To John Jay from Benjamin Rush, 2 August 1796
From Benjamin Rush
[Philadelphia 2nd August 1796.]
Dear Sir,
Permit me to request your Acceptance of a Copy of a medical Work which I have just published.1 It contains some new proofs of the domestic Origin of the yellow fever in our Country, and of Course cannot fail of being interesting to the first Citizen of the state of New York. Until the domestic Origin of the yellow fever in the United States be admitted, we shall always hold, the health, commerce, and population of our Cities by the precarious tenure of rainy and cool summers.— There is no truth in any science more obvious ^than this,^ and nothing more true, than that it may be prevented with as much ease and certainty as any of the common evils of life.
Mr Lownes2 (who speaks with great Gratitude of your Civilities to him) informs me that you have lately devoted some of your leisure hours to the Study of the prophesies of the Old testaments. You will find by the Conclusion of my book that I have not been indifferent to them. Dr: Hartley’s “Observations on man” have opened many delightful views upon those subjects.3 Winchester upon the prophesies which are yet to be fulfilled, is full of great & interesting matter.4 If you have y ^not^ read that work, you have a sublime pleasure yet to come. He is at all times ingenious, and for the most part, I believe his Opinions are consonant of the natural & simple meaning of the
Scriptures. My dear Mrs Rush joins in most respectful Compliments to Mrs Jay with Dear Sir your sincere, and Affectionate friend
Benjn: Rush
Govr. Jay
ALS, NNC (EJ: 09454).
1. Benjamin Rush, Medical inquiries and observations: containing an account of the bilious remitting and intermitting yellow fever, as it appeared in Philadelphia in the year 1794. Together with an inquiry into the proximate cause of fever: and a defence of blood-letting as a remedy for certain diseases (Philadelphia, 1796; , series 1, no. 31144). Rush was one of the leading proponents of the infectious (environmental) cause of epidemics. See the editorial note “John Jay and the Yellow Fever Epidemics,” above.
2. Probably Caleb Lownes.
3. In the conclusion of his work, Rush notes that yellow fever may fulfill Biblical prophecy, and that the disease may, according to David Hartley (1705–57), allow for “the propagation of Christianity throughout the world by natural means,” also quoting his ideas about training missionaries in medicine, 256–57. See also David Hartley, Observations on man: his frame, his duty, and his expectations (London, 1749).
4. Elhanan Winchester, A course of lectures, on the prophecies that remain to be fulfilled. Delivered in the borough of Southwark, as also, at the chapel in Glasshouse-Yard, London 1789 (Norwich, [1794–95]; , series 1, nos. 29907 and 28110).