A report of an action for a libel : brought by Dr. Benjamin Rush, against William Cobbett, in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, December term, 1799, for certain defamatory publications in a news-paper, entitled Porcupine's gazette, of which the said William Cobbett was editor / taken in short hand by T. Carpenter.

  • Rush, Benjamin, 1746-1813
Date:
1800
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A report of an action for a libel : brought by Dr. Benjamin Rush, against William Cobbett, in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, December term, 1799, for certain defamatory publications in a news-paper, entitled Porcupine's gazette, of which the said William Cobbett was editor / taken in short hand by T. Carpenter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    u at Wilmington, but at Newcaflle and Newport there arc unequivo- cal examples of the contagion being received from thofe who brought it from the city. In the treatment of the fever we ufe copious blood-letting in the beginning, and aclive mercurial purges. I have conceived however, that mercury is ufeful, not merely as a cathartic, but as a specijic against all kinds of contagion.—There is no contagious difeafe in which its ufe is not acknowledged: not only fmall-pox, meafles, dyfentery, Sec. but fcarlitina and influenza yield to its fpecific vir- tues. You probably remember as well as 1, that it was given with advantage in the hofpital and camp fever. In fliort, I have efta- i( bliflied it as a maxim, to give mercury as foon as I know a dif- eafe to be contagious. This Dr. Tilton is a kind of a puritan ; a four wry-faced incorri- gible democrat. He has the pride of Lucifer himfelf, and, to me, it is aftonifhing that he iliould have condefcended to become the trumpet, the underling, the mere barber-furgeon of the mafter-bleeder. The mercurial purges too, Dr. Tilton muft break forth in praife of! Mercury is good for every thing that is contagious! Is good for fanf- culloiiiiu Doctor ? If it be, in the name of goodnefs, take a double dole of it twice a day, 'till it has wrought a cure.—Dr. Rufh, in that emphatical flile which is peculiar to himfelf, calls Mercury u the Sam- son of medicine. In his hands and in thofe of his partizans it may indeed be juftly compared to Samson ; for, I verily believe they have flain more Americans with it, than ever Samfon flew of the Philif- tines. The Iiraelite flew his thoufands, but the Rulhites have flain their tens of thoufands. From Porcupine's Gazette, September 25th, 1797. Mr. PORCUPINE. SIR, I find my rafcally hoftler has forgot the frequent injunctions I have given him, to mind his bulinefs, and has deferted his curry comb and brulh, for the pen and ink. John is a very good man in his way, and understands his bufinefa well, particularly the art of bleeding horfes ; when I propofed to my brethren to commence bulinefs as phyfician, I had an eye on John's abilities as a bleeder, and I hinted to him my intention. Would you believe it Mr. P— that the rafcal after leading my eflay in your paper, purchafed Dr. Rush on the Yellow Fever, and has been ftudy- ing ever lince, to my great lots and mortification. And now the wife illiterate thinks he can commence bufinefs for himfelf. But let him remember that Ne sutor ultra crepidem, The cooler must not ro be- yond his last. I obferve he is half a phyfician already, for he has got the Cocoe iters scribendi—Mid. has obliged the public with his firir. medical eflay. Mot