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REVIEW
               OF T H B

IMPROVEMENTS,  PROGRESS

                 AND

              5 TATE

                 o t


      MEDICINE

               I N T H K      ?

           XVITIth CENTURY-.

Read ok the first day of the xixth century,

              BEFORE THE

        MEDICAL SOCIETY

                 O J

        SO UTH-C AR OLINA,

     IN PURSUANCE OF  THEIR VOTE,

                 AND

  PUBLISHED  AT THEIR  REQUEST.



        By DaZLL, RAMSAY, M. D.
            CHARLESTON:
PRINTED  BY  W. P.  YOUNG,  FRANKLIN^ HEADj

          <£DiCAL O^X
,"1.               ,   .' 
 
              TO








   BENJAMIN RUSH, M. D.









  The AMERICAN  SYDENHAM,










   WHOSE WRITINGS AND OBSERVATIONS




       HAVE GREATLY IMPROVED




      the  ART of  MEDICINE,




    WHOSE  PRECEPTS HAVE FORMED,




  AND WHOSE EXAMPLE  HAS STIMULATED




     MANY  OTHERS TO  IMPROVE  IT.




     THE FOLLOWING OBSERVATIONS,




ARE, WITH EQUAL PROPRIETY AND RESPECT




            INSCRIBED, BY
/
J/ic ^/Luthor. 
 
f .11 (<■>»
A   REVIEW,  &c.
 Mr. Vice-President,  and
     Gentlemen of the Medical  Society,


      ILLIONS of the human race have lived and died
 without ever having feen fuch a day as the prefent.  No
 one, who now hears me, has ever feen its fellow.  No
 one, who now hears me, will ever fee the like again.   As
 each fucceffive fummer clothes the trees of the foreft with
 a new foilage, fo each fucceffive century, with  a few ex-
 ceptions,  prefents a new fet of inhabitants.  On this  An-
 gular day, of which only one occurs in the life of man,
 it is decent and proper to make a paufe, and look back on
 that important divifion of time, which yefierday was com-
 pletely and for ever clofed.   It was,  therefore,  wifely re-
 folved by our fociety, to appoint  one  of its members to
 introduce the new  century,  by  recapitulating  what  had
 been done by, and for our profeflion, in the old.
  While the great and linking improvements made by our
 predecefibrs,  in the healing art, are paffing in review be-
 fore us, the advantages which have refulted from their la-
 bours, cannot fail of enkindling in our breafts a holy am-
 bition to  imitate  their glorious example, by  perfeding
 what they have left undone.  I have only to regret that
 your choice has fallen on  one, who has neither the leifure,
 the  knowledge, nor the books neceffary to  fulfil your in-
tentions.   Were my talents equal to the important fubjed,
great .would  be your  entertainment,  while  I  diftindly
 brought to your recolledion the means and the men, who,
in the courfe  of the laft century,  have raifed our profef-
                          B                   lion
M 
6
Hon from an uncertain conjedural art, to the high pitcte
of credit and ufefulnefs which it now holds in the eflima-
tion of mankind ;  but feeling, as I moll fincerely do, my
own incompetency to the arduous tafk, I caft myfelf on
your candor to overlook the defeds of  my ,imperfed at-
tempt.
  To obtain a more correft view, of what has been  done
in the 18th century,  we mufl carry our  enquiries a  little
farther back to the previous ftate of literature.   Lord Ba-
con may juflly be called the father of all  modern fcience.
He was a meteor, from  whofe  luftre  all nature received
fome light.  Though no phyfician, he direded phyficians
to the proper mode of advancing their own profeffion. He
broke the fetters which had bound  the human mind  from
the days of Ariftotle,  and pointed out  the true way for
extending and  improving  ufeful knowledge.   His  new
mode of philofophifing by experiments, and obfervations,
laid the foundation of the difcoveries of the  immortal
Newton.  Sydenham applied the fame principles to the
healing art,  and fought for its improvement, by carefully
obferving the rife and progrefs of difeafes, and every cir-
cumflance that tended to reflore or preferve health.   This
great genius, to whom our profeffion is fo much indebted,
departed this life near the end of the 17th century.  The
improvements he made in the knowledge and treatment of
difeafes were great; but he rendered the world much great-
er fervice by fetting an example  of the only true way of
improving the art of phyfic—he began, and  others  fol-
lowed.  From his day to the prefent,  hundreds and thou-
fands, purfuing the plan he laid down, have  each contri-
buted to the common flock ; and, in the aggregate, greatly
extended the benefits refulting to mankind from  the medi-
cal profeffion.
  In the  early parts of the 17th century, there was no-
thing that had the femblance of rational theory in medi-
cine.   Nor could any be reafonably expeded from phyfi-
cians who were ignorant of the circulation of the blood,
and of the progrefs of aliment  to nutrition.   Harvey, by
difcovering the firfl,  and Pecquet,  and Afelius,  by difco-
vering the lafl, fet the medical world a thinking, and fur-
                                             rdihed 
7
nifhed proper materials  for future improvement.   Thefe
great men, all  of whom belonged to the  17th century,
laid the foundation of true principles of theory and prac-
tice in medicine.
   The 18th century began with fair profpeds of improve-
ment—for phyficians, a fhort time before the commence-
ment  of that acra, were taught to form jufl notions of the
animal economy,  and attentively to obferve the nature and
progrefs of difeafes.  The illuflrious Boerhaave, pofTeffed
of thefe lights, and of  all the  knowledge  of his  prede-
cefTors, began publicly  to teach medicine in Leyden, in
the year 1701.  The induflry of this great man, in the
purfuit of knowledge, was almofl incredible.  The rifing
fun has often furprized him with its unexpeded rays, after
fpending whole nights in reading or making philofophical
experiments.  His comprehenfive mind foon colleded the
fcattered fragments of medical  fcience,  and formed  the
whole into a fyftem. This is in  all your hands, and for the
next enfuing 60 or 70 years was generally received and prac-
ticed,  upon  by phyficians.  When  we confider that nothing
fyflematic had appeared  before, and the  many  important
truths that were unfolded in this,  we cannot  but feel a
grateful fenfe of the many obligations we are under to the
illuflrious Boerhaave.
   About thirty-five year ago, a theory of difeafes, which
had firft been  introduced  by  Hoffman,  was fo fully ex-
plained, and fo ably fupported by the celebrated  Cullen,
of Edinburgh, as to be generally received in that univer-
fity,  and from it extenfively propagated.  He made fpafm
to be  the proximate caufe of fever.  According to his fyf-
tem,  difeafes were feated  in the  folids,  and not  in the
fluids, as was alledged by  the followers of  Boerhaave.
Though thefe theories feem to clafh in every point,  yet
the pradice grounded on both nearly co-incided.  What a
Bcerhaavian prefcribed to alter or expe Imorbific matter from
the fluids,  was fubftantially the fame with what a difciple
of Cullen ordered, to remove the fpafmodic flridure of
the folids.
   Dr. John Brown next arofe,  who blended fome greal
and important leading principles of medicine,  with  the
                       B 2                      wild 
8
wild fallies and eccentricities of an original  genius.   He
reduced all difeafes to two kinds, called, by him, flhenic
and aflhenic ; and pronounced life to be a forced flate, oc-
cafioned by the operation of flimuli  on excitable matter.
   We have lately had prefented to our view, a fyflem by
Dr. Darwin, in which difeafes are deduced from the power
of fympathy ; and lafl,  though not  leafl, our  ingenious
countryman,  Dr.  Rufh, has propofed to our confideration,
a convulfiye motion of the arterial fyflem, as a proximate
caufe of  fever.  Inflead  of examining the  comparative
merit of thefe fyflems, it will accord more with your expec-
tations, that I fhquld prefent to  your view the adual im-
provements that have been made in  the feveral arts which
are necdlarily conneded with a  judicious exercife  of the
healing art.
   Firil, and as the foundation of all, I begin with anato-
my. Of this the ancients were in a great meafu re ignorant—■
fuperflition, and the dread of handling dead bodies,  was
fo general, and with fo much  difficulty removed,  that as
late as the 16th century,  Charles the Vth called a council
of ecclefiaflics, to confider of the lawfulnefs of difi'eding
human bodies.  It was not till the days of Vefalius, who
died in 1564, that anatomy began to be cultivated. From
his time there have been a few profeffed,  anatomifts,  who
made it their fludy to acquire a knowledge  of every part
of the human body; but the knowledge of this art never
became general till within the hit 100 years.  It is faid by
the biographers of  William and  John Hunter, both of
whom were born  and died in the  18th century, that they
were the firfl in England who opened a proper anatomical
fchool, in which the arts of injedion,  difledion,  and of
making preparations of different parts of the human body,
and of furgery, were  fyflematically  taught.  Since their
time, there have been hundreds, whofe knowledge in ana-
tomy far exceeded any thing that was generally known
before.
   That the abforbents were a diflind fyflem of ,veffels, is
a difcovery claimed both  by Hunter and  Monro.   It is
not my bufinefs to decide between them;  buj it is granted
pn both fides, that the difcovery was made about the, year
                                              17SO. 
9
?750,   Several phoenomena in the animal economy,  have
been accounted for, from the adion of thefe veffels, which
were before inexplicable.   Whoever contrives a method
of increafing their adion, without increafing the adion of
Other parts of  the fyflem, in a correfpondent  proportion,
will fimplify and  fhorten the cure of many difeafes.
  Within the  laft hundred years,  thoufands of human bo-
dies have been diffeded,  and every part minutely examin-
ed, and its fundions,  ufes, connexions,  and relations,
accurately afcertained.  Several auxiliary arts, have  con-
tributed to the progrefs of anatomical knowledge.  Ruyfch,
who died in  1731,  was  the  firfl who found  out  the
arts of injedion, and  making  anatomical preparations.
This was  probably  begun in the  latter end of the  17th
century, but it has been  carried to a mofl ailonifhing de-
gree of perfedion in the 18th.   Mufeums have  been in-
ftituted, containing fcetufes, in regular gradation,  from
their firfl formation  to the fize of a child on the point of
its birth.  Of adults of all ages, and  of animals  of all
forts and countries.   By means of colored injedions,  com-
munications  between different parts of the  human body
have been found, which were  never thought  of before,
and the evanefcent terminations of veffels,  have been tra-
ced with an exadnefs that was unattainable by any other
 means.  The very modern  art of corroding the contain-
 ing veffels, and  leaving  the injeded matter  hardened in
 the precife form of the veffels, when filled with their ap-
 propriate fluids,  has put it in the power of  gentlemen to
 iludy  anatpmy without difobliging their fenfes.   The im-
 provements in optics, which  have principally taken place
 in the 18th century, have  alfo furnifhed  our modern ana-
 tomifls with the  means  of afcertaining  minute fubdivifions
 of parts of the  human body,  which had not been known
 before, nor ever could by the unaififled human eye.  Ly-
 onet  who lived till  the year 1789,  was the  firft contriver
 of the anatomical microicope.   The engravers art, which
 has been fo much improved within the  lail fifty years,  has
 alfo contributed to the diftufion of anatomical knowledge.
 To this may  be  added the  ingenious imitation  of the in-
 ternal, as well   as external parts of the human body, by
                                             workers 
10
workers  in wax.   Such a facility has been givL-n to  the
acquifition of anatomical knowledge  in the 18th century,
that it is fhameful for any gentleman, pretending to  a li-
beral education, to be deftitute  of it ;  and it is eafy for
fuch,  in  the courfe  of a winter,  to  acquire a knowledge
of the human body, exceeding not only  all that Hippo-
crates or Galen ever knew, but all that was known  by the
majority  of pradifing phyficians and  furgeons in the firfl
17 centuries of the chriflian a:ra.
  This increafe of anatomical knowledge, has produced
the mofl  beneficial confequences; it has given new  lights,
by which phyficians have been enabled to explain the ani-
mal  fundions and  deduce rational  theories of difeafes.
The art  of  furgery has been  particularly indebted to it.
The man, who undertakes to  operate on parts, the flruc-
ture of which is unknown to him, mufl put to hazard very
important interefls  of his unhappy patient.  More know-
ledge of anatomy, than was poffefTed by the bulk of furge-
ons in and before the 17th century, is neceffary to the fuc-
cefsful performance of many operations in furgery.  I
v.-ould particularly mention the  operation of lithotomy,
for the hydrocele;  for the aneurifm,  for  the fiflula lachry-
malis, for  the  bubonocele, for the catarad.  The  firfl
inftance,  that has  occurred  in  my medical reading, of
any perfon who, blind from his birth, had obtained  fight
from the  aid of furgery, took place in the year 1728, un-
der the  hands  of furgeon Chefelden, of London.   The
ufe of a proper tourniquet, without which fatal hemorr-
hages mufl often h;ive taken  plzce  in the amputation of
large limbs, was firfl introduced by Mr Petit,  who lived
till the year 1750.   The ufe cf the aNdual cautery,  to re-
firain hemorrhage in amputations, though not univerfal, was
frequent  in the  17th century,  and had not entirely ceafed
i.fty years ago.   This was fucceeded by  pafung  a thread-
ed needle at a confiderable diflance round the divided  ar-
teries, with excruciating pain  to the  unhappy patient.  A
mods of fecuring the arteries, by means  of the tenaculum,
has been introduced into general ufe within the lail fifty
years, which is as effedual,  and  infinitely  lefs painful.
Amputations of the largeft limbs, are now performed with-
                                                 out 
11
out the ufe of the  needle.  In  confequence of  this im-
provement, almofl the whole of the  fufferings of the pa-
tient may be comprized within the  fpace  of two minutes,
which in the former mode of operating,  extended to  fix
or feven, and fometimes  to ten.
   Modern furgeons are much more fparing in the ufe  of
cauflic applications  than their  predeceffors.  Many cures
are now daily accomplifhed by  gentle means, which  70
or 80 years ago were fuppofed to be  unattainable  without
recuring to thole which  were  fevere and  painful. The
ufe of long forceps in gunfhot wounds,  and  the  opinion
which was generally entertained that  fuch wounds were
poifonout,  occafioncd unneceffary havoc both of limbs and
lives, till they were fuperceded by a more  corred theory,
and by an eafy fuperficial mode of dreffing ; both of which
have been lately introduced.   The  double incifion in am-
putations—the prefent mode of removing cancerous breaPs,
and encyflcd tumours—the lateral operation for  the lions
in the bladder—the ufe  of the  cutting gorget—amputa-
tion in  the joint of the fhoulder, and  the fuperior neat-
nefs,  eafe, and expedition of the prefent  furgery, refled
great honor on the  18th  century.
   To enumerate all the improvements that have been made
in furgery, within  even  ti.e lafl fixty years, would be to
tranferibe a great  part of the works of Monro,  Heifler,
the two Hunters, Pott, and of many more.   The lail of
thefe gentlemen,  who  has  been dead  only twelve years,
in his valuable treatife  on  the difeafes of the head,  firll
pointed out a communication between the adjacent periof-
teum and dura mater, without which  knowledge many
lives have  been loll, which might have been faved.   Ig-
norant  of this,  preceding  furgeons  mufl  have   attended
folely to the external wound,  while the  internal  danger,
if known, might  have  been  remedied.  Pott alfo  firfl
taught  us a new and eafy mode cf reducing  fradures  by
the bent pofition.   This has greatly alleviated the pain?
and diftreffes refulting from broken bones.
   To contrail the  flate  of furgery, in the 18th  century,
with  what it was in the 17th,  give me leave to call to your
recolledion a cafe thaj; occurred one hundred and fourteen
                                               years 
12
years ago in the enlightened kingdom of France.   In the
year 1686, it was the misfortune  of Lewis the XlVth to
have a fiftula in ano.  The difeafe was then fo little under-
ftood, and had fo feldom been relieved  by any treatment,
that the anxiety of the nation  was  called forth in behalf
of  their endangered monarch.   Repeated confutations
were held,  new inflruments were contrived,  all patients in
the Hotel de Dieu,  and the vicinity, laboring under a fi-
milar complaint, were minutely examined,  and  fubjeded
to operations,  to _give experience  to the  furgeon of the
king.  The operation was at length refolved upon,  and
fuccefsfully performed.    One hundred  thoufand  livres
were given to  Felix the furgeon,  and as much to Fagon,
the confulting phyfician;  and a grand national thanksgiv-
ing was, by  public authority, enjoined, and religioufly
obferved: So great  have been  the improvements, and fo
extenfive the diffufion of knowledge  in anatomy  and fur-
gery, fince the time of Lewis the XlVth, that in our in-
fant country,  the United States of  America, not yet two
centuries old,  there are fcores of young men, who  have
not attained their 30th year, who are as capable of giv-
ing compleat  relief, in fimilar complaints, as the lucky
Felix, whofe fortune was made by a fingle operation.
   The firfl book publilhed on the fubjed of midwifery,
in Britain,  was in the year 1540,  by Thomas  Reynold,
entitled " the Byrthe of Mankind." Three or four authors
followed in the 17th century, who  did little more than
copy  from Reynold.  It was referved for the iSth century
to bring this art to  fuch a degree of perfedion,  that far-
ther improvements,  are fearcely to beexpeded.   The firll
public ledures on midwifery, in England,  were  given a-
bout  eighty  years  ago, by Dr.   Moubray,  in his own
houfe.
   The firfl hofpital in the Britifh  dominions, forlying-iri
women,  was  eilablifhed by Sir Richard Manningham, in
 1739: Since that period  feveral  other fimilar inflitutions
have been added—one in particular, for  the delivery of
poor  women,  in their owri houfes, was inflituted in  1780.
In the firfl fix years after its  eflablifhment,  it had given
                                         profeffional 
*3
profeffional affiflance and accommodation to nine thoufand
eight hundred and nineteen women.
   Ah, little  do the rich confider, that in their judicious
charities, they are only putting out their money on inter-
eft for their own, as  well  as their country's advantage.
It has doubtlefs often  been the cafe,  that  the  contributors
to thefe benevolent inflitutions, have received  their dona-
tions back again,  in a fourfold proportion, in the perfona
of their wives and daughters, who have been more judi-
cioufly treated,  in the hour of natures forrow, from  the
hands of thofe  who had acquired a more accurate know-
ledge of their profeffion,  in public foundations, than they
ever could in private pradice.
   In thefe ufeful inflitutions, which both  began in Great
Britain,  and aflonifhingly increafed  in  the 18th century,
many hundreds, perhaps I might fay thoufands, have been
pradically taught  the ufeful art  of midwifery,  while  the
theory of it  has been abundantly illuflrated, by feveral
able writers, and particularly by Drs. Smellie, Hamilton
and Denman;  the  two  lafl of thefe  gentlemen are flill
alive, and the other  lived till the year 1763,  and is  faid,
by his biographer, " to have been the firfl writer who confi-
dered the fhape  and fize  of the female pelvis, as adapted
to the head of the fcetus,  and to  have abolifhed many  fu-
perflitious notions, and erroneous cuftoms,  that prevailed
in the management of women in labor, and of children;
and to have had the fatisfadion to  fee the mofl of his max-
ims adopted in the greatefl part of Europe."  He is alfo faid
to have inflruded  nearly one thoufand pupils in his art.
   The ignorance that prevailed before, in this profeffion,
is furprifing.  Footling deliveries, which are now common
and fafe,  were then fcarcely attempted; and in fuch cafes
deliveries were effeded by the painful and dangerous pro-
cefs of turning the child.   Van Swieten quotes feveral au-
thors of  reputation, who  had advifed  lying-in women to
keep their beds, till the tenth or twelfth day after partu-
rition ; and this was frequently done without changing their
bed linen.  The children were alfo incafed  from head to
foot, foas to  be totally deprived of the ufe of  their limbs.
                        C                     Thefe 
14
Thefe abfurd and unnatural pradifes have/ within the Iaft
half century, been  gradually exploded.
  A volume would  hardly be fufficient to detail  the
improvements  that  have taken place in the theory and
pradice of phyfic within  the lafl hundred years.  Phyfi-
cians, who were ignorant of the circulation of the blood,
were incompetent to reafon on the animal fundions. Before
Harvey there could be nophyfiology at all, nor any know-
ledge either  of  the internal ftrudure, or fundions of any
one part of  the body.  Before Afelius and Pecquet, there
could be no  idea of nourifhment.  No one knew  how our
food parted into the blood, whether  it went  there or not,
or what became of it.  Since thefe new lights fhone upon
as, a new sera  commenced in medicine.  Reafoning and
obfervation have gone hand in hand, and reciprocally cor-
reded each other, till a confiflent fyitem,  both of phyfio-
logy and pathology,  has been introduced.
   From this  accurate knowledge of the human fundions has
refulted the art of inflruding the deaf and dumb in a method
of receiving and communicating ideas. Braidwood of Edin-
burgh,  and  the Abbe Sicard  of Paris, from an attentive
ftudy of the organs of fpeech, have within the lafl thirty
years, taught numbers  of fuch unfortunate  perfons, who
would  otherwife have been lofl to fociety, not only to read
and write,  but  to  hold, converfation.
   Thefe improvements in the various departments of medi-
cine, have been acquired by vigorous exertions of great men.
One fource,  from which much ufeful  knowledge has been
obtained,  was the difledion of dead bodies, toafcertain the
nature and feat  of thediforders of which they died. Lieu-
taud, who has been dead but 20 years, is faid to have diffec-
ted an almofi incredible number of bodies.   The refult has
been communicated to  the public in a Latin work, on the
feats and caufes of difeafes.  In the year 1760,  Morgagni
obliged the  world with his voluminous, and very impor-
tant work,  " De Caufis & Sedibus morborum per anatomen
 indagatis,"  which continued the obfervations of others,
and alfo thofe he had made in fixty years pradice, on com-
paring the fymptoms of difeafes in  living  fubjeds, with
                                                the 
15
the appearance of the morbid parts of the fame, when dif-
fered.
   An infinity of experiments have been made within  the
lail fifty years for medical purpofes.  The Abbe Fontana
is faid  to have made fix thoufand experiments on 4000 ani-
mals.  Think not that thefe philofophical martyrdoms were
ufelefs  cruelties.   By means of them  feveral  laws  of the
animal economy have  been explained.  The  virtues and
powers of medicines have been afcertained ;  and all  has
tended to enlighten phyficians in the god-like work  of al-
leviating human mifery.
   An inflance  will illuflrate  this pofition, as  well  as  the
general objed of my difcourfe.  The firfl  fociety  for the
recovery of drowned perfons, was inflituted  in Amfterdam,
in 1767.  Before that period the received theory was, that
drowned perfons died in  confequence of water rufhing into
their flomachs.  The pradice  founded thereon was little
more than vain attempts  to diflodge  the offending water,
by rolling the unhappy fufferers on barrels.   In the  eight-
eenth century  ingenious  men drowned animals in  trans-
parent veffels,  filled with  water.   They attentively ob-
ferved  all  the  circumflances  of  their death,  and  ob-
tained  further light by  diffeding them after they had
ceafed  to breathe. The refult was, a convidion that they
died from want of air, and not from a furplufage of water.
The next objed of  experiment  was  to afcertain  the belt
mode of re-animating the collapfed lungs. From the  whole
refulted a rational plan of refloring life to the apparently
dead.   In the  four  years immediately following  the infti-
tution  of the firfl humane fociety in Amfterdam, one hun-
dred and fifty drowned perfons were recovered in the Uni-
ted Provinces, by the means pointed  out  and recommend-
ed by the fociety.   In the cafes publifhed  by them, there
were feveral perfons reflored, who had been  under water
from fourteen minutes to  an hour and a half.   It  appears
from the records of the humane fociety, in  England, infli-
tuted in the year 1774,  that upwards  of  2000 perfons,
who had been  thus reflored to life, after being apparently
drowned,  walked in proceffion, on a day fet  apart  a few
years ago, to folicit the public charity in behalf of the in-
                            C2          inflitution. 
i6
ftitution.  How many mufl have been loft to their friends
and the community, before mankind were acquainted with
the god-like art of refloring fufpended animation ?
   The cool regimen in fevers, was introduced in England
by Sydenham;  but fuch  is the force of  prejudice, that
the benefits of this innovation were very limited for many
years after his death.  It is but lately that the progrefs and
diffemination of medical knowledge has made them general.
   The cool regimen, within a few  years, has been  farther
extended by wafhing patients in feveral cafes with cold wa-
ter.   The experience  of  many, who have adopted this
pradice, and the fupport  it has received  from the pen of
Dr. Currie, an eminent phyfician now pradifing in Liver-
pool, give us reafon to believe that kind Providence has
placed  the  means of  obviating difeafes, more  within the
reach of all men,  than has been generally fuppofed.
   Societies,  or affociations of  learned  men, for  literary
purpofes, have been multiplied in  the  i 8th century.  To
mention all the names of fuch of thefe as have been efla-
blifned within that period, would fill  up  feveral pages.
In our young country they are more numerous than the
Hates themfelves, and all of them have been founded with-
in the lafl forty years.  In feveral of thefe the advance-
ment of medical knowledge is  the folc  objed.  In near-
ly all others it has received partial attention.  In both cafes
they have eminently contributed to the advancement of the
healing art.   By means of them the oblervations of many
 private praditioners have been made public.  Difcoveries
 made in one part  of  the  world have been  communicated
 to everv other.   Ufeful hints have been firfl colleded, and
 afterwards, by means of printing diffeminated,  and know-
 ledge confequently diffufed to  a degree  before unknown.
 Thefe focieties have been particularly ufeful to our profef-
 fion—for fuch is the  varying nature of difeafes, that fome-
 thing new is always occuring.   There are few pradition-
 ers who do not occafionally fee what was never feen before.
 It is no exaggeration to affert, that the medical fads and
 obfervations, which  have been publifhed in the 18th cen-
 tury, have  done more towards explaining the fundions,
 and curing the difeafes of the  human body, than all that
                                            remained 
*7
remained on record for many, perhaps for all the centu-
ries that had preceded fince the creation.
   Hofpitals and infirmaries, for the relief of the fick, have
increafed in the 18th century,  far beyond  what had be-
fore taken place.   In that period,  at leaft, feventeen new
ones have been founded in  London and Weltminfler,  and
many more in different parts  of England, and  twelve in
Ireland.  Moft of thefe have been excellent fchools, in
which young medical fludents were  taught the pradical
part of their profeffion, and enjoyed opportunities of pro-
fiting by the prefcriptions of  veterans in the art.   Charity
to the fick and poor has gone hand in hand with the diffu-
fion of medical knowledge,  and  they have reciprocally
aided  each other.   Two  novel inflitutions of  this  kind,
the firft that the world  has ever feen, refied equal honor
on England and the  18th  century.  One has been lately
inflituted for afcertaining,  by experiments,  the precife ef-
feds of the newly difcovered elaftic fluids.  The  other for
the relief  of cancerous patients,  in   which it is intended
to give the utmoitfcope to medical ingenuity for difcover-
ing the bell plan of treating that hitherto incurable difeafe.
For this  lail purpofe  one  gentleman has  lately given
^.3000.
   It may be proper here to  mention, that  the  moft cele-
brated medical fchool in Europe, was  founded in the  18th
 century.   It was in the year 1719,  that  the elder Monro
 of Edinburgh began to give ledures in anatomy.  He was
 foon feconded by  able profeffors  in every  department of
 medicine.  From the joint labors of them  and their fuccef-
 fors,  within the lafl  eighty years, feveral thoufand pupils
 have been ably fitted for pradice.
   The materia mcdica has been eminently improved in
 the 18th century.  The ufes  of old medicines have been
 extended.  New ones  have  been introduced.   Pharmacy
 has been  flript of  ufelefs fuperfluities and  prefcriptions
 Amplified.  Sir Hans Sloan,  who died in 1752, was the
 firfl who introduced Peruvian bark into general ufe in Eng-
 land.  The virtues  of this  invaluable drug in  mortifica-
 tions,  and in fcrophula, were unknown eighty years ago.
 During the 17 th century,  and for a  confiderable part of 
i8
the 18th,  many  entertained great prejudices  againft the
Peruvian bark.   The fever  and ague  which is now daily
cured by perfons of no medical education, was then a very
ferious difeafe.   The pradice oppofed  to  it, unaided by
this grand febrifuge, was fo feeble that it frequently failed
altogether, and was in many cafes fo tedious that the con-
ftitution received material injury before itfucceeded.  Dr.
Fothergill, in the  year  1756, mentions,  that the  bark
had been forbidden to many Britifh ftudents at Leyden, af-
feded with agues; and  that  to  his knowledge  fome  of
them had  fallen facrifices to the unhappy prejudices  exift-
ing againft that remedy.
   In the 17th century, phyficians were as much afraid of
antimony,  as they now are of arfenic.  In that period,
phyficians were expelled from medical affociations for ufing
it  in their pradice.   To take an emetic was then reckoned
a ferious bufinefs, and was  counted the lafl refource of art.
Madame de Maintenon who fought for celebrity, by doing
what others could not, was fent  home by  her  friends, in
the year 1666, as a mad woman, for having  taken an eme-
tic,  without the  preflure  of dangerous difeafe, and after-
wards a walk in  the fame day.   Our overfeers  and nurfes
now prefcribe them with freedom,  and often with advan-
tage.
   Dr. James, the inventor of the antimonial powder, cal-
led by his  name,  lived till the year 1776. No compofition,
either ancient or modern, has been fo extenfively ufeful as
this  celebrated febrifuge.   It is  no exaggeration to fay,
that in millions of  cafes it  has procured relief to perfons
laboring under painful and  dangerous difeafes.
   Without peruvian  bark, tartar emetic,  and glaubers*
falts, poor would be our means for combating the endemi-
al difeafes of our country ;  yet thefe three valuable  medi-
cines were very little known,  and lefs ufed, by thofe who
inhabited  the fame and  fimilar countries,  one  hundred
years ago.
   Opium has been ufed to  alleviate pain fince the days of
Homer, but  it was rarely prefcribed, and  that  by a few
who kept  it a fecret.  A knowledge of its virtues and ufes
was a fource of both fame and fortune  to Paracelcus and
                                             others, 
*9
others, in the 16th and 17th centuries.   The liquid lauda-
num of Sydenham, was fpoken of in his time, and for many
years fince his deceafe, as fomethingalmoft peculiar to him-
felf, it is now fo frequently ufed and fo freely  prefcribed
by people of both fexes, as to be generally found in moft
decent families for domeflic prefcription.
  The virtues of opium, in mortifications, were firft an-
nounced to the public by Mr. Pott, whofe  recent death has
been already mentioned.  Its efficacy in relieving the lues,
was firft publifhed by Dr. Michaelis, at the clofe of our re-
volutionary war.
  Some of the moft important ufes of mercury have been but
lately  difcovered.   The time when it  was firft  introduced
into general pradice, as a powerful remedy for Hydroce-
phalus in ternus for difeafes of the liver j  for the  dropfy,
and for  fevers,  mufl be within the recolledion of many
phyficians who are now alive.  In purfuance  of a princi-
ple laid down and illuftrated  by John  Hunter, of curing
one difeafe by another,  mercury has been, of late, fuccefs-
fully ufed in transferring difeafes of the head, of the eyes,
and of the bowels to the mouth,  where they are lefs dan-
gerous and more manageable.  Ipecacuanha has been  ad-
vantageoufly employed by a few, fince  the days of Pifo,
as an emetic, and cathartic j  but it has only come into ge-
neral ufe fince the commencement of the 18th century.  A
knowledge of its  virtues,  when given in  fmall dofes  as a
tonic, and antidyfenteric medicine is of very modern date.
Uva Urfi,  which is now  fo celebrated  in nephritic com-
plaints,  was  fcarcely known as an article of the materia
medica, till De Haen, in his ratio medendi, printed in the
year 1761,  proclaimed to the world  its  virtues.  Since
that time, there is reafon to believe, that it has faved many
patients from the painfnl and dangerous operation of litho-
tomy.
   Columbo root, which is now fo commonly and fuccefs-
fully prefcribed in dyfpepfia, and difordersof the flomach,
was very little known or ufed before the publication of Dr.
Percival's eflays, in 1772.
   Digitalis has been long enrolled in the lift of medicines ;
but it is only fince  1785, that in confequence  of the publi-
                                             cations 
20
cations of Dr. Withering, and others,  its virtues In drop-
fies have been generally known.   It is much lefs fince fome
well attefted cafes of its efficacy in confumptions,  give us
ground  to hope, that we have found out a remedy, that
in fome cafes,  will cure, or  at  leafl relieve that hither-
to incurable complaint; but on this fubjed further expe-
rience mufl decide.
  The ufes of lead were very limited,  till Goulard, about
the middle of the 18th century, introduced fome prepara-
tions of it into general pradice, as an ufeful external applica-
tion.   Some very late experiments inform us,  that it may
be taken internally, in fmall dofes, both fafely and advan-
tageoufly.
   Time would fail in dwelling particularly on the benefits
derived from Seneca fnakeroot, magnefia, callor oil, quaf-
fia, fimarouba, angudura bark, and a variety of other me-
dicines, which have been either firfl introduced,  or intro-
duced into general pradice in the  18th century.
   From the  connexion that exifls  between all  the fciences,
they often refled light  on each other.   Sixty years ago,
thunder and lightning were fuppofed by philofophers to be
the confequence of accidental mixtures  of nitre  and  ful-
phur in the atmofphere.   Our  illuflrious countryman,  Dr.
Franklin,  by a flrong effort of genius,  and hazardous, but
decifive experiments, inflituted in or about the year 1753,
firft demonilrated their identity with eledricity, and taught
lightning  to play harmlefs round our heads.   His difcove-
ries on this fubjed, not only extended the knowledge of
philofophers, but enlarged the refources of phyficians, for
eledricity in their hands has been  found ferviceable in va-
rious difeafes.
   I cannot clofe my obfervations  on  the fubjed  of medi-
cines, without congratulating you, that a handfome begin-
ning has lately been made towards an American materia
medica, by  Dr. Barton of Philadelphia.  This well in-
formed and indefatigable interpreter of nature,  has profe-
cuted,  and continues to profecute this fubjed withfo much
induftry and ability,  as to give us ground to hope, that at
no very diflant day, remedies for our endemial difeafes will
be found in our own country.  Among other difcoveries
                                                  on 
21
 on this fubjed,  an infed equal to the Spanish fly, for rai-
 ling a blifler, has been lately pointed out by Dr. Chapman,
 of Pennfylvania,  which has been repeatedly, and fuccefs-
 fully ufed for that purpofe, by  feveral phyficians of the
 United States.
   Botany is intimately conneded with medicine, and the
 great improvements lately made in the one, have refleded
 light on the other.   In  the 17th century,  the fragments of
 botanical knowledge were not reduced to  fyftem.   Tour-
 nefort, who died in 1708,  introduced an arrangement that
 was ingenious and ufeful ;  but that, and every thing of the
 kind has, by common confent, given way  to the fyflem of
 Linnseus.  This great naturalifl,  who was born and died
 in the eighteenth century,  has the fame title to celebrity in
 botany, that Newton has in philofophy.   He has reduced
 all vegetables to twenty-four claffes. Thefe are  fubdivided
 into orders,  genera, fpecies, and varieties.  By this  artifi-
 cial arrangement, any vegetable, in any part of the  world,
 that is found to poffefs  uncommon virtue,  either in  medi-
 cine or the arts, may,  by a botanical defcription (efpeci-
 ally if accompanied with a drawing) be fo defignated as to
 be eafily known by perfons in the moll diftant regions of the
 globe, who are acquainted with the Linnaean fyftem.
   This knowledge has  been fuccefsfully employed to iden-
 tify articles of the materia medica, and to prevent  frauds
 and impofitions  in the  transfer thereof; but  much greater
'benefits may be expeded to refult from it.  It is well known,
 that the Author of Nature, for  the moft part,  has confer-
 red fimilar virtues on the different fpecies of the fame ge-
 nera.  By purfuing this  track, the  ingenious  botanical
 phyfician may encreafe  his knowledge  of medicinal vegeta-
 bles to an amazing extent.
    I leave the farther inveftigation of this fubjed  to my
 fucceffor, who on the commencement of  the 20th century,
 will entertain-the then  medical  fociety of South Carolina,
 with difcoveries made in the  19th, of-the powers and vir-
 tues of vegetables far exceeding any thing that is now ei-
' ther known or thought of.' The names and diitindh-e cha-
 raders of every thing  that bears  a flower, have been fyf-
 tematically arranged in the century which ended yefterday.
                           D                  That 
22
That which has begun to day, building on this foundation,
will doubtlels proceed to alcertain their refpedive virtues
and ufes.   in accomplifhing this great work, the Linna:an
fyflem  of the 18th century  will enable the  literati of all
parties, languages and countries, toco-operate.
  So great, and fo many have been the very late improve-
ments in chemiftry,  that it has undergone a complete revo-
lution.   Such of  our profeffion,  as  were initiated  in  this
effentia! part of a medical education, thirty or forty years
ago, mufl once more iubmit to be learners,  or  be incapa-
ble of  profiting by the perufal of the. lateft  authors,  who
have treated on this ufeful art.  Anterior  to  the  lafl  fifty
years,  the objeds of chemiftry  were  chiefly metals and
medicines,   but within  that period, they have been  fur-
pnfingly enlarged.  Earth,  air,   water,  heat,  light  and
fire have been fubjeded to its empire.  The various chan-
ges of matter in the  nutrition and  formation of animals,
and vegetables,  and in breaking them  down after death
into their prifline elements, and  either fertilifing the earth,
or poifoning the air,  have been  fuccefsfully inveftigated.
From  thefe  invefligations, phyficians,  as  well  as  phi-
loiophers,  have derived advantages.  It is not your wifh,
nor my intention, to fpeak  of chemiftry as  a branch  of
general icience;  but only as auxiliary to, and conneded
with the pradice of medicine.  In this limited view of the
fubjed,  1 obierve that  it has taught  us many improve-
ments  in preparing and compounding fundry articles of the
materia medica,  io as to render them more efficient in prac-
tice, and alfo a cheaper mode of preparing  fundry medi-
cines.   Mr. Ward, who died not  many years ago, firft
found  out a mode of preparing oil of viiriol from  lulphur,
by which it was obtained equally  good, at one -fourth of
its former price.   Volatile alkali, which formerly was ob-
tained from the horns of only one  animal, is now extrad-
ed from the bones of all.
   bubflitutes of  equal efficacy have taken the place of dif-
agreeable medicines.   The fa! feignette, and  foda  phof-
phorata, will render a patient as tffential fervice as  glau-
ber'sfalt, though infinitely lefs naufeous.
   Ventilators have been introduced by the celebrated Dr;
                                               Hales, 
23
Hales, who died in 1761, by means of which foul air may
be removed from hofpitals, fhips, prifons, and  fuch pla-
ces,  where many have been confined in narrow limits.
   A fimple and eafy procefs has been lately contrived,  by
which fait water may be rendered drinkable.
   Chemiftry, in  the  18th century, has refleded much
light on medicine, by ana yfing the various  human iecre-
tions,  and condiment parts of  the human body   Experi-
ments made  with  calculi,  and with gali Hones, have  led
to a luccefsful mode of prarying their effeds.
   By a recent analyfis of  the bones of ricketty  patients,
a difcovery has been made that  calcareous pholphate  was
wanting to give lirength  and  coufiftence to  fuch bones.
To afcertain tne pradicability of introducing the deficient
calcareous phofphate into the living fubj. ft, fowl? were
fed on a pafte, mixed with calcareous pholphate,  and  pul-
veriied madder root, for two  months, and  then  killed.
 On  difledion, it was found that the calcareous phofphate,
 colored with madder root, had  been conveyed to the part
 effeded,  and the  folidity of the bones thereby increafed.
 From the  whole  refulted a rational theory and fuccefsful
 pradice for the relief of ricketty  patients.   In this,  and
 a variety of  fimilar  methods,  the modern improvements
 in chemiftry have lent an eflential aid to the fuccefsful prac-,
 tice of phyfic.
   In the 17th century,  philofophers were bufied in afcer-
 taining the elaflicity, weight and denfity of common air;
 but in the i 8th,  important difcoveries have been made of
 its component parts.  About thirty years ago.  Dr. Prieilly
 difcovered, that atfmopheric air confifts principally of two
 elaitic fluids—the one has been called azotic,  or nitrogene
 gas, the other oxygen gas or  vital air.   From this much
 good is likely to refult to medicine   Every vegetable that
 grows,  is found to  be doubly ufeful in abforbing  tainted,
 and emitting wholefome air.  Oxygen,  or vital air, has
  been fuccefsfuliy  employed  in  relieving  fome of thejnoft
 obflmate difeafes to which human nature is liable.  Fixed
 air, or carbonic gas, has alio been found ufeful in a variety
 of cafes.   The attention of medical n.en is  now fixed on
 pneumatic medicine.  We mufl patiently  wait  till time,
                         D 2               experience 
H
experience and  a farther application  of elaftic fluids,  to
medical purpofes, fhall throw more light on this novel fub-
jed ;  but from the promifing  iflue of a few experiments,
already made, we may reafonably indulge the hope,  that
great benefits will, at no very diftant day, refult from a more
accurate and experimental  knowledge of  the virtues and
ufes of the different kinds  of air,  which modern chemiftry
has brought to view.
   Should any objed, that  notwithflanding all our  boafted
improvements in medicine, and the arts  conneded with  it,
that mankind continue to die as heretofore.   To fuch I re-
ply, that as man is made mortal,  phyfic cannot make him
immortal.  Neverthelefs, it may be truly affirmed, that we
have a better chance for life and health than our anceftors
had.
   In cafes of accidents, or of  the many natural difeafes,
whicn  require the hand  of an operator, how much great-
er is our chance of obtaining relief from the arts of mo-
dern furgery, in the hands of men who are intimately ac-
quainted with the internal ftrudure  of the human body,
than our forefathers could  have  had, when anatomy and
furgery were both in their infancy ?   In fo little compara-
tive eftimation,  were the profeffors of the latter art former-
ly held, that the 18th century was confiderably advanced
before a feparation  took place between the  duties of bar-
bers and furgeons;  which had been previoufly discharged
by the fame men, under the compound name ©f furgeon-
barbers.
   In the 17th century,  many phyficians excluded frefh air
from their patients; and attempted,  by external warmth,
and heating drinks, and medicines,  to force fweats.  Even
the enlightened  Sydenham, placed  his chief dependence
for the cure of  many of them,  on the lancet, a purge, and
diluting ptifans.   How inefficient mufl fuch pradice have1
been,  and how little chance for their lives mufl the  fever-
ifh patients of  thofe days have had,  when compared with
their defcendants;  indulged  with frefh air, and treated
for fimilar diforders with the  preparations of antimony,
 mercury, bark,  opium, cantharides and neutral  falts, as
 given in modern pradice ?
                                               Than 
*5
  Than Sydenham, the world never produced a man of
more medical genius.   Were he to rife from his grave, re-
poifefled of all the knowledge he was mailer  of in 1689,
at the time of his death, and to relume the pradice of phy-
fic, under a  prohibition of reading the  works of Boer-
haave, Van Swieten,  Cullen,  and other  medical lumina-
ries of the 18th century, and to  remain  ignorant of the
improvements that have been made in the pradice of phy-
fic, fince his death, poor would be his fuccefs, when con-
trolled with that of many  of  our young praditioners of
inferior genius, poffelfed  of  the  more  efficient  modern
medicines, and dirededby thofe great lights, which never
fhone on him.
   A familiar inflance will illuflrate this pofition :  If Sy-
denham had  been confulted in cafe of a burn, he would
have applied fpirit of  wine ; but thofe who had read the
treatii'e of Goulard on lead, publifhed about the middie of
the 18th century  would have moiftened  the affeded  parts
with  his celebrated  vegeto mineral  water.   Subfequent
experience has d.-monftrated, that the immediate, conilant,
and lucceffive application, even of cold water, to the affec-
ted parts, not only removes  prefent  pain,  but prepares
them looner and  better for healing  dreiiings,  than the
pain-giving ardent fpirits, formerly recommended and ufed.
Thole who doubt of the value of late improvements in our
proiefiion, are requeiled, in  cafe of . their being  burnt,
 to try the difference between Sydenham's  prefcription of
 fpirit of wine, and the modern ones lail mentioned.
   The art of preierving and reltoring health, is no longer
 confined to folio's, and inaccefiible to all who are net adepts
 in trie Latin and  Greek languages.   It has  been explained
 in our mother tongue, and ltripped of the  terms of art.
 This  diffuiion  of medical knowledge, among  common
 people,  by  I iffot, Buchan, Hamilton,   Underwood, and
 Oilier popular writers, may have encouraged fome adven-
 turous perfo >s to go beyond their  depth ;  but the  good
 refulting  from it has far over-balanced the evil.  Much of
 fuperititinn, and  many popular errors,  have been  explo-
 ded ;  the comiron people  have been  accuflomed to  think
 and reafon on medical fubjeds.   They  are  confequently
                                                 lefs 
26
 lefs liable to be duped by  ignorant  or defigning preten-
 ders.  They have been taught not to expect impc-ilioriues
 from medicines;  but to place a due reliance on  air, exer-
 cife  and their own exertions.   The  remote and  predifpo-
 fing caufes of dileafes,  have been more generally known,
 and  of courfe guarded againft.  The conlequences of in-
 dolence,  intemperance, and  ungoverned  paffions,  have
 been fo clearly pointed  out, that few can offend, but with
 their eyes open.  Mothers of  families,  with the aid of
 Common underllandings, enlightened and direded by the
 judicious precepts of Hamilton and Underwood, are now
 much more capable of managing themfelves,  and  their
 children, in the ordinary courie of things, than their grand-
 mothers were from the  advice of phyficians, detailed  to
 them only on preffing emergencies.
   The lives and healths of pregnant women,  and of  their
 offspring, are not now, as formerly, endangered by the
 abfurd pradice of tight lacing.   Lying-in women are no
 longer, as was ufual  in the days  of Sydenham,  and  long
 fince, confined  to their beds for eight or  ten days  after
 parturition, in  the unpleafant fituation confequent thereon.
 iNlor are children  fwathed, like  Egyptian mummies, nor
 their breads and bowels confined by tight days, but  they
 are indulged with the free ufe  of their limbs.   Since the
 dtfcontinuance  of thefe  unnatural  pradices, there  have
 been fewer indances of crookednefs, efpeciaily among the
 female fex.
   I appeal to thofe, who can look back  on thirty, forty,
 or fifty  years, whether a great  reformation, in  thefj par-
 ticulars, has  not taken  place  within  the  fphere  of  their
 own obfervation ; and  whether in confequence  of   more
judicious treatment there are not more  women fafely car-
ried  through  the perilous periods of pregnancy and child-
birth;  and whether there are not fewer indances of defor-
mity, and a greater proportion of children railed at th«
 preient time,  than formerly.  In the fame number of fa-
milies,  where our a.iceftors counted  four or five, we can
 no v  fhew feven or eight.  Our fchools,  our  ftreets, and
our houles are filled with ftraight,  well formed  children,
moil of wliom have happily got over the lmail pox,  with-
                                                out 
27
out any of thofe marks of it, which deformed their grand-
mothers.
   This terrible diforder could not be avoided for centuries
paft, either by us or ouranceftors; but how great is the dif-
feience in our  favor?   Till the  18th  century inocula-
tion was unknown in a great part of Europe, and the whole
of America.   The fmall pox then, like a wide fpreading
pedilence, fvvept off whole families.  Among thofe  who
furvived many lod one or both  of their eyes, and  were
deprived of a great proportion of their perfonal charms,  by
deep indentations on the human  face  divine.   When the
beneficial pradice of inoculation was fird introduced, and
for feveral years after,  the modfkilful inoculators were un-
reafonably afraid of cool air.  They loaded their patients
with mercury, and tortured them with deep crucial  inci-
fions, in which extraneous fubdances, impregnated with the
variolous matter, were  buried. It is within the recolledion
of many,  that about forty years ago,  when the fird gene-
ral inoculation took place in Charlefton, there was a icene
of the deepeil  didreis, and fuch a dagnation  of bufinefs,
that the grafs grew in the dreets.  1 he number of deaths
was fo great, that our  old  inhabitants fuppofe it to have
been nearly equal to a  third of the whole  number of ino-
culated perfons.   There  were  then able  phyficians; but
they labored under fuch midakes and  prejudices,  that  it
was no uncommon pradice to nail blankets over thefhut win-
dows of clofed rooms, to exclude every particle of cool
frefh air from their variolous patients,  whofe comfort and
fafety depended "on its  free admiffion.   The pradice of in-
oculation, is of late  fo  much improved,  and Amplified,
that perfons w ithout medical education, now undertake it
 with more eafe and fafety, than  the abieil praditioners did
 forty  or fifcy years ago.
   The dangers from inoculated fmall pox  are now  com-
paratively flight.  Even thefe are  in a fair way of being
rendered more fo by fubitituting in their  place a new dif-
eafe called the cow-pox.   The  inconveniences  from this
are very inconfiderahe,and yet it is faid to afford effedual
fecurity againft the fmall pox.  Very  few years have elap-
fed fince  this new pradice was introduced  in England j
                                                 and 
2d
and but a few months fince the farrie has been attempted is
the United States.   Tne fuccefs attending it has been fo
great,  and the  recommendations  of  it  by  Drs. Jenner,
Pearfon,  Lettfome,  Woodville, and  others  in  England,
and by Dr. Waterhoufe in thefe United States, fo pointed
and fatisfadory  that its univerfal reception will  probably
be no very diflant event.   In this  cafe,  if farther experi-
ence correfponds with the pad,  the extermination  of  the
fmall pox will be a neceffary confequence.
   Our profeffion, in the  18th century,  has  triumphed as
much over the fcurvy, as  over the fmall pox.   A  few
voyages round  the  world, and many  to the Eaft-indies,
have been made at different periods in  the courfe of  the
three lafl centuries ; but very little improvement was made
in the art of preferving the health of feamen, till  within
the lad 60 years.  Dr. Lind may properly be called the fa-
ther  of nautieal medicine.   Before his time  hidory is  full
of the failure of maritime expeditions, and  of the havoc
of the human n ce in long voyages, from the general pre-
valence of fcurvy.  In the preface to  his valuable work
on this difeafe,  he dates that it alone, had  cut off more
lives, in the lad war in which his country was  engaged,
than the united efforts of the French  and Spanifh arms.
In the firil voyage for the edablifhment  of the Eaft-India
company (which took place  near the beginning of  the
 17th century) out of 480 men, 105 died of fcurvy,  be-
fore  they had reached  the Cape of Good Hope.   Sir
Richard Hawkins, an intelligent navigator, who  lived at
the fame time,  has left on record,  that in twenty  years he
alone, could give an account of ten  thoufand  mariners,
who had been confumed by the fcurvy.  About fixty yeara
ago, Lord Anfon.. in his  voyage round the world,  loft
from the fame diforder,  four in five of his  original num-
ber; and was obliged to draw all the men, capable of do-
ing  duty, from two of his veffels to man the third.
   Thefe hidorical fa#s are dated  as  fpecimens of the ha-
voc  made among mariners, before medical  philofophers
had  luccefsfully turned their  attention  to the difeafes of
 feamen, and particularly to the prevention and cure of the
fcurvy.  The lights lately thrown on this  difeafe,  have
                                          completely 
29
completely fubjeded it to the empire of medicine.  The
fea air has  been acquitted  of all malignity; and  it has
been proved, that as much (if not more) health may be
enjoyed  in  the longed voyages, as on  land.  The  track
of thofe  who fail to didant regions is  no longer marked
with blood.  Commerce, at prefent, is carried  on with-
out that  wade of human life, which till  lately  increaied
with its increafe,  and extended with its  extent. A voyage
round the world has of late  been attended  with as little
danger as the tour of Europe.
   This great revolution in favor of humanity,  has been
effeded in the lad 60 years by fimple means partly known
before ;  but within that period, for the fird time,  reduced
to fyftem, under the  diredion  of medical  philofophers.
It is worth while to trace the progrefs of thefe  improve-*
ments  in nautical medicine.   Phyficians,  from  an atten-
tive  confideration of the nature and fymptoms of the fcur-
vy,  referred it to the clafs of putrid difeafes.  They next
inflituted experiments,  to afcertain  the  beft  mode  of
enabling the human fydem  to refid all tendency to a feptic
diathefis—In profccuting this fubjed, they found that
fixed  air, evolved  in  the  procefs  of  fermentation, was
among  the mod powerful  means for accomplifhing their
wifhes*  They alfo difcovered, that it  abounded in wine,
in cyder, in beer, in prepared cabbages,  in  rye, barley,
oatmeal, and feveral other fubftances, efpecially  when  in
a  fermenting  date.  Barley,  in the form of malt, was
feleded as being  the moft convenient vehicle for impreg-
nating the human  fyftem  with  this antifeptic  gas:  for
it  afforded  materials for making  a pleafant fermenting
drink, by  converting  it into wort; which at  any time
might thus be procured frefh  and good in the longeft voy-
ages.
   Thefe, and fimilar reafonings, experiments, and obfer-
vations  of Drs.  Macbride,  Pringle, Lind,  and others,
laid  the  outlines of a plan  for preventing and curing  the
fcurvy.  The  whole was fubmitted to the teft of experi-
ence:  veffels were furnifhed with dores, agreeably to thefe
ideas, and fent to fea.   The  fuccefs exceeded all expeda-
tion.   The judicious ufe of wort,  of beer, of four krout,
                          £                     «f 
3°
of acids, particularly of lemon juice, together with atten-
tion to diet, to climates, to cleanlinefs and purification of
the air have, under the divine favor, been inftrumental in
prelerving the lives of many thoufands within the laft 40
years. If a Roman, who faved the life of but one citizen,
was deemed worthy of a  civic crown, what honors are
not due to the medical philofophers juft mentioned;  and
alfo to  Robertfon, to Cook,  to Clarke, to Blane,  to
Trotter, and others, who have reduced thefe modern regu-
lations,  for preferving the health of feamen, to fo plain  a
fyftem, that  any intelligent captain may put them in prac-
tice?
   This has been in fuch a progreffive ftate of improvement,
that though the number of  feamen, voted by the Britifh
parliament,  is now  20,000  more than ever were employ-
ed before;  yet with all this  increafe of force, the whole
number of patients admitted into Haflar and Plymouth
hofpitals, in the firft five years of the prefent war between
France and England,  (from 1793 to 1797) is 27,000 lefs
than were admitted into the fame hofpiials  the  five  firft
years of the  lad war (from  1778 to  1782)  between the
fi.me nations.
   The philofophic captain Cook, in addition to fome new
and beneficial regulations  of his own, has  the merit of
being the fird who reduced the  improvements of modern
nautical medicine to pradice, with unprecedented fuccefs.
About thirty years ago, with a company of 118  men, he
performed  a  voyage of three years and eighteen days,
throughout  all the climates, from  52  degrees  north, to
72 degrees fouth, with the lofs  of only one man,   who
had been previoufly  difeafed.   The improved methods he
had adopted for the prefervation of the health of  his crew,
being generally known, voyages to diftant  regions, and
even round the  world, have been fince more frequently
undertaken,  and without  any ferious apprehenfion  from
the confequences of long confinement on  fhipboard.
   The Columbia, fitted  out at  Bolton, in  1787,  failed
round the world, and returned in the ufual time  with the
lofs of only one man.  Three years ago,  forty-eight vef-
fels failed from Salem, in  Maflachufetts,  to  the Eaft-In-
                                               dies.. 
3i
dies.   In thefe, and other equally diftant voyages, (which
have aftonifhingly increafed,  efpecialb/ in our  country,
within the lad ten years) we feldom or never  hear  of the
fcurvy, or of any uncommon ficknefs or mortality.
  Such have been the triumphs of our profeffion, in favor
of feamen.  They have alfo been great in alleviating the
miferies of thofe who live on land.   Medical philoiophy,
in the  18th century,  has been fuccefsfully employed in de-
vifing the moft effedual means of preferving the health of
men in general,  and particularly in cities, armies,  camps,
hofpitals and gaols.   Phyficians,  by  writing in a popular
ftylp, and in the Englifh language (both of which began
to be  fafhionable  in the eighteenth century) have  en-
lightened their fellow-men on  the fubjed of cleanlinefs,
on the neceffity of pure  water, of wholefome air, and free
ventilation.   They have inilruded them  in  the compara-
tive merit of different articles of diet. They have taught
them the advantages of temperance, adivity, and well go-
verned paffions.
   It is faid, from good authority, that many of the modern
regulations introduced  into the police of the city of Lon-
don,  favorable to the health of its inhabitants, were ad-
dopted on the fuggedion and recommendation of the  late
great and good Dr. Fothefgill.
   Sir John Pringle,  who died in  the year 1782, was the
firft phyfician who treated fully on the difeafes  of  armies,
and pointed out the means of preferving the health of fol-
diers in camps, garrifons, and  hofpitals.   He alfo was a-
mong the firft who treated  of the gaol fever.  In  thefe
departments of medicine, he has been followed by  others,
who have enlarged and  improved the  whole intofyfiem.
   Much of the health of mankind depends on what   they
eat and drink , and this has been very much influenced by
the advice and opinion of phyficians.   In the 17th centu-
ry, animal  food  conflituted an undue proportion  of the
food  of man ; but  in the 18th  century they have  been
taught better.  Phyficians have recommended the free ufe
of greens, and other vegetables ;  and both  by their pre-
cepts  and example,  encouraged horticulture  and farming.
Sir John Pringle quotes the authority  of Miller, the keep-
                         E  Z                      er 
32
er of the botanic garden, at Chelfea, and author  of tho
Gardeners' dictionary,  for the  truth of the folio ving af-
fertion : " that the quantity of vegetables ufed in and near
London, at the time of the revo'u.ion in  1688, was  not
more than one fixrh of what was  ufed in the fame place,
about the  year one thoufat.d ievtn hundred and fifty."   In
the fame period,  hopped beer, wine, vinous liquors,  fruit
and  fugar, have alfo  been introduced into more  general
ufe.    The fame medical influence,  which has been exert-
ed  in favor  of thefe,  has been  direded with   all   its
force (and doubtlefs in many  cafes  with fuccefs)  againft
the  iiee u'e  of  ardent  fpirits;   Phyficians.  by   experi-
ments and reafoning, have demonftrated, that the latter in-
stead 01 affording any nourifliment,  lay  the foundation of
many difeafes,  and undermine life it fef.   They alfo pro-
ved, that the  foimer were drongly antiieptic, and not only
fupported and ftrengthened the human fydem, but enabled
it to refid many difeafes.   As  the articles thus recommend-
ed were agreeable to our  undepraved taile, they were rea-
dily introduced into common ufe.
   The aullerity of the 17th century,  foibad  almoft every
thing,  in which the natural rehfh of man delighted,  and
enjoined,  as  beneficial only, fuch things as  were  painful
and unpleafant.   This principle  ran through their medi-
cine, and their furgery.  They denied frefh air, cold wa-
ter, and ripe fruits, to perfons laboring  under fevers, pu-
trid dyfenteries, and fuch like difeafes;  and their dreffings
of wounds were harfh and fevere.   Tie fame principle in-
fluenced them in the cnoiceof their food and drink,  J hey
were particularly hoilile  to fugar, and difcouraged its ufe.
In 1700,  the importation of iugar into  lingland, amount-
ed only to 481 425 hu idred wei^.'u ;  but in 1790, the re-
commendation of phyficians,  aided by  its own agreeable-
neis, had increased the consumption of it in the fame coun-
try, to 166,573,344 pounds, which is about twenty pounds
for each perfon in the kingdom.  The demand for this ar-
tic;e has progreffively increafed ever fince ; and it  is  now
to be found in almoft every hovel, the tenant of which has
the  means of purchafing it.    Over  and above its own ialu-
$ary qualities,  it has indiredly diminiihed  the ufe of ani-
                                                 mal 
33
■rial food ;  for the addition of it to many vegetable mix-
tures, has communicated to  if em fuch an agreeable rejifh,
as to cauie their more general con umption.  In thefe ways
fugar ha^ contribured much to the eiadication of a fi.orbu-
tic diathefis, and of a tendency  to putrid  dileafes in the
human fyflem,  and at the fame time it  has  lowered the
high-toned  inflammatory habit, which reiulted from the
exceffive ufe of animal food   In both cafes it has promo-
ted the health of the human race.
   In eftimating the benefits, that have  refulted to man-
kind from  the labors of  phyficians in the  18th cntury,
we mud extend our views far beyond the adniiniltration  of
medicine.   In  that eniightei.ed period, the air webieathe,
the aliment we confume,  the clothes we wear,  the paffions
and habits in which we indulge,  the pecu.iurities inciden-
tal to our profeffion,  age, an^i fi.uation ;  and in fhort eve-
ry circumfiance,  conneded  with  health  or  dnejle,  has
been the objed of medical  invefliga ion    The great tri-
umphs  obtained over the fmall  pox and  fcurvy, have not
been fo much from medicine, as  from  tie  application of
medical principles.   Who can tell the extent of the bene-
fits that haverefulted from  the pointed recommendation of
medical men in favor of cleanlineis ?  Attention  to this
matter,  we are informed by Buchan, has nearly extermina-
ted cutaneous dileafes from  all decent families in  Lriuin.
It has alfo extinguished the  germ of inh clion,  and of cm
 prevented  the ravages  of  pefiilence.   The writings  of
 this ufeful popular writer have, within the lad forty years,
 been read by thoufands, and enlightened them in the great
art of preferving health.
   In addition to feveral improved fyItems  of medicine,
and to the tieatifes already mentioned on the difeafes  of
feamen, and of  armies—the phyikiahs  of the 18th cen-
 tury have obliged the world with valuable publications  on
 the  difeafes of literary perions, oi tradefnitn, of pregnant
and puerperal women,  of  children, on  fevers of almoit
 every  fpecies, on the plague, on melancholy and ren-
 tal derangement, on A\c foi.ies of youtn, and the infirmi-
 ties of age.  They have treated largely cf al'ment, and
 minutely of the medical police of cities, and  on the means 
34
of obviating infedion and contagion.   They have lighted
up a blaze  of medical knowledge, by whicn a few dif-
cales  have  been nearly  confizmed;   fome deitroyed  in
their  embryo date;  others entirely  prevented; and all,
more or ieis, mitigated.   They have alfo feconded and
enforced the claims of our  holy  religion; for they have
deniondrated, from acknowledged  laws  of  the  animal
economy, that the cheerful hopes, which the dodrines of
the chridian religion inipire, and the vefiraints which  it
impofes (particularly its divine precepts enjoining the for-
giveneis of injuries) have a dired and pofitive influence in
promoting the health of the body, as  well as the purity of
the  mind.  On  the  whole,  medical  phiiofophy, in  its
late wide ranges, has effected a revolution in the habits of
men, and in the nature  and treatment of their difeafes,
which has eminently  conduced to the leffening  of human
mifery.
  In fupport of this affertion, I obferve, that-the plague, pef-
tilential  fevers,  putrid  fcurvies  and dyfenteries,  have
much abated in the 18th century.   This is true, in  the
great fcaie of enlightened nations,  though  the  general
prevalence of the yellow fever, in the  fea ports  of the
United states, for the lail feven  years, feems  to form  a
local exception.   Platerus, a phyfician at B^fil,  who lived
in  the 17th century,  gives an account of feven different
peflilential  fevers,- or pLgues,  which afftided that city
within ieventy years.  Baitnoline menaons five  that raged
 in  Denmark in the fame period.   In the city of London,
 in  the 14th century, (here were five; in the 1 5th, two; in the
 16th, feven; and in the 17th there were four.   The firft
 ot  t-iele began  in 16^3,  and continued more  or lefs every
 year, till  1011 ;  the itxond in  1625 ; tne third in 1636,
 and continued for  13 years;  and  the fourth in  1665.   In
 thefe lour  viiitations of  the plague, in the 17th century,
 the city of Lohdjn loll  13.3 985 perfons.  In York 11,000
 died of an epedemic fever in 1O91.   In the 18th century,
 nothing of the kind has taken place in  any part of Eng-
 land, and only one (and thatsSo years ago) in Marfeillesj
 which, in former centuries, ufed to behead quarters of the
 pl~gue.
                                                That 
                         35

  That this abatement of the  plague has, at leaft, in part*
been effeded by the fmiles  of Providence  on the modern
improvements,  fuggelled by  members  of  our  pro;effion,
may be inferred from this circumstance: that  Conflanti-
nople,  Aleppo, Grind Cairo,  and other places, on which
the fun of meaical philifophy has  never fhone, do now,
and throughout the i8thcentury,have fufFeredas muchfrom
the ravages of this difeafe, as they  had ever done before.
   If your patience is not already exhauited,, 1 beg your
indulgence for a few  minutes longer,  while I make fome
obfervations on the hiftory and date of medicine in our
own country.   A confiderable number of original writers,
or  of improvements  in  medicine,  cannot  reaionably  be
expeded  in thefe infant dates; feveral  of which are only
in  the fird century of their exiftence;  and none of which
have completed their fecond.  Neverthelefs  inoculation,
and the modern  fuccefsful methods of  treating the  fmall
pox, were as early, if not earlier introduced in America,
then in Great Britain.
   The revd. Dr. Cotton Mather recommended,  and Dr.
 Boyldon  (one of the anceftors of prefident Adams) prac-
 tifed inoculation in Bodon,  as early as the year 1720.
 Dr. Mather received  his fird impreffion, in favor of this
 pradice,  from a vol. of the tranfadions  of the Royal
 Society of London, which gave an account of inoculation,
 at Condantinople.  This he  fhewed to  Dr. Douglafs, who
 treated the propofal with ridicule.  He was more fuccefs-
 ful in his application to Dr.  Boylfion,  who began to in-
 oculate at the rilk, not only of his pradice, but even of
 his  life.   The friends and enemies of the pradice filled
 the news-papers  of  the  day,  with arguments  for and
 againft it.   The whole of the influence, which the learn-
 ing and  piety of the New-England  clergy  has always
 given  them,  was exerted ; and the whole of it  was necef-
 fary to induce their hearers to confent to inoculation.  1 he
 pradice, by  degrees,  extended  through   New-England,
 to New-York and Philadelphia,  and finally to Charledon,
 where it was partially adopted  in  173S,  and  afterwards
 became general in 1760.
    The earlieit publication in America, on a medical fub-
                                                jed, 
35
jed, which has come in  my  way,  was  a treatife on the
iliac p.iffion by the late  Dr.  C ;dwallader of Philadelphia*
printed about 60 years ago.  In this, the enlightened author
very ably  explodes the  then common pradice of giving
quickfilver, and dradic purges,  and recommends in their
place,  mi.d cathartics,  with the occafional ufe  of opiates.
About the fame time, Dr.  Tennant, of  Virginia,  wrote
a treatife on the pleurify, in which  he brought into public
view Xhe virtues of feneca fnake-root, which were before
unknown.   Dr  Colden  of New-York*  and Dr.  Ogden
of Long-lfland, at this  early  period,  favored the public
with  their obfervations on   a  fpecies  of fore  throat,
which  was then prevalent and mortal.   I have not been fo
happy as  to meet  with either of thefe performances, but
have heared a favorable account of  each of them.  There
are doubtlefs  feveral other  early  wliters in America,
but they have  not come to my knowledge.*
   At the  commencement of  our revolutionary  war, Dr.
John Jones of New  Yoik, one of the moil eminent  phy-«
fidans   nd furgeons that ever graced this country, publifh-
ed a work,  entitled " Plain  Remarks  on  Wcrnds  and
Fradures," addreffed to the dudents and  young pradition-
ers in America.   'I his  was particularly   defigned for the
benefit of  the furgeons in the army and  navy of the Uni-
ted States; and will long remain a  monument, both of the
profeffional fkili and patriotifin of its worthy author.
                                                  The
  * On this occa!ior>, I beg leave to point out to my fellow citizens,
th.* propriety of their collecting, in form- permanent place of depofue,
all fuch written or p hited letters, papers, Termors, pamphlets,  or
books,  as refie£t light on the hiftwry,  cufloms, manners or literature
of the  early fettler of this country;  From inattention to this mat-
ter many valuable documents are in danger of being lod to die com*
munity.  1 he Malfachufetts H-.ftorical fociety has been founded for
this exprefs purpofe, aad has been carried on with fo much zeal and
induftr  , as will entitle its memb rs  to the thanks of mar.y,  in un-
born generations;  who will do .btiefs be curious to trace the rife and
progrefs of our c lu/itry froin f.nall beginnings, t» great national im-
portance.  I ieriouily rjcomme  o1 to my countryme", either to fend
their co'leet ons to t'lis f-ciety,  or to erect one for fimilar purpofri
Lu'oi'Er  their re.fpcftive homes. 
o7
  The yellow fever, which for eight years paft, has infeft*
ed our feaport towns, has  given birth  to much medical
difcuffion ;  but as the writers on this fubjed are dill livings
any oblervations on th~m, at prefent, would  be premature*
  Fain would I point out to your  lecoiledion,  the many
valuable and important writings of  Dr. Rufh,  who has ref- .
cued America from the reproach of producing no original
writers.in medicine; but he lives, and iong may he live ne
pride and boafl of his country ;  and delay to a far didant
day, that celebration of his fame,  which is only decent
after the death of its fubjed. For the fame reafon, 1 mufl,
in filence,  pafs over the literary produdions  of  Dr  Mit-
chell of New-York.  If we may judge of the fullharveft,
by the firft fruits that have already  appeared in  his  early
youth,  we may confidently indulge the hope, that in the
progrefs of his valuable life, he  will largely contribute to
the growing fame of his country.
   Tne firft medical ledures,  in America  were given in
or about the year 1763, by Dr. Shippen, the prefent  pro-
feffor of anatomy and furgery  in the univerfity of Penn-
fylvania ; who had been prepared for  the able  difcharge
of this duty,  by  the celebiated Dr.  William* Hunter of
London. The trudees of the college of Philadelphia,  with
the venerable Franklin at their head, foon after enriched  their
inditution with the  ledures of  the enlightened  Morgan,
and of the judicious Kuhn, who had been a pupil of  Lin-
nams.   One was dill wanting to complete a fyftem of me-
dical education.  The  trudees turned their eyes to young
Rufh,  who had then fcarcely completed his apprenticeship,
and  they  encouraged him to profecute his  fludies in Eu-
rope, with the promifeof a profeffor's chair on his return.
With how much judgment and advantage this was done,
the noble ardor for medical improvements, which  he  pof-
feffes,  and with which he has the happy art  of  infpiring
his numerous  pupils,  affords  the  mod  ample  tedimony.
Whilft thefe young profeffors  were engaged in teaching
anatomy, furgery,  materia medica and chemiftry, the ve-
nerable Bond, then an old praditioner,  was appointed to
illudrate the pradice of phyfic,  by/chemical ledures 0:1 the
cafes of patients in  the Penniylvania hofpital,   Some of 
33
thefe original profeffors have been fucceeded by younger
men,  who are not inferior to their predeceflbrs ;  and pro-
mife to continue in the 19th century, that generous  am-
bition for medical diftindion which had began among Ame-
ricans in the 18th.   In fuch high eftimation are they held,
that their ledures are attended every feafon,  by  more than
loo medical dudents.
  Much praile is due to the trudees of the college of Phi-
ladelphia, who, at this early day, edablifhed the firft me-
dical inditution in'America,  and began to confer degrees,
while their country was a colony of Great Britain.   With
pleafure I add,  that fince we have been free  and indepen-
dent dates,  other medical eftablifhments have  been made in
New-Yoik.  Cambridge univerfity in  Maffachufetts, and
Dartmouth college in New-Hampfhire. In each of which
are  profeffors of  merit and talents.
  It refleds  no fmall honor on our young country,  which
Only began to be fettled  by civilized people  in the 171b
century, that at  the clofe of the  18th,  there are in it  fo
many medical fchools,  and in particular that in the three
adjoining flates of New-York, New-Jerfey  and Pennfy-         1
vania, within the difianee of 120 miles,  there  are three
profeffors of chemiftry,  Mitchell,  Maclean  and  Wood-
houfe ; who, for an accurate knowledge of   their depart-
ment, can bear  a comparifon  with the profeffors of  the
fame in the oldeft •ftminaries  of Europe.   The greateft
chemift of the world, has alfo fixed hisrefidence  among us,
and in the woods of Northumberland continues  thofe phi-
lofophical experiments which have done fo much honor to
the  18th century.
  Our country is now favored  with a periodical publica-
tion,  under  the'title of the Medical Repofitory,  which, in
addition  to many valuable original effays, chiefly from the
ingenious editors,  Drs. Mitcheli and Miller, brings to the
view of the American ftudent, all that is  new, ingenious,
or ufeful, in foreign publications, on the fubjed of medi-
cine, or  the arts conneded therewith.
  In the medical  hiftory  of south-Carolina, the  yellow
fever and fmall-pox have b^en the moft  injurious  epide-
mics.  My information relative to thefe two  difeafes, prior
                                                 to 
89
 to the year 1763, has been chiefly furnifhed by Dr. prio-
 Ieau,as colleded from the manufcripts of his accurate and
 obferving grandfather, the venerable Samuel Prioleau, ef-
 quire, who died in the year 1792, at the age of 74. From
 thefe, it appears, that in the year 169^, a difeale prevail-
 ed in Charledon, which fwept off a great part of the in-
 habitants,  and fome whoje families.   This was  then  cal-
 led the plague,  though afterwards fuppofed to  have, been
 the yellow fever.
   In the year 1732,  the  yellow fever began to  rage in
 May,  and  continued till Sept.  or Odober.  In the heighth
 of the diforder  there were from eight to  twelve whites
 buried in a day, befides people of colour.   The ringing
 of the bells was forbidden, and  little or no bufinefs  was
 done.  In the year 1739, the yellow fever raged  nearly as
 violently as in the year 1732 ; it was obferved 10 fall moft
 feverely on Europeans.  In 1745, and  174.9, itreturned,
 but with lefs violence ;  however,  many  young  people,
 modly Europeans, died of it. It appeared again in a few
 cafes,  in 1753,  and 1755,  but  did  not  fpread.  In all
 thefe viiitations,  it was generally fuppofed that the yellow
 fever was imported ; and  it was remarked, that it never
 fpread in the country,  though often carried  there  by in-
 feded perfons, who died  out  of, Charleiton,  after having
 caught the  difeafe in it.
  For forty-two  years after 1749, there was no  epidemic
 attack of this difeafe,  though there were occafionally, in
 different fummers, a few fporadic cafes of it.  In the year
 1792, a new aera of the yellow fever commenced.   It ra-
 g d in this city in that year, and alfo in  1794., 95, 96, 97,
 99. and  1800.   In thofe lad  feven vifitations of  this di-
 feafe,  it extended from July to November;  but was moft
 rife in Augud and September.   With  a very few excep-
 tions,  (chiefly children)  it exe'ufively fell on.ftrangers to
 the air of Charleiton,  and was in no  indance contagious.
 In the year. 1796 & 97, it raged wit its greateit violence. In
 the two lafl years it has confiderably abated. In the year 1799,
 the whole number of deaths from  it, was  239; and in i 800
no ihore  than 1 34 : but this decr^af d mortality  was part-
ly owing to the dccreafed number of ftrangers;  for fuch
                       F z                      were 
40
vere cautious of vifiting Charlefton in the warm months.
In 1 niiadeiphia, it began wi*h great  violence in the year
1793 ; and from that time to the prefent, it has been more
or iefs epidemic almoft every year in nearly all the feaports
of che United States.
   The years 1699, and 1717, are the dates of the two
firft attacks of the fmall  pox  in  Charledon.  In  both it
proved fatil to a confiderable proportion of the inhabitants.
It returned in 1732, but effectual care was taken to pre-
vent its fpreading.  In the year 1738 it was imported in
a Guinea fliip,  ard fpread fo  extenfively, that  there was
not a fufficiency of well perfons to  attend' the  fick,  and
many perifhed from negled and want.  There was fcarce-
ly a houfe in which there had  not been one or more deaths.
Dr Mowbray,  furgeon of a Britifh man  of  war, then in
the harbour, propofed inoculation; but the phyficians op-
posed it.   Col.  Btaie, who was informed  of the fuccefs
of inoculation in  Boflon, had his family inoculated.  Mr.
Philip rrioieau, was the  fird perfon in Charledon,  who
fubkdtted to the operation.   The  fuccefs which attended
thL firft experiment, encouraged  feveral others to follow
the example.   The difeafe foon after abated.
   About the beginning of the year 1760, the fmall-pox was
difcovered in the houie  of a pilot, on White Point—guards
were placed round the houfe,  and every precaution taken
to prevent the fpreading of the difeafe, but in vain.  When
thi perfons, fir it  infeded at  White  Point,  where  either
dead, or well,  the houfe in which  they had  lain, was or-
dered  to  be cieanfed.  In doing this, a great fmoke was
made, which being carried by an  eafterly  wind,  propa-
gated the difeafe  extenfively to the wedward, in the  line
©f the fmoke.  inoculation was refolved upon, and became
general.   Fifteen hundred  perfons are faid  to  have been
inoculated in one day > but it is alfo faid that 500 of thefe
died.  This mortality, though great,  was comparatively
lefs than what had taken place in the year 1738.
   in the year  5763, the lmall-pox again became epidem-
ic; but as there were few to have it, and inoculation was
genera ly  adopted, its  ravages were not extenfive—For
J7 years after the year 1763, the  fmaU-pox was feldqm
                                                 or 
4*
or never heard of.   During the fiege of  Charledon, it
was introduced, and immediately after the  furrender of
the town, on the 12th of wlay,  1780, a general inocula-
tion took place.  As the cool regimen was then unive. Tal-
ly adopted, the difeafe pahed over without  any confider-
able lofs or inconvenience.   Since that time, no pains have
been taken to exclude the fmall-pox.  To inoculate for it,
is a thing of courfe, and the difeafe has ceafed to  be for-
midable.
   For 80 or 90 years after the fird fettlement of  South-
Carolina, the pradice of phyfic was almoft entirely in the
hands  of Europeans:  among  thefe  were  feveral able
phyficians, who poffeffed an  accurate knowledge  of the
difeafes of our  country.   In this clafs, Dr. Moultrie, the
elder,  was eminently  diftinguifhed.   He died 28 years
ago, after having been  at the head of  his  profeffion for
more than forty years.  He was the  idol of his patients.
They who had him once, could not be fatisfied, in  cafe of
need, without having him again.  So great was the confi-
dence repofed in his judgment, that  they who were ufual-
ly attended by  him, preferred his advice and affidance, even
on the fedive evening of St.  Andrew's day,  to  that  of any
other profeflional man,  in his mod colleded moments.  He
poffeffed excellent talents for obfervation, and was wonder-
fully fagacious  in finding  out the hidden caufes of difeafes,
and adapting remedies for their  removal.   His death  was
regretted as a great public calamity; feveral of the  ladies
of Charledon bedewed  his grave with  their tears,  and
went into mourning on the  occafion.  The year after his
deceafe was didinguiflied by the  deaths of feveral  women
in child birth.   Whi'e he lived  they  thought themfelves
fecure   of the bed affidance  in the  povver of man,  or  of
art, in cafe of extremity.  In lofing him,  they lod their
hopes.  Deprelfing fears funk their fpirits,  and in  an un-
ufual number of cafes, produced fatal confequences.
  In that early  period of American medical  hidory, which
was  before  Dr. Rufh  began his brilliant  career,  as an
author, there were more  experiments made,  more obfer-
vations  recorded, and more  medical writings ufhered into
•ublic view, by the phyficians of Charleiton, than  of an/
                                              other 
4*
other part of the American continent.  Dr. John Lining*
of this city,  favored the public with a feries of judicious
ftatical experiments, perfeveringly conduded through the
whole of the  year 1740.   He was one of the firit experi-
menters in the novel fubjed of eledricity, with which he
became acquainted, in correfponding with Dr. Franklin,
foon after the difcoveries of that celebrated  man had af-
tonifhed the philofophers of both the old  and new-hemif-
phere.  Dr. Lining alfo,  in the year 1753, publifhed an
accurate hiftory of the American yellow fever,  which was
the firft that had been given to the public from our con-
tinent,                                    s
   Dr. Lionel Chalmers made, and recorded obfervations
on the weather, for ten fucceffive years, that is from 1750
to 1760.  The fame able phyfician, furniihed a particular
account of the opifthotonus, and tetanus,  which was com-
municated to the Medical  Society, in London, in the year
17 C4, and afterwards publifhed in the firft volume of their
traniadions.   He alfo  prepared for  the prefs  an ac-
count  of  the weather  and difeafes  of  South-Carolina,
which was publifhed in London, in the year 1776; but his
mod valuable work, was  an effay on fevers, printed in
Charlefton, in tne year  1767.   In this  he unfolded the
outlines of the modern fpafmodic theory of fevers.  Hoff-
man had before glanced at the fame principles; but their
compleat iliudradon was refervedfor  Cullen, and laid the
foundation of his fame.
   Dr. Garden, about the year 1764, gave to the  public
an account of the virtues  of pink-root,  and at the lame
time gave a botanical defcription of the plant.  This truly
fcientific phyfician was much devoted to the dudy of na-
tural hidory,  and particularly of botany, and made fun-
dry communications on  thofe fubjeds to his philofophical
friends in Europe.
   In  compliment to him the greated botanift of the age,
gave the name of Gardenia to  one of the moft beautiful
flowering fhrubsjn the world.
   William Bull was the  firft native of South Carolina, who
obtained a deg.ee in medicine.   He had  been a  pupil of
Loerhaave ; and in die year 1734 defended a thefis " De
                                             Colica 
43
Cotfca Pidonum," before the univerfity of Leyden.  He
is quoted by VanSwieten, as his fellow ftudent, with the
title of the learned Dr. Bull.
   John Moultrie  was the firft Carolinian who obtained a
medical degree from the univerfity of Edinburgh,  where
in the year 1749, he defended a thefis " De Febre Flava."
Between the years 1768 and  1778, ten more natives ob-
tained the fame honor.  Three of thefe, viz. Drs.  Fayffoux,
Harris and Chanler, have been prefidents of our fociety.
   Since the revolutionary war, ths number of native flu-
dents has very much increafed.   Among  them are  feveral
young  men of great hopes   If we may judge of their
prolelfional flcill,  by the fpecimens they have already given,
we may augur well to our country.  It is no inconfidera-
ble evidence of the increafing profperity of South-Carolina,
and of the progrefs of medical knowledge therein,  that at
 the clofe of the  18th century, in the fpace of four  years,
 fifteen  of its  native fons, viz. Johnfon,  Alfton  Huger,
 North, Prioleau, Brailsford, Bellinger, Akin, Baron,Gough,
 Glover, Hunfcombe, Screven,  Smith and Tidyman, have
 been admitted to the degree  of  dodors  of  medicine,
 which is treble the number of all the Carolinians,^ who had
 attained that honor 32 years ago, at the expiration of one
 hundred years from the firft fettlementof the province,  in
 1669.   In  that  long  period  of our infancy,  the  whole
 number of native graduates, was  only  five, viz.  Bull,
 Moultrie, Chanler, Caw,  and Fayffoux.
   From a review of all that has been faid, we have reafon
 to congratulate  ourfelves, that we were born in this  en-
 lightened period.  The age of inveftigation, of philofo-
 phy,  and of  medicine.
   While we bidadieutothe 18th century, we cannot but  re-
 Colled its rrany  triumphs.  In it the human race have been
 more fafely ufhered into life, and in their paffage through
 it, many of their unavoidable fufferingshave been confider-
 ably  leffened.   In it every branch of  medical  knowledge
 h« been carried  to an amazing extent.   Every department
 of the healing art has been improved.   The chances  for
 health and life have been enlarged.   The avenues to death
 have  been  coatraded.   The  deaf have been  taught
                                                  to 
44
to  undcrftand—the  dumb  to  converfe,  the  blind  t&
fee, and the apparently dead have been raifed to life.  We
may reafonably indulge an honeft pride, for having been
bred to fo ufeful a profeffion, and for  being members  of
fo reipedable a fraternity.   Among the praditioners of
medicine,  in the 18th century, are  to  be  numbered,
feveral of the greateft,  wifeit and bed of men, who have
been the ornaments of human nature, and the benefadors
of mankind.   In  fupport  of this affertion, 1 need only
call your attention to the  names  of Boerhaave, Ruyfch,
Haller, Monro, Chefelden, Floffman, Heiiter, Mead, Petit,
Sloane.Morgagni,  Pringle, Cullen, Gregory, Hunter, Fo-
thergill,  Tronchin, Pott,  Warren, and many others, who
were the lights of the world, and men of the mod exten-
five erudition, and unbounded philanthropy;   who fpent
their lives in  acquiring  and diffufing a  knowledge of the
means of prolonging life, preferving health, and leffening
human miiery.
  In ourownftate, what ancient inhabitant of Carolina, who
has not heard the names of Lining,  Moultrie, Chalmers,
and Garden,  mentioned with the greateft refped, as gen-
tlemen and phyficians of the  firft charader for ufefulnefs
and refpedability.  Since the eftabiifhment of our fociety,
we have been witneffes of the great profeffional merit, and
the high place in  the hearts of our  citizens, which was
held by Turnbull and Fayffoux; and of the high  expec-
tations which were formed  from the youthful merit of Bar*
tram and Lehre.
  We have this day entered on a new century—on  io
fingular an occafion,  the firft, the laft,  and the only one
we  ever have feen, or ever fhall fee, let me urge  you  to
fuffer no  opportunity to efcape of adding to the common
fund of medical knowledge.   The plan of improving our
profeffion,  by obfervation and indudion,  which has ren-
dered the names of Hippocrates and Sydenham fo famous
in medical hiftory, is as open to us, as it was  to them.
Poor  was the flock,  to which our forefathers  fucceeded
at the commencement of the 18th century, compared with
that which devolves on us, on this the firft day of the 19th.
Let thofe who follow us in the 20th, have as much reafoa
                                                 to 
45
to refpect our memories, as we have to venerate thofe who
havegone before us.   Our climate is  too warm for anato-
mical  purfuits;  but its natural  hiftory is yet unexplored,
and prefents an ample  field for invedigation.  The ftudie$
of botany  and chemiitry  are particu arly ufeful  in  our
new country.   Without  a knowledge of their principles,
we will remain unacquainted with half the riches and re-
fources we poflefs, in our vegetables,  and minerals. Little
has been done among us, in this  way, fince the days of
Garden  and  Walter.  Let  us  refurr.e  the  fubjed,  an<j[
profecute it with increafing ardor.   Our fmall freehold,
the gift of the widow of the amiable  D . Savage,  is very
fuitable for, and may  be conveniently improved as a gar-
den,  in which may be drawn together fpecimens of all the
ufeful vegetables of our own country, and  fuch domefti-
cated as are of foreign growth,  and accord  with our cli-
mate.   I know,  but one native tree, and only four na-
tive plants,  the  virtues of which  have been  thoroughly
inveftigated in the United States.   I mean the perfimon
tree, by Dr.  Woodhoufe; the  phytolacca,  or  poke,  by
Dr. Shultz;   the  ftramonium,  or James-town weed, by
Dr. Cooper;  the fumach, by  Dr. Horfefield j and to-
bacco, by Dr. Brailsford.
   The value of rice,  though the fource  of  our wealth,
is but partially known; an accurate analyfis  of it, and a
feries of  well  condaded experiments thereon, would raife
it in the eftimation of mankind*. Nothing grows in vain;
but we have yet found out the ufes of only a  fmall part.
No difeafe is  incurable,  though there are feveral  which
phyficians have been hitherto unable to cure   Sixteen cen-
turies of the chriftian aera had elapfed before the circula-
tion of the blood was known.  It is within the laft thirty
years,  that the celebrated Prieftly difcovered  the conftitu-
ent parts of the air, in which we, and our anceftors,  liv-
ed and breathed,  without knowing any thing of its com-
pofition j and it  is much  lefs fince it  has been difcovered,
r                          G                    that
  * When this was written.  Dr.  TidynWs ingenious inaugural
differtation " De Oryza Satina," had not made its appearance tM
Charlcfton, though printed in Europe a few month* before. 
46
that thefe conftituent parts of common air, when detached,
are among the moft powerful agents in nature.   Who can
tell what new difcoveries are at hand, which  may  intro-
duce a new sra in medicine, and make the cure of thofe
difeafes pradicable,  which now baffle all our fkill  ? You
all know the immenfe difference between what the fmall-
pox and fcurvy now are, and what they  were in the  firft
haif of the 18th century.   The detedion of fome new law
of the animal economy —of fome new principle in medi-
cine --of fome new remedy, or of new virtues in old ones,
may produce equal relief to fuffering humaniiy ;  in fome,
perhaps in all thofe difeafes, which are now  the reproach
of our art.   Wonders have already been effeded by digi-
talis, by fixed and by vital  airs ; and many  experiments
are now making to afcertain  their precife effeds.  Whe-
ther it lhall fall to the lot of any of us, by thefe, or by
other means, to enrich our profeffion, by new and beneficial
diicoveries, is only known to that Being, who is the giver
of wiidom, and who knows all things;   but  to promote
the happinefs of our  fellow-citizens, by the knowledge
which we now poffefs, is in the power of us all.
   Coeval with the inftitution of our fociety, was an  offer
on our part, to eflablifh a difpenfary for the  gratuitous
relief of* fuch of the inhabitants, in their own houfes,  as
 were unable to pay medical bills,  though  competent  to
maintain themfelves.  This propofition fell through, at that
 time, becaufe  from the  embarraffed  fituatioh of  the in-
habitants,  a fufficient number did not offer to fubfcribe,
 for defraying  the  expences of an apothecary's fhop,  at
 which the prefcriptions of the phyficians fhould be made
 up    Our ficuation is now fo  much altered for the better,
 that I truft, what could not then be done, might  now  be
 eafily  effeded-  Let us do honor to the new  century by
 immediately  renewing  the propofition-  £s  an induce-
 ment to its acceptance, the citizens may be informed, that
 the annual expence  of the inftitution,  wouid  not exceed
 two hundred pounds, and it  is probable that  fo  fmall a
 fum could  in  no other  way relieve fo  great a portion  of
 human mifery.
    Moft of us are  inhabitants of a city,  the  police  of
                                               which 
47
which needs much reformation.   Let fuch of our members,
as may be decently invited to feats in the city council, not
refufe them,  but cheerfully join in  aiding to introduce
faca regulations,  as may promote the health of the city.
Let us oppofe our whoie weight to the avarice of  the  ia-
hub\tants, who  to increafe their income, would fubdivide
hits, and croud houfi to houfe,  to the exclufion  of frefh
air.  Since the  great,  fire' in  1666,  which burnt 13,000
houfes in London, there has been no  plague in that city.
This is with good reafon fuppofed  to  be the effecl cf an
enlightened policy, adopted immediately after that event,
for widening the  ftreet^, and  rebuilding  the city on an
improved plan,  and keeping it conftantly   clean.   Their
fuccefs fliould flimuiate us to follow fo good an example.
Let us,  in our reipedive fpheres, give all  poffibie encou-
ragement to  the fupplying of  Charledon with wholefome
waiter, and with pure air ; and of removing from it every
nuifance that might be the fource of difeafe.   We fhall
thus ad worthy of the profeffion of medicine, the objed
of which is not to aceumulate wealth, but  to promote  the
healtn and happinefs of the human race.
   May  this fociety continue to flourifh for centuries to
come, till time fhall be no more.   In particular,  may  my
prefent feeble attempt to call to your  recolledion,  the im-
provements which have  been made  in our profeffion, in
the century which ended lafl night, be far  exceeded by an
abler member, who on this day hundred  years will,  as I
truit and hope, better entertain the  Medical  Society of
South-Carolina, with  greater  improvements,  and more
brilliant difcoveries made by you, your cotemporaries and
fucceflbrs, in the century which began this morning.

                     z£av-iJ, <ytam<ia 1/..
                                            /7
January I, 1801.
 
 
  ★ ★ ARMY * *
MEDICAL LIBRARY
j n___,1.
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