Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1442

PIERRE CHARLES ALEXANDRE LOUIS (1787-1872) Anatomical, pathological and therapeutic researches on the yellow fever of Gibraltar of 1828. Charles C. Little and James Brown 1839 xxiii, 374 pp. 22.7 cm.

For more information on this author or work, see number: 1438

Louis had an important influence on American medicine partly because of his medical achievements and also because so many American physicians were exposed to his ideas while doing postgraduate studies in Paris. As a result, his works were popular in the United States and many translations appeared in the American journal of the medical sciences. In the Translator's Introduction to the present work, George Cheyne Shattuck, Jr. (1813-1893) commented that he translated it from the manuscript with Louis' permission because "Circumstances have delayed its publication in France, and some years may yet elapse before it appears in that country" (p. [xi]). After completing his medical studies at Harvard in 1835, Shattuck received additional training from Louis while in Europe and became his lifelong friend. An epidemic of yellow fever occurred on Gibraltar in August 1828 and lasted until late December of that year. Louis noted that "The French government . . . appointed a commission of physicians, composed of Drs. Chervin, Trousseau, and myself, who should go to Gibraltar, and collect such facts as might lead to the solution of the problem" (p. [xvii]). Although the disease's cause was unknown, Louis stated that "We must study symptoms, the history, the termination, the duration, the treatment, and many other circumstances unconnected with etiology. . . ." (p. xx). He asked the reader "to remember that this work is not a treatise on yellow fever, but a history of the epidemic yellow fever which prevailed in Gibraltar in 1828. All the general facts which result from my analysis, may not be found in other epidemics, yet probably the points of resemblance will be so numerous, that the usefulness of my researches will not be questioned. . . ." (pp. xxii-xxiii). Shattuck's translation also appeared in the American journal of the medical sciences and is here published as Volume X in the Massachusetts Medical Society's Library of practical medicine series.

Cited references: Cushing L361; Wellcome III, p. 551

Gift of William B. Bean, M.D