Remarks on the resolution adopted by the Honourable the Board of Health of the City of New York on the 6th Nov. inst. in relation to Dr. Nicholas Chervin, a French physician. [And his inquiries into the origin of yellow fever / [Nicholas Chervin].

  • Nicolas Chervin
Date:
1821]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on the resolution adopted by the Honourable the Board of Health of the City of New York on the 6th Nov. inst. in relation to Dr. Nicholas Chervin, a French physician. [And his inquiries into the origin of yellow fever / [Nicholas Chervin]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    W. King, a gentleman just arrived from Philadelphia, sick with malignant fever ? These facts are, I believe, more than sufficient to prove evidently that I have not been u partial in selecting my ex¬ tractsthat, so far from having, 46 with scarcely a single ex¬ ception, copied those cases which lead to the conclusion that the yellow fever is neither imported nor contagious f I have, on the contrary, transcribed many 44 of those prominent cases whichf in the opinion of the contagionists, 44 lead to a very different conclusion.” It is, therefore, evident, to every un¬ prejudiced reader, that my conduct has been neither partial nor calculated to misrepresent the truth, but that it has been, no doubt, strangely misrepresented to a deliberative body, presided over by the first magistrate of the first city of the United States; for what reason, it is not my business or my wish to tell, and 1 leave it to every candid and impartial reader to decide. Having thus clearly proved that I have transcribed from the minutes of the Board many cases which, in their opinion, lead to the conclusion that the yellow fever is imported and contagious, it remains now for me to explain why some other prominent cases of the same purport have not been found in the collection of my extracts: it was merely because it is not my business to search for what is already obtained ; and I do not think proper to lose my time in transcribing from public records, what is in public prints and in many books in my possession. The Board well know that the report of Dr. Gillespie, relative to the cases of yellow fever which occurred at Brooklyn, in 1809, addressed to their Secretary, is found in the first volume of the Medical and Philosophical Register; they well know that all their pro¬ ceedings relative to the yellow fever at Perth-Amboy, in 1811, have been published in the third volume of the same work; they well know that the report of Dr. Beck to the
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