Lot 4
Adams John Quincy 1767 - 1848 Secretary of State John Quincy Adams has sent "to the several Consuls of the United States" copies of Dr. Nathaniel Potter's Memoir stating that yellow fever was not contagious - 80 years later, Dr. Potter's belief was proven to be true
Manuscript Letter Signed "John Quincy Adams," as Monroe's Secretary of State, 1 page, 8" x 9.75". Washington, September 28, 1820. To "E. J. Coale Esquire Baltimore." Toned at edges. Very Good condition.
In full, "I have had the pleasure of receiving your favor of yesterday and two packages to which it refers, for which please to accept my thanks. Will you have the goodness to inform Dr. [Thomas P.] Hall, that the fifty copies of Dr. Potter's Memoir were duly received, and have already been despatched to the several Consuls of the United States, as was requested. I am with great Respect, Dear Sir, your very humble and obedient Servant..."
From Calendar of the Miscellaneous Letters Received by the Department of State. From the Organization of the Government to 1820 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1897): "Hall, Thomas P. July 17, 1820. Quarantine laws and intercourse of foreign powers with the United States; transmits fifty copies of Dr. Potter's 'Memoir on Contagion,' to be forwarded to United States consuls, with a view of producing a favorable change."
In 1793, Dr. Nathaniel Potter, a former pupil of Signer of the Declaration of Independence Dr. Benjamin Rush, and afterwards the first Professor of Theory and Practice of Medicine in the University of Maryland, held that yellow fever was not contagious, and he communicated this opinion to Dr. Rush in writing. Dr. Rush disagreed. Dr. Potter published his "Memoir on Contagion" in 1818. Yellow fever swept through Baltimore every summer. During an 1820 epidemic, 300 people perished. Dr. Potter was convinced the disease was not contagious and attempted to contaminate himself to prove his point. Never was the mosquito suspected of being the disease's carrier. We know today that yellow fever is not contagious, that it is transmitted to humans by a bite from an infected mosquito and that it cannot spread from person to person by close contact with someone who is infected with yellow fever.
In 1820, it was "Resolved, by the Medical and Surgical Society of Maryland, that the Corresponding Secretary be requested to forward to the Secretary of State of the United States, fifty copies of Dr. Potter's Memoir; with the respectful request, that he will furnish American consuls, residing abroad, with copies of said memoir, in such manner as, in his opinion, may produce a favourable change in the quarantine laws..." The distribution of Dr. Potter's Memoir to U.S. Consuls was to convince other countries that yellow fever was not contagious. It was not until after the Spanish - American War 80 years later that yellow fever was proven to be not contagious and was, in fact, transmitted by mosquitoes.
Baltimore publisher and bookseller Edward J. Coale was the son of Anne Hopkinson Coale, a sister of Signer of the Declaration of Independence Francis Hopkinson. His wife, Mary Ann Buchanan Coale, was the daughter of Dr. George Buchanan and Laetitia McKean Buchanan, sister of Signer of the Declaration of Independence Thomas McKean.
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