A NARRATIVE
OF THE
STATE OF THE BODY AND MIND
OF THE AUTHOR,
DURING THE PREVALENCE OF THE FEVER.
Narratives of escapes from great dangers of shipwreck, war, captivity, and famine have always formed an interesting part of the history of the body and mind of man. But there are deliverances from equal dangers which have hitherto passed unnoticed; I mean from pestilential fevers. I shall briefly describe the state of my body and mind during my intercourse with the sick in the epidemic of 1793. The account will throw additional light upon the disease, and probably illustrate some of the laws of the animal economy. It will, moreover, serve to furnish a lesson to all who may be placed in similar circumstances to commit their lives, without fear, to the protection of that Being, who is able to save to the uttermost, not only from future, but from present evil.
Some time before the fever made its appearance, my wife and children went into the state of New-Jersey, where they had long been in the habit of spending the summer months. My family, about the 25th of August, consisted of my mother, a sister, who was on a visit to me, a black servant man, and a mulatto boy. I had five pupils, viz. Warner Washington and Edward Fisher, of Virginia, John Alston, of South-Carolina, and John Redman Coxe (grandson to Dr. Redman) and John Stall, both of this city. They all crowded around me upon the sudden increase of business, and with one heart devoted themselves to my service, and to the cause of humanity.
The credit which the new mode of treating the disease acquired, in all parts of the city, produced an immense influx of patients to me from all quarters. My pupils were constantly employed; at first in putting up purging powders, but, after a while, only in bleeding and visiting the sick.
Between the 8th and the 15th of September I visited and prescribed for between a hundred and a hundred and twenty patients a day. Several of my pupils visited a fourth or fifth part of that number. For a while we refused no calls. In the short intervals of business, which I spent at my meals, my house was filled with patients, chiefly the poor, waiting for advice. For many weeks I seldom ate without prescribing for numbers as I sat at my table. To assist me at these hours, as well as in the night, Mr. Stall, Mr. Fisher, and Mr. Coxe accepted of rooms in my house, and became members of my family. Their labours now had no remission.
Immediately after I adopted the antiphlogistic mode of treating the disease, I altered my manner of living. I left off drinking wine and malt liquors. The good effects of the disuse of these liquors helped to confirm me in the theory I had adopted of the disease. A troublesome head-ach, which I had occasionally felt, and which excited a constant apprehension that I was taking the fever, now suddenly left me. I likewise, at this time, left off eating solid animal food, and lived wholly, but sparingly, upon weak broth, potatoes, raisins, coffee, and bread and butter.
From my constant exposure to the sources of the disease, my body became highly impregnated with miasmata. My eyes were yellow, and sometimes a yellowness was perceptible in my face. My pulse was preternaturally quick, and I had profuse sweats every night. These sweats were so offensive, as to oblige me to draw the bed-clothes close to my neck, to defend myself from their smell. They lost their fœtor entirely, upon my leaving off the use of broth, and living entirely upon milk and vegetables. But my nights were rendered disagreeable, not only by these sweats, but by the want of my usual sleep, produced in part by the frequent knocking at my door, and in part by anxiety of mind, and the stimulus of the miasmata upon my system. I went to bed in conformity to habit only, for it ceased to afford me rest or refreshment. When it was evening I wished for morning; and when it was morning, the prospect of the labours of the day, at which I often shuddered, caused me to wish for the return of evening. The degrees of my anxiety may be easily conceived when I add, that I had at one time upwards of thirty heads of families under my care; among these were Mr. Josiah Coates, the father of eight, and Mr. Benjamin Scull and Mr. John Morell, both fathers of ten children. They were all in imminent danger; but it pleased God to make me the instrument of saving each of their lives. I rose at six o'clock, and generally found a number of persons waiting for advice in my shop or parlour. Hitherto the success of my practice gave a tone to my mind, which imparted preternatural vigour to my body. It was meat and drink to me to fulfil the duties I owed to my fellow-citizens, in this time of great and universal distress. From a hope that I might escape the disease, by avoiding every thing that could excite it into action, I carefully avoided the heat of the sun, and the coldness of the evening air. I likewise avoided yielding to every thing that should raise or depress my passions. But, at such a time, the events which influence the state of the body and mind are no more under our command than the winds or weather. On the evening of the 14th of September, after eight o'clock, I visited the son of Mrs. Berriman, near the Swedes's church, who had sent for me early in the morning. I found him very ill. He had been bled in the forenoon, by my advice, but his pulse indicated a second bleeding. It would have been difficult to procure a bleeder at that late hour. I therefore bled him myself. Heated by this act, and debilitated by the labours of the day, I rode home in the evening air. During the ensuing night I was much indisposed. I rose, notwithstanding, at my usual hour. At eight o'clock I lost ten ounces of blood, and immediately afterwards got into my chair, and visited between forty and fifty patients before dinner. At the house of one of them I was forced to lie down a few minutes. In the course of this morning's labours my mind was suddenly thrown off its pivots, by the last look, and the pathetic cries, of a friend for help, who was dying under the care of a French physician. I came home about two o'clock, and was seized, immediately afterwards, with a chilly fit and a high fever. I took a dose of the mercurial medicine, and went to bed. In the evening I took a second purging powder, and lost ten ounces more of blood. The next morning I bathed my face, hands, and feet in cold water for some time. I drank plentifully, during the day and night, of weak hyson tea, and of water, in which currant jelly had been dissolved. At eight o'clock I was so well as to admit persons who came for advice into my room, and to receive reports from my pupils of the state of as many of my patients as they were able to visit; for, unfortunately, they were not able to visit them all (with their own) in due time; by which means several died. The next day I came down stairs, and prescribed in my parlour for not less than a hundred people. On the 19th of the same month, I resumed my labours, but in great weakness. It was with difficulty that I ascended a pair of stairs, by the help of a banister. A slow fever, attended with irregular chills, and a troublesome cough, hung constantly upon me. The fever discovered itself in the heat of my hands, which my patients often told me were warmer than their own. The breath and exhalations from the sick now began to affect me, in small and infected rooms, in the most sensible manner. On the morning of the 4th of October I suddenly sunk down, in a sick room, upon a bed, with a giddiness in my head. It continued for a few minutes, and was succeeded by a fever, which confined me to my house the remaining part of the day.
Every moment in the intervals of my visits to the sick was employed in prescribing, in my own house, for the poor, or in sending answers to messages from my patients; time was now too precious to be spent in counting the number of persons who called upon me for advice. From circumstances I believe it was frequently 150, and seldom less than 50 in a day, for five or six weeks. The evening did not bring with it the least relaxation from my labours. I received letters every day from the country, and from distant parts of the union, containing inquiries into the mode of treating the disease, and after the health and lives of persons who had remained in the city. The business of every evening was to answer these letters, also to write to my family. These employments, by affording a fresh current to my thoughts, kept me from dwelling on the gloomy scenes of the day. After these duties were performed, I copied into my note book all the observations I had collected during the day, and which I had marked with a pencil in my pocket-book in sick rooms, or in my carriage. To these constant labours of body and mind were added distresses from a variety of causes. Having found myself unable to comply with the numerous applications that were made to me, I was obliged to refuse many every day. My sister counted forty-seven in one forenoon before eleven o'clock. Many of them left my door with tears, but they did not feel more distress than I did from refusing to follow them. Sympathy, when it vents itself in acts of humanity, affords pleasure, and contributes to health; but the reflux of pity, like anger, gives pain, and disorders the body. In riding through the streets, I was often forced to resist the entreaties of parents imploring a visit to their children, or of children to their parents. I recollect, and even yet with pain, that I tore myself at one time from five persons in Moravian-alley, who attempted to stop me, by suddenly whipping my horse, and driving my chair as speedily as possible beyond the reach of their cries.
The solicitude of the friends of the sick for help may further be conceived of, when I add, that the most extravagant compensations were sometimes offered for medical services, and, in one instance, for only a single visit. I had no merit in refusing these offers, and I have introduced an account of them only to inform such physicians as may hereafter be thrown into a similar situation, that I was favoured with an exemption from the fear of death, in proportion as I subdued every selfish feeling, and laboured exclusively for the benefit of others. In every instance in which I was forced to refuse these pathetic and earnest applications, my distress was heightened by the fear that the persons, whom I was unable to visit, would fall into improper hands, and perish by the use of bark, wine, and laudanum.