Background
Peter Fayssoux was born probably in Charleston, South Carolina, whither his mother had emigrated from Southern France, and where in 1746, she married Dr. James Hunter.
( The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration...)
The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars. Medical theory and practice of the 1700s developed rapidly, as is evidenced by the extensive collection, which includes descriptions of diseases, their conditions, and treatments. Books on science and technology, agriculture, military technology, natural philosophy, even cookbooks, are all contained here. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ British Library T007251 Edinburgi : apud Balfour, Auld, et Smellie, 1769. 4,41,1p. ; 8°
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Peter Fayssoux was born probably in Charleston, South Carolina, whither his mother had emigrated from Southern France, and where in 1746, she married Dr. James Hunter.
He served his apprenticeship with his step-father, was sent to Edinburgh University, then the medical center of the world, and graduated in 1769.
He served on the committee to collect signatures to the patriots’ association in 1775, in 1776 was one of the signers of South Carolina’s paper money, and attended the wounded behind the palmetto logs of Fort Moultrie in the first British attack on America.
There also he began his friendship with Benjamin Rush.
With Alexander Baron, Charles C. Pinckney and Thomas Heyward, Jr. , he was elected in 1773 curator of the first museum of natural history in America, at Charleston.
At the outbreak of the Revolution, he took a leading part.
He was also present at the assault on Savannah in 1779 and gave an account of the last hours of Count Pulaski.
As senior physician to the South Carolina line he officiated with Moultrie’s forces until the surrender of Charleston in 1780.
While a prisoner he was arrested with the leading citizens on parole in Charleston and sentenced to exile in St. Augustine, but was released as a surgeon and escaped the fate of the others.
He wrote a very graphic letter concerning the British treatment of sick and wounded prisoners during this period, which was widely quoted as evidence of their inhumanity.
Fayssoux became a charter member of the South Carolina Society of the Cincinnati; served in the legislature of the state and on the privy council of Gov. Moultrie.
In 1786 he was one of the incorporators of the Santee Canal Company.
It was in the field of his chosen profession that Fayssoux rendered the most conspicuous service to his country.
His European education, his alert and open mind, together with his unusual hold on his patients’ affections, led David Ramsay to accord him first place in his day among the physicians of Charleston.
In treating yellow fever, so fatal in coastal Carolina, he was quick to adopt and spread the discoveries of Benjamin Rush, while many of the Northern physicians rejected them.
( The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration...)
He was a charter member of the South Carolina Society of the Cincinnati.
He was quick to recognize truth and to acknowledge it, but he left no published records of his own observations.
He was twice married: first to Sarah Wilson on January 29, 1772, and second, to Ann (Smith) Johnston, in March 1777.