Observations on yellow fever : read before the Medical Society of the District of Columbia / by B. Washington.

  • Washington, B. (Bailey), 1787-1854.
Date:
[1824?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on yellow fever : read before the Medical Society of the District of Columbia / by B. Washington. 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.)

    9/46
    OBSERVATIONS, etc. TO the younger part of the profession, who may not be aware of the importance of applying in season the powers of the healing art in subduing acute diseases, we offer some observations on the treatment of yellow fever. Our remarks contain nothing novel, and we hope they will excuse us for refreshing their memories, by reverting to the most simple and familiar principles, or facts, on which the science of medicine has been founded. The position, that the diseases of the United States are becoming daily more fatal, cannot, we think, be denied: that these diseases are of a more malignant or intracta- ble character than formerly, we have, in our opinion, no just grounds for admitting: the cause then of this pro- gressive mortality must be sought for elsewhere, and we are irresistibly led to the conclusion, that it will be found mainly in the treatment; though the effects of habit and customs, together with the results from agricultural changes on the face of the country, may exert some, pos- sibly considerable, influence. On the nature and treat- ment of yellow fever, to which we shall more especially refer, all the talents and industry of the profession have been unremittingly directed, and as we shall be guided by the lights others have placed in our way, and use only a part of the materials with which they have so abundantly supplied us, we hope to escape the charge of arrogance, or an unjustifiable attempt towards innova- tion. But we must repeat, that those just setting out in