Name/Title
A Semi-Annual Oration, on the Origin of Pestilential DiseasesDescription
CALDWELL, Charles. A Semi-Annual Oration, on the Origin of Pestilential Diseases Delivered Before the Academy of Medicine of Philadelphia, on the 17th Day of December, 1798. By. Senior Vice- President of the Academy. Phila: Thomas and Samuel Bradford, 1799.
Caldwell was a second-year medical student at the University of Pennsylvania in 1793 when yellow fever made its appearance in Philadelphia. In this oration, Caldwell maintains that neither the epidemic of 1793, 1797 nor 1798 were exclusively of domestic origin. Though local causes might encourage disease outbreaks, an outside cause was always required to activate potentially harmful local conditions. This agent was introduced not through human contagion, but from "foul air" produced from "putrid ballast or damaged cargoes of vessels." (Miner)Other Names and Numbers
Other Number
Austin395. Evans 35263. Miner 72.Condition
Notes
1st ed. xii, [13] -59, 21 cm. (8vo) [1 blank]pp. Contemporary signature on titlepage, disbound and foxed, very good.