An Account of the Weather and Diseases of South-Carolina
YF-2023.016
CHALMERS, Lionel. An Account of the Weather and Diseases of South Carolina. London: Edward and Charles Dilly, 1776. 1st ed. Two vols bound in one. viii, 222; 1v, 224pp. plus two folding charts.
Bound in full contemporary polished calf, raised spine bands, gilt tooling, red morocco spine label.
Chalmers, a Scottish emigrant and physician, studied the weather in
South Carolina for ten years, beginning in 1750. His account of observations includes the impact of seasons on health, the effects of various illnesses and disorders, and hypotheses for treatment and prevention. An interesting text on early medical science in America.
MINER: After studying medicine in Scotland (he took a late degree from St. Andrews in 1756), Chalmers migrated to Charleston, S.C. (ca. 1737), where he began a long and prosperous practice in partnership with John Lining (#255). In 1750 Chalmers began keeping detailed meteorological records in an attempt to correlate weather conditions to the occurrence of various diseases. This effort culminated in the publication of the Account in 1776.
From Catalog I
Published seventeen years before the Philadelphia epidemic, Chalmers's work is Rush's methodological ancestor: the tradition of correlating climate, standing water, and miasmatic conditions to epidemic disease that Rush would apply -- and overextend -- in 1793. Rush cites the South Carolina tradition when arguing that yellow fever arises from local conditions. Chalmers was looking at the same environmental signals as Rush; neither yet knew what they were actually seeing.
Accession
YF-2023.016
Date
London, 1776
Author / maker
Chalmers, Lionel
Condition
Bound in full contemporary polished calf, raised spine bands, gilt tooling, red morocco spine label.
References
HOWES C267, ."b" SABIN 11772. REESE STRUGGLE FOR NORTH AMERICA, 84. MINER 99 (imperfect-Vol. II of Miner set lacking pp. 223-24 -supplied in facsimile).)
Notes
Rare. The last two copies sold in 2015 and 2013, both of which were in poor condition. Prior to that a copy also in poor condition sold in 1992, and prior to that not since 1979. This copy has been in a private collection for many years.
