A sketch of the medical topography of Lexington and its vicinity : being an inaugural dissertation, submitted to the examination of the Rev. John Andrews ..., the Trustees, and medical faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, on the 21st day of April, 1806, for the degree of Doctor of Medicine / by Benjamin W. Dudley, of Lexington, Kentucky.

  • Dudley, Benjamin W. (Benjamin Winslow), 1785-1870.
Date:
1806
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A sketch of the medical topography of Lexington and its vicinity : being an inaugural dissertation, submitted to the examination of the Rev. John Andrews ..., the Trustees, and medical faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, on the 21st day of April, 1806, for the degree of Doctor of Medicine / by Benjamin W. Dudley, of Lexington, Kentucky. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    common and less violent in their attacks, than they were while the citizens, from the infancy of the country, were obliged to live the lives in some degree of the original inhabitants. Rheumatic affee- tions of the acute and chronic kind are less frequent than they ori- ginally were, and the suppurated liver is scarcely known until we approach some of the larger waters or stagnating ponds. The small quantity of still water near Lexington precludes a possibility of intermittents becoming prevalent, except immediately on the south side of some few mill-ponds. The few cases of scrophula which oc- cur, seem, many of them, to be of Virginia extract; but from some predisposition, together with the improper management of negro children, its occurrence as an indigenous disease cannot be doubt- ed. Hitherto it has been but seldom cured, from our ignorance of its nature ; but from the progress of our great professors of materia medica, and the practice of medicine towards the true nature of me- dicines, and the cure of diseases, we may now anticipate some de- gree of success. We must either prescribe some medicine, which acts specifically on the glandular and lymphatic systems, as mercury, &c. or we must restore the harmony of the different systems of vessels by tonics, if too little action prevails, or by evacuants, if the patient can bear this mode of treatment. It has been suggested to me, by an intimate friend and corres- pondent, that there is an ophthalmia peculiar to the statj of Ken- tucky ; he supposes the affection to be the consequence of the use of lime stone water, and that transient visitois to this country only are the subjects of the disease. My ingenious friend may be in possession of facts, Which to him may render the idea conclusive ; but, judging from what I have read and heard delivered on this subject, by the different professors of the institution, I am disposed, if not to reject the idea altogether, at least to suspend an opinion, which requires time and probably minute chemical knowledge to determine. Ophthalmia, in all its grades, is one of the most com- mon forms of disease in countries exposed to vegetable and animal putrefaction; and as this state has stagnant waters, standing in great plenty in different parts, may not the most natural solution of this disagreeable affection be the same with that of intermittent fevers? C