Medicine
Medicine in the Age of Enlightenment was a mixture of supposition, superstition, and observation. Many doctors embraced the scientific method as it developed in this era—particularly David Hume’s insistence that causes and effects can be connected only through repeated observation and not from reason alone; others persisted in medieval beliefs, such as the “miasma theory” that disease is caused by “bad air.”
A difficulty for those trying to empirically determine causes of disease was that “germ theory” (microbes cause communicable infections) had not been established. So even physicians using scientific principles were misled by experience to believe that ineffective treatments were of use, as patients sometimes recovered despite being bled or blistered.
The Lapidus collection includes works on disease and medicine, with a particular focus on the epidemic of yellow fever that struck the United States in 1793. Many of them are at the New York University Health Sciences Library.
Unless otherwise indicated (§), all items on exhibit are from the Sid Lapidus '59 Collection on Liberty and the American Revolution, Princeton University Library. All items on loan from other libraries are gifts of Sid Lapidus.
The Married Woman's Private Medical Companion, 1847
Charles Lohman (1809–1877), writing as A.M. Mauriceau
New York: Publisher unknown
In the 19th century, advocates for women’s control over reproduction provided guidance for using partially effective contraceptive or abortifacient devices and concoctions. A.M. Mauriceau was a pseudonym of Charles Lohman, whose wife Anna (called Madame Restell) operated an abortion clinic and mail-order contraceptive business in New York. Here, he uses the language of natural rights to advocate that women should be empowered to choose the size of their families.
On loan from The New York Historical, New York.
An Historical Account of the Climates and Diseases of the United States of America: And of the Remedies and Methods of Treatment, 1792
William Currie (1754–1828)
Philadelphia: Printed by Thomas Dobson
William Currie was a Philadelphia doctor who correctly understood that “climate and situation have a remarkable influence upon… health”; in this book, he used his “actual experience” to catalog which disease occurred most in certain weather conditions. However, his idea that the weather caused disease was incorrect. He observed the correlation between warm weather near standing water and various fevers. Today, scientists attribute the presence of disease near standing water to the fact that mosquitoes which spread disease breed in standing water.
Courtesy of the Lillian & Clarence de la Chapelle Medical Archives of NYU Health Sciences Library
History of the Pestilence, Commonly Called Yellow Fever, Which Almost Desolated Philadelphia, in the Months of August, September & October, 1798, 1799
Thomas Condie (about 1775–1814) and Richard Folwell (about 1768–1814)
Philadelphia: From the press of Richard Folwell
In 1793, yellow fever struck Philadelphia, killing around 10% of the population. The Lapidus collection has several books in which witnesses attempt to understand the causes of and treatments for the disease. Thomas Condie and Richard Folwell were in the book trade, not physicians; in this book they offer no hypotheses, but do note an abnormally large number of mosquitos in the spring before the epidemic broke out.
Courtesy of the Lillian & Clarence de la Chapelle Medical Archives of NYU Health Sciences Library
An Account of the Bilious Remitting Yellow Fever, as It Appeared in the City of Philadelphia, in the Year 1793, 1794
Benjamin Rush (1746–1813) - Princeton University Class of 1760
Philadelphia: Printed by Thomas Dobson
Benjamin Rush was the most famous doctor in America. During the yellow fever epidemic of 1793, he believed it was caused by hot weather and unsuccessfully treated patients by cooling them. He tried bloodletting on a patient who recovered. Rush proclaimed the effectiveness of letting out as much as four-fifths of a patient’s blood to treat various maladies, and his influence showed in medical practice for many decades until it was discontinued in the late 1800s.
Courtesy of the Lillian & Clarence de la Chapelle Medical Archives of NYU Health Sciences Library
A Collection of Papers on the Subject of Bilious Fevers, Prevalent in the United States for a Few Years Past, 1796
Noah Webster (1758–1843)
New York: Printed by Hopkins, Webb and Co.
Although famed as a lexicographer, Noah Webster was knowledgeable in several areas of study and began the systematic exploration of epidemiology in the United States. As part of his efforts, he solicited reports about yellow fever (also called “bilious fever”) from around the country, and published selections in this volume. Here, Webster deduces the fact that stagnant water is associated with the spread of disease—but also asserts that foul air is a factor in contagion.
Courtesy of the Lillian & Clarence de la Chapelle Medical Archives of NYU Health Sciences Library
Observations upon the Origin of the Malignant Bilious, or Yellow Fever in Philadelphia, and upon the Means of Preventing It: Addressed to the Citizens of Philadelphia, 1799
Benjamin Rush (1746–1813) - Princeton University Class of 1760
Philadelphia: Printed by Budd and Bartram, for Thomas Dobson
Among those analyzing the causes of the yellow fever epidemic was Benjamin Rush, who trained a great number of doctors who were active into the 19th century. Here, he correctly observes that the disease “is not controuled by the obvious changes in the weather,” but persists in the belief that yellow fever is spread by the “breath, perspiration, and other excretions” of the patient.
Courtesy of the Lillian & Clarence de la Chapelle Medical Archives of NYU Health Sciences Library
An Account of the Epidemic Fever Which Prevailed in the City of New York, during Part of the Summer and Fall of 1795, 1796
Richard Bayley (1745–1801)
New York: Printed and sold by Thomas and James Swords
Bayley was a prominent physician in New York, where yellow fever struck in 1795. His investigation convinced him that it was caused by “noxious vapors” arising from rotting garbage and animal carcasses. He was a leader in establishing quarantine laws in the city; the practice is ineffective against yellow fever, which is a viral disease spread by mosquito bites.
Courtesy of the Lillian & Clarence de la Chapelle Medical Archives of NYU Health Sciences Library
A Discourse, Delivered on the 26th of November, 1795: Being the Day Recommended by the Governor of the State of New-York to Be Observed as a Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer, on Account of the Removal of an Epidemic Fever, and for Other National Blessings, 1795
William Linn (1752–1808) - Princeton University Class of 1772
New York: Printed by Thomas and James Swords
Despite ship quarantines established after the 1793 epidemic in Philadelphia, yellow fever came to New York in 1795. While it remained endemic until 1803, the first wave passed with a much smaller death toll than in Philadelphia. William Linn, a Dutch Reformed Church minister, preached the sermon of thanksgiving, shown above, that compared diminution of the epidemic with the end of the Revolutionary War, as a source of relief to a terrified population.
Apothecary’s traveling medicine case, 19th century §
London: Sold by Savory & Moore
Leather and brass
Physicians worked closely with apothecaries, who dispensed medicines—some which were effective, others which were in fact poisonous. This case was made for an English apothecary in the 1800s and contains small bottles to hold chemicals and minerals, scales and weights for precise measurement of quantities, and a palette knife and mixer used to compound medicines. Folded within the case was a paper containing a recipe for one patient’s prescription.
A Laudable Partnership or Souls and Bodies, Cured without Loss of Time, 1795 §
London: Published by S. W. Fores
Etching
Physicians were adamant about separating their profession from that of “quacks”—uneducated persons who sold remedies or offered healing services that were not founded in the scientific knowledge of the era. This anonymous print satirizes such salesmen along with preachers (in this case, probably a Nonconformist who was not ordained in the Church of England), implying that each of their offerings was of equal value as “The Cheapest Booth in the Fair.”
The Doctor Dismissing Death, 1785 §
Thomas Rowlandson (1756–1827), engraving by Peter Simon (1750–1810), aquatint by Francis Jukes (1747–1812)
London: Published by J. R. Smith
Aquatint
Thomas Rowlandson, who portrayed everyday English life in thousands of popular prints, designed this metaphorical image of a physician warding off the personification of Death (shown as a skeleton) with an enema. Death’s would-be victim holds his spoon in a defensive posture.
Doctor Botherum. The Mountebank, 1800 §
Thomas Rowlandson (1756–1827)
London: Published by Rudolph Ackermann
Aquatint
Rowlandson depicts a traveling salesman at a county fair—dressed finely and selling his “miraculous pills” that “restore old age to youth” with the aid of two assistants, “Merry Andrew” and “Black Pudding.” In the meantime, another of his entourage pulls the teeth of an ailing patient. While some of the onlookers appear to be entranced by Doctor Botherum, others drink, eat, court, and engage in other business.
Portrait of Benjamin Rush, 1842 §
Charles Balthazar Julien Fevret de Saint-Mémin (1770–1852)
Mezzotint with engraving
Between 1793 and 1814, the portraitist Charles Saint-Mémin lived in the United States and used the mechanically assisted artistic technique of physiognotrace to create images of notable Americans, including the Philadelphia physician Benjamin Rush. Physiognotrace is produced by running a wooden bar over the face of the person being portrayed. The bar is attached to an engraving needle which marks the images onto a steel plate, from which prints are made. In 1842, Saint-Mémin gathered a number of his portraits into this manuscript, which he titled Gagne-pain d'un exilé aux États-Unis d'Amerique de 1793 à 1814 (The Livelihood of an Exile in the United States of America from 1793 to 1814.)
Color plates from Observations sur la fièvre jaune, faites à Cadix, en 1819 (Observations on Yellow Fever, Made in Cadiz, in 1819), 1820
Charles Philibert de Lasteyrie (1759–1849)
Lithograph
Yellow fever is a fatal infectious disease which occurred in epidemics in New York and Philadelphia in 1793, and elsewhere around the world throughout the 19th century. It was brought under control after it was discovered that the disease is spread by mosquitoes, and techniques of “vector control” such as draining standing water were implemented. Yellow fever causes liver damage and jaundice, releasing yellow pigments to the victim’s skin and eyes. Two French physicians, Etienne Pariset (1770–1847) and Andre Mazet (1793–1821), treated patients during an outbreak in Cadiz, Spain, in 1819, and wrote their observations of the affliction. The illustrations for the book, reproduced here, demonstrate the progression of the disease in a patient, which starts with flu-like symptoms and progresses to abdominal pain and bleeding from the mouth, nose, eyes, and gastrointestinal tract.
Reproduced from the Wellcome Collection, London.
