This volume (131 pages) contains David H. Hall's essays and notes on medical cases, which he composed while studying medicine at the University of Pennsylvania between 1851 and 1852. Hall wrote "Dr. Darrach's Office, vol. i" on the opening page of the volume, referring to William Darrach (1796-1865), professor and president of the University of Pennsylvania's medical college.
The notebook begins with a two-page index, which includes entries for a second volume (not present). Hall wrote notes on individual case studies, tracing the development of diseases or other conditions in specific patients and noting treatment methods. Conditions include obstetric issues, diseases of the skin, tuberculosis, scarlet fever, influenza, typhoid fever, pneumonia, and dysentery. One study followed a "colored girl" afflicted with swelling (pp. 34-39). Hall also discussed post-autopsy phenomena (pp. 78-85). Topics of additional reference lists and essays include "Classifications of the Matteria Medica" (pp. 67-68), "Parts of the Body to which Medicines are Applied" (p. 69), apothecary weights (p. 70), nosology (p. 112), "Modern Doctrines" (p. 121), and the "Destructive Principle" (pp. 122-124). Other topics include "Lectures on the Principles & Practice of Medicine" (p. 117) and a discourse on fevers (pp. 118-119).
David H. Hall was born on April 24, 1831, the son of Henry F. and Hester Hall of Lewes, Delaware. He studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and earned his medical degree in 1852. Hall returned to Lewes, where he practiced medicine until his death on February 12, 1905. He and his wife, Eugenia Waples (1840-1895), had one son, William D. W. Hall, who also became a physician.
