IN rising to address you on the present occasions my feelings impel me to a two-fold acknowledgment—An acknowledgment for the unexpected honour, with which I have been distinguished, in your appointing me to prepare and deliver the first of the semiannual addresses enjoined by our constitution; and a most cordial acknowledgment for the liberal indulgence, which I experienced from you, on a former occasion, when indisposition interfered, and, by frus­trating my attempt to comply with my engagement, dis­appointed, for the time, the expectations of the Academy.

Would that I could suffer my exordium to terminate here! But circumstances forbid that this should be the case. The pleasure of acknowledgment I must now exchange for the task of apology.

[Page 14]In behalf of the following performance, I would address my­self, not to that rigid, unaccommodating justice in criticism, which I have reason to believe most of you have at com­mand, but to that forbearance and clemency, of which, I, am well assured, you are all possessed. I must solicit you to extend to the subsequent oration, some share of that par­tiality, with which, on various occasions, you have honour­ed the Orator. Let me not be disappointed in flattering myself, that the usual benevolence of your natures will throw, at least, some shadow of palliation over such faults as the clearness of your understandings will inevitably dis­cover, and the justness of your sentiments oblige you to condemn.

Suffer it to operate in mitigation of your impending sen­tence, when I assure you, that the following address was prepared and numerous avocations, of a nature more than usually unfavourable to success in composition. But satis­fied that I have more—much more, to expect from the in­genuous liberality of your minds, than from the humble me­rit of my own defence, I will no longer address you in the language of apology. Part of the imperfections of the ora­tion I am about to deliver, arise no less from want of abilities, than from want of leisure. A portion of the censure must, therefore, in justice, rest on yourselves, for not having been more circumspect in your choice of an orator.

It was my intention to have paid in this place, a passing tri­bute to the memory of our two deceased friends and fellow-members, Dr. Sayre and Dr. Cooper. I had even prepared [Page 15] myself for the discharge of this mournful duty. Impressed by respect for the talents and learning, and by sentiments of esteem and friendship for the numerous virtues of those two medical philosophers, I was unwilling to neglect so fair an opportunity of expressing my sense of their distin­guished worth. Being superceded however, in this duty, by a very judicious and respectful appointment of the Academy, for the express purpose of doing justice to their memories, I shall pass in silence over the melancholy subject. But when the name of Cooper, in particular, is mentioned, to suffer oblivious silence to usurp the place of descriptive and just eulogium, is, with me, no inconsiderable effort of self-restraint. On such an occasion my feelings would prompt me to a far different conduct. As I have ever ranked the acquisition of the friendship of this gentleman among the most fortunate occurrences of my life, it will not be thought strange, that I should feel an inclination to contri­bute my mite to the immense treasure of respect, which his numerous acquaintance will pay to his memory. But an indulgence of my feelings on this occasion, would lead to an unwarrantable digression from what I propose as the im­mediate subject of my address.

Instead of attempting, therefore, to cherish in your breasts a kind, but unavailing sorrow for the dead, allow me to solicit your attention to a few general observations relative to the origin of pestilential diseases. I shall after­wards confine my remarks and speculations more immedi­ately to the origin of that disease, whose ravages and con­comitant [Page 16] terrors, have thrice, of late, reduced the gay and crouded streets of our city to a dismal scene of desolation and solitude.

As my subject is, evidently, very extensive and copious, should I even engross a little more of your time than you at present anticipate, I hope you will bear, with a patient indulgence, the unintentional but unavoidable trespass.

It is, in this place, worthy of remark, that Pestilence has been, at all times, treated by the world, as an illigiti­mate child, without an acknowledged parent—in other words, as a plant perfectly exotic as to every inhabited soil and climate—or as a physical evil, existing in almost every region, yet (strange inconsistency!) originating in none!

It is a fact not more singular than true, that, there is not to be found in the whole range of the globe, a single country, which is acknowledged by its own inhabitants, to be the immediate birth-place of pestilence. When this dreadful scourge makes its appearance in any place, howe­ver favourable, from climate and local causes, to its domes­tic generation, its existence never fails to be attributed [...]i­to introduction by land, or importation by sea, from some foreign country. As it, for the most part, appears first in large commercial cities, the latter of these is most com­monly considered as the channel of its conveyance. Hence the evils of pestilence have been generally charged to the account of commerce. Thus, when the plague prevails in [Page 17] any part of Europe, it is uniformly asserted to have been imported in merchandize from Asia. When it breaks out in the latter place, where it not unfrequently depopu­lates towns and villages, and, occasionally, lays even whole countries waste, it is always traced, or what, with the in­dolent and unthinking natives, amounts to the same thing, is supposed to be traced to some communication with the continent of Africa. But the hardy sons of this burning climate, spurn, with indignation, what they consider not on­ly as an insult to the healthfulness, but also as an injury to the prosperity of their country, and contend, that the plague is never generated with them, but is always intro­duced from some distant quarter. Nor is this obstinate spirit of reluctance in the human race to admit pestilence to be a native of the same soil and climate with themselves, confined to the continent of the old world. But five years ago, the same thing might have been said with respect to most of the inhabitants of the United States. Few of them could then be induced to believe, that the western shores of the Atlantic could possibly give birth to a pesti­lential disease. They seemed to suppose, that a physical evil of such a magnitude, must necessarily be the growth of a foregn climate, not so highly favoured by heaven as their own.

To you, Gentlemen, it is scarcely necessary for me to observe, that this unwillingness in mankind to acknowledge pestilence to be a native of the same country with them­selves, should be viewed as an inveterate prejudice, sup­ported, [Page 18] like all other prejudices, by the two gothic pillars of ignorance and error. It requires no uncommon depth of logic to prove, that pestilential diseases, having an exis­tence, must have also a place of origin; and, that this place, must be in some of the inhabited parts of the earth. But so extraordinary and absurd is the prejudice, of which I have spoken, that it literally denies these diseases to have originated in any place. Taking the sentiments of man­kind, on this subject, for our guide, we would find a search after the real birth-place of pestilence equally abortive with the poet's search after the North, which he so energetically represents in the following lines.

So it is with respect to the birth-place of pestilence. In America it is in the West-Indies; in the West-Indies, it is, at one time, at Siam in the East-Indies; and again at Boulam in Africa; while, at these places, it is still farther to the east as if the rising was capable of exalting the poison of putrefaction to higher malignity than even the mid-day sun. Were not the subject too serious to be treated as a jest, I would farther say, that this singular absurdity, in most men, with respect to the birth-place of pestilence, brings to my recollection the humourous story of Goldsmith's pauper, who, in quest of the real or acknowledged place of his birth, [Page 19] (the place where, by the municipal regulations of his coun­try, he was entitled to a subsistance for life,) was carted about from parish to parish, till, to use the poor fellow's own words, he "thought in his soul, they would not al­low that he had been born in any parish at all."

Let us, for a moment, trace this prejudice through all its windings to its fountain head. It springs from the bosom of self-love. This real though secret principle of all our sentiments, opinions, and actions, will not suffer us to admit, that we ourselves can be the source of any thing evil, or of any thing disastrous. From ourselves we are inclined to extend this favourable opinion to our friends, acquaintance, and countrymen; and from them, to the air which we breathe, the soil which gave us birth, and even to the waters which variegate the landscapes that surround us. The same selfish principles—the same contracted spi­rit, which led the reprobate Jews of old to exclaim, "Can any thing good come out of Galilee" induces the more fa­voured, but, in some respects, not much more enlightened, moderns to ask, can any thing evil originate in our beloved country?

This prejudice, respecting the origin of pestilential dis­eases, derives no inconsiderable support from the operation of a [...] but powerful principle of self-interest. We are apprehensive, that should our country be characterized as the birth-place of pestilence, such an opinion would [Page 20] prove injurious to its population and prosperity, and that, consequently our interests as individuals must suffer. This however, is a mistaken fear. General truth and general utility are sworn friends, and inseparable companions. Nor are they more so, in any instance, than in that which claims our present attention. The same enlightened views in sci­ence which declare, that pestilence may originate among ourselves, afford us, at the same time, the most firm and consolatory assurance, that we have in our own hands the means of prevention and safety. Nor is this our only con­solation. Were physical truth, on this subject, fully evolv­ed, it would set most, if not all countries and climates, nearly on a level with respect to the origin of pestilential diseases. For I am persuaded that there exists not a spot on the surface of the globe, which may not, under certain, circumstances, become capable of giving birth to these wasteful epidemics.

I beg it may not, from the foregoing observations, be understood, that I mean, on the subject of the origin of pestilential diseases, to accuse the whole human race of ig­norance and error. Far from it—There have, at all times, existed many distinguished instances of exemption from such a charge. There have, in all ages, and in all countries, existed men, who, in opposition to an overbearing torrent of popular prejudice and indignation, have boldly main­tained the diseases in question to have been the offspring of the places where they have spread desolation.

[Page 21]This is well known to have been formerly the case, in London and Marseilles, during the unparalelled calamities inflicted by pestilence on those two ancient and populous cities. Nor was it of late, less remarkably the case in dif­ferent parts of the United States, but more particularly in the city of Philadelphia. When the Yellow Fever (which might with more propriety have been denominated the A­merican pestilence) made its appearance in this city in the autumn of ninety three, to have said that it was a disease of domestic origin, was considered as an unfounded slander on our climate, and the man, who dared to advocate such an opinion, was viewed in the light of an enemy to his coun­try. Almost every mind was then big with the idea of importation, and almost every eye fixe [...] on a tropical region, as the only place capable of giving birth to such an irre­sistable malady. To this blindfold state of the public mind, there fortunately existed some degree of exception. Amid the general gloom of ignorance and error, by which we were overshadowed, there appeared, even then, a few twink­ling stars, the joyous harbingers of a brighter day. The dawn of that day has already reached us, and we have eve­ry reason to believe, that we will very shortly be wrapt in its full meridian.

The opinion, that our late epidemic must be necessarily imported to us from a tropical climate, will soon become as unpopular as it was once extensive. Already is it greatly circumscribed in its limits—Already is it confined almost entirely to those, who were originally active and clamorous [Page 22] in its support. By such characters we are not to expect that it will be immediately abandoned. They have already pledged themselves to the world for its support, and consi­der, therefore, its fate as in some measure interwoven with the fate of their own characters, as philosophers in medi­cine. Like a parent, with all his tenderness awakened by the approaching dissolution of a beloved child, they will cling to it with the greater fondness, the more nearly they see it about to expire. But expire it will, nor can all the partial and studied efforts of its supporters prolong its fleet­ing existence. Like the old system of chemistry tottering before the new, it must finally sink beneath the doctrine of domestic generation, nor will it find, among all its advocates, a Priestly to appear great and unshaken in the midst of its ruins!

We have already observed, that in all parts of the world, and in all periods of society, mankind, in general, have en­tertained and exhibited a most profound hostility against the opinion of their own country being, under any circumstan­ces, the birth-place of pestilence. Nor has the matter end­ed here. They have been solicitous and active to defend, not only their own immediate country, but even our whole globe, from the charge of giving origin to an evil of such magnitude. Whenever this disease has appeared, they have, like many physicians and citizens of the United States, been extremely anxious and industrious to trace it to some par­ticular species of importation. It may not be altogether useless nor uninteresting, to trace the many singular and ab­surd [Page 23] modifications, through which this opinion, of the fo­reign importation of pestilential diseases, has successively passed.

In the earliest ages of the world, when ignorance and superstition led men to attribute all extraordinary pheno­mena to the direct agency of supernatural beings, pestilence was supposed to be imported immediately from Heaven. This is the opinion which appears to have prevailed among the ancient Hebrews, and may be ranked at the head of the catalogue of absurdities on this subject. The domini­on of prejudice over the minds of that ignorant and obsti­nate people, appears in this instance particularly striking. Such was the depth of their blind bigotry in favour of the healthfulness of the globe they inhabited, that they would seem to have considered it as even superior to that of the celestial regions. Hence, unwilling, to believe that their favourite earth could give origin to an evil so dreadful as pestilence, they imported the seeds of this calamity from the more unhealthful climate of heaven!!

Another species of importation no less extraordinary than the former, is that which derived pestilential diseases from the sun. An opinion of this kind appears to have been en­tertained, respecting the origin of that pestilence, which de­solated the Grecian camp before the walls of Troy.

Another description of importation from distant worlds remains yet to be mentioned. During that period of error, [Page 24] in which the science of medicine, in common with most other branches of science, was deeply perverted by astrolo­gical notions, not one of the planets (our own perhaps ex­cepted!) escaped the charge of giving origin to pestilential diseases. Thus Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mer­cury, may all be found arraigned in the dark catalogue. Nor did the moon herself escape. Even the celebrated, but fanciful Paracelsus, boldly accused this fair luminary, as being the parent of deadly pestilence.—Had nature, pre­viously to this period of intellectual perversion, by a happy effort, raised up a Herschel, to soar, an astronomical Colum­bus, through the immensity of space, there is little doubt, but that the orb, which now bears his name, would, even from its distant bourne, have been called to the narrow bar of human prejudice, to answer to the charge of having been the birth-place and nursery of the same disease!

In support of the foregoing opinions, however irrational and absurd in the view of a more enlightened age, our re­mote ancestors appear to have acted in concert. Such was their blind partiality in favour of the world they inhabited, that they could not, for a moment, admit the belief of its ever giving rise to true pestilence. At length, however, were they forced to abandon the ground they had originally taken—At length was this extraordinary metastisis of error obliged to relinquish entirely the heavenly bodies, and fix on earth as its final retreat. At this period men became divided in their opinion, respecting the origin of the evil in question. Obliged to acknowledge it as a native of our [Page 25] own globe, they commenced a zealous search for the parti­cular soil and climate from which it sprang. Here it was that their opinions became hostile. Each one desirous of preserving, in purity, the character of his own country, charged the birth of pestilence to the country of another. Nor has the controversy as yet subsided. We have seen very evident traces of it in the researches of men after the origin of that malignant pestilence, by which we have, lately, been three times visited. Thus, in America, the West India Islands were, at first, considered as its birth­place. Some physicians, in the West Indies, on the other hand, attribute its prevalence there to importation from the coast of Africa. While, no doubt, the hardy African will retort the charge, and say, that they are indebted, for this disease, to the lawless intrusion of white men on their peace­ful shores. Thus we see that the same illiberal spirit of prejudice which, in the earlier ages of the world, induced our forefathers to attribute the origin of pestilence to hea­ven, to the sun, the moon, and the various planetary bodies, still continues, though under a different form, among their more highly favoured posterity. They went to distant worlds in quest of the origin of this disease, whereas we rest satisfied with shorter excursions, and travel only to distant countries!

I have called that prejudice, which leads to remote parts of the globe, in quest of the origin of pestilential diseases, an illiberal one; nor am I at all inclined to retract the epithet. I think it narrow and illiberal, because it frequently urges [Page 26] men on to defend the character of their own climate and country, at the expence of that of other places, which na­ture has favoured with equal advantages. As formerly observed, the very same principle of illiberality which leads us to deny, to other portions of the globe, the possession of advantages and excellencies which they undoubtedly hold, induces us also to load them with the imputation of evils, from which they an wholly exempt. This is a principle which the enlightened Americans should indignantly re­nounce. From its undue operation, in the minds of Euro­peans, they themselves have already suffered much. There was a time when America was considered, by most Euro­peans, as capable of giving birth to but little that was va­luable. And shall we, now, actuated by the same narrow principle, and governed by the same circumscribed views, contend, that it can give origin to nothing embraced in the catalogue of evils? I flatter myself with a confidence that we never will. For though proud and happy in the belief, that the wisdom and spirit of Americans will be at all times competent and prompt to defend our country and its character from every description of insult and injustice, I should yet be sorry and humiliated at the appear­ance of a selfish national spirit, inclining us to the defama­tion of other countries, for the illiberal purpose of adding a superior lustre to our own!

From arguments to be laid before you in a subsequent part of this address, it will I trust appear, that America is, [Page 27] equally with other parts of the world, capable of giving birth to the worst of diseases.

With respect to the opinion, that our late pestilence is necessarily imported from the West Indies, it is with pleasure I observe, that its relinquishment has already very evident­ly commenced. Even some of its most strenuous advocates have found it necessary, in attempting its defence, to aban­don entirely their original ground. They, at first, con­tended that the seeds of this disease were imported to us in the form of human contagion only, adhering to the clothes or bodies of seamen or passengers, or to the timbers, appa­rel, or contents of vessels. This however, constitutes no longer an article in their medical creed. They are now willing to al­low, that the seeds of the disease may be brought, not only under the form of human contagion, but also under that of foul air, produced by a high state of putrefaction in the ves­sel's ballast [...]r cargo. This must be granted by all, to be a very material, and you will indulge me in adding, a very auspicious change of opinion. But the change will not stop here. Having so far relinquished their original ground as to allow, that the American Pestilence can originate from putrefaction in the hold of a vessel at sea, they will next accede to the proposition, that it may, under certain circumstances, result from a similar process on shore. Hence the warmer regions of North America will, in all proba­bility, be next suspected of giving birth to the formidable disease in question. But at this point opinion will not re­main stationary. The change will still continue to progress, [Page 28] till, at length, when the shades of error and prejudice shall have been entirely dissipated, each citizen of Phila­delphia will see the principal cause of the pestilence that afflicts him, not in the immediate hand of a benevolent Deity—not in the malign aspect of the sun, the moon, or the planetary bodies—not on the burning shores of Africa or the West Indies, but in the very centre of his own city!

Indulge me, for a few moments, in a detail of the lead­ing arguments, which induce me to consider our pestilenti­al diseases as the genuine offspring of our own country.

Pestilence can become epidemic only, when aided by a concurrent constitution of Atmosphere. This position is founded on the collective experience of ages. Where such a constitution does not prevail, sporadic cases of pestilence may indeed occur, but they will again disappear, and leave surrounding individuals unhurt. The nature of that pecu­liar state of atmosphere, favourable to the propagation of pestilential diseases, has hitherto eluded the researches of philosophers. The reality of its existence, however, is suf­ficiently established from the obvious effects to which it gives rise. Though ridiculed, of late, by some physicians, under the denomination of an occult quality, reason and observation still declare it to be a quality resting, for the certainty of its existence, on evidence as substantial, as that which supports the great Newtonian principle, the gravi­tation of all terrestrial bodies.

[Page 29]A pestilential constitution of atmosphere may be either general or local. The general is that which extends over whole countries, sometimes even over entire continents, and, for the most part, prolongs its duration for several suc­cessive years. The local is confined to particular spots, most commonly to large commercial cities, and terminates with the disappearance of certain topical causes, which ge­nerally possess but a short lived existence.

Various opinions have been entertained, by philosophers, respecting the cause of this general pestilential constitution. By so me, it has been attributed to a general and permanent exhalation, perhaps of a mineral nature, resulting from the action of subterraneous fires; by others, to an immense volume of poisonous gas, forcibly discharged from the bow­els of the earth, during the dreadful con [...]sions of an earth-quake; and by others again, to torrents of pestiferous air eject­ed into the atmosphere from the craters of Volcanos. In sup­port of these two latter opinions, some degree of evidence is derived from the circumstance of the prevalence of pesti­lence, being very often either preceded or accompanied by the occurrence of earth-quakes, or by repeated and dread­ful volcanic eruptions. Of the frequent and striking coin­cidence, both in point of time and place, between the exist­ence of pestilence and the occurrence of earth-quakes and eruptions from volcanos, the records of medicine afford am­ple proof. An unanswerable argument in favour of the reality of this general constitution of atmosphere, is derived from the frequent (I had almost said uniform) cotemporary [Page 30] prevalence of pestilential diseases, in different and distant parts of the globe.

That such a general constitution of atmosphere may exist in America, as well as in other places, is a position, which, abstractly considered, we have no reason to doubt. And that it even does actually prevail, at this time, is an opinion entertained by many respectable characters, and supported by various physical phenomena. On a full and minute statement of these phenomena, time will not suffer me, at present, to enter. I flatter myself, however, that the fol­lowing facts, relative to this curious and interesting sub­ject, will not be deemed unworthy the attention of the Academy.

For some years past, several species of insects, whose ex­istence is known no be intimately connected with the state of the atmosphere, have been more than usually abundant in our country. Of the truth of this, our farmers are able to furnish us with but too many unequivocal and, to them, expensive testimonies. It will require many years to obli­terate from the memory of this useful and respectable class of our fellow-citizens, the injuries they have sustained from the invasion and ravages of the Hessian Fly.

The origin of this destructive insect has, like that of our late epidemic, constituted a subject of speculation and doubt, among the literary characters of the United States. While some have traced it to foreign importation, others have contended that it is a native of our own country. Were I to lay [Page 31] before you the result of my own enquiries and reflection on this point of natural history, I should be inclined to advo­cate the latter opinion. I am rather disposed to believe, that what is vulgarly denominated the Hessian Fly origi­nates entirely with ourselves. There is reason to suspect, that our fields and forests contain, perhaps, at all times, this insect in certain members, and that it superabounds, and, depredates on the labours of the husbandman in those sea­sons only, during which there prevails a state or constitu­tion of atmosphere, more peculiarly favourable to its propa­gation and existence. For it is a fact well known to natu­ralists, that no less in the oeconomy of insects than in that of plants, certain seasons are favourable, and others unfa­vourable to their generation and growth.

Again, it is a fact, with which men of observation, can­not be unacquainted, that for several years past, but more particularly during the last and preceding autumns, muski­tos were more than usually abundant in those situations which they generally infest—Nor is this all—These insects, not willing to be confined, during the two last seasons, to their former limits, made their way into many places, which, before, had been almost wholly exempt from their invasion. But from the well known circumstance, that muskitos uni­formly abound at the same time, and in the same places, with epidemic bilious fevers, we are very fairly authorized to conclude, that these noxious insects depend, for their ex­istence, on an insalubrious state and constitution of atmos­phere. Nor must I here omit to observe, that the immen­sity [Page 32] of grass-hoppers, which infested our country, during last summer, bespoke a condition of atmosphere different from what usually prevails at that season.

If then our country has, of late, been characterized by an unusual prevalence of insects and of disease in different places, and if these insects and disease have, in most instan­ces, prevailed, not only at the same time, but also in the same situations, (both of which facts are unquestionably true) have we not, at least, a very ostensible ground of belief, that these unusual and cotemporary phenomena proceed from the same cause, and that this cause is no other than a state and constitution of our atmosphere, different from those that usually characterize the atmosphere of our country?

In corroboration of the preceding inference, namely, that the same constitution of atmosphere, which favours the prevalence of pestilential diseases, is, in like manner, fa­vourable to the existence of insects, I beg leave to give a brief statement and explanation of an interesting fact, which, we learn from the history of former ages. For more than fifty years, during the reign of the emperor Justinian, the plague raged in Europe, Asia and Africa, with such unpa­ralelled violence and malignity, as sometimes to threaten, in appearance, even the depopulation of the whole earth. Throughout this period of devastation and calamity, such was the immensity of locusts which infested the countries where the pestilence prevailed, that many were disposed to attribute the existence of this disease to the death and pu­trefaction [Page 33] of these destructive insects. This latter opinion, however, we conceive to be founded, in a great measure, in error. For although the pestilential constitution of at­mosphere was, no doubt, strengthened by the deleterious gas, arising from the putrefactive dissolution of such an im­mense volume of animal matter, it is by no means likely that it resulted from this as its primary cause. There ex­ists certain facts which render it much more probable, that the same constitution of atmosphere, resulting originally from some more powerful source, proved favourable, at once, to the generation of locusts, and to the birth and propaga­tion of the pestilence of the age.

Might not a like physical explanation be given of the cause of several of the plagues, which sacred writ declares to have visited, in ancient times, the incorrigible Egypti­ans; and which were then supposed, to have been inflicted by the immediate hand of the Deity? I allude particularly to the destructive swarms of locusts, and flies, and to the pestilence among men, and the murrain among cattle, two diseases, which appear to be intimately connected. Is it not, I say, at least, an admissible conjecture, that there prevailed, at that time, a certain pestilential constitution of atmosphere, which operated as the leading physical cause of all these evils? The profound darkness which, shortly afterwards, overshadowed, for a time, the dominions of the impious and tyrannical Pharaoh, was probably nothing more than a natural concomitant of the same constitution.

[Page 34]That there was something peculiar and uncommon, in the general state and condition of the air, during our epide­mics of ninety three, ninety seven, and ninety eight, we would deduce from the vast number of fiery meteors, (com­monly denominated falling or shooting stars) which appear­ed in our atmosphere during those periods. I think it highly probable, that these blazing meteors, always abound during the existence of a pestilential constitution of atmos­phere, and that on their uniform appearance, superstition has erected a belief, that certain strange and supernatural phenomena in the heavens, never fail to give premonition of the approach of pestilence.

As a farther evidence in favour of the existence of a pe­culiar constitution of atmosphere, particularly during the years ninety three and ninety eight, it deserves to be men­tioned, that, in those years, the fruits of our country, in general, ripened and rotted with much more than their usual rapidity. And that, on many of our fruit trees, se­cond crops of blossoms appeared early in the autumn of the same years, and, on some of them, even second crops of fruit made considerable advances toward maturity. Nor could the occurrence of these phenomena be fairly deduced from the existence of any peculiarity in the sensible quali­ties of the atmosphere. Seasons as warm and dry as those, to which I have referred, are not uniformly productive of similar effects. To the agency, therefore, of some imper­ceptible cause in our atmosphere, must we attribute the several phenomena in question.

[Page 35]Another unanswerable argument in favour of the occa­sional existence of a general morbid constitution of atmos­phere in our country, is derived from the extensive preva­lence of the catarrhal fever (commonly denominated in­fluenza) in the years eighty eight and eighty nine. This disease, which I believe is acknowledged by all to have re­sulted from a certain deleterious constitution or state of the air we inspired, was so general, as to pervade every part of the United States. But the constitution, from which it originated, must have been, in like manner, general, being necessarily co-extensive with the disease itself. During part of the continuance of this catarrhal constitution, a deep duskiness, or want of due transparency in the atmos­phere, considerably obscured the sun, in many, if not most, parts of our country, thus constituting an approach toward Egyptian darkness, which, as formerly observed, was, pro­bably, nothing more than a natural effect or concomitant of the then existing pestilential constitution.

The causes, which give rise to that local constitution of atmosphere, favourable to the generation and propagation of pestilence, are by far more obvious in their nature, operate on a much less entensive scale, and possess an existence by no means so durable. They are principally confined to large cities, camps, and garrisons, where multitudes of people are crowded together, and where personal and other descripti­ons of cleanliness do not receive the attention they merit. They may be said, in general, to be, all such causes as tend, in the above descriptions of places, to generate foul air, and [Page 36] thus produce a vitiated state of atmosphere. The principal of these shall hereafter become subjects of particular speci­fication. This local constitution of atmosphere extends, frequently, beyond the immediate confines of cities, camps and garrisons, and, sometimes, even pervades considerable tracts of country, particularly such as are low and marshy. It is an evil, which may be said to owe its origin, in gene­ral, to that indolence and inattention, which unfortunately, constitute such predominant traits in the character of the human race. This peculiar constitution, of which we have spoken, is nothing else than a predisposition or capability in the atmosphere to generate and propagate pestilential dis­eases. It would seem to consist, either in the actual admix­ture of pestilential effluvia with the air which we breathe, or in the presence of some aeriform substance, which favours the existence and conveyance of such effluvia, and prevents their action from being destroyed by the influence of the at­mosphere.

Your attention, for a few moments, is next solicited to the remote cause of pestilential diseases. It need scarcely be observed, that this subject is very nearly allied to that of which we have last treated. So intimate, indeed, is their connection, that they might, without any impropriety, have been both spoken of under the same head. This remote cause may be defined, a gas of a highly poisonous nature, which, when brought into contact with the human body, renders it liable, if exposed at the same time to the action of exciting causes, to an attack of the disease denominated pestilence. [Page 37] A knowledge of the peculiar physical properties of this gas has hitherto remained, and, I fear, will very long continue to remain, an important desideratum in the science of me­dicine. Even the reality of its existence is, as yet, esta­blished, only, by its unparalelled ravages on the system of man, and on the systems of a few species of inferior animals. So extremely subtle and evanescent is its nature, that we have not been able to separate it from surrounding matter, to embody it together, and thus subject it to the test of observation and experiment.

A knowledge of the actual source of this pestilential va­pour is equally interesting to physical science, and impor­tant to the welfare of the human race. Though it be pos­sible that it may occasionally arise, in the form of exhala­tion, in consequence of the action of subterraneous fires; and though it be probable that it has, in some instances, been thrown from the bowels of the earth, during the convulsion of an earthquake, or the eruption of a volcano, yet these are by no means its most frequent sources. It appears to be now reduced to a certainty, as decisive as any existing in physical science, that organized bodies, in a high and long continued state of putrefaction, constitute the legitimate parent of pestilential effluvia.^*

[Page 38]That this is the case, we justly infer, from the circum­stance of pestilence never raging, to an alarming extent, un­less in situations where putrefaction goes forward on an ex­tensive [Page 39] scale. In turning over the annals of medicine, even from their earliest period, down to the present day, we will not find a single record of pestilence having prevailed [Page 40] and spread in places, where cleanliness has been attended to in all its branches. Whereas, on the other hand, most large cities, and even considerable tract of country, where pu­trefying filth has been suffered to abound, have repeatedly experienced this scourge in all its malignity. Thus the plague of Egypt, unquestionably derives its birth from the filth spread around by the waters of the Nile. The im­mensity of putrefying animal and vegetable substances, with which the streets and suburbs of Constantinople abound, afford origin to the pestilence, which so frequently visits that unfortunate city. And the Yellow Fever or plague of the West Indies, appears to be indebted, for its birth and existence, entirely to the extensive putrefactive dissolution of organized bodies, produced by the fervors of a topical sun.

From a similar source, namely, the filth of a crouded garrison city, must we deduce the celebrated plague of A­thens, which, to the eye of fancy, seems still to live and rage with consummate malignity, in the descriptive elo­quence of Thucidides: And to causes precisely similar, must we attribute that dreadful pestilence, which before the walls of Syracuse, made greater havoc among the Roman legions, than even the stupendous engines of Archimedes— To what causes, I would beg leave to ask, are we to ascribe the more frequent and general prevalence of pestilential diseases in camps, garrisons, and other places of military establishment? Is it not to a want of cleanliness?—To the immensity of putrefying filth, with which such places, for the most part, abound? A want of cleanliness, and a [Page 41] greater exposure of men to actual hardship and fatigue, are the two only circumstances, relative to health and disease, in which military situations differ materially from others. To these circumstances, therefore, are we bound to attri­bute the more frequent visitations of pestilence, to which such places are unfortunately subjected. The former of these, namely, a want of cleanliness, gives rise to the remote, and the other, viz. exposure to hardships, acts as the ex­citing cause of the malady. Let me me not, on the pre­sent occasion, fail to observe, that when pestilence breaks out in any place, it never fails to make its appearance about that period, when, from the usual co-operation of physical causes, the process of general putrefaction, has arrived to its summit.—Thus may pestilential effluvia be generated in every spot on the surface of the globe, where the soil gives birth to organized bodies, and the climate affords a suffici­ency of heat and moisture, to give rise to a high putrefac­tive process. There exist numerous proofs, sacred, I had almost said, as those of holy writ, of pestilence having been the native growth of many places on the continent of Eu­rope. Even beneath the frozen sky of Russia, has this Demon of putrefaction burst into existence, from domestic causes, and called up death and desolation, as the concomi­tants of his career.!

If the foregoing propositions and assertions be true,— and confident I am, they are such, as rest on a basis, no less secure than the experience and observation of ages, cemented by the fairest deductions of reason—If it be true, [Page 42] I say, that pestilence can originate from the putrefaction of organized bodies in Europe, Asia and Africa, what shadow of reason have we to suppose America privileged with an exemption from a similar misfortune? Can we have the vanity—I might have said the presumption, to allege, that the God of a general providence has condescended to enact a law of special dispensation in favour of us, because we inha­bit the western shore of the Atlantic? Has he, for us alone, laid aside his robes of Deity? has he, for us alone, stooped from the unaccommodating majesty of his character? has he forfeited his title, as the impartial ruler of the universe, and belittled himself by becoming a partizan on benalf of the continent of America?—Highly as I think of my na­tive country, and proud as I am of my birth-right as an American, my patriotic fervor has not yet so far obscured my understanding, as to bear me out in a belief so irrati­onal, and presumptuous! But to relinquish, for a moment, our views in theology, and address you in language more strictly philosophical.—Are the atmosphere, the waters and the organized productions of the new world, exempt from the government of the great physical principles, to the in­fluence of which, those of the old are uniformly and neces­sarily subjected? Have we not, within ourselves, an im­mensity of the requisites necessary for carrying putrefaction to the highest stage? When advanced to such stage, will not this process produce, with us, the very same deleterious effluvia to which it gives birth in other quarters of the globe? And, when once evolved, will not this effluvia ge­nerate [Page 43] and propagate pestilence here, with as much readiness, and with as much malignity, as in countries situated be­yond the Atlantic? To answer those propositions in the negative, would be to deny, that the same physical causes, when uncontrouled in their operation, will always be pro­ductive of the same effects. As well may we say, that the same animals which propagate their likeness in Europe, can­not in America; or that the same sun which wakes to life the sleeping blossom there, cannot rouse it from its wintry slumbers here!

Let not chemists, in the pride of their knowledge, deny, that pestilential effluvia can be the offspring of putrefaction, because they are unable to produce it in their laboratories. Let them remember, that they are not yet able to operate, in all respects, as nature does, nor are they possessed of any chemical tests to ascertain, with decision, where these efflu­via do and where they do not prevail. Their effects on the human body constitute the only indubitable testimony of their existence; and these, as mentioned before, never occur to any extent, except in places abounding with sub­stances in a state of putrefaction.

It may not be improper, on the present occasion, to ob­serve, that of all animal substances, the matter of human perspiration is by no means the least liable to putrefaction. After its discharge from the pores of the body, it would seem to run, with much rapidity, into this offensive state. Nor is it the most innocent, in its nature, when under the [Page 44] actual influence of this process. There is reason to believe, that, from the putrefaction of the perspirable gas, in places where numbers have been unduly crouded in small, unven­tilated apartments, diseases of a pestilential nature have re­sulted. But, unless when vitiated by means of putrefaction or actual disease, I believe the matter of perspiration to be perfectly unnoxious.

The relationship between the American pestilence, the yellow fever, or pestilence of the West Indies, and the plague of Asia, shall now constitute the subject of a few remarks.

From all the information I have been able to collect from observation, books, or conversation, respecting those three diseases, I have not been able to perceive that there exists between them any radical or essential difference. They seem evidently to originate from the same source, they are alike influenced by the usual vicisitudes of the seasons, they invade the human system in the same manner, and are charac­terized, in their course, by the same train of general symptoms. They appear, in fact, to be the very same disease, modified, to a certain degree, by various causes, of which the most powerful is that of climate. This is, indeed, a cause, the operation of which but few things are able to resist. It is well known that climate possesses a power of changing the aspect of plants, the appearance of inferior animals, and even the figure, complexion, and countenance of the human race. Thus, how different, in all these respects, is the appearance of an Asiatic from that of a native of Africa, [Page 45] of Europe or America? May we not then, very rational­ly conclude, that the same cause, which possesses such an immense influence over plants and animals, is, in like man­ner, fully competent to the modification of disease? I will venture to affirm, that there exists a much greater differ­ence between the general appearance of an Asiatic, and that of an American, than between the symptoms and pro­gress of the American, and those of the Asiatic pestilence. But the men of Asia and America are held to be nothing more than varieties in the human race, resulting from a difference of climate and of the state of society. When any inconsiderable difference, then, is discovered in the ge­neral appearances of the pestilential diseases, by which the two countries are occasionally invaded, it may doubtless be attributed to the same causes.

With regard to the pestilence of the West Indies, it might, at first sight, appear to be, in one respect, very ma­terially different from the other two. Thus, we learn from physicians, on whose report we may, most confidently, rely, that the former disease is never, in any instance, known to be contagious, whereas there is, perhaps, reason to believe, that the case is different with respect to the two latter. That they are occasionally propagated by contagion, is a posi­tion, to the truth of which physicians of the highest emi­nence have, at all times, afforded the testimony of their as­sent. On farther reflection, however, it will be immedi­ately perceived, that this trait in the character of the West [Page 46] India pestilence results entirely from the influence of a tro­pical climate. For it is a fact, well known to physicians of experience and information, that a high and uniform temperature of atmosphere, is decidedly hostile to the com­munication of pestilential diseases. Such a temperature, continued for some time, arrests the progress of even the desolating pestilence of Asia. It is a truth, which must be alike familiar to you all, that, at Constantinople, the sum­mer no less than the winter solstice bestows on the inhabi­tants a temporary respite from the ravages of that dread­ful calamity.—As, then, the men of Europe, Asia, Africa and America, are held, by our most eminent philosophers, to belong to the same species, and to owe the diversities in their appearance, principally, to the influence of climate and manner of life, would not a similar observation appear to be admissible, with respect to the pestilential epidemics of those four divisions of the globe? May not these diseases be, very rationally, viewed as the same in their nature, va­riously modified by climate, and by the habits and man­ners of the human race?

From subjects of speculation, let us now turn our atten­tion to an object, which claims, from its situation, the soli­citude of us all. Let us look around on Philadelphia, which has so lately exhausted the cup of calamity, and whose agonies, from the bitter draught, no friendly opiate has yet entirely lulled to rest.—Let us, I say, survey this opulent mart, this once fair and flourishing metropolis, and say, can it, or can it not, from causes within itself, give [Page 47] birth to a genuine pestilential disease? To you, gentle­men, who have considered the matter with so much delibe­ration, I need hardly observe, that on the just decision of this question, and the subsequent measures established there­on, depends little less than the future existence of our city. It merits, therefore, the most profound attention of every American, who is a friend to his country, or who wishes well to the interest of the human race.

The subject of the origin of our late and preceding epi­demics, has been already so amply discussed, that those who take it up, at this period, can be considered as little else than gleaners in the field of controversy. I cannot, how­ever, close my address, without laying before you the fol­lowing remarks. To strike, by their novelty, is not my intention, because I am sure they are already familiar to you all. To gain your assent to their truth and justice, constitutes, at present, the height of my ambition.

I. Considerably remote from the breezes of the ocean, and standing on a scite of but a moderate elevation, Philadelphia is by no means favourably situated for free ventilation. These disadvantages, co-operating with those of numerous, lofty, and crouded buildings, produce a stagnation in the air of most parts of the city, unknown in places exempt from such obstructions. This stagnation is very sensibly, and even oppressively, experienced, by our citizens, during the warmth of the summer months. It is unnecessary to observe, that an atmosphere, such as this, is in a fit state [Page 48] for the reception and retention of noxious effluvia. Nor does it, under this evident want of motion, appear, by any means, well calculated to dilute or weaken such effluvia, and thus obviate their pernicious influence on the human system.

II. Philadelphia, though situated in the latitude of forty, is, notwithstanding, annually subjected to all the fervors of a tropical climate, for the successive space of, at least, eighty or ninety days. Suffering, during this lengthy period, [...] superior, by three or four degrees, to that of the [...] country, it may be considered as a pe [...]fect hot- [...]o [...]e, with regard to generating and fostering the seeds o [...] [...]ti­lential disease. Granting, therefore, that pestilence is the more native offspring of a tropical sky, and that it is even incapable of springing spontaneously beneath the natural temperature of a milder climate, yet still, may it rise and flourish luxuriantly in the hot-bed of a city as large and po­pulous as that of Philadelphia. Thus, the plants of the tropics are reared in hot-houses by the curious, beneath the highest and most rigorous latitudes inhabited by man. In like manner may pestilence, (though possibly the more na­tural product of a tropical climate,) be reared to perfection in the hot-bed of Philadelphia.

III. The two evils, which I have just specified, are, in some measure, necessarily attendant on our unfortunate ci­ty. Though, by wisdom and industry, they may be dimi­nished, to remove them, entirely, is beyond the limited pow­ers of man. Their foundation is laid in the works of na­ture, [Page 49] and art is, therefore, incompetent to their removal. Its utmost extent is to obviate the mischiefs which they tend to produce. We cannot countermand the excessive heats of our climate, we are unable to elevate the ground on which Philadelphia stands; nor can we invoke, with ef­fect, the breezes of the Atlantic, to shed refreshment through our oppressive streets!^*

Another evil remains yet to be mentioned, very differ­ent, in its nature, from the preceding two. It is altogether of artificial birth, and art and industry are, therefore, com­petent to its extinction. I allude to the immensity of filth, with which the different parts of our city and suburbs a­bound. Nor is this an evil of inferior magnitude. It may be considered as the hydra, whose malignant breath, gave birth to the calamities we have three times suffered. The severities of the season have paralised it, for the present, and reduced it to its customary state of hybernation. But unless prevented, by an adoption of the most wise and ener­getic measures, there is but too much reason to apprehend, that it will be again awakened to life and action, by the re­turning warmth of the summer sun! Before the arrival of that eventful period, may some favoured champion—some [Page 50] enterprising Hercules arise, and strike from existence this insatiate monster!

In taking a survey of many parts of our city and suburbs, our senses are struck by the offensive and dangerous spec­tacle, of an accumulation of the filth of nearly a cen­tury. In passing, in several directions, to a considerable distance from the pavements of our streets, we are not even suffered to tread on the soil of nature. We travel over artificial ground, made up of a fermenting assemblage of the most noxious materials. Here, to the depth of several inches beneath the surface, is promiscuously blended toge­ther, animal and vegetable matter, in a state of high putre­faction, while the same substances, in a similar state, are most plenteously strewn over the surface itself. Nor is moisture wanting to give vigour to the process.—During the excessive heats of our summer solstice, what, I would ask, must be the effected of the poisonous exhalation, arising from so extensive a source, added to that proceeding from numerous other domestic causes? Must it not be, (to use the language of the poet,) the conversion of the whole atmosphere of our city into a "foul and pestilent con­gregation of vapours?" During this portentous seed-time of pestilence, we are not privileged to breathe the untaint­ed air, prepared for our systems by the operations of nature, but are obliged to inhale a mixture of deleterious exhala­tions, proceeding from the indolence, ignorance, and in­attention—I had almost said, from the criminality of man.— Nor is the experience of time devising measures for the re­moval [Page 51] of this enormous evil, nor erecting any barriers to check its growth. Even the melancholy reverse of this is true. Notwithstanding the numerous declarations we hear, in favour of the cleanliness of our streets, at present, compared to what existed some years ago, it is an unquestionable truth, that, in the existing state of things, as year succeeds to year, the aggregate mass of filth in our city and suburbs encreases.^* Should our civic police, (as far as it respects the prevention of disease,) continue supine and feeble, as it is, at present, what a dark and gloomy prospect is opened to our view! With the future progress of time, danger would seem to accumulate on danger, and distress to blacken over distress, till imagination becomes bewildered, in attempting to cal­culate the melancholy result.

Owing to such a state of domestic filth, as now prevails in and around the city of Philadelphia, was the plague, in former times, the scourge of London, and other populous ci­ties of Europe; and, owing to a similar state, does it still [Page 52] continue, occasionally, to rage in Constantinople, and in many other devoted places in the East.

However painful the prospect, and however unpopular the idea, may, at present, be with many, it is, in my ap­prehension of things, a truth which ought not to be forgot­ten, that unless the misfortune be averted, by the most vi­gilant and energetic measures of domestic cleanliness, the the large commercial cities of America will, in, perhaps, less than a century, become as remarkable for giving birth to pestilence, as any ever have been in Europe, or as any are now on the continent of Asia.

To enumerate all the sources of our domestic filth, is not my present object. This has already been ably done, in several memorials from the Academy of medicine. There exist, however, two sources in particular, to which, I will be pardoned for thinking, that the public attention has not been directed, in a manner sufficiently forcible. These are, the vast quantity of putrid and putrefying timber, which en­ters into the formation of our docks and wharves, and the immensity of animal and vegetable substances, strewn, in a putrefactive state, along the commons, in a south-western direction from the city.

From the former of these sources, an incalculable volume of deleterious air must be discharged, to the great annoy­ance of the crews of vessels in our harbour, and of all whose business demands their attendance along shore. For this evil the remedy is easy and obvious. The timbers ought to [Page 53] be removed, as much as possible, from the docks and wharves, and their place supplied by brick or stone.

From the latter source, namely, the abundance of putri­fying substances, dispersed over the commons, in a south wes­tern direction, the air of the city most be deeply contami­nated. To have a due sense of the propriety and weight of this observation, it is necessary to recollect, that, parti­cularly, during the months of July, August, and September, our prevailing winds are from that quarter. Whatever noxious effluvia, therefore, may be evolved from those sub­stances, by the process of putrefaction, is wafted, immedi­ately, into the heart of our city, and mingled with the air of the streets which we breathe. There is certainly reason to believe, that, to these effluvia, we were indebted, in no inconsiderable degree, for that local constitution of atmos­phere, so highly favourable to the propagation of our late epidemic.

It is scarcely necessary to observe, that the remedy for this evil is the immediate and entire removal of the offen­sive substances. If the places, which those matters now occupy, were planted with trees or shrubbery, or, even, put under a crop of inferior vegetation, the effect, on the city, would be both pleasant and salutary. Vegetables are known to emit, during their wakeful and active state, large quantities of pure respirable air. Were the above regu­lation, therefore, adopted, instead of the offensive and per­nicious vapour of putrefaction, this fluid of life, would, [Page 54] in consequence of the south-western winds of summer and autumn, glide through our streets, and diffuse both health and vigour from its wings.

To the two preceding sources of the vitiation of our at­mosphere, let me not omit to subjoin that which is consti­tuted by our public burying grounds. To a mind eying, with deep solicitude, the apparently dubious balance of fate, with respect to the future prosperity of our city, these ex­tensive reservoirs, fraught with the mouldering relicts of the dead, present themselves, as objects of painful apprehen­sion. They appear equally melancholy and dangerous, and, in neither respect, is the degree inconsiderable. Situated, as some of them are, in the very centre of our city, these spacious inclosures, a great part of the soil of which, is com­posed of human exuviae, cannot do otherwise than aid in contaminating the air of our streets, and the water of our pumps. That the water of our city is injured, by the immensity of dead bodies, deposited in our grave-yards, we would infer, from the very considerable distance, to which the putrid effluvia, from the contents of a grave, have been known to make their way, through the bowels of the earth. And, that the same cause, has a tendency to vitiate our at­mosphere, we would conclude, in particular, from certain physical phenomena, for which ancient grave-yards have been always remarkable. The phenonema, to which I al­lude are, a kind of burning meteors, that sweep along the surface of the ground, and which are known, under the vulgar denomination of Will-with-the-wisp, or Jack-with-the-lanthern. [Page 55] These would seem to owe their existence, principally, to an inflammable gas, discharged, through the pores of the earth, from the putrefying contents of the graves, and have, probably, aided much, in giving origin to the superstitious legends of the ignorant, respecting church­yards being haunted, by goblins and ghosts.

For this evil, I need hardly observe, that the only reme­dy is, the removal of our burying grounds, to a distance from the city. Nor let an attachment and veneration, however natural and amiable, for the relicts of our friends, prevent the adoption of such a salutary measure! If we painfully feel and deplore the loss of our friends deceased, why dispose of their bodies, in such a way, as to sow the seeds of pestilence and death, among those that survive, and thus, voluntarily, subject ourselves to additional sorrow? To a feeling and reflecting mind, it is, doubtless, a much more eligible alternative, to have a portion of our relatives and friends still living, and those that are dead, buried in a distant situation, and, even, in what some might consider as unhallowed ground, than to have them all swept off, though buried in the immediate vicinity of our dwellings, and in ground duly consecrated for the purpose of interment.

On taking the preceding general view of the situation and circumstances of Philadelphia—On considering it as a large and populous city, deprived of the advantage of free ventilation, subjected, during the summer months, to a heat equal, at least, to that of the tropics, and en [...]veloped [Page 56] during that period, in a cloud of poison [...] ▪ exhalation, from the putrefactive dissolution of organized bodies.—On ma­turely weighing, I say the foregoing considerations, and, at the same time, recollecting, that, under similar circum­stances, pestilential diseases have, unquestionably, arisen in other places, what shadow of reason have we to doubt the practicability of pestilence originating in our city, from do­mestic causes alone? As well may we assert, that the same sun, which promotes vegetation, in the eastern, has no such influence in the western hemisphere, as deny to causes, which are known and acknowledged to give birth to pestilence, in the cities of Asia, the power of producing the same disease, when operating, with equal force, in the cities of America. Could I be persuaded, that, under similar circumstances, the same causes, do not, uniformly and necessarily, produce the same effects in Asia and America, I would, immediately, subscribe to the Pagan belief of Polytheism. In such a state of things, I would be constrained to believe, that the God of the old world, was not, in like manner, the God of the new, but that the two hemispheres of our globe, were governed by distinct Deities, through the medium of differ­ent physical laws!

I have, hitherto, treated my subject in a manner rather abstract and general, and have indulged myself, occasion­ally, in discussive speculation. I have endeavoured to de­monstrate, on principles long since known and established, the practicability of pestilential diseases originating on the western shores of the Atlantic. from general reasoning, [Page 57] I might now descend, [...] particular specification, and ex­change principles in science, for plain and undeniable mat­ters of fact. Thus, might I advert to the history of a far distant period, and shew, from authentic records, that, pre­viously to the establishment of any commercial intercourse, between America and the West Indies, even the depth of our forests were unable to shelter the aborigines of our own country, from the invasion of pestilence. I might point to our extensive north western lakes, and the country adjacent, where pestilential epidemics not unfrequently pre­vail with high malignity, and where, at the same time, fo­reign intercourse is altogether unknown. But leaving former times, and remote places, I might proceed to shew, that, within a few years past, and, in places not far distant, numerous instances of the American pestilence have appeared, which could not possibly be traced to any com­munication with a foreign climate or infected source, and which must have, therefore, originated in the very place [...] where they occured. But I am precluded, from a more ex­tensive view of my subject, by an unwillingness to intrude any farther on your time, and, thus, be guilty of an undue trespass on your politeness and indulgence.

Before concluding my address, allow me, Gentlemen, to congratulate you on the success, I had almost said, the triumph of the principles, which the Academy advocates, respecting the origin of the late epidemics of America. To say, that these diseases are of domestic growth, is no longer denounced as medical heresy, nor as a species of blasphemy against our [Page 58] country. On this subject, the shades of prejudice and error are rapidly retreating, before the radiance of liberality and truth. As far as relates to the necessary importation of pestilential diseases from foreign countries, the time-worn fabric of superstition in medicine, has received a revoluti­onary blow, from which it is tottering to the depth of its found [...] ▪ [...] the time far distant, when this humi­liating [...] of the bigotry of ages, shall tumble to irreparable ruins around the hoary ^* heads of its supporters.

Persevere, then, my fellow-members, to the completion of the work you have so laudably undertaken. Wage for yourselves, both jointly and individually, nothing less than a war of utter extermination, against those prejudices and errors, which threaten the depopulation of the cities of [Page 59] America. While thus engaged, whatever may be the fate of your reputations, with a few of your narrow minded cotemporaries, be assured, that, if you continue firm in the track, where philanthropy leads and science lights the way, you will not—you cannot fail, to receive the approbation and applause of a more enlightened and grateful posterity!