Excerpt from Sketches From the History of Yellow Fever: Showing Its Origin, Together With Facts and Circumstances Disproving Its Domestic Origin, and Demonstrating Its Transmissibility

It does not appear, however, that the influence of Dr. Rush, is by any means the only one that operates in our cities to prevent the establishment of quarantine regulations. The voice of policy is louder than that of reason. It is certainly not a matter of wonder, that many denizens of cities to whom wealth is brought by the wind that bears death to their fellow citizens and that physicians, enjoying, as they do, certain prescriptive privileges, have so often been heard in denunciation of the measures calculated to protect the health of our cities. But it is truly surprising that mer cantile communities, with all the good sense and freedom from prejudice that generally characterizes that body, should ever Oppose these salutary regulations, which more than all others, serve to promote and foster the commercial interests of the port. We would not impugn the motives of our fellow citi zens, but men are generally prone to believe that Opinion to be true, to which their interests incline; and pride prompts them to maintain the principles they have once adopted. Thus it is that self-interest warped opinion, and truth, jus tice, and humanity have been sacrificed to expedience, policy and professional bigotry.

Happily the larger portion of mankind will not weigh the lives of their fellow citizens in one scale, and the price of blood in the other; and if they err, it is either from not having the facts laid clearly before them, or else from blind devotion to their adopted Opinions.

It is our desire to call the attention of our fellow citizens to a few facts and circumstances in relation to yellow fever; and we hope they will regard our subject as one worthy of mature deliberation. This is our only desire; we do not seek the public ear as an aspirant for literary or professional honors, but as the unpretending advocate of truth and hu manity.

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