Marylanders defeat Philadelphia: yellow fever updated.
Those strategic points which influence this amateur historian to declare a victory for Baltimore and Maryland over Philadelphia are: I. Based upon clinical and epidemiological data, two Marylanders, Potter and Davidge, were among the first to contest Rush and his contagion theory; they told him so and published their views. To prove this point, Potter went to the extreme of inoculating himself with presumedly infected material. Stubbins Ffirth, a young University of Pennsylvania medical student, did the same four years later. To Rush's credit was ultimate abandonment of his originally held views. II. John Crawford, of Baltimore, although not the originator of the insect concept of transmission of infectious agents, published his concepts in 1811. III. Henry Rose Carter, a Maryland graduate, clearly delineated, in 1898, that after identification of an index case of yellow fever an extrinsic incubation period was necessary before the evolution of secondary cases. IV. James Carroll, another University of Maryland graduate, who worked as Deputy under Walter Reed with Lazear and Agramonte, helped prove Finlay's original concept that the Aedes aegypti mosquito was the natural vector of yellow fever. Carroll himself was the first experimentally induced case. V. Studies in primates provide new approaches for management of yellow fever. Nutritional support and treatment with specific anti-viral agents may be useful for therapy of human yellow fever. Maryland members of the Climatological are mindful of Philadelphia's rich medical heritage and of the many battles won in the City of Brotherly Love. Physicians in colonial and early America experienced The best and worst of times, theirs was an age of foolishness and belief, of incredulity and light, of darkness, despair and hope. This tale of two cities ends in peace.