A collection of facts interspersed with observations on the nature, causes, and cure of the yellow fever : in a series of letters, addressed to the inhabitants of the United States : part I / by Thomas Ruston, M.D.
- Ruston, Thomas, approximately 1739-1804
- Date:
- 1804
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A collection of facts interspersed with observations on the nature, causes, and cure of the yellow fever : in a series of letters, addressed to the inhabitants of the United States : part I / by Thomas Ruston, M.D. 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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![cusc urged so often by the faculty, of the clanger of trusting powerful agents into unskilful hands, ought to lose its force in this country, where common mechanics are as well acquainted with the operations of nature as the gentlemen of the learned professions. Quit then your histories of its former depredations, and your me- taphysical inquiries, into the origin of an invisible, agent, known only by its effects, and come to the point at once, namely, the cure. It is a folly, in my opinion, to waste our time in un- profitable inquiries; such as, why the Almighty hath suffered us to be pestered with bugs and musquetoes, while we neglect to improve the faculties and power which he has given to us to subdue them ; and that man is a more useful member of society, who could exter- minate the Hessian fly, than the metaphysician who explains the design of nature in permitting those de- predators to exist, or the natural philosopher who re- counts his generation and subsequent transformation, or the historian who gives an account of the voyages and travels of that insect, from the land of his nativity till his arrival on the shore of America. Not that these in- quiries arc altogether to be despised, or useless : by no means ; yet in point of utility, rational beings will de- termine which ought to have the preference. At this moment, when I see my friends hurried to another world without having time to settle their ac- counts, I care not whether the unwelcome messenger comes from the east or the west; the north or the south ; ]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21152160_0035.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
