dengue in the city of Philadelphia 1780

 In the Autumn of 1780 an epidemic hit the city of Philadelphia. The symptoms of the disease resembled those of present day dengue fever, and sub- sequent observers argued that the disease was in fact dengue. But was it? The question forces us to confront the challenges of retrospective epidemiology and how we examine the history of a disease. This paper examines the 1780 epidemic from two perspectives. First, it looks at evidence that the disease was dengue and examines what this tells us about the epidemic and the conditions that caused it. Second, it looks at the disease from the perspective of Dr. Benjamin Rush, who treated hundreds of patients during the epidemic. In other words, it examines the disease through the lens of eighteenth century medical ideas. The paper concludes that each approach is valuable and reveals different aspects of the relationship between society and disease.

Справа на карте:
Map of Philadelphia showing the locations of households Rush visited between August 1 and October 28, 1780. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division.

ссылки на оригинал

The Fielding H. Garrison Lecture

“Break-Bone” Fever in Philadelphia, 1780: Reflections on the History of Disease

Randall M. Packard

Bulletin of the History of Medicine

Volume 90, Number 2, Summer 2016  :

• на MUSE
• пдф

btw:

Конституция США была принята 17 сентября 1787 года на Конституционном Конвенте в Филадельфии и впоследствии ратифицирована всеми тринадцатью существовавшими тогда американскими штатами.

1780 год в России:

• Слободско-Украинская губерния была преобразована в Харьковское наместничество, центр — Харьков.
• Екатерина Великая своим именным указом первой из европейских правителей разрешила своим подданным-евреям приписываться ко всем сословиям без перемены исповедания, уравняв их тем самым в правах с прочими жителями империи.