Letters addressed to the Board of Health, and to Richard Riker, recorder of the city of New-York : on the subject of his agency in constituting a special medical council / by James R. Manley.

  • Manley, James R., 1781-1851.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Letters addressed to the Board of Health, and to Richard Riker, recorder of the city of New-York : on the subject of his agency in constituting a special medical council / by James R. Manley. 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.)

    4/28
    1 Mayor's Office, July 1 lth, 1832. Sir, On Friday last, July 6th, I made a communication to the Board of Health, to which, as yet, I have received no answer, although the Committee, to whom it was referred, did report there- on, the next day. I now request that the Board will promptly dis- pose of the subject of my letter of the above date, as delay in my judgement, in point of effect, is tantamount to a refusal to consider. Yours, very respectfully, JAMES R. MANLEY, Resident Physician. Hon. Walter Bowne, President ) Board of Health. \ TO THE PUBLIC. If I should attempt to apologize to the public for the follow- ing exposition, I might justly be charged with affecting a delicacy which I do not feel, since the extraordinary conduct of the Board of Health has imposed upon me the necessity. As Resident Phy- sician, I was fully aware, as I thought, of all the difficulties with which I should be obliged to contend, if epidemic disease, in any form calculated to affect its commercial prosperity, should declare itself during my administration of the office. With a full know- ledge of the treatment which my predecessors in office had re- ceived at the hands of the public, I could not flatter myself that I should escape some of that censure which had been so liberally bestowed on former occasions. I remembered that every abusive epithet which could degrade or disgrace the Resident Physician in 18ly, was liberally bestowed, in order to break down his influence- and that a Coffee-House meeting was on the eve of convening, to' denounce him as incompetent for the station he occupied, and to solicit his removal, because he was honest enough to declare as was his sworn duty, that yellow fever existed at No. 13 William street. Those whose interest would not allow them to believe the report, determined that it should not be true, and he was threat ened with personal violence, if he appeared in that neighbourhood after evening. It was true notwithstanding : and very few day-