79
Mease’s dissertation on the rabies.
8
vo.
1815 Catalogue, page 40. no. 83, as above, with the reading
Maese’s.
MEASE,
James.
An Inaugural Dissertation on the Disease produced by the Bite of a Mad Dog, or other Rabid Animal: submitted to the Examination
of the Rev. John Ewing, S.T.P. Provost; the Trustees and Medical Faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, on the Eleventh
Day of May, 1792, for the Degree of Doctor of Medicine, By James Mease, A.M. of Philadelphia . . .
Philadelphia: Printed by
Thomas Dobson,
1792.
RC148 .M48
First Edition. 8vo. in fours. 72 leaves, list of errata on the last leaf.
Evans 24534.
Surgeon General’s Library Catalogue I, viii, 744.
Jefferson’s copy was a presentation from the author, to whom he wrote from Philadelphia on May 31, 1792: “
Th: Jefferson presents his compliments to D
r. James Mease and his thanks for his very learned & ingenious dissertation on canine madness. he had not before heard of the
method of prevention by the use of water in a stream as mentioned page 103. the theory of which appears probable & the application
easy. he has lately had a letter from Algiers informing him of the cure of one of our captives there by a very strong use
of Mercury, as recommended pa. 125. whether the disease were real or not, it shews that this opinion is favored by the
Arabic school
of medecine, if we may use the expression. he has often thought that in order to discover some certain method of treatment
of a disease, the most distressing of all those to which we are liable, it would be practicable & well worth while, to confine
in a safe place a number of animals, communicating the disease successively to them, and subjecting them to various treatments
till some one should be found the success of which might be relied on. the experimentalist who should be successful in establishing
by multiplied trials a certain method of cure, would merit an altar.
”
Dr. Mease replied from Philadelphia June 16, 1792, in a letter which contained a long discussion of the use of mercury and
other methods of cure: “On my return from New York last evening, to which place I went, the day after I did myself the honor of presenting you with
a Copy of my dissertation, your polite and obliging favour was delivered to me. Be pleased, Sir, to accept of my most grateful
thanks for it.--The fact communicated of the success of mercury, is of great importance, but its authenticity, not being sufficiently
ascertained, as you observe,--must certainly detract from the Utility which it otherwise would be attended with . . .
"I perfectly agree with you Sir, in respect to the propriety of various modes of treatment being tried, on a number of different
animals properly secured, and as to the reward, that would be due to the discoverer of a certain method of cure . . .
"I expect however, to be able once, to bring the whole of what I had prepared for the press in a second edition, together
with what I shall hereafter add, as soon as the present impression is disposed of, which I have the pleasing reflexion to
find, is selling beyond my expectation . . .”
On June 23, 1801, Dr. Mease sent Jefferson a copy of another pamphlet on this subject. See no. 968.
James Mease, 1771-1846, physician, scientist and philanthropist, was born in Philadelphia. He was a member of the American Philosophical
Society, secretary of the Philadelphia Agricultural Society, and first vice-president of the Philadelphia Athenaeum. The dedication
of this inaugural essay to Benjamin Rush, his tutor and friend, is followed by a letter to Andrew Mease, M.D. of Strabane,
Ireland, signed
your affectionate nephew, James Mease, both dated from Philadelphia May 7, 1792.
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