Meditations on Yellow Fever

Cresson, a Philadelphia Quaker, died of yellow fever on 21 October, 1793. His meditations on the epidemic, written during the month prior to his illness, were acquired and edited for publication by William Dillwyn (cf Sabin 17484). A memoir by Cresson's widow is included. (Miner)

From Catalog I

Where Rush's letters show a physician fighting for his theory, Cresson's meditations show an ordinary citizen trying to maintain his spiritual equilibrium while his city dies around him. The copy's later British provenance signature suggests these Philadelphia Quaker meditations were known in British Quaker networks as well -- the epidemic's reach as a devotional text extending across the Atlantic.