Some account of the last yellow fever epidemic of British Guiana / by Daniel Blair ; edited by John Davy.

Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some account of the last yellow fever epidemic of British Guiana / by Daniel Blair ; edited by John Davy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    EDITOR'S PREFACE. The Author's distant residence in British Guiana is sufficient to account for some aid being required in conducting his Work through the press. Plaving had when employed on service in the West Indies the pleasure of making Dr. Blair's acquaintance, and having from intercourse with him, both in conversation and writing, formed a high opinion of his opportunities for, and power of, observing, I felt confident that a monograph by him, embodying the results of his experience on Yellow Fever, as it occurred in Georgetown, British Guiana, between 1837 and 1842, could not fail to be valuable;—a conviction which was confirmed by even a partial perusal of the MS. This persuasion induced me to offer my assistance to my friend to superintend the printing of his work. He accepted the offer, with the re- quest that I would, whenever occasion permitted, give any information I might be able to supply in addition in the form of notes or comments,—a request which I did not think it right to decline. These additions are denoted by being placed within brackets. In proof that I have not adverted groundlessly to the Author's opportunities for observation, I may mention some circumstances which I have learnt from him, communicated in a letter regard- ing his treatise, —viz., that he has been in full practice in the colony of British Guiana since the year 1835, and that he has had there the superintendence of the public hospitals, comprising the Colonial General Hospital, the Demerara Seaman's Hospital, the Small Pox Hospital, and Lunatic Asylum, since February, 1842, with absolute medical direction of them, he himself pre- scribing for every case, and performing every capital operation required, aided in the duties by two resident medical assistants.