147“This (says the Doctor) is the time to extinguish the disease; but Europeans and North Americans generally neglect it, as they are not accustomed at home to have recourse to medicine on the first moment of indisposition.”148Chisholm’s Essay on the Malignant Pestilential Fever, p. 86.149To this is subjoined the attestation of Mr. Smithers with respect to the Charon.150Account of the Bilious Remitting Fever, &c. p. 106.151Seep. 126, n. where an account is given of the samiel, and another hypothesis concerning its nature.152Seep. 221–223.153Seep. 150.154Med. Repository, vol. ii, p. 412.155Seep. 257.156In Dr. Rush’s account of the fever of 1793, we find the following remarks on the French mode of practice to which it seems remarkable that our author has given no answer: “I proceed with reluctance to inquire into the comparative success of the French practice. It would not be difficult to decide upon it from many facts that came under my notice in the city; but I shall rest its merit wholly upon the returns of the number of deaths at Bush-hill. This hospital, after the 22d of September, was put under the care of a French physician, who was assisted by one of the physicians of the city. The hospital was in a pleasant and airy situation; it was provided with all the necessaries and comforts for sick people that humanity could invent, or liberality supply. The attendants were devoted to their duty, and cleanliness and order pervaded every room in the house. The reputation of this hospital, and of the French physician, drew patients to it in the early stage of the disorder. Of this I have been assured in a letter from Dr. Annan, who was appointed to examine and give orders of admission into the hospital to such of the poor of the district of Southwark, as could not be taken care of in their own houses. Mr. Olden has likewise informed me, that most of the patients who were sent to the hospital by the city committee (of which he was a member) were in the first stage of the fever. With all these advantages, the deaths between the 22d of September and the 6th of November, amounted to 448 out of 807 patients who were admitted into the hospital within that time. Three fourths of all the blacks (nearly 20) who were patients in this hospital died. A list of the medicines prescribed there may be seen in the minutes of the proceedings of the city committee. Calomel and jalap are not among them. Moderate bleeding and purging with glauber salts, I have been informed were used in some cases by the physicians of this hospital. The proportion of deaths to the recoveries, as it appears in the minutes of the committee from whence the report is taken, is truly melancholy!”157Webster’s Collection, p. 98.158Webster’s Collection, p. 98.159Annals of Medicine, vol. i, p. 166.160In the Medical Extracts we find it recorded, that a young gentleman having breathed pure oxygen for several minutes, his pulse, which was before 64, soon beat 120, in a minute.161This account is taken from the Annals of Medicine for 1798, and appears in a letter from Dr. Guthrie at Petersburg to Dr. Duncan at Edinburgh. It is drawn up with suchastonishinginaccuracy, that we may well be surprised how the one physician should write, and the other print it. There seems in the first place to have been a mistake of Reaumur’s thermometer for Fahrenheit’s. But even this will not rectify the account. Thezeroor (0) on Reaumur’s scale is the freezing point of water; on Fahrenheit’s it is the cold produced by a mixture of salt and snow, 32 degrees below the freezing point of water. The freezing point of quicksilver has been fixed at 39,391/2or 40 degrees below the cold produced by salt and snow. When the thermometer therefore fell to 40 deg. below the freezing point of water, it was only eight degrees below the cold of salt and snow, and not equal to the congelation of mercury by more than thirty degrees. The difference between this andforty-twodegrees below the freezing point of quicksilver is enormous and incredible. It indicates a degree of cold hitherto unobserved on the face of the earth, and scarcely equalled by the latest experiments made at Hudson’s bay, where, by means of vitriolic acid and snow, the thermometer was made to indicate a degree of cold 40 degrees below the freezing point of quicksilver. The inaccuracy and confusion of this account, however, does not affect the subsequent part relative to Mr. Billings’s journey.162Here no account is made of the heat that the very cold snow upon which they lay must have absorbed, which we know must have been very considerable, though it cannot be calculated.163If sulphur be asimplesubstance, as the new chemists pretend, there ought never to be any variation in its properties, except what arises from mere impurity; but the following is a remarkable instance to the contrary: Dr. Crawford (brother to the celebrated Adair Crawford) informed me, that for his oil of vitriol works at Lisburn, in Ireland, he had purchasedfive tonsof sulphur produced from copper mines in the island of Anglesey. The sulphur looked well, and was not more impure than what he commonly used; but, on trial, the produce of acid fell so much short of what he had been accustomed to receive, that it would not afford the expense of manufacturing. An experiment on such a large scale could not be erroneous. If sulphur is a simple substance, the fact is unaccountable: if it is composed of phlogiston and acid, an over proportion of the former will easily account for it.164Medical Repos. vol. i, p. 170.165Medical Repos. vol. ii, p. 313.166Account of the Bilious Yellow Fever, p. 107.167Med. Repos. vol. i, p. 171.168Haygarth’s Sketch of a Plan to exterminate Casual Small Pox, vol. ii, p. 270.169Med. Repos. vol. ii, p. 291.170See Medical Annals, vol. iii, p 400.171The following account of the poisonous insects of Russia, extracted from Dr. Guthrie’s letter to Dr. Duncan (Med. Annals vol. iii, p. 396) may be not unacceptable to the reader: “I have lately seen (says Dr. Guthrie) a woman with her hand and arm in a most violent state of irritation from the lodgement of the lumbricus melitensis, a worm not much thicker than a horse-hair which had entered her thumb whilst at work in a marshy spot, and was, when I saw her, a day after the accident, on its way up the arm, with excruciating pain. I must own that I should not have known the nature of the disease, if a fellow-peasant had not immediately declared that it was produced by the dangerous worm; which many of these people are acquainted with to their cost, as an inhabitant of the stagnant pools and marshes in that district, about sixty versts to the southwest of Petersburgh. I must farther acknowledge, that I was happy to hear the patient was to be instantly transported to another village, where a famous operator lived, well skilled in the art of extracting the venomous insect; as I should certainly have gone very awkwardly to work if I had been obliged to operate; though the simple peasants perform it with success and safety, gradually winding the worm round a quill, till the whole animal be extracted; a work of much patience and perseverance. I was very sorry that duty obliged me to be in town the same evening, a drive of sixty versts. It was therefore impossible for me to accompany the patient, though I was very desirous of witnessing this village-operation.“But Russia is pestered with a still more dangerous worm; the furia infernalis. It is still smaller than the former, not being thicker than a human hair. This infernal insect, from its extreme lightness, is often carried up into the air, with the dust, by whirlwinds; and, if it unfortunately falls on the uncovered part of a man or beast, it enters the flesh in an instant, and soon proves mortal, if a remedy be not quickly applied.“Our new vice-governor of Petersburg lately came down from Siberia, where he was commandant of a fort. He tells me, that in the district of Nerchinsk, where he commanded, the peasants, as well as their cattle, are often destroyed by an insect falling upon them. To prevent this accident from proving fatal, the part is instantly scarified, and rubbed with a mixture of snuff and sal ammoniac.“This I am convinced must be the furia infernalis; more especially as he assured me, that the insect was so very minute, that none of the peasants had ever seen it when it fell upon them, and that they had no idea of its nature and form. But one circumstance of his, recited, almost staggered my belief; that the carcase of an animal killed by this insect is almost as dangerous as the insect itself. This phenomenon I cannot account for in any other way but by supposing, as the accident always happens in the hot months of the year, that a high degree of putridity is produced by the venomous worm, when the case proves fatal.“I informed the vice-governor of the manner in which the Dalecarlian peasants in Sweden treat the accident, in order that he might communicate their mode of cure to his Siberian acquaintance, which is merely applying to the part affected a piece of sweet curd. The insect possibly prefers this to flesh, and leaves the one for the other. I am, however, much afraid that this simple remedy will seldom be at hand in Russia, as the peasants are unacquainted with the use of rennet, but prepare a sour curd by means of heat, throughout the whole empire; evidently taking its origin in the Tartar Koumis, and shewing them to be a people of Scythian extraction. They likewise separate butter from milk by heat, instead of the churn; a curious circumstance probably unknown to you before.“These two dangerous insects are, however, not all which threaten the life of man in this empire: the southern provinces are infected with a third, the bite of which is as mortal as that of the deadly rattlesnake, if the part be not instantly scarified, and rubbed with fresh butter. This is a species of crab-spider, the phalangium acaroides, resembling the tarantula, but rather thinner and smaller. It however kills and devours that formidable spider in a few minutes, which, when compared with it, is an innocent animal.“Your acquaintance, Mrs. Guthrie, lately returned from a tour on account of health, along the north shore of the Black Sea. Among much important and curious information, she gave me some account of the cure employed for the bite of this mortal spider, which finds many lurking-places among the ruined buildings of the ancient Chersonesus Taurica, or Crimea, laid waste in the last Turkish war. It is a curious fact, that animal oil counteracts the venom of the spider tribes, as vegetable oils do the venom of serpents. I suspect, however, that either of them would counteract both poisons; indeed, I think we have a proof of animal oil acting wonderfully on serpents, in the anecdote related by Bruce, when the deadly cerastes, or viper of the Nile, turned away its head from the oily breast of the prime minister of Fenaar, when he carelessly took it up in his hand, and applied it to his naked bosom, to show Mr. Bruce how innocent it was to men of his colour, whose very skin sickened the animal, and made it avoid all contact.”172Seep. 387.173The same physician, in the very letter quoted by Dr. Seaman, says that all the times this fever had appeared in Carolina, the origin of it was evidently traced to some vessel arrived from the West Indies.174Arguments of this kind involve us in an endless dispute similar to that relative to theequivocal generationof plants and animals; that is, the production of plants without a seed, and animals without parents. As some diseases are confessed to arise from some kind of seed, we are puzzled to account for the origin of thefirstdisease of that kind. Nevertheless, as these diseases do exist, the difficulty arising from a consideration of their origin is overlooked. In the yellow fever, which is not of so long standing, the origin is more disputed. But it is likewise undeniable, that some contagious distempers (the itch particularly) though capable of being propagated by contagion, may yet arise from want of cleanliness, and living on particular kinds of food. May not this also be the case with the yellow fever? And is it not the safe and rational way to act as though it might not only be produced at home, but imported from abroad?175This is the very point in question; but our author, instead of enumerating the facts by which his position may be supported, refers to Dr. Lind, whose evidence shall be afterwards considered.176No greater latitude, or very little more, is required by the advocates for the contagious nature of the yellow fever than Dr. Seaman must allow in a distemper which he himself owns to be contagious. It is well known, on the eastern continent at least, that a gonorrhœa will come on at any time between the first andfifteenthday after the infection is received. Dr. Guthrie supposes the time intervening between the reception of pestilential contagion and the appearance of the symptoms to be four days; and Dr. Chisholm thinks that in the Boullam fever it is somewhat short of two days: but it is plain that much must depend on the quantity of contagion, and the predisposition of the body to receive it.177Seep. 166, & seq.178Sketch of a Plan to exterminate Casual Small Pox.179Seep. 169.180Dr. Seaman, having at last, as he thinks, completely overthrown his adversaries, and ranked himself with themore considerateandreasonablepart of the community, likens those who differ from him to such as believe in thepower of imaginationto mark the child in the womb; and which he is of opinion that the women of America would not disbelieve, though all the physicians on the continent were to unite in persuading them to the contrary. On this subject the writer of this treatise is happy at having it in his power to declare himself of the same opinion with the ladies, and to offer, in support of their opinion and his, the following fact. A pregnant woman, having been employed in dyeing some cotton yarn, and rinsed it, after it had got the colour, in cold water, threw it, while wet and cold, about her neck. It touched the skin on the back part of the neck, and part of her arm. The woman started, shivered, and instantly said that her child would bemarked. It happened exactly according to her prediction. The back part of the neck, and corresponding part of the arm to that which the cotton touched, being covered with purple spots in the child, exactly similar to what might have been made by drops of the purple liquid in which the yarn was dyed falling upon the skin. Of this fact I am as certain as of my own existence; having been present when the cotton was dyed, having heard the woman call out as above related, and seen the child after it was born, and particularly inspected the marks.181Medical Review, vol. iv.182Dr. Moseley who has written at some length on the interruption given to military operations by diseases, gives an account of general Dalling’s expedition in 1780, where the English troops, confined in the castle of St. Juan, in an unhealthy situation on the river Nicaragua, were cut off by diseases; but these were fluxes and intermittents. He doth not mention the yellow fever among them. He tells us indeed that the troops under general Garth brought the jail fever along with them, and that those who returned to Jamaica were harassed with obstinate intermittents, with diarrhœa, dysentery, or painful enlargements of the liver and spleen.183Seep. 94.184Treatise on Tropical Diseases, p. 173.185If physicians censure one another at this rate, how is it to be determined who gives a true state of the matter?186This position of Dr. Moseley is not universally received. The meaning of the wordremissioncertainly is a temporary abatement, and implies a recurrence, of the same symptoms which originally took place. Dr. Moseley describes the yellow fever as beginning with one kind of symptoms which suddenly cease and are succeeded after a certain interval by others of a quite different kind; and he claims the discovery as his own. If he be right in this description, the yellow fever is certainly not a remittent; if otherwise, it must be difficult to establish any true distinction between them.187At Strasburg, in Germany, our author says that he saw a man who had been an idiot for more than a year from a stroke of the sun. The 8th of July 1707 was so hot in England that many people died at their work, and many horses and oxen were killed by the sun’s rays. In 1743,eleven thousandpeople perished from the 14th to the 25th of July in the streets of Pekin in China. On the 30th of July, 1705, the heat at Montpelier was so great, that eggs were roasted by it. Chalmers, in his account of the weather and diseases of South Carolina, says, that he has seen a beef-steak, laid on a cannon for twenty minutes, deprived of its juices, and overdone by the excessive force of the sun’s rays.188See theTable.189Med. Repos. vol. i, p. 316.190Webster’s Collection.191This proves that Dr. Treatwas notthe first person who suffered by this disease but it will not prove that the disease was not imported by capt. Bird’s vessel; for the fever spread in the vicinity of the vessel, not of the almshouse, where the first patient was carried.192The following facts, in confirmation of the importation of the yellow fever, were communicated in a letter from an eminent practitioner in New Haven to a gentleman of the same profession in this town. They came to hand too late to be inserted otherwise than in a note, the sheet being already prepared for press:A child was reported to have died of worms, and the parents were indulged in the common ceremonies of burial: but the truth was, that the disease had been the black vomit. The consequence was, a very extensive spread of the contagion. In less than a week six out of eight of the bearers were taken with the fever, and these were young persons from different parts of the town. “As to the suppositions (says the gentleman) with respect to local causes originating the disease, I conceive there is no occasion to seek for any other than what was contained in the chest (p.444) which was a blanket and clothing taken off the corpse of one who had died of the fever in the West Indies, and without the least formality of cleaning put down into a close chest, and brought to New Haven, and lodged in Austin’s store. Now it appears to me (these facts well ascertained) as idle to inquire after other causes, as it would, suppose it were the infection of the small pox brought in a chest, and a number of persons who had inspected the chest to be taken down with it. Would, in such a case, mankind have racked their inventions to have investigated other inducing causes? Surely not. . . . As to local putrefying substances, there was nothing but what has been common to the place, where the fever made its first appearance, for many years in dry summers.“I might revert to the introduction of the fever by importation at Chatham on Connecticut river; at Providence, Rhode Island; in which the importation was as evident as at New Haven. In short, there is scarcely a place on the continent, where this fever has made its appearance, but what it may be traced to an imported origin. There have been but two or three exceptions which I have heard of.”The following particulars relative to the disease at Portsmouth may likewise be deemed authentic, as communicated by a respectable gentleman (though not of the medical profession) in that place; “Most men of judgment and information on the subject suppose it was imported last year in a ship of Mr. Sheafe, which arrived from Martinico about the 20th of July. One man had died on board this ship in the West Indies: all the rest arrived in health; but the disorder made its appearance in a few days afterwards. Mr. Sheafe lost three of his own family. He lived within a stone’s throw of the wharf where his ship lay, and the fever spread in the neighbourhood. Mr. Plummer, in the next house to Mr. Sheafe’s, died about the 10th of August; Miss Parker, in the same house, four days afterwards; and Miss Smith, who had lived nearly opposite, removed to Berwick, and was there seized and died about the same time. It is worthy of remark, that this was always thought the most healthy part of the town.”As a contrast to these evidences, we subjoin the following epitome of part of Dr. Rush’s address to the citizens of Philadelphia on the origin of the yellow fever, &c.193In this address, the Doctor considers it as indisputable that the disease is, in all countries, the offspring of putrid vegetable and animal exhalations; but it prevails only in hot climates and in hot seasons. In Philadelphia it arises, 1. From the docks; and hence, in New York, it has got the name of thedock fever. 2. From the foul air of ships. 3. From the common sewers. 4. From the gutters. 5. From dirty cellars and yards. 6. Privies. 7. Putrefying masses of matter lying in the neighbouring part of the city. 8. Impure pump water.The disease is considered by the Doctor as an higher degree of bilious fever. He answers the objection by Dr. Chisholm (see p.467.) where he speaks of the fever not being produced in 1778, “when it was left in a more filthy state by the British army than it has been at any time since.” To this he answers that for the production of the disease three things are necessary. 1. Putrid exhalations. 2. An inflammatory constitution of the atmosphere, and, 3. An exciting cause, such as great heat, cold, fatigue, or intemperance. The constitution of the atmosphere, however, he looks upon to be the principal cause; as without this constitution mild diseases would be produced, but along with it they become very malignant. “The pestilential constitution of the air in the United States began in 1791. It prevailed in Charleston in 1792, and it has been epidemic in one or more of the cities or country towns of the United States every year since. . . . It has not been confined to the seaports. It has prevailed since the year 1793 in many of the villages of New England, and of the southern states. On the Genesee river it has become so prevalent as to acquire the name of the Genesee fever. The bilious fevers which prevailed in all the above places before the year 1793 were of a mild nature, and seldom mortal. They have lately disappeared, or are much diminished; and have been succeeded by a fever which frequently terminates in death in five days, with a yellow skin and black vomiting.” These circumstances are supported by undeniable testimony.In answer to the question, “Can the yellow fever be imported?” Our author answers as follows; “I once thought it might; but the foregoing facts authorise me to assert, that it cannot, so as to becomeepidemicin any city or country. There are but two authorities on which the belief of this disease being imported rests. These are Dr. Lining’s and Dr. Lind’s. The former says it was imported into Charleston in 1732, 1739, 1745 and 1748. The latter says it was conveyed into Philadelphia, where it afterwards became epidemic, by means of the clothes of a young man who died in Barbadoes. No circumstances of ships or names are mentioned with these assertions to entitle them to credit, and from the facility with which vague reports of the foreign origin of this disease have been admitted and propagated by physicians in other countries, there is reason to believe the assertions of those two physicians are altogether without foundation. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, after two weeks investigation, were unable to discover any ships, clothes, or sick person, that could have introduced the disease into Philadelphia in the year 1793. The Academy of Medicine have clearly proved, by many documents, that the disease was not imported in the years 1797 and 1798. The origin of a few cases, reported by Dr. Griffitts and other members of the College of Physicians, which have lately appeared in our city, has in vain been sought for from a prize sloop of the Ganges. Two affidavits of Messieurs Hill and Ingersol prove that she had been healthy in the West Indies, and that no person had been sick on board of her during her voyage, nor after her arrival in our port. Equally unsuccessful have been the attempts to derive those cases from beds and blankets infected by the fever of last year. In Boston, Connecticut, New York, Baltimore, Norfolk and Charleston, both physicians and citizens have long ago rejected the opinion of the importation of the fever. Some physicians suppose it possible for the contagion of this fever to adhere to the timbers of ships that have sailed from West India ports, and that it may be propagated from them to a whole neighbourhood, although houses, and even streets, interpose between them. This opinion is too absurd to stand in need of refutation. Indeed every thing that relates to the importation of this fever is contrary to reason and facts—It is an error, substituted in the room of a belief that all pestilential diseases were derived from the planets.”193Printed in 1799.194This author relates the following curious anecdote concerning tea-drinking: “We had a gentleman in Switzerland, who in every respect knew how to assume the tone of majesty. He was told one day that nothing elevated the dignity of a king so much as when every thing around him had a pale look. This intimation was sufficient for him. He directed all his servants to be blooded once a month, and obliged each of them to swallow fifty dishes of tea every day.” Tea is said to produce a cadaverous hue in the person who drinks it after bloodletting.195If this be chiefly composed of fixed air and azote, as has been said in p. 146, it is difficult to see how putrefaction can take place in it.196It is not easy to understand this. Nitre cannot deflagrate or burn, unless it be mixed with charcoal, sulphur, or some inflammable substance. The iron heater could only expel the water, with a small proportion of acid.197Perhaps this vapour may be as efficacious as the other in destroying contagion, but its smell is so extremely offensive and disagreeable to the lungs, that on this account nitrous vapour seems much preferable.198Medicina Nautica, p. 229.199Willich, p. 13.200Dr. Rush pathetically laments the loss of Dr. Nicholas Way, who had been his intimate friend. In a poem called thePolitical Greenhousewe find some account of the death of Drs. Smith, Cooper and Scandella, who also perished; and the fates of Drs. Smith and Scandella were connected with one another. Dr. Cooper of Philadelphia was seized with the disease in that city. A friend who attended him sickened during his attendance, and Dr. Cooper, before he had thoroughly recovered, attended in his turn the friend who had taken care of him. A relapse ensued, and the Doctor died. Dr. Smith was intimate with Dr. Scandella of Venice, who had come from thence to America, and was at New York during the time of the fever in 1798. Intending to return to Europe, he waited there for the English packet boat; but, being informed that a foreign lady in Philadelphia, for whose daughter he had an attachment, was sick of the yellow fever, he returned to that city; but could not save either mother or daughter from the cruel disease. On Scandella’s coming to New York the second time he could find no body that would receive him as a lodger. In this forlorn situation he wrote to Dr. Smith, who instantly gave him an invitation to his house. Here he was seized with the fever, and was attended by Dr. Smith, until the latter also fell sick. A friend who lived in the house attended first Dr. Scandella, and then Dr. Smith, until both died.201Typhus Icteroides.202The Doctor’s letter is dated December, 1797.203Lind on hot climates.204Memoirs of Yellow Fever, p. 137.205Medical Repof. vol. ii, p. 149.206In this mixture the fixed air in the alkaline salt would instantly destroy the virtues of the lime water by precipitating the lime. What is sold for salt of wormwood is neither more nor less than common pearl ash.207From the accounts of the most eminent practitioners it appears that the fever of 1798 differed considerably in its nature from that of 1793. In Philadelphia particularly there were many cases that could not bear the stroke of a lancet. In Boston it seems to have partaken more of the nature of the true plague than in other places and other years. The dissections of Drs. Rand and Warren manifest a difference between the effects of it on the body at that time, and what they were in former years. Buboes, carbuncles, or what were thought to be so, and petechiæ, were observed here, as well as in New York. One remarkable case, related in the next section, shows a disposition to induration, very uncommon in the yellow fever, though so common in the true plague that in the former part of this treatise it is taken for the characteristic mark of the disease. None of those eschars calledtokens, however, were in any case observed. The disease here bore bleeding much better than at Philadelphia; but mercury was always the most efficacious remedy, where a salivation could be raised. The warm bath was used in some cases with success. Large evacuations were useful, and some patients bore three or four bleedings, with repeated doses of jalap and calomel. The distemper is by one gentleman styled a novel disease, and differing essentially from other bilious complaints. In one case the patient died of apoplexy; and another would probably have shared the same fate, had it not been for timely bleeding. The black vomit was almost inevitably attended with death. The matter evacuated was thought to be extravasated blood from vessels in some cases mortified. The yellow colour was judged merely accidental; but Dr. Lind’s opinion of its arising from a dissolution of the blood seems now to be universally abandoned, and the colour is supposed to arise from a suffusion of bile, owing either to the obstruction of the ducts, or too great secretion.The names of the gentlemen upon whole authority the above facts stand cannot be mentioned, as permission for so doing has not been obtained. Their authenticity, however, can be proved by undeniable documents.The origin of the fever at Boston has, as usual, been disputed; but the common opinion is that it was generated. It now appears, however, that, though there are very strong reasons for supposing it to have originated in the place, there are others equally strong for believing that it was imported. It is ascertained that a vessel on board which persons had died with the yellow fever lay in the neighbourhood of the family first seized with the disease in 1798. On the other hand, there were instances of many that were seized with the distemper who had not even left their houses for months previous to the contagious period. This year (1799) there have been unquestionable proofs of the importation of the fever from the Havana. The quarantine, however has kept the infection from spreading; though the state of the atmosphere has been much less favourable to the disease than last year, and has therefore no doubt contributed to preserve the health of the people.We have been favoured with the following list of those affected with the disease this year at Newburyport:When taken.Remarks.Ossytaway June8.A seaman on board the vessel.*March28.do.*Sol. Haskel July3.On board while her cargo was discharging, &c.*His nephew4.do.Duggins5.Present when the ballast was thrown out, also on board.Tho’s Norwood6.Worked in a hatter’s shop about 16 rods from the vesselwhen graving, the wind blowing all or most of the timefrom the vessel towards shop.Tho’s Nor’d jun.6.*Robert Lord6.Stephen Tilton6.Worked on the wharf where the vessel was hauled in.Paine7.Loaded and stowed the vessel for another outward boundvoyage. These men lived at Amesbury.Herbert7.*Walleigh7.*Miss Dole9.Worked in a tailor’s shop, by Norwood’s hatter’s shop.Sally Wood10.do.James Wood11.Along side the vessel, and filled the old bread casks for heroutward voyage. He also lived near the wharf.Widow Waite11.Doubtful whether her disorder was the fever.Lived at the bottom of the wharf.*Wm. Thompson11.Lived at the bottom of the wharf, & was along side of the vessel.Jona Pearson13.Kept a store near the wharf, & was along side the vessel.Danl. Favour jun.15.Worked near the bottom of the wharf.Goodhue15.On board the schooner, and trimmed the sugar casks.*Rev. Mr. Milton15.Visited the sick at Norwood’s.*Mary Dunn15.Lived at Norwood’s.Giles Parsons16.Handled the bags of money that came in the vessel,and counted it. Was along side of the vessel.*Sol. Currier16.On board the schooner. Helped to haul her in.*Sam. Currier18.On board. Helped to discharge the ballast.*Greaty18.On board when the vessel was discharging her cargo.Mrs. Wood19.Widow of James Wood, above mentioned.*Sally Edwards19.Lived with James Wood.*Her brother19.Lived opposite, & often in, Wood’s house during the sickness.Those marked with asterisks recovered.“The fever unequivocally the same which prevailed in this town in 1796, and in Boston and Portsmouth the last summer.“The vessel supposed to have introduced the disease was the schooner Sally, Joseph Gunnison master, which arrived at Bartlett’s wharf on the morning of the 29th of June last, after a passage of 18 days, from St. Thomas’s, where the yellow fever prevailed and was very mortal, with 17 tierces of sugar, and cash in bags. She discharged her cargo before one o’clock on the day of her arrival. In the same afternoon her stone ballast, taken on board at St. Thomas’s, was thrown on deck. On the first of July she was moved to a wharf 10 rods below, and her ballast was thrown on a pier wholly covered with water. This ballast was covered with a viscous substance, which adhered to the fingers, and was very offensive to the people working on the pier. On the same day she was hauled in between the two wharves, and graved, and removed back to Bartlett’s wharf, where she was loaded with lumber for another voyage, on which the sailed the 11th of July.“It is still questioned whether this fever was imported, or generated in the town. You will find that all who have had it have been connected with that vessel, or lived or worked near where she lay, or visited the sick near the place where the vessel was graved. And undoubtedly there were many persons alike connected and situated who did not take it, although the inhabitants living near the wharf very soon moved away. It is said that there is an old distil-house near the bottom of the wharf, which has not been used for many years, and that the tubs and cisterns are replete with putrid exhalations. I do not know that this fact has been verified. It is also said that back of the store used by the deceased Jonathan Pearson, were brewers’, soap boilers’ and tallow-chandlers’ works which had all been used in the last-spring. This is true; but I do not know that it is evident that any putrid substances were formed there. Dr. Vergnies informs me that there was one case of the yellow fever 2 days before the vessel arrived. In my mind the weight of evidence in favour of the importation greatly preponderates. In 1796 the evidence was very unequivocal that the fever was generated.“Just before the vessel arrived we had some very warm weather, and the heat was oppressive to the feelings. The thermometer two afternoons was at 90 deg. Perhaps it may not be unuseful to mention that calomel was given liberally. All who recovered were salivated. All who could not be salivated died: and unfortunately some who were evidently salivated died. Since forming my table I find that a Mrs. Plummer who lived near the wharf will die.208Her case for the first seven days was supposed to be an intermittent fever; then it assumed the symptoms of the yellow fever. She was taken on the 11th July.
147“This (says the Doctor) is the time to extinguish the disease; but Europeans and North Americans generally neglect it, as they are not accustomed at home to have recourse to medicine on the first moment of indisposition.”
147“This (says the Doctor) is the time to extinguish the disease; but Europeans and North Americans generally neglect it, as they are not accustomed at home to have recourse to medicine on the first moment of indisposition.”
148Chisholm’s Essay on the Malignant Pestilential Fever, p. 86.
148Chisholm’s Essay on the Malignant Pestilential Fever, p. 86.
149To this is subjoined the attestation of Mr. Smithers with respect to the Charon.
149To this is subjoined the attestation of Mr. Smithers with respect to the Charon.
150Account of the Bilious Remitting Fever, &c. p. 106.
150Account of the Bilious Remitting Fever, &c. p. 106.
151Seep. 126, n. where an account is given of the samiel, and another hypothesis concerning its nature.
151Seep. 126, n. where an account is given of the samiel, and another hypothesis concerning its nature.
152Seep. 221–223.
152Seep. 221–223.
153Seep. 150.
153Seep. 150.
154Med. Repository, vol. ii, p. 412.
154Med. Repository, vol. ii, p. 412.
155Seep. 257.
155Seep. 257.
156In Dr. Rush’s account of the fever of 1793, we find the following remarks on the French mode of practice to which it seems remarkable that our author has given no answer: “I proceed with reluctance to inquire into the comparative success of the French practice. It would not be difficult to decide upon it from many facts that came under my notice in the city; but I shall rest its merit wholly upon the returns of the number of deaths at Bush-hill. This hospital, after the 22d of September, was put under the care of a French physician, who was assisted by one of the physicians of the city. The hospital was in a pleasant and airy situation; it was provided with all the necessaries and comforts for sick people that humanity could invent, or liberality supply. The attendants were devoted to their duty, and cleanliness and order pervaded every room in the house. The reputation of this hospital, and of the French physician, drew patients to it in the early stage of the disorder. Of this I have been assured in a letter from Dr. Annan, who was appointed to examine and give orders of admission into the hospital to such of the poor of the district of Southwark, as could not be taken care of in their own houses. Mr. Olden has likewise informed me, that most of the patients who were sent to the hospital by the city committee (of which he was a member) were in the first stage of the fever. With all these advantages, the deaths between the 22d of September and the 6th of November, amounted to 448 out of 807 patients who were admitted into the hospital within that time. Three fourths of all the blacks (nearly 20) who were patients in this hospital died. A list of the medicines prescribed there may be seen in the minutes of the proceedings of the city committee. Calomel and jalap are not among them. Moderate bleeding and purging with glauber salts, I have been informed were used in some cases by the physicians of this hospital. The proportion of deaths to the recoveries, as it appears in the minutes of the committee from whence the report is taken, is truly melancholy!”
156In Dr. Rush’s account of the fever of 1793, we find the following remarks on the French mode of practice to which it seems remarkable that our author has given no answer: “I proceed with reluctance to inquire into the comparative success of the French practice. It would not be difficult to decide upon it from many facts that came under my notice in the city; but I shall rest its merit wholly upon the returns of the number of deaths at Bush-hill. This hospital, after the 22d of September, was put under the care of a French physician, who was assisted by one of the physicians of the city. The hospital was in a pleasant and airy situation; it was provided with all the necessaries and comforts for sick people that humanity could invent, or liberality supply. The attendants were devoted to their duty, and cleanliness and order pervaded every room in the house. The reputation of this hospital, and of the French physician, drew patients to it in the early stage of the disorder. Of this I have been assured in a letter from Dr. Annan, who was appointed to examine and give orders of admission into the hospital to such of the poor of the district of Southwark, as could not be taken care of in their own houses. Mr. Olden has likewise informed me, that most of the patients who were sent to the hospital by the city committee (of which he was a member) were in the first stage of the fever. With all these advantages, the deaths between the 22d of September and the 6th of November, amounted to 448 out of 807 patients who were admitted into the hospital within that time. Three fourths of all the blacks (nearly 20) who were patients in this hospital died. A list of the medicines prescribed there may be seen in the minutes of the proceedings of the city committee. Calomel and jalap are not among them. Moderate bleeding and purging with glauber salts, I have been informed were used in some cases by the physicians of this hospital. The proportion of deaths to the recoveries, as it appears in the minutes of the committee from whence the report is taken, is truly melancholy!”
157Webster’s Collection, p. 98.
157Webster’s Collection, p. 98.
158Webster’s Collection, p. 98.
158Webster’s Collection, p. 98.
159Annals of Medicine, vol. i, p. 166.
159Annals of Medicine, vol. i, p. 166.
160In the Medical Extracts we find it recorded, that a young gentleman having breathed pure oxygen for several minutes, his pulse, which was before 64, soon beat 120, in a minute.
160In the Medical Extracts we find it recorded, that a young gentleman having breathed pure oxygen for several minutes, his pulse, which was before 64, soon beat 120, in a minute.
161This account is taken from the Annals of Medicine for 1798, and appears in a letter from Dr. Guthrie at Petersburg to Dr. Duncan at Edinburgh. It is drawn up with suchastonishinginaccuracy, that we may well be surprised how the one physician should write, and the other print it. There seems in the first place to have been a mistake of Reaumur’s thermometer for Fahrenheit’s. But even this will not rectify the account. Thezeroor (0) on Reaumur’s scale is the freezing point of water; on Fahrenheit’s it is the cold produced by a mixture of salt and snow, 32 degrees below the freezing point of water. The freezing point of quicksilver has been fixed at 39,391/2or 40 degrees below the cold produced by salt and snow. When the thermometer therefore fell to 40 deg. below the freezing point of water, it was only eight degrees below the cold of salt and snow, and not equal to the congelation of mercury by more than thirty degrees. The difference between this andforty-twodegrees below the freezing point of quicksilver is enormous and incredible. It indicates a degree of cold hitherto unobserved on the face of the earth, and scarcely equalled by the latest experiments made at Hudson’s bay, where, by means of vitriolic acid and snow, the thermometer was made to indicate a degree of cold 40 degrees below the freezing point of quicksilver. The inaccuracy and confusion of this account, however, does not affect the subsequent part relative to Mr. Billings’s journey.
161This account is taken from the Annals of Medicine for 1798, and appears in a letter from Dr. Guthrie at Petersburg to Dr. Duncan at Edinburgh. It is drawn up with suchastonishinginaccuracy, that we may well be surprised how the one physician should write, and the other print it. There seems in the first place to have been a mistake of Reaumur’s thermometer for Fahrenheit’s. But even this will not rectify the account. Thezeroor (0) on Reaumur’s scale is the freezing point of water; on Fahrenheit’s it is the cold produced by a mixture of salt and snow, 32 degrees below the freezing point of water. The freezing point of quicksilver has been fixed at 39,391/2or 40 degrees below the cold produced by salt and snow. When the thermometer therefore fell to 40 deg. below the freezing point of water, it was only eight degrees below the cold of salt and snow, and not equal to the congelation of mercury by more than thirty degrees. The difference between this andforty-twodegrees below the freezing point of quicksilver is enormous and incredible. It indicates a degree of cold hitherto unobserved on the face of the earth, and scarcely equalled by the latest experiments made at Hudson’s bay, where, by means of vitriolic acid and snow, the thermometer was made to indicate a degree of cold 40 degrees below the freezing point of quicksilver. The inaccuracy and confusion of this account, however, does not affect the subsequent part relative to Mr. Billings’s journey.
162Here no account is made of the heat that the very cold snow upon which they lay must have absorbed, which we know must have been very considerable, though it cannot be calculated.
162Here no account is made of the heat that the very cold snow upon which they lay must have absorbed, which we know must have been very considerable, though it cannot be calculated.
163If sulphur be asimplesubstance, as the new chemists pretend, there ought never to be any variation in its properties, except what arises from mere impurity; but the following is a remarkable instance to the contrary: Dr. Crawford (brother to the celebrated Adair Crawford) informed me, that for his oil of vitriol works at Lisburn, in Ireland, he had purchasedfive tonsof sulphur produced from copper mines in the island of Anglesey. The sulphur looked well, and was not more impure than what he commonly used; but, on trial, the produce of acid fell so much short of what he had been accustomed to receive, that it would not afford the expense of manufacturing. An experiment on such a large scale could not be erroneous. If sulphur is a simple substance, the fact is unaccountable: if it is composed of phlogiston and acid, an over proportion of the former will easily account for it.
163If sulphur be asimplesubstance, as the new chemists pretend, there ought never to be any variation in its properties, except what arises from mere impurity; but the following is a remarkable instance to the contrary: Dr. Crawford (brother to the celebrated Adair Crawford) informed me, that for his oil of vitriol works at Lisburn, in Ireland, he had purchasedfive tonsof sulphur produced from copper mines in the island of Anglesey. The sulphur looked well, and was not more impure than what he commonly used; but, on trial, the produce of acid fell so much short of what he had been accustomed to receive, that it would not afford the expense of manufacturing. An experiment on such a large scale could not be erroneous. If sulphur is a simple substance, the fact is unaccountable: if it is composed of phlogiston and acid, an over proportion of the former will easily account for it.
164Medical Repos. vol. i, p. 170.
164Medical Repos. vol. i, p. 170.
165Medical Repos. vol. ii, p. 313.
165Medical Repos. vol. ii, p. 313.
166Account of the Bilious Yellow Fever, p. 107.
166Account of the Bilious Yellow Fever, p. 107.
167Med. Repos. vol. i, p. 171.
167Med. Repos. vol. i, p. 171.
168Haygarth’s Sketch of a Plan to exterminate Casual Small Pox, vol. ii, p. 270.
168Haygarth’s Sketch of a Plan to exterminate Casual Small Pox, vol. ii, p. 270.
169Med. Repos. vol. ii, p. 291.
169Med. Repos. vol. ii, p. 291.
170See Medical Annals, vol. iii, p 400.
170See Medical Annals, vol. iii, p 400.
171The following account of the poisonous insects of Russia, extracted from Dr. Guthrie’s letter to Dr. Duncan (Med. Annals vol. iii, p. 396) may be not unacceptable to the reader: “I have lately seen (says Dr. Guthrie) a woman with her hand and arm in a most violent state of irritation from the lodgement of the lumbricus melitensis, a worm not much thicker than a horse-hair which had entered her thumb whilst at work in a marshy spot, and was, when I saw her, a day after the accident, on its way up the arm, with excruciating pain. I must own that I should not have known the nature of the disease, if a fellow-peasant had not immediately declared that it was produced by the dangerous worm; which many of these people are acquainted with to their cost, as an inhabitant of the stagnant pools and marshes in that district, about sixty versts to the southwest of Petersburgh. I must farther acknowledge, that I was happy to hear the patient was to be instantly transported to another village, where a famous operator lived, well skilled in the art of extracting the venomous insect; as I should certainly have gone very awkwardly to work if I had been obliged to operate; though the simple peasants perform it with success and safety, gradually winding the worm round a quill, till the whole animal be extracted; a work of much patience and perseverance. I was very sorry that duty obliged me to be in town the same evening, a drive of sixty versts. It was therefore impossible for me to accompany the patient, though I was very desirous of witnessing this village-operation.“But Russia is pestered with a still more dangerous worm; the furia infernalis. It is still smaller than the former, not being thicker than a human hair. This infernal insect, from its extreme lightness, is often carried up into the air, with the dust, by whirlwinds; and, if it unfortunately falls on the uncovered part of a man or beast, it enters the flesh in an instant, and soon proves mortal, if a remedy be not quickly applied.“Our new vice-governor of Petersburg lately came down from Siberia, where he was commandant of a fort. He tells me, that in the district of Nerchinsk, where he commanded, the peasants, as well as their cattle, are often destroyed by an insect falling upon them. To prevent this accident from proving fatal, the part is instantly scarified, and rubbed with a mixture of snuff and sal ammoniac.“This I am convinced must be the furia infernalis; more especially as he assured me, that the insect was so very minute, that none of the peasants had ever seen it when it fell upon them, and that they had no idea of its nature and form. But one circumstance of his, recited, almost staggered my belief; that the carcase of an animal killed by this insect is almost as dangerous as the insect itself. This phenomenon I cannot account for in any other way but by supposing, as the accident always happens in the hot months of the year, that a high degree of putridity is produced by the venomous worm, when the case proves fatal.“I informed the vice-governor of the manner in which the Dalecarlian peasants in Sweden treat the accident, in order that he might communicate their mode of cure to his Siberian acquaintance, which is merely applying to the part affected a piece of sweet curd. The insect possibly prefers this to flesh, and leaves the one for the other. I am, however, much afraid that this simple remedy will seldom be at hand in Russia, as the peasants are unacquainted with the use of rennet, but prepare a sour curd by means of heat, throughout the whole empire; evidently taking its origin in the Tartar Koumis, and shewing them to be a people of Scythian extraction. They likewise separate butter from milk by heat, instead of the churn; a curious circumstance probably unknown to you before.“These two dangerous insects are, however, not all which threaten the life of man in this empire: the southern provinces are infected with a third, the bite of which is as mortal as that of the deadly rattlesnake, if the part be not instantly scarified, and rubbed with fresh butter. This is a species of crab-spider, the phalangium acaroides, resembling the tarantula, but rather thinner and smaller. It however kills and devours that formidable spider in a few minutes, which, when compared with it, is an innocent animal.“Your acquaintance, Mrs. Guthrie, lately returned from a tour on account of health, along the north shore of the Black Sea. Among much important and curious information, she gave me some account of the cure employed for the bite of this mortal spider, which finds many lurking-places among the ruined buildings of the ancient Chersonesus Taurica, or Crimea, laid waste in the last Turkish war. It is a curious fact, that animal oil counteracts the venom of the spider tribes, as vegetable oils do the venom of serpents. I suspect, however, that either of them would counteract both poisons; indeed, I think we have a proof of animal oil acting wonderfully on serpents, in the anecdote related by Bruce, when the deadly cerastes, or viper of the Nile, turned away its head from the oily breast of the prime minister of Fenaar, when he carelessly took it up in his hand, and applied it to his naked bosom, to show Mr. Bruce how innocent it was to men of his colour, whose very skin sickened the animal, and made it avoid all contact.”
171The following account of the poisonous insects of Russia, extracted from Dr. Guthrie’s letter to Dr. Duncan (Med. Annals vol. iii, p. 396) may be not unacceptable to the reader: “I have lately seen (says Dr. Guthrie) a woman with her hand and arm in a most violent state of irritation from the lodgement of the lumbricus melitensis, a worm not much thicker than a horse-hair which had entered her thumb whilst at work in a marshy spot, and was, when I saw her, a day after the accident, on its way up the arm, with excruciating pain. I must own that I should not have known the nature of the disease, if a fellow-peasant had not immediately declared that it was produced by the dangerous worm; which many of these people are acquainted with to their cost, as an inhabitant of the stagnant pools and marshes in that district, about sixty versts to the southwest of Petersburgh. I must farther acknowledge, that I was happy to hear the patient was to be instantly transported to another village, where a famous operator lived, well skilled in the art of extracting the venomous insect; as I should certainly have gone very awkwardly to work if I had been obliged to operate; though the simple peasants perform it with success and safety, gradually winding the worm round a quill, till the whole animal be extracted; a work of much patience and perseverance. I was very sorry that duty obliged me to be in town the same evening, a drive of sixty versts. It was therefore impossible for me to accompany the patient, though I was very desirous of witnessing this village-operation.
“But Russia is pestered with a still more dangerous worm; the furia infernalis. It is still smaller than the former, not being thicker than a human hair. This infernal insect, from its extreme lightness, is often carried up into the air, with the dust, by whirlwinds; and, if it unfortunately falls on the uncovered part of a man or beast, it enters the flesh in an instant, and soon proves mortal, if a remedy be not quickly applied.
“Our new vice-governor of Petersburg lately came down from Siberia, where he was commandant of a fort. He tells me, that in the district of Nerchinsk, where he commanded, the peasants, as well as their cattle, are often destroyed by an insect falling upon them. To prevent this accident from proving fatal, the part is instantly scarified, and rubbed with a mixture of snuff and sal ammoniac.
“This I am convinced must be the furia infernalis; more especially as he assured me, that the insect was so very minute, that none of the peasants had ever seen it when it fell upon them, and that they had no idea of its nature and form. But one circumstance of his, recited, almost staggered my belief; that the carcase of an animal killed by this insect is almost as dangerous as the insect itself. This phenomenon I cannot account for in any other way but by supposing, as the accident always happens in the hot months of the year, that a high degree of putridity is produced by the venomous worm, when the case proves fatal.
“I informed the vice-governor of the manner in which the Dalecarlian peasants in Sweden treat the accident, in order that he might communicate their mode of cure to his Siberian acquaintance, which is merely applying to the part affected a piece of sweet curd. The insect possibly prefers this to flesh, and leaves the one for the other. I am, however, much afraid that this simple remedy will seldom be at hand in Russia, as the peasants are unacquainted with the use of rennet, but prepare a sour curd by means of heat, throughout the whole empire; evidently taking its origin in the Tartar Koumis, and shewing them to be a people of Scythian extraction. They likewise separate butter from milk by heat, instead of the churn; a curious circumstance probably unknown to you before.
“These two dangerous insects are, however, not all which threaten the life of man in this empire: the southern provinces are infected with a third, the bite of which is as mortal as that of the deadly rattlesnake, if the part be not instantly scarified, and rubbed with fresh butter. This is a species of crab-spider, the phalangium acaroides, resembling the tarantula, but rather thinner and smaller. It however kills and devours that formidable spider in a few minutes, which, when compared with it, is an innocent animal.
“Your acquaintance, Mrs. Guthrie, lately returned from a tour on account of health, along the north shore of the Black Sea. Among much important and curious information, she gave me some account of the cure employed for the bite of this mortal spider, which finds many lurking-places among the ruined buildings of the ancient Chersonesus Taurica, or Crimea, laid waste in the last Turkish war. It is a curious fact, that animal oil counteracts the venom of the spider tribes, as vegetable oils do the venom of serpents. I suspect, however, that either of them would counteract both poisons; indeed, I think we have a proof of animal oil acting wonderfully on serpents, in the anecdote related by Bruce, when the deadly cerastes, or viper of the Nile, turned away its head from the oily breast of the prime minister of Fenaar, when he carelessly took it up in his hand, and applied it to his naked bosom, to show Mr. Bruce how innocent it was to men of his colour, whose very skin sickened the animal, and made it avoid all contact.”
172Seep. 387.
172Seep. 387.
173The same physician, in the very letter quoted by Dr. Seaman, says that all the times this fever had appeared in Carolina, the origin of it was evidently traced to some vessel arrived from the West Indies.
173The same physician, in the very letter quoted by Dr. Seaman, says that all the times this fever had appeared in Carolina, the origin of it was evidently traced to some vessel arrived from the West Indies.
174Arguments of this kind involve us in an endless dispute similar to that relative to theequivocal generationof plants and animals; that is, the production of plants without a seed, and animals without parents. As some diseases are confessed to arise from some kind of seed, we are puzzled to account for the origin of thefirstdisease of that kind. Nevertheless, as these diseases do exist, the difficulty arising from a consideration of their origin is overlooked. In the yellow fever, which is not of so long standing, the origin is more disputed. But it is likewise undeniable, that some contagious distempers (the itch particularly) though capable of being propagated by contagion, may yet arise from want of cleanliness, and living on particular kinds of food. May not this also be the case with the yellow fever? And is it not the safe and rational way to act as though it might not only be produced at home, but imported from abroad?
174Arguments of this kind involve us in an endless dispute similar to that relative to theequivocal generationof plants and animals; that is, the production of plants without a seed, and animals without parents. As some diseases are confessed to arise from some kind of seed, we are puzzled to account for the origin of thefirstdisease of that kind. Nevertheless, as these diseases do exist, the difficulty arising from a consideration of their origin is overlooked. In the yellow fever, which is not of so long standing, the origin is more disputed. But it is likewise undeniable, that some contagious distempers (the itch particularly) though capable of being propagated by contagion, may yet arise from want of cleanliness, and living on particular kinds of food. May not this also be the case with the yellow fever? And is it not the safe and rational way to act as though it might not only be produced at home, but imported from abroad?
175This is the very point in question; but our author, instead of enumerating the facts by which his position may be supported, refers to Dr. Lind, whose evidence shall be afterwards considered.
175This is the very point in question; but our author, instead of enumerating the facts by which his position may be supported, refers to Dr. Lind, whose evidence shall be afterwards considered.
176No greater latitude, or very little more, is required by the advocates for the contagious nature of the yellow fever than Dr. Seaman must allow in a distemper which he himself owns to be contagious. It is well known, on the eastern continent at least, that a gonorrhœa will come on at any time between the first andfifteenthday after the infection is received. Dr. Guthrie supposes the time intervening between the reception of pestilential contagion and the appearance of the symptoms to be four days; and Dr. Chisholm thinks that in the Boullam fever it is somewhat short of two days: but it is plain that much must depend on the quantity of contagion, and the predisposition of the body to receive it.
176No greater latitude, or very little more, is required by the advocates for the contagious nature of the yellow fever than Dr. Seaman must allow in a distemper which he himself owns to be contagious. It is well known, on the eastern continent at least, that a gonorrhœa will come on at any time between the first andfifteenthday after the infection is received. Dr. Guthrie supposes the time intervening between the reception of pestilential contagion and the appearance of the symptoms to be four days; and Dr. Chisholm thinks that in the Boullam fever it is somewhat short of two days: but it is plain that much must depend on the quantity of contagion, and the predisposition of the body to receive it.
177Seep. 166, & seq.
177Seep. 166, & seq.
178Sketch of a Plan to exterminate Casual Small Pox.
178Sketch of a Plan to exterminate Casual Small Pox.
179Seep. 169.
179Seep. 169.
180Dr. Seaman, having at last, as he thinks, completely overthrown his adversaries, and ranked himself with themore considerateandreasonablepart of the community, likens those who differ from him to such as believe in thepower of imaginationto mark the child in the womb; and which he is of opinion that the women of America would not disbelieve, though all the physicians on the continent were to unite in persuading them to the contrary. On this subject the writer of this treatise is happy at having it in his power to declare himself of the same opinion with the ladies, and to offer, in support of their opinion and his, the following fact. A pregnant woman, having been employed in dyeing some cotton yarn, and rinsed it, after it had got the colour, in cold water, threw it, while wet and cold, about her neck. It touched the skin on the back part of the neck, and part of her arm. The woman started, shivered, and instantly said that her child would bemarked. It happened exactly according to her prediction. The back part of the neck, and corresponding part of the arm to that which the cotton touched, being covered with purple spots in the child, exactly similar to what might have been made by drops of the purple liquid in which the yarn was dyed falling upon the skin. Of this fact I am as certain as of my own existence; having been present when the cotton was dyed, having heard the woman call out as above related, and seen the child after it was born, and particularly inspected the marks.
180Dr. Seaman, having at last, as he thinks, completely overthrown his adversaries, and ranked himself with themore considerateandreasonablepart of the community, likens those who differ from him to such as believe in thepower of imaginationto mark the child in the womb; and which he is of opinion that the women of America would not disbelieve, though all the physicians on the continent were to unite in persuading them to the contrary. On this subject the writer of this treatise is happy at having it in his power to declare himself of the same opinion with the ladies, and to offer, in support of their opinion and his, the following fact. A pregnant woman, having been employed in dyeing some cotton yarn, and rinsed it, after it had got the colour, in cold water, threw it, while wet and cold, about her neck. It touched the skin on the back part of the neck, and part of her arm. The woman started, shivered, and instantly said that her child would bemarked. It happened exactly according to her prediction. The back part of the neck, and corresponding part of the arm to that which the cotton touched, being covered with purple spots in the child, exactly similar to what might have been made by drops of the purple liquid in which the yarn was dyed falling upon the skin. Of this fact I am as certain as of my own existence; having been present when the cotton was dyed, having heard the woman call out as above related, and seen the child after it was born, and particularly inspected the marks.
181Medical Review, vol. iv.
181Medical Review, vol. iv.
182Dr. Moseley who has written at some length on the interruption given to military operations by diseases, gives an account of general Dalling’s expedition in 1780, where the English troops, confined in the castle of St. Juan, in an unhealthy situation on the river Nicaragua, were cut off by diseases; but these were fluxes and intermittents. He doth not mention the yellow fever among them. He tells us indeed that the troops under general Garth brought the jail fever along with them, and that those who returned to Jamaica were harassed with obstinate intermittents, with diarrhœa, dysentery, or painful enlargements of the liver and spleen.
182Dr. Moseley who has written at some length on the interruption given to military operations by diseases, gives an account of general Dalling’s expedition in 1780, where the English troops, confined in the castle of St. Juan, in an unhealthy situation on the river Nicaragua, were cut off by diseases; but these were fluxes and intermittents. He doth not mention the yellow fever among them. He tells us indeed that the troops under general Garth brought the jail fever along with them, and that those who returned to Jamaica were harassed with obstinate intermittents, with diarrhœa, dysentery, or painful enlargements of the liver and spleen.
183Seep. 94.
183Seep. 94.
184Treatise on Tropical Diseases, p. 173.
184Treatise on Tropical Diseases, p. 173.
185If physicians censure one another at this rate, how is it to be determined who gives a true state of the matter?
185If physicians censure one another at this rate, how is it to be determined who gives a true state of the matter?
186This position of Dr. Moseley is not universally received. The meaning of the wordremissioncertainly is a temporary abatement, and implies a recurrence, of the same symptoms which originally took place. Dr. Moseley describes the yellow fever as beginning with one kind of symptoms which suddenly cease and are succeeded after a certain interval by others of a quite different kind; and he claims the discovery as his own. If he be right in this description, the yellow fever is certainly not a remittent; if otherwise, it must be difficult to establish any true distinction between them.
186This position of Dr. Moseley is not universally received. The meaning of the wordremissioncertainly is a temporary abatement, and implies a recurrence, of the same symptoms which originally took place. Dr. Moseley describes the yellow fever as beginning with one kind of symptoms which suddenly cease and are succeeded after a certain interval by others of a quite different kind; and he claims the discovery as his own. If he be right in this description, the yellow fever is certainly not a remittent; if otherwise, it must be difficult to establish any true distinction between them.
187At Strasburg, in Germany, our author says that he saw a man who had been an idiot for more than a year from a stroke of the sun. The 8th of July 1707 was so hot in England that many people died at their work, and many horses and oxen were killed by the sun’s rays. In 1743,eleven thousandpeople perished from the 14th to the 25th of July in the streets of Pekin in China. On the 30th of July, 1705, the heat at Montpelier was so great, that eggs were roasted by it. Chalmers, in his account of the weather and diseases of South Carolina, says, that he has seen a beef-steak, laid on a cannon for twenty minutes, deprived of its juices, and overdone by the excessive force of the sun’s rays.
187At Strasburg, in Germany, our author says that he saw a man who had been an idiot for more than a year from a stroke of the sun. The 8th of July 1707 was so hot in England that many people died at their work, and many horses and oxen were killed by the sun’s rays. In 1743,eleven thousandpeople perished from the 14th to the 25th of July in the streets of Pekin in China. On the 30th of July, 1705, the heat at Montpelier was so great, that eggs were roasted by it. Chalmers, in his account of the weather and diseases of South Carolina, says, that he has seen a beef-steak, laid on a cannon for twenty minutes, deprived of its juices, and overdone by the excessive force of the sun’s rays.
188See theTable.
188See theTable.
189Med. Repos. vol. i, p. 316.
189Med. Repos. vol. i, p. 316.
190Webster’s Collection.
190Webster’s Collection.
191This proves that Dr. Treatwas notthe first person who suffered by this disease but it will not prove that the disease was not imported by capt. Bird’s vessel; for the fever spread in the vicinity of the vessel, not of the almshouse, where the first patient was carried.
191This proves that Dr. Treatwas notthe first person who suffered by this disease but it will not prove that the disease was not imported by capt. Bird’s vessel; for the fever spread in the vicinity of the vessel, not of the almshouse, where the first patient was carried.
192The following facts, in confirmation of the importation of the yellow fever, were communicated in a letter from an eminent practitioner in New Haven to a gentleman of the same profession in this town. They came to hand too late to be inserted otherwise than in a note, the sheet being already prepared for press:A child was reported to have died of worms, and the parents were indulged in the common ceremonies of burial: but the truth was, that the disease had been the black vomit. The consequence was, a very extensive spread of the contagion. In less than a week six out of eight of the bearers were taken with the fever, and these were young persons from different parts of the town. “As to the suppositions (says the gentleman) with respect to local causes originating the disease, I conceive there is no occasion to seek for any other than what was contained in the chest (p.444) which was a blanket and clothing taken off the corpse of one who had died of the fever in the West Indies, and without the least formality of cleaning put down into a close chest, and brought to New Haven, and lodged in Austin’s store. Now it appears to me (these facts well ascertained) as idle to inquire after other causes, as it would, suppose it were the infection of the small pox brought in a chest, and a number of persons who had inspected the chest to be taken down with it. Would, in such a case, mankind have racked their inventions to have investigated other inducing causes? Surely not. . . . As to local putrefying substances, there was nothing but what has been common to the place, where the fever made its first appearance, for many years in dry summers.“I might revert to the introduction of the fever by importation at Chatham on Connecticut river; at Providence, Rhode Island; in which the importation was as evident as at New Haven. In short, there is scarcely a place on the continent, where this fever has made its appearance, but what it may be traced to an imported origin. There have been but two or three exceptions which I have heard of.”The following particulars relative to the disease at Portsmouth may likewise be deemed authentic, as communicated by a respectable gentleman (though not of the medical profession) in that place; “Most men of judgment and information on the subject suppose it was imported last year in a ship of Mr. Sheafe, which arrived from Martinico about the 20th of July. One man had died on board this ship in the West Indies: all the rest arrived in health; but the disorder made its appearance in a few days afterwards. Mr. Sheafe lost three of his own family. He lived within a stone’s throw of the wharf where his ship lay, and the fever spread in the neighbourhood. Mr. Plummer, in the next house to Mr. Sheafe’s, died about the 10th of August; Miss Parker, in the same house, four days afterwards; and Miss Smith, who had lived nearly opposite, removed to Berwick, and was there seized and died about the same time. It is worthy of remark, that this was always thought the most healthy part of the town.”As a contrast to these evidences, we subjoin the following epitome of part of Dr. Rush’s address to the citizens of Philadelphia on the origin of the yellow fever, &c.193In this address, the Doctor considers it as indisputable that the disease is, in all countries, the offspring of putrid vegetable and animal exhalations; but it prevails only in hot climates and in hot seasons. In Philadelphia it arises, 1. From the docks; and hence, in New York, it has got the name of thedock fever. 2. From the foul air of ships. 3. From the common sewers. 4. From the gutters. 5. From dirty cellars and yards. 6. Privies. 7. Putrefying masses of matter lying in the neighbouring part of the city. 8. Impure pump water.The disease is considered by the Doctor as an higher degree of bilious fever. He answers the objection by Dr. Chisholm (see p.467.) where he speaks of the fever not being produced in 1778, “when it was left in a more filthy state by the British army than it has been at any time since.” To this he answers that for the production of the disease three things are necessary. 1. Putrid exhalations. 2. An inflammatory constitution of the atmosphere, and, 3. An exciting cause, such as great heat, cold, fatigue, or intemperance. The constitution of the atmosphere, however, he looks upon to be the principal cause; as without this constitution mild diseases would be produced, but along with it they become very malignant. “The pestilential constitution of the air in the United States began in 1791. It prevailed in Charleston in 1792, and it has been epidemic in one or more of the cities or country towns of the United States every year since. . . . It has not been confined to the seaports. It has prevailed since the year 1793 in many of the villages of New England, and of the southern states. On the Genesee river it has become so prevalent as to acquire the name of the Genesee fever. The bilious fevers which prevailed in all the above places before the year 1793 were of a mild nature, and seldom mortal. They have lately disappeared, or are much diminished; and have been succeeded by a fever which frequently terminates in death in five days, with a yellow skin and black vomiting.” These circumstances are supported by undeniable testimony.In answer to the question, “Can the yellow fever be imported?” Our author answers as follows; “I once thought it might; but the foregoing facts authorise me to assert, that it cannot, so as to becomeepidemicin any city or country. There are but two authorities on which the belief of this disease being imported rests. These are Dr. Lining’s and Dr. Lind’s. The former says it was imported into Charleston in 1732, 1739, 1745 and 1748. The latter says it was conveyed into Philadelphia, where it afterwards became epidemic, by means of the clothes of a young man who died in Barbadoes. No circumstances of ships or names are mentioned with these assertions to entitle them to credit, and from the facility with which vague reports of the foreign origin of this disease have been admitted and propagated by physicians in other countries, there is reason to believe the assertions of those two physicians are altogether without foundation. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, after two weeks investigation, were unable to discover any ships, clothes, or sick person, that could have introduced the disease into Philadelphia in the year 1793. The Academy of Medicine have clearly proved, by many documents, that the disease was not imported in the years 1797 and 1798. The origin of a few cases, reported by Dr. Griffitts and other members of the College of Physicians, which have lately appeared in our city, has in vain been sought for from a prize sloop of the Ganges. Two affidavits of Messieurs Hill and Ingersol prove that she had been healthy in the West Indies, and that no person had been sick on board of her during her voyage, nor after her arrival in our port. Equally unsuccessful have been the attempts to derive those cases from beds and blankets infected by the fever of last year. In Boston, Connecticut, New York, Baltimore, Norfolk and Charleston, both physicians and citizens have long ago rejected the opinion of the importation of the fever. Some physicians suppose it possible for the contagion of this fever to adhere to the timbers of ships that have sailed from West India ports, and that it may be propagated from them to a whole neighbourhood, although houses, and even streets, interpose between them. This opinion is too absurd to stand in need of refutation. Indeed every thing that relates to the importation of this fever is contrary to reason and facts—It is an error, substituted in the room of a belief that all pestilential diseases were derived from the planets.”
192The following facts, in confirmation of the importation of the yellow fever, were communicated in a letter from an eminent practitioner in New Haven to a gentleman of the same profession in this town. They came to hand too late to be inserted otherwise than in a note, the sheet being already prepared for press:
A child was reported to have died of worms, and the parents were indulged in the common ceremonies of burial: but the truth was, that the disease had been the black vomit. The consequence was, a very extensive spread of the contagion. In less than a week six out of eight of the bearers were taken with the fever, and these were young persons from different parts of the town. “As to the suppositions (says the gentleman) with respect to local causes originating the disease, I conceive there is no occasion to seek for any other than what was contained in the chest (p.444) which was a blanket and clothing taken off the corpse of one who had died of the fever in the West Indies, and without the least formality of cleaning put down into a close chest, and brought to New Haven, and lodged in Austin’s store. Now it appears to me (these facts well ascertained) as idle to inquire after other causes, as it would, suppose it were the infection of the small pox brought in a chest, and a number of persons who had inspected the chest to be taken down with it. Would, in such a case, mankind have racked their inventions to have investigated other inducing causes? Surely not. . . . As to local putrefying substances, there was nothing but what has been common to the place, where the fever made its first appearance, for many years in dry summers.
“I might revert to the introduction of the fever by importation at Chatham on Connecticut river; at Providence, Rhode Island; in which the importation was as evident as at New Haven. In short, there is scarcely a place on the continent, where this fever has made its appearance, but what it may be traced to an imported origin. There have been but two or three exceptions which I have heard of.”
The following particulars relative to the disease at Portsmouth may likewise be deemed authentic, as communicated by a respectable gentleman (though not of the medical profession) in that place; “Most men of judgment and information on the subject suppose it was imported last year in a ship of Mr. Sheafe, which arrived from Martinico about the 20th of July. One man had died on board this ship in the West Indies: all the rest arrived in health; but the disorder made its appearance in a few days afterwards. Mr. Sheafe lost three of his own family. He lived within a stone’s throw of the wharf where his ship lay, and the fever spread in the neighbourhood. Mr. Plummer, in the next house to Mr. Sheafe’s, died about the 10th of August; Miss Parker, in the same house, four days afterwards; and Miss Smith, who had lived nearly opposite, removed to Berwick, and was there seized and died about the same time. It is worthy of remark, that this was always thought the most healthy part of the town.”
As a contrast to these evidences, we subjoin the following epitome of part of Dr. Rush’s address to the citizens of Philadelphia on the origin of the yellow fever, &c.193In this address, the Doctor considers it as indisputable that the disease is, in all countries, the offspring of putrid vegetable and animal exhalations; but it prevails only in hot climates and in hot seasons. In Philadelphia it arises, 1. From the docks; and hence, in New York, it has got the name of thedock fever. 2. From the foul air of ships. 3. From the common sewers. 4. From the gutters. 5. From dirty cellars and yards. 6. Privies. 7. Putrefying masses of matter lying in the neighbouring part of the city. 8. Impure pump water.
The disease is considered by the Doctor as an higher degree of bilious fever. He answers the objection by Dr. Chisholm (see p.467.) where he speaks of the fever not being produced in 1778, “when it was left in a more filthy state by the British army than it has been at any time since.” To this he answers that for the production of the disease three things are necessary. 1. Putrid exhalations. 2. An inflammatory constitution of the atmosphere, and, 3. An exciting cause, such as great heat, cold, fatigue, or intemperance. The constitution of the atmosphere, however, he looks upon to be the principal cause; as without this constitution mild diseases would be produced, but along with it they become very malignant. “The pestilential constitution of the air in the United States began in 1791. It prevailed in Charleston in 1792, and it has been epidemic in one or more of the cities or country towns of the United States every year since. . . . It has not been confined to the seaports. It has prevailed since the year 1793 in many of the villages of New England, and of the southern states. On the Genesee river it has become so prevalent as to acquire the name of the Genesee fever. The bilious fevers which prevailed in all the above places before the year 1793 were of a mild nature, and seldom mortal. They have lately disappeared, or are much diminished; and have been succeeded by a fever which frequently terminates in death in five days, with a yellow skin and black vomiting.” These circumstances are supported by undeniable testimony.
In answer to the question, “Can the yellow fever be imported?” Our author answers as follows; “I once thought it might; but the foregoing facts authorise me to assert, that it cannot, so as to becomeepidemicin any city or country. There are but two authorities on which the belief of this disease being imported rests. These are Dr. Lining’s and Dr. Lind’s. The former says it was imported into Charleston in 1732, 1739, 1745 and 1748. The latter says it was conveyed into Philadelphia, where it afterwards became epidemic, by means of the clothes of a young man who died in Barbadoes. No circumstances of ships or names are mentioned with these assertions to entitle them to credit, and from the facility with which vague reports of the foreign origin of this disease have been admitted and propagated by physicians in other countries, there is reason to believe the assertions of those two physicians are altogether without foundation. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, after two weeks investigation, were unable to discover any ships, clothes, or sick person, that could have introduced the disease into Philadelphia in the year 1793. The Academy of Medicine have clearly proved, by many documents, that the disease was not imported in the years 1797 and 1798. The origin of a few cases, reported by Dr. Griffitts and other members of the College of Physicians, which have lately appeared in our city, has in vain been sought for from a prize sloop of the Ganges. Two affidavits of Messieurs Hill and Ingersol prove that she had been healthy in the West Indies, and that no person had been sick on board of her during her voyage, nor after her arrival in our port. Equally unsuccessful have been the attempts to derive those cases from beds and blankets infected by the fever of last year. In Boston, Connecticut, New York, Baltimore, Norfolk and Charleston, both physicians and citizens have long ago rejected the opinion of the importation of the fever. Some physicians suppose it possible for the contagion of this fever to adhere to the timbers of ships that have sailed from West India ports, and that it may be propagated from them to a whole neighbourhood, although houses, and even streets, interpose between them. This opinion is too absurd to stand in need of refutation. Indeed every thing that relates to the importation of this fever is contrary to reason and facts—It is an error, substituted in the room of a belief that all pestilential diseases were derived from the planets.”
193Printed in 1799.
193Printed in 1799.
194This author relates the following curious anecdote concerning tea-drinking: “We had a gentleman in Switzerland, who in every respect knew how to assume the tone of majesty. He was told one day that nothing elevated the dignity of a king so much as when every thing around him had a pale look. This intimation was sufficient for him. He directed all his servants to be blooded once a month, and obliged each of them to swallow fifty dishes of tea every day.” Tea is said to produce a cadaverous hue in the person who drinks it after bloodletting.
194This author relates the following curious anecdote concerning tea-drinking: “We had a gentleman in Switzerland, who in every respect knew how to assume the tone of majesty. He was told one day that nothing elevated the dignity of a king so much as when every thing around him had a pale look. This intimation was sufficient for him. He directed all his servants to be blooded once a month, and obliged each of them to swallow fifty dishes of tea every day.” Tea is said to produce a cadaverous hue in the person who drinks it after bloodletting.
195If this be chiefly composed of fixed air and azote, as has been said in p. 146, it is difficult to see how putrefaction can take place in it.
195If this be chiefly composed of fixed air and azote, as has been said in p. 146, it is difficult to see how putrefaction can take place in it.
196It is not easy to understand this. Nitre cannot deflagrate or burn, unless it be mixed with charcoal, sulphur, or some inflammable substance. The iron heater could only expel the water, with a small proportion of acid.
196It is not easy to understand this. Nitre cannot deflagrate or burn, unless it be mixed with charcoal, sulphur, or some inflammable substance. The iron heater could only expel the water, with a small proportion of acid.
197Perhaps this vapour may be as efficacious as the other in destroying contagion, but its smell is so extremely offensive and disagreeable to the lungs, that on this account nitrous vapour seems much preferable.
197Perhaps this vapour may be as efficacious as the other in destroying contagion, but its smell is so extremely offensive and disagreeable to the lungs, that on this account nitrous vapour seems much preferable.
198Medicina Nautica, p. 229.
198Medicina Nautica, p. 229.
199Willich, p. 13.
199Willich, p. 13.
200Dr. Rush pathetically laments the loss of Dr. Nicholas Way, who had been his intimate friend. In a poem called thePolitical Greenhousewe find some account of the death of Drs. Smith, Cooper and Scandella, who also perished; and the fates of Drs. Smith and Scandella were connected with one another. Dr. Cooper of Philadelphia was seized with the disease in that city. A friend who attended him sickened during his attendance, and Dr. Cooper, before he had thoroughly recovered, attended in his turn the friend who had taken care of him. A relapse ensued, and the Doctor died. Dr. Smith was intimate with Dr. Scandella of Venice, who had come from thence to America, and was at New York during the time of the fever in 1798. Intending to return to Europe, he waited there for the English packet boat; but, being informed that a foreign lady in Philadelphia, for whose daughter he had an attachment, was sick of the yellow fever, he returned to that city; but could not save either mother or daughter from the cruel disease. On Scandella’s coming to New York the second time he could find no body that would receive him as a lodger. In this forlorn situation he wrote to Dr. Smith, who instantly gave him an invitation to his house. Here he was seized with the fever, and was attended by Dr. Smith, until the latter also fell sick. A friend who lived in the house attended first Dr. Scandella, and then Dr. Smith, until both died.
200Dr. Rush pathetically laments the loss of Dr. Nicholas Way, who had been his intimate friend. In a poem called thePolitical Greenhousewe find some account of the death of Drs. Smith, Cooper and Scandella, who also perished; and the fates of Drs. Smith and Scandella were connected with one another. Dr. Cooper of Philadelphia was seized with the disease in that city. A friend who attended him sickened during his attendance, and Dr. Cooper, before he had thoroughly recovered, attended in his turn the friend who had taken care of him. A relapse ensued, and the Doctor died. Dr. Smith was intimate with Dr. Scandella of Venice, who had come from thence to America, and was at New York during the time of the fever in 1798. Intending to return to Europe, he waited there for the English packet boat; but, being informed that a foreign lady in Philadelphia, for whose daughter he had an attachment, was sick of the yellow fever, he returned to that city; but could not save either mother or daughter from the cruel disease. On Scandella’s coming to New York the second time he could find no body that would receive him as a lodger. In this forlorn situation he wrote to Dr. Smith, who instantly gave him an invitation to his house. Here he was seized with the fever, and was attended by Dr. Smith, until the latter also fell sick. A friend who lived in the house attended first Dr. Scandella, and then Dr. Smith, until both died.
201Typhus Icteroides.
201Typhus Icteroides.
202The Doctor’s letter is dated December, 1797.
202The Doctor’s letter is dated December, 1797.
203Lind on hot climates.
203Lind on hot climates.
204Memoirs of Yellow Fever, p. 137.
204Memoirs of Yellow Fever, p. 137.
205Medical Repof. vol. ii, p. 149.
205Medical Repof. vol. ii, p. 149.
206In this mixture the fixed air in the alkaline salt would instantly destroy the virtues of the lime water by precipitating the lime. What is sold for salt of wormwood is neither more nor less than common pearl ash.
206In this mixture the fixed air in the alkaline salt would instantly destroy the virtues of the lime water by precipitating the lime. What is sold for salt of wormwood is neither more nor less than common pearl ash.
207From the accounts of the most eminent practitioners it appears that the fever of 1798 differed considerably in its nature from that of 1793. In Philadelphia particularly there were many cases that could not bear the stroke of a lancet. In Boston it seems to have partaken more of the nature of the true plague than in other places and other years. The dissections of Drs. Rand and Warren manifest a difference between the effects of it on the body at that time, and what they were in former years. Buboes, carbuncles, or what were thought to be so, and petechiæ, were observed here, as well as in New York. One remarkable case, related in the next section, shows a disposition to induration, very uncommon in the yellow fever, though so common in the true plague that in the former part of this treatise it is taken for the characteristic mark of the disease. None of those eschars calledtokens, however, were in any case observed. The disease here bore bleeding much better than at Philadelphia; but mercury was always the most efficacious remedy, where a salivation could be raised. The warm bath was used in some cases with success. Large evacuations were useful, and some patients bore three or four bleedings, with repeated doses of jalap and calomel. The distemper is by one gentleman styled a novel disease, and differing essentially from other bilious complaints. In one case the patient died of apoplexy; and another would probably have shared the same fate, had it not been for timely bleeding. The black vomit was almost inevitably attended with death. The matter evacuated was thought to be extravasated blood from vessels in some cases mortified. The yellow colour was judged merely accidental; but Dr. Lind’s opinion of its arising from a dissolution of the blood seems now to be universally abandoned, and the colour is supposed to arise from a suffusion of bile, owing either to the obstruction of the ducts, or too great secretion.The names of the gentlemen upon whole authority the above facts stand cannot be mentioned, as permission for so doing has not been obtained. Their authenticity, however, can be proved by undeniable documents.The origin of the fever at Boston has, as usual, been disputed; but the common opinion is that it was generated. It now appears, however, that, though there are very strong reasons for supposing it to have originated in the place, there are others equally strong for believing that it was imported. It is ascertained that a vessel on board which persons had died with the yellow fever lay in the neighbourhood of the family first seized with the disease in 1798. On the other hand, there were instances of many that were seized with the distemper who had not even left their houses for months previous to the contagious period. This year (1799) there have been unquestionable proofs of the importation of the fever from the Havana. The quarantine, however has kept the infection from spreading; though the state of the atmosphere has been much less favourable to the disease than last year, and has therefore no doubt contributed to preserve the health of the people.We have been favoured with the following list of those affected with the disease this year at Newburyport:When taken.Remarks.Ossytaway June8.A seaman on board the vessel.*March28.do.*Sol. Haskel July3.On board while her cargo was discharging, &c.*His nephew4.do.Duggins5.Present when the ballast was thrown out, also on board.Tho’s Norwood6.Worked in a hatter’s shop about 16 rods from the vesselwhen graving, the wind blowing all or most of the timefrom the vessel towards shop.Tho’s Nor’d jun.6.*Robert Lord6.Stephen Tilton6.Worked on the wharf where the vessel was hauled in.Paine7.Loaded and stowed the vessel for another outward boundvoyage. These men lived at Amesbury.Herbert7.*Walleigh7.*Miss Dole9.Worked in a tailor’s shop, by Norwood’s hatter’s shop.Sally Wood10.do.James Wood11.Along side the vessel, and filled the old bread casks for heroutward voyage. He also lived near the wharf.Widow Waite11.Doubtful whether her disorder was the fever.Lived at the bottom of the wharf.*Wm. Thompson11.Lived at the bottom of the wharf, & was along side of the vessel.Jona Pearson13.Kept a store near the wharf, & was along side the vessel.Danl. Favour jun.15.Worked near the bottom of the wharf.Goodhue15.On board the schooner, and trimmed the sugar casks.*Rev. Mr. Milton15.Visited the sick at Norwood’s.*Mary Dunn15.Lived at Norwood’s.Giles Parsons16.Handled the bags of money that came in the vessel,and counted it. Was along side of the vessel.*Sol. Currier16.On board the schooner. Helped to haul her in.*Sam. Currier18.On board. Helped to discharge the ballast.*Greaty18.On board when the vessel was discharging her cargo.Mrs. Wood19.Widow of James Wood, above mentioned.*Sally Edwards19.Lived with James Wood.*Her brother19.Lived opposite, & often in, Wood’s house during the sickness.Those marked with asterisks recovered.“The fever unequivocally the same which prevailed in this town in 1796, and in Boston and Portsmouth the last summer.“The vessel supposed to have introduced the disease was the schooner Sally, Joseph Gunnison master, which arrived at Bartlett’s wharf on the morning of the 29th of June last, after a passage of 18 days, from St. Thomas’s, where the yellow fever prevailed and was very mortal, with 17 tierces of sugar, and cash in bags. She discharged her cargo before one o’clock on the day of her arrival. In the same afternoon her stone ballast, taken on board at St. Thomas’s, was thrown on deck. On the first of July she was moved to a wharf 10 rods below, and her ballast was thrown on a pier wholly covered with water. This ballast was covered with a viscous substance, which adhered to the fingers, and was very offensive to the people working on the pier. On the same day she was hauled in between the two wharves, and graved, and removed back to Bartlett’s wharf, where she was loaded with lumber for another voyage, on which the sailed the 11th of July.“It is still questioned whether this fever was imported, or generated in the town. You will find that all who have had it have been connected with that vessel, or lived or worked near where she lay, or visited the sick near the place where the vessel was graved. And undoubtedly there were many persons alike connected and situated who did not take it, although the inhabitants living near the wharf very soon moved away. It is said that there is an old distil-house near the bottom of the wharf, which has not been used for many years, and that the tubs and cisterns are replete with putrid exhalations. I do not know that this fact has been verified. It is also said that back of the store used by the deceased Jonathan Pearson, were brewers’, soap boilers’ and tallow-chandlers’ works which had all been used in the last-spring. This is true; but I do not know that it is evident that any putrid substances were formed there. Dr. Vergnies informs me that there was one case of the yellow fever 2 days before the vessel arrived. In my mind the weight of evidence in favour of the importation greatly preponderates. In 1796 the evidence was very unequivocal that the fever was generated.“Just before the vessel arrived we had some very warm weather, and the heat was oppressive to the feelings. The thermometer two afternoons was at 90 deg. Perhaps it may not be unuseful to mention that calomel was given liberally. All who recovered were salivated. All who could not be salivated died: and unfortunately some who were evidently salivated died. Since forming my table I find that a Mrs. Plummer who lived near the wharf will die.208Her case for the first seven days was supposed to be an intermittent fever; then it assumed the symptoms of the yellow fever. She was taken on the 11th July.
207From the accounts of the most eminent practitioners it appears that the fever of 1798 differed considerably in its nature from that of 1793. In Philadelphia particularly there were many cases that could not bear the stroke of a lancet. In Boston it seems to have partaken more of the nature of the true plague than in other places and other years. The dissections of Drs. Rand and Warren manifest a difference between the effects of it on the body at that time, and what they were in former years. Buboes, carbuncles, or what were thought to be so, and petechiæ, were observed here, as well as in New York. One remarkable case, related in the next section, shows a disposition to induration, very uncommon in the yellow fever, though so common in the true plague that in the former part of this treatise it is taken for the characteristic mark of the disease. None of those eschars calledtokens, however, were in any case observed. The disease here bore bleeding much better than at Philadelphia; but mercury was always the most efficacious remedy, where a salivation could be raised. The warm bath was used in some cases with success. Large evacuations were useful, and some patients bore three or four bleedings, with repeated doses of jalap and calomel. The distemper is by one gentleman styled a novel disease, and differing essentially from other bilious complaints. In one case the patient died of apoplexy; and another would probably have shared the same fate, had it not been for timely bleeding. The black vomit was almost inevitably attended with death. The matter evacuated was thought to be extravasated blood from vessels in some cases mortified. The yellow colour was judged merely accidental; but Dr. Lind’s opinion of its arising from a dissolution of the blood seems now to be universally abandoned, and the colour is supposed to arise from a suffusion of bile, owing either to the obstruction of the ducts, or too great secretion.
The names of the gentlemen upon whole authority the above facts stand cannot be mentioned, as permission for so doing has not been obtained. Their authenticity, however, can be proved by undeniable documents.
The origin of the fever at Boston has, as usual, been disputed; but the common opinion is that it was generated. It now appears, however, that, though there are very strong reasons for supposing it to have originated in the place, there are others equally strong for believing that it was imported. It is ascertained that a vessel on board which persons had died with the yellow fever lay in the neighbourhood of the family first seized with the disease in 1798. On the other hand, there were instances of many that were seized with the distemper who had not even left their houses for months previous to the contagious period. This year (1799) there have been unquestionable proofs of the importation of the fever from the Havana. The quarantine, however has kept the infection from spreading; though the state of the atmosphere has been much less favourable to the disease than last year, and has therefore no doubt contributed to preserve the health of the people.
We have been favoured with the following list of those affected with the disease this year at Newburyport:
8.
28.
3.
4.
5.
6.
6.
6.
6.
7.
7.
7.
9.
10.
11.
11.
11.
13.
15.
15.
15.
15.
16.
16.
18.
18.
19.
19.
19.
Those marked with asterisks recovered.
“The fever unequivocally the same which prevailed in this town in 1796, and in Boston and Portsmouth the last summer.
“The vessel supposed to have introduced the disease was the schooner Sally, Joseph Gunnison master, which arrived at Bartlett’s wharf on the morning of the 29th of June last, after a passage of 18 days, from St. Thomas’s, where the yellow fever prevailed and was very mortal, with 17 tierces of sugar, and cash in bags. She discharged her cargo before one o’clock on the day of her arrival. In the same afternoon her stone ballast, taken on board at St. Thomas’s, was thrown on deck. On the first of July she was moved to a wharf 10 rods below, and her ballast was thrown on a pier wholly covered with water. This ballast was covered with a viscous substance, which adhered to the fingers, and was very offensive to the people working on the pier. On the same day she was hauled in between the two wharves, and graved, and removed back to Bartlett’s wharf, where she was loaded with lumber for another voyage, on which the sailed the 11th of July.
“It is still questioned whether this fever was imported, or generated in the town. You will find that all who have had it have been connected with that vessel, or lived or worked near where she lay, or visited the sick near the place where the vessel was graved. And undoubtedly there were many persons alike connected and situated who did not take it, although the inhabitants living near the wharf very soon moved away. It is said that there is an old distil-house near the bottom of the wharf, which has not been used for many years, and that the tubs and cisterns are replete with putrid exhalations. I do not know that this fact has been verified. It is also said that back of the store used by the deceased Jonathan Pearson, were brewers’, soap boilers’ and tallow-chandlers’ works which had all been used in the last-spring. This is true; but I do not know that it is evident that any putrid substances were formed there. Dr. Vergnies informs me that there was one case of the yellow fever 2 days before the vessel arrived. In my mind the weight of evidence in favour of the importation greatly preponderates. In 1796 the evidence was very unequivocal that the fever was generated.
“Just before the vessel arrived we had some very warm weather, and the heat was oppressive to the feelings. The thermometer two afternoons was at 90 deg. Perhaps it may not be unuseful to mention that calomel was given liberally. All who recovered were salivated. All who could not be salivated died: and unfortunately some who were evidently salivated died. Since forming my table I find that a Mrs. Plummer who lived near the wharf will die.208Her case for the first seven days was supposed to be an intermittent fever; then it assumed the symptoms of the yellow fever. She was taken on the 11th July.