“ with great satisfaction and as much conviction as he dares permit himself to feel on a subject so little familiar to him. he has directed copies of it to be procured and sent to all our diplomatic & other foreign agents, in order to correct the disastrous effects on our commerce produced by the contrary opinions. he salutes D ^r. Miller with respect. ”

Edward Miller, 1760-1812, New York physician, was the pioneer clinician of New York City. He took his medical degree in Philadelphia and became a close friend of Benjamin Rush. For a time Miller was connected with the U.S. military hospitals, and in 1803 was resident physician for the port of New York. His experience with yellow fever convinced him that it was of domestic origin and not contagious. In 1797 Miller joined Samuel L. Mitchill and Elihu H. Smith in conducting the Medical Repository , the first medical journal in the United States.

Jefferson’s copy was sent to him by Benjamin Rush who wrote on July 29, 1799: “Herewith you will receive two pamphflets, the one upon the causes of animal life, the other upon the origin of the yellow fever in our city, & upon the means of preventing it. The latter has been generally ready by our citizens, and has removed a small portion of their prejudices upon the subject of our annual calamity. But time, and another visitation by the disease, I fear will alone cure us of our absurd, & destructive belief in its importation . . .”

[In: The Medical Repository . . . conducted by Samuel Latham Mitchill, M.D. and Edward Miller, M.D. Second Hexade. Vol. III. New-York, 1806. pages 104-109.]

In a letter to Jefferson, received by him on August 22, 1805, Samuel L. Mitchill wrote: “I beg leave to submit to you two half sheets of the yet unpublished first Number of the 9th Volume of the Medical Repository. You will find in it my Commentary on the texts of Hippocrates which shew the Greeks of old to have been grievously afflicted with yellow fever; and Mr. Peron’s Memoir on the use of Lime with betel to guard against febrile Distempers.” [pages 99-102 of the same volume.]

On June 26, 1806, Thomas Ewell wrote to Jefferson from the U.S. Navy Yard, New York: “. . . Enclosed is a paper containing a letter on the means of preventing yellow fever, which I lately wrote. Hoping that you would be pleased to read it--I took the liberty of sending it; as it contains something new which may prove of some use. The hasty manner in which it was written--gives it a claim to be read with that liberality and indulgence, which you have been pleased to exercise in honoring your obliged and respectful servant.”

This pamphlet was written in the form of a letter to Dr. Rush, dated from the United States Navy Yard, June 15, 1806. The author supports the miasmatic origin of yellow fever advocated by Dr. Rush. It was reprinted in Ewell’s Statement of Improvements in the Theory and Practice of the Science of Medicine , Philadelphia, 1819 (dedicated to Thomas Jefferson).