Selections from the medical papers and correspondence of the late John Coakley Lettsom,... / by Thomas Joseph Pettigrew.

  • John Coakley Lettsom
Date:
1817
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Selections from the medical papers and correspondence of the late John Coakley Lettsom,... / by Thomas Joseph Pettigrew. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    poor persons afflicted with this disease, and this hospital was under the management of the Committee. I cannot pass this part over without mentioning an instance of the mdst exalted benevolence and magnanimity. Ste- phen Girard, a wealthy merchant, sensihlv perceiving the miserable state of the wretched sufferers at Bushill, made a voluntary offer to superintend that hospital. Peter Helm, in- spired with the same exalted motives, offered his services; and on the same day they both attended to their laudable office. Nothing hut the most exalted ideas of humanity could have impelled them to such a dangerous office, ‘ Where Death’s shafts flew thick around.’ “ Three hundred patients have been in that hospital at one time afflicted with the lever. It is almost impossible to conceive the consterna- tion the people were in after the Yellow Fever began to rage in the city. Nothing but dis- may and terror appeared in the countenances of people remaining behind. It appeared as if the ‘ Cold hand of death lay heavy on their heads.’ Here was exhibited a true pic- ture of human misery : fathers would desert their children in the hours of sickness and death; children their fathers wives their hus-
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