Rush identifies the fever and applies therapies
- When
- 1793
- Where
- Philadelphia
Benjamin Rush recognized the yellow fever pattern after two weeks of rising cases and treated patients with bleeding and purging, teaching African-American nurses these methods.
Benjamin Rush had been a doctor's apprentice during Philadelphia's 1762 yellow fever epidemic. After two weeks and an increasing number of fever cases in 1793, he recognized the pattern. Rush treated patients by bleeding and purging, and taught African-American nurses how to perform these procedures. In his 1794 account, Mathew Carey noted that other doctors claimed to have used calomel, a mercury compound, before Rush, and that its efficacy was great, rescuing many from death.
Sources
- 1793 Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-24
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