THE REVEREND COTTON MATHER'S DESCRIPTION OF MEASLES (1713)

[摘要] It may surprise the contemporary physician that Cotton Mather (1663-1728) may well be "the first significant figure in American medicine."1 During the most widespread and most alarming of the colonial epidemics of measles that began in the late summer of 1713, Mather published a short letter on the medical aspects of the disease, which, although written for the benefit of the poor, happens to be a classic of American pediatrics and compares favorably with any description of measles written on the continent.2 Mather wrote3:The Measles are a Distemper which in Europe ordinarily proves a light Malady; but in these parts of America it proves a very heavy Calamity; A Malady Grievous to most, Mortal to many, and leaving pernicious Relicks behind it in All. Because the Sickness is now spreading in all Parts; and its Malignity increases, as the Winter advances, and Good Physicians are not every where at Hand, for the Relief of the Sick, and a very nice Management of the Case is very requisite: You are now addressed with a short Letter of Advice concerning it . . .The Usual Symptoms of an Arrest from the Measles are, an Head-ake; on Troubles in the Eyes; a Dry Cough; an Oppression on the Breast or Stomach; or a pain there, and in the Back and Limbs; and sometimes a Faintness, with Sickness, perhaps Vomiting, on Griping and Purging; A Thirst, with a constant Fever, which is mild at first, but grows high enough before it has done . . .

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