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PERIODICAL MEDICAL PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



The plan of the first medical periodical publication which ap- 

 peared in this country, was conceived by Dr. Elihu II. Smith, of 

 New York. He associated in his enterprise Dr. Edward Miller and 

 Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell, and in August, 1797, the first number of 

 the new journal appeared, under the name of the New York Medical 

 Repository. In the hands of different editors it continued to be 

 published for many years, until it reached its twenty-third volume. 

 In its pages are contained most of the writings of Dr. Miller, one 

 of the most original thinkers and observers which this country has 

 produced, whose eulogy has been written at length by the most 

 renowned among the medical theorists of the present century. Here, 

 too, are many of the productions of the originator of the enterprise, 

 who, at the early age of twenty-seven, fell a victim to the disease 

 he had illustrated, leaving a name which might have rewarded a 

 long life of honourable exertion. Although a considerable portion 

 of the Medical Repository is occupied by chemical disquisitions 

 which no longer possess anything but historical value, still it will 

 be always consulted with profit for its accounts of the diseases of 

 this country during the period of its publication, especially of yellow 

 fever, of spotted fever, and of typhoid pneumonia. The chemist will 

 remember it as having been honoured by many contributions from 

 Priestley; and the obstetrician will not soon forget that a letter from 

 Dr. Stevens, in its eleventh volume, introduced to the world the 

 wonderful properties of ergot. 



In speaking of this, the first of our medical periodicals, the ex- 

 pressions of Dr. Timelier may be adopted, as doing justice to the 

 pioneer journal of the western hemisphere. 



"The commencement of this publication Undoubtedly forms an 

 era in the literary and medical history of our country. No work of 

 a similar kind had ever appeared in the United States. Its influence 

 in exciting and recording medical inquiries, and in improving medi- 

 cal science, soon became apparent. It led to the establishment of 

 other and similar works in different parts of our own country, as 

 well as of Europe: and may thus, with great truth, be said to have 

 contributed more Largely than any other single publication to that 

 taste for medical investigation and improvement, which has been, 

 for a number of year-, so conspicuously and rapidly advancing on 

 this side of the Atlantic." 



