1793

Beheading of Louis XVI in January; arrival of 2,100 French refugees from Santo Domingo, fleeing slave revolt, in Phila.  yellow fever epidemic in Phila. In Aug, with multiple sudden deaths esp. on Water St., Fellows of College of Physicians, convening at request of mayor, debated whether the fever was caused by foul air, esp. from cargo of rotting coffee deposited at Joseph Ball’s wharf (Rush) or was a contagious disease imported from Santo Domingo brought to Phila. by the Santo Domingo refugees (Currie, following Cullen’s nosology) (Powell, chap 2). Rush treats via “Rush’s System,” i.e. “The Great Purge”: bleeding and purging with extremely high doses of calomel (mercury) and jalap “so drastically that it shocked most of his colleagues” (Corner, 46; Powell, chap 3, sec II). Rush based his purge on that of Dr. Thomas Young’s “’Ten-and Ten’ in the Revolutionary army – ten grams of calomel (mercury) and ten of jalap. This Rush resolved to do,” increasing the jalap initially to 15 grams (Powell, chap 3, loc 1484ff.). Rush was opposed by many, esp. William Currie, whose pamphlet, expanded to a handbook, argued that the only way to contract Yellow Fever was through contact with someone who was infected or his clothing or “porous substances,” that it was not carried by the air, etc. The only way to neutralize the contagion was “the pure vital air of the atmosphere,” and a benign, healthful regime. He rejected bleeding and mercury, advocating instead mild purgatives to reduce arterial tension slowly and safely, without contributing to debility (Powell, chap 3, sec III)