine was founded in 1798 by Benjamin Rush (#s 337-340) et al. to counter the College of Physician's influence on public opinion regarding the origins of yellow fever (#116). In his autobiography Rush noted that the Academy's publications "fell dead from the press, and ofcourse produced no change in the sentiments, and but little in the conduct of the citizens of Philadelphia." (Princeton, N.J., 1948, p. 103) In these two letters to Gov. Thomas Mifflin (signed by Rush, C. Caldwell, W. Dewees, P.S. Physick, J.R. Coxe, Pascalis, et al.), the Academy insists that the epidemic of 1797 was not imported, that it was the result of "domestic putrefaction," and that reports of its contagiousness were greatly exaggerated.
The wording on the title-page of the Miner copy differs from that of Austin #7. The Miner copy also has the word "memorials" in place of "letters" in the first line of the preface, as does this copy.Other Names and Numbers
Other Number
Evans 34352. Austin 7. Miner 3. Fox 1798-5Condition
Notes
A couple of margins lightly tanned, rubberstamp number at upper blank margin of page [3]. Else Fine in modern half morocco, marbled paper-covered boards [bookplate on front pastedown].