American Medical Biographies/Yates, Christopher C.
Yates, Christopher C. ( –1848)
Christopher C. Yates was born in Rensselaer County, New York State, studied medicine with Dr. Samuel Stringer, a veteran in the profession, and was probably licensed by the Supreme Court of the State, in the year 1802 or 1803. For many years he lived in Albany and at one time created great excitement in the community by exhuming, for dissection, a half-breed Indian who had died there. The public were incensed by such sacrilege, and Dr. Yates braved the storm almost at the risk of his life.
In 1812 an epidemic of bilious fever appeared in Albany, upon which Dr. Yates wrote an article which was published in the American and Philosophical Register in 1813. He attributed the prominent characteristics of the disease to derangement of the liver and regarded the malady as purely inflammatory. The article was reviewed by Dr. Hosack and Dr. Francis of New York (q.v.). In 1820 he took an active and decided part in the controversy on yellow fever.
In 1832 he published an article on "Epidemic, Asiatic or Spasmodic Cholera, Prevailing in the City of New York, with advice to planters in the south on the medical treatment of their slaves."
He also discussed cholera in a letter to Dr. Barent P. Staats, the health officer of Albany in 1832, and gave an account of the disease as observed by French authors. These articles are preserved in the State Library. While living in New York, Dr. Yates lost a son, Winfield Scott, a lad of eighteen, extraordinarily proficient in the various branches of learning.
Yates gave his attention to the cure of stammering, as a professional specialty, but there remains no evidence that he was particularly skilful in such cases.
He returned to Albany about 1840, but went eventually to Parrsborough, in Nova Scotia, where he passed the rest of his days, and died September 23, 1848. In personal appearance, he was tall, with a slender figure, an intelligent face, and prepossessing address.