2009/03/01 by Richard Conniff · 2 citations
Medicine · #Zoonotic diseases and public health
paper · doi:10.1002/evan.20203
openalex publication_date 2009/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Abstract On July 16, 1847, a missionary newly arrived in New York City from West Africa packed a collection of bones in a box and shipped them off to a colleague in Massachusetts. In a letter, Thomas S. Savage (Fig. 1), a graduate of Yale College and Yale Medical School, admitted to being “quite unwell,” probably meaning “utterly wretched.” He had already endured tropical diseases in Liberia off and on for more than a decade, and he'd seen his first two wives languish and die there, probably of malaria. He wasn't the sort to complain lightly.