up, and oppose on the footing of the least degree of that liberality and dignity, which are indispensable in a scientific journal. My name, however, having been singled out, for some purpose, as a member of the committee who drew up the Report, and as the author of a former publication,* I think it incumbent upon me to remonstrate against a gross misrepresentation of my opinions respecting the causes of yellow fever, which I have uniformly defended during thirty years. No person has a right to pervert them, any more than to invade one's property or reputation. Indeed, I never apprehended such an attempt from professional gentlemen; and that it is a violation of the ordinary rules of justice, the following must manifestly prove. Great pains have been taken to show, that I have attributed yellow fever to a cause, which is plainly rejected in the writings of Rush and Miller; and also, that in less than twelve months, I have flatly contradicted one absurdity by another. In order to come at these imputations, it is represented, that the committee who drew the Medical Report, attributed the yellow fever to the operation of heat; but that I had, one year before, already assigned the fatal distemper to the operation of moisture. If, in less than one year, I had thus changed my opinion from moisture to heat, it is, by the bye, very curious that I should have become, as the Recorder says, a prominent member of the committee; and that, in defending their report in toto before the Medical Society, no one should have invalidated my defence by my own inconsistency! But let us inquire further into this profound piece of criticism. The committee having estimated upon the best authority, (page 8) that an immense pestiferous steam can be produced by a great number of people encompassed within a A statement of the occurrences during a Malignant yellow fever in the City of New-York.-1819. &e. small space of ground, have said, that "a long continued intense heat, or calm and dry weather, when assisted by impure miasmatic exhalations, was one of the predisposing causes, &c. (page 12.) It was asserted by Rush, that yellow fever appears when heat acts upon moist animal and vegetable matter. Miller added, that for its production, it is necessary that there should be a concurrence of heat, moisture, and a quantity of decaying animal and vegetable matter. All which is in unison with the Medical Report on the subject of the operation of heat on the clustered and decayed habitations, many of which were crowded with hundreds of wretched tenants, incessantly dropping filth from their bodies, eating, drinking, and affording abundant moisture for the process of exhalation. It is therefore false, that the Committee, and with them Dr. P., have attributed yel low fever to heat, independently of moisture or impure exhalation. But, the second term of the comparison, which is adduced to prove a flat contradiction of the Committee to what one of its members had said one year before, that is, yellow fever having been ascribed to moisture only, is truly astonishing. There are no less than four pages in my Statement of the epidemic in New-York of 1819, wholly dedicated to the explanation of the laws and nature of miasmatic exhalations; of their varied operations and circumstances. This explanation commences at page 21, in the following words; "It may be said, that if such an operation of the causes we have pointed out," (heat and moisture on a great quantity of fermentable materials) &c. The first paragraph accounts for the excessive heats devouring or destroying the putrescible materials, which might engender pestilence, if they were not carried off by evaporation. It is there also related, that plague itself is often checked by excessive heats. The second and fifth paragraphs further illustrate the operation of less degrees of heat, and moisture, which determine the formation of the different kinds of fever. It is not, therefore, my fault, if this part of the Statement has not been read by our learned antagonist. But according to this doctrine, it was consistent to have premised, in page 19, that large cities are healthier with excessive and dry heats; and that with much rain and showers, New-York had probably been in 1819, very sickly on account of great quantities of putrescible materials in different parts of the city. Now, what is the conclusion drawn by a disingenuous critic? Why forsooth, that Dr. Pascalis attributes the yellow fever to moisture! After such a distortion of my professed opinion on those primordial laws of nature which must necessarily create malignant fevers; after such a misuse of detached words and disconnected sentences, from a series of arguments, by a writer who to say the least, either rejects them, or is not acquainted with their import. I leave it with the Editors of the Recorder to consider the propriety and justice of this concluding sentence, in page 321 of their last number; "a more flagrant specimen of contradiction cannot be met with in the records of inconsistency and absurdity." The subscriber is aware that this fabrication is not the joint work of those, who did him the honour eighteen months ago, to associate his name with the names of those eminent persons who have contributed to improve the general opinions concerning the causes of the epidemic diseases of this country!* I admit, also, that no medical character, not even a fellow labourer in the task of diffusing useful knowledge, should expect to escape in your pages the shaft of controversy, or merited censure; yet may I be allowed to ask, whether they should be equally opened to combined and studied misrepresentations from conflicting parties, without even common regard to man * American Medical Recorder; October, 1819. p. 475. VOL. VI. 48 ners and persons, and, as if their names and labours had really incurred the vituperation of audacity, senselessness, absurdity and ignorance? Were I to think so, I should not do justice to the feelings I have hitherto entertained, and to my perfect conviction of contrary rules and dispositions on your part. To the author of the paper complained of, the following memento is therefore recommended; "Sylvis deducti caveant, me judice, Fauni, Hor, de arte poetică. FELIX PASCALIS. New-York, April, 1821. Card. TO THE EDITORS OF THE MEDICAL REPOSITORY. I feel as if I ought to ask pardon of the readers of the Medical Repository, for again obtruding myself upon their attention, with a subject, that more immediately concerns myself; but as Dr. Watts, the reporter of the cases published in the Medical and Surgical Register, of the supposed effects of drinking cold water, as alluded to in the two last numbers of the Repository, has thought proper to assert, that it is proved beyond doubt, that the cases in question were not prescribed for, and treated under my sole, and immediate direction; I flatter myself that I shall be considered in the same degree excusable, for coming forward to repel this assertion, as I was justifiable in the first instance, in undeceiving the reader in regard to the very ingenious method adopted by the reporter, for securing to himself, a credit, to which I well knew, and still know, he was not entitled. With as much propriety, might I, on entering upon my professional duties in the hospital, take up a case of chorea, for example, which had remained in the ward, and which had been treated by my predecessor, in a peculiar manner successfully, and whom I found in a state of convalescence; and sometime after, publish this case to the world, as a case of my own particular management. I have asserted, and still maintain, that in the summer of 1818, I was the first, who in the New-York Hospital, prescribed, directed, and established the method of treatment, which, in the cases in question, proved so eminently successful. In contradiction to this, Dr. Watts has produced three statements, or if he pleases, three certificates, from Drs. Helme, Pendleton, and Campbell. With regard to the first, I would remark, that Dr. Helme does not pretend to say, that the cases referred to by him, were the first which had occurred, or which had been received into the Hospital that summer; and as to his impression, that it was Dr. Watts, who recommended the course of treatment to which they were subjected; any one who has read Dr. Watts's Report, can easily understand, how impressions favourable to one's purpose, can be made on the minds of others by the very simple process of suppressing a few material facts, and circumstances. As Dr. Pendleton's statement is derived wholly, from the misrepresentations of Dr. Campbell, and as I shall proceed presently, to prove the gross inaccuracy of Dr. Campbell's statement on the subject, all which Dr. Pendleton has communicated, is entitled to very little weight. In order to introduce the proof of Dr. Campbell's incorrectness, I have thought proper to give a brief statement of facts, in confirmation of which, I shall subjoin the declarations of several respectable witnesses, two of them testifying to the same fact, (that of the mason who was brought from the coal vault, in the Hospital-yard) in con |