and trusted methods of blood letting and purging. In modern day terms he'd be dismissed as a quack, a charlatan who shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a sick patient.

Yet it's instructive that it's Rush who earns the respect of most people in town, a sure indication that the majority of folk in Philadelphia at that time were far from enlightened in their view of the world.

As the epidemic rages, Mattie shows a decided preference for the medical approach of the French Dr. Devize, who relies on rest, plenty of fluids, and fresh air to combat the cholera epidemic. Dr. Rush and his disciples, in contrast, take a more aggressive stance. They advocate for bleeding and purging the cholera victims to release the disease from their bodies.

This is the approach Mattie's mother's doctor, Dr. Kerr, takes to treating Mrs. Cook. This method alarms Mattie and weakens her mother. Mattie much more approves of Dr. Devize's commonsense and hands off doctoring.

Mrs. Flagg summarizes what comes to be Mattie's opinion of Dr. Rush's approach:

You’ll hear folks say that Dr. Rush is a hero for saving folks with his purges and blood letting. But I’ve seen different. It’s these French doctors here that know how to cure the fever. I don’t care if Dr. Rush did sign the Declaration of Independence. I wouldn’t let him and his knives near me.

Mattie worries about her mother, who has been copiously bled. In this way, Mattie shows a modern grasp of medicine, for, as the appendix states, Dr. Deveze's approach is still considered the best way to treat cholera. We have to wonder, though, if, like today, people who are frightened want aggressive interventions like Dr. Rush's that seem to be "doing" something, even if that action is harmful rather than helpful.

The case of the two doctors and their rival philosophies illustrate the lack of medical knowledge of the time period and the confusion about how best to treat cholera.

Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was a prominent doctor in Philadelphia in 1793.  He believed that Yellow Fever could best be cured by ridding the body of toxins that had collected in the blood, and espoused a very aggressive treatment of bleeding and purging for his patients.  Dr. Jean Deveze, a refugee from Santo Domingo, was the primary physician in the asylum for the sick established by Stephen Girard, a French-born merchant.  Dr. Deveze disagreed with Rush's practices, and treated his patients by keeping them comfortable and administering mild doses of quinine and stimulants.  His methods are generally thought to have been more effective than those of Dr. Rush.

Although Dr. Rush never appears personally in Laurie Halse Anderson's Fever 1793, he is spoken of as something of an alarmist (Chapter 9).  Mattie, the central character, does come in direct contact with Dr. Deveze, however, when she comes down with the fever herself.  Dr. Deveze is portrayed as a gentle, caring man who does not "carry a lancet or bowl" for bleeding and purging, and Mrs. Flagg, his helper, asserts that although Dr. Rush is considered to be a hero by many, she herself believes that it is "these French doctors here that know how to cure the fever".  In Mattie's case, Dr. Deveze is "most concerned with the color of (her) eyes and tongue, and the temper of (her) pulse".  Measuring her progress on the tenth day of her illness through observation, Dr. Deveze recommends one more night in the asylum.  He views the fact that Mattie is famished as a positive sign, and instructs his aides to "feed her" (Chapter 15).