Robertson, James (fl.1801)

Two holograph letters addressed to Dr. James Currie of Liverpool on the use of cold water affusions in fevers in the West Indies.

Produced in Barbados.

Signed and dated: (1) 16 March 1801, with postscript dated 22 April 1801; (2) 26 March 1801.

The letters, which form part of a larger correspondence, were written following the request of James Currie [1756-1805] for information on cold water affusions in fever. Referring several times to Currie's Medical Reports, on the effects of water, cold and warm, as a remedy in fever [&c.], 2 ed., London, for Cadell. Jnr & Davies, 1798, Robertson commends him (Letter (1), p. 4) for proceeding 'by rational Induction, supported by Observation, & Experiment', and demonstrates from cases known to him in the West Indies the importance of exhibiting the remedy not 'during the cold Stage of Fever, or even after the Hot Stage was completely formed and the Sweating Process sometime established', but (Letter (2), 1. 2v), 'in the earlier periods of Fever, and where unquestionably there is less risk from Topical Affections and extreme Debility.' He refers also (Letter (2) 1. 2r) to the father of this method of treatment in the West Indies, 'our worthy Friend Doctor [William] Wright [MD, FRS] in 1768-9 in Jamaica,' but mistakenly supposes that 'His Papers on that Subject were not published,' when in fact his observations had appeared in the London Medical Journal, 1786, 7, 109-115.