MSS 2/0141-02								Acc. 1990-117

NICHOLAS CHERVIN,
 1783-1843

  Letters,
 1821-1832

Biographical

Nicholas Chervin, French physician and yellow fever researcher, 
was born on 6 October 1783 at St. Laurentd'Oingt.  He died 
at Bourbonne les Bains on 14 August 1843.

Chervin received his M.D. from the University of Paris in 1812. 
 He then studied typhus in a military hospital in Mainz and 
became Surgeon at the Hotel Dieu in Lyon.  In 1814, Chervin 
travelled to Guadaloupe to study yellow fever.  In pursuit of 
his research, he sojourned in the United States from 1818 to 
1822, then went to Spain in 1823, and Cadiz and Gibraltar in 
1828.

Chervin was an ardent believer in the non contagiousness of yellow 
fever.  He wrote several monographs on the subject and campaigned 
for the elimination of quarantine on the basis of his research. 
 From 1820 to 1822, Chervin wrote to physicians in most of the 
port cities of the East Coast of the United States, from Portland, 
Maine, to New Orleans, Louisiana, gathering information regarding 
the experiences of each physician with yellow fever and his 
opinion regarding the contagious or non contagious aspects of 
the disease.  The single largest group of responses came from physicians 
in Philadelphia.  The majority of Chervin's respondents did 
not believe in the contagiousness of yellow fever.


Scope and contents

The collection contains five letters written by Nicholas Chervin 
to Samuel Jackson, 1821-1832, concerning Chervin's 1821 survey 
on the contagiousness of yellow fever and gastroenteritis [cholera 
morbus].  One of the letters includes Jackson's copy of a letter 
written to him by Isaac Hiester, concerning Hiester's experience 
with yellow fever in Germantown, Pa.  The original letter from 
Isaac Hiester to Samuel Jackson is catalogued as MSS 2/0143-01.


Provenance

The five Nicholas Chervin letters were photocopied at the National 
Library of Medicine and donated to the Historical Collections 
of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia by Peter B. Hirtle, 
Curator of Modern Manuscripts, in 1990.  The original letters 
are in the possession of the New York Academy of Medicine Library.

The letters were catalogued in 1992.


1821-1832
1 folder (5 items)

7/9/92
je

 
MSS 2/0141-02								Acc. 1990-117

NICHOLAS CHERVIN,
 1783-1843

  Letters,
 1821-1832

 1. Chervin, [Nicholas], 1783-1843.

	Autograph letter signed : [Philadelphia, Pa.], to [Samuel] 
Jackson, [Philadelphia, Pa.], 1821 May 8.
		2 p.
		In English.

 2. Chervin, [Nicholas], 1783-1843.

	Autograph letter signed : New York, N.Y., to Samuel Jackson, 
Philadelphia, Pa., 1821 Oct. 3.
		3 p.
		In French.  

	With Hiester, Isaac, d. 1855.

	Letter signed (copy) : Reading, [Pa.], to Samuel Jackson, 
[Philadelphia, Pa.], 1821 Aug. 29.
		1 p.
		In English.

 3. Chervin, [Nicholas], 1783-1843.

	Autograph letter signed : Mounte Agathe, Guadaloupe, to Samuel 
Jackson, Philadelphia, Pa., 1822 Mar. 4.
		4 p.
		In French.
 
 4. Chervin, [Nicholas], 1783-1843.

	Autograph letter signed : Paris, [France], to Samuel Jackson, 
Philadelphia, Pa., 1831 Jan. 7.
		4 p.
		In French.

 5. Chervin, [Nicholas], 1783-1843.

	Autograph letter signed : Paris, [France], to Samuel Jackson, 
Philadelphia, Pa., 1832 Jan. 8.
		4 p.
		In French.


1821-1832
1 folder (5 items)

7/9/1992
je