An inaugural address, delivered before the New-York Academy of Medicine, February 7, 1849 / by Valentine Mott ; to which is prefixed, an address by J.W. Francis to the president elect.

  • Mott, Valentine, 1785-1865.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inaugural address, delivered before the New-York Academy of Medicine, February 7, 1849 / by Valentine Mott ; to which is prefixed, an address by J.W. Francis to the president elect. 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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    Ship Typhus, as it has been by the fact of its im- portation, thus not inappropriately denominated, has been spread before us in our hospitals, and other pub- lic charities, to an extent as to numbers, wholly un- paralleled in the history of our country. The thou- sands of cases of miserable sufferers, thus brought to our doors, have opened up a practical school to our students, and to many of our practitioners, replete with the most absorbing interest, and one which they may never again have so admirable an opportunity of cultivating. The more valuable has this field of inquiry been, because to many it may be said, if not to most of our physicians, it has been one entirely new. For in our beloved country, blessed as we are with all the com- forts of life, and having no degraded or oppressed class of serfs or peasants, or factory or work-house paupers, opportunities rarely or never occur, of study- ing the disease in question, in its terrific character as an epidemic pestilence. While on the contrary, to European physicians, these harrowing scenes are but too familiar, giving them, however, in this respect, an advantageous posi- tion over our medical men, in the matter of practical knowledge, on the subject of that type of fever. Had it not been in fact for this accidental concen- tration, and accumulation of Typhous infection, at this sea-port, there would have been, and there prom- ises to be, but very limited opportunities of prosecut- ing such inquiries to any very considerable extent. For such I repeat, are the comforts of our social con- 2