Eagle in the Sky [antikvár]

Foreword In attempting to depict medical men of various sorts as they practiced during the years 1780-81, 1 have drawn largely on contemporary diaries and letters—a rich but confusing source. Because the same disease was known under various names and the treatments or remedies for it varied so widely, it proved difficult to select ailments recognizable to a modern reader and to select the most interesting of the several treatments. Doctor James Thatcher's invaluable and wonderfully detailed diary of his career, as a physician with the Continental Army, served as the backbone of the medical elements in this tale. My obligations to his memory are as profound as they are numerous. Certain of my readers may question the small size of the Grand Tur\ III in view of the huge crew she carried on departure from Boston. Yet her dimensions and armament are almost exactly those of the Rattlesnake, an American privateer out of Salem, which shipped an even more numerous crew in the same year. Research conducted at the British Museum, subsequent to the completion of this volume, reveals that Captain David Graves, in command of the flagship H.B.M.S, London at the Battle of the Capes, was directly responsible for the flying of contradictory signals: an error which had momentous effects upon American history. Probably the fact that Captain Graves was the commanding Admiral's son diverted from him the just wrath of Vice-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood and Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Drake. My deep appreciation for invaluable assistance goes once more to Mr. Robert H. Haynes of the Library of Harvard College and to his assistants. To the Enoch Pratt Library of Baltimore and to Mr. Emerson Greenaway, its librarian, I owe a very considerable debt of gratitude, while Doctors Merrel L. Stout and Benjamin Tappan of Baltimore are heartily to be thanked for their advice on various medical aspects of this story. My secretary. Miss Justine Gilkey, must be credited with many valuable suggestions and an unfailing enthusiasm which went far towards making the preparation of this book a pleasant task. F. van Wyck Mason Gunner's Hill Riderwood, Maryland 16 October 1947