Notes suggested by the Franklin-Heberden pamphlet of 1759 / by Henry K. Cushing.

  • Cushing, Henry K. (Henry Kirke), 1827-1910
Date:
[1904]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes suggested by the Franklin-Heberden pamphlet of 1759 / by Henry K. Cushing. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    practitioners as well, of doctors, of town clerks, usually men [277] of more attainments than most of their fellows, and of post- masters, for Franklin had now been Deputy Post-Master Gen- eral of the Continental Colonies for six years? From Proud's History I take this instance of the then ever- present imminence of small pox, and of the acquired equan- imity with which it was endured as one of the accompani- ments of life sooner or later to be reckoned with. William Penn had for a considerable time past been making preparation for his voyage to America, which being at last accom- plished in the sixth month of the year 1682, accompanied by a number of his friends, he went on board the ship Welcome, of 300 tons, Robert Greenway, Commander, and on the 30th of the same month (it was August) he writ from the Downs a valedic- tory epistle. The number of passengers on the ship was about 100, mostly Quakers from Sussex, the proprietaire's place of abode. In this passage many of them were taken with the small pox, and about 30 of the number died. In this trying situation the acceptable company of William Penn is said to have been of singular advan- tage to them, and his kind advice and assistance during the pas- sage, so that in the main they had a prosperous voyage. Estimating the crew of such a ship at 20 men (a large estimate probably) making with the passengers 120 souls all told, the mortality of 30 would have been one in four of all on board. But the passengers fared even worse for one-third of them died on the eight weeks' voyage, as the Welcome did not get within the Capes of the Delaware until the 24th of October.' One of the Welcome's passengers was Dr. Griffith Owen, a Welsh Quaker, later one of Pennsylvania's eminent phy- sicians. His ministrations, however, seem not to have been thought worthy of mention beside the acceptable company of the great Proprietaiiv. The high born and distinguished Lady Mary Wortley Montague had small pox in early life, and though she es- caped pitting, yet suffered the permanent loss of her eye- lashes, an unfortunate blemish to an otherwise lovely face. 'Encyclopedia Britannica.