PROOFS OF THE Origin of the Yellow Fever, IN PHILADELPHIA, &c.
Letter from THOMAS MIFFLIN, Esq. Governor of the State of Pennsylvania, to Dr. BENJAMIN RUSH.
I AM desirous to obtain, for the information of the Legislature, the most correct account of the origin, progress, and nature of the disease that has recently afflicted the city of Philadelphia, with a view that the most efficacious steps should be taken to prevent a recurrence of so dreadful a calamity. I have requested the opinion of the College of Physicians on the subject; but, as I understand that you and many other learned members of the Faculty do not attend the deliberations of that institution, the result of my enquiries cannot be perfectly satisfactory without your co-operation and assistance. Permit me, therefore, Sir, to beg the favour of you, and of such of your Brethren as you shall be pleased to consult, to state, in [Page 2] answer to this letter, the opinion which your researches and experience have enabled you to form on the important object of the present investigation.
Answer to the foregoing.
IN compliance with your request, the subscribers have devoted themselves to the investigation of the origin, progress and nature of the fever which lately prevailed in our city, and we have now the honor of communicating to you the result of our enquiries and observations.
We conceive the fever which has lately prevailed in our city, commonly called the yellow fever, to be the bilious remitting fever of warm climates excited to a higher degree of malignity by circumstances to be mentioned hereafter.
Our reasons for this opinion are as follows:
I. The sameness of their origin; both being the offspring of putrefaction. Of this there are many proofs in the histories of the yellow fever in the West-Indies. Where there is no putrefaction, the West-India [Page 3] islands enjoy a perfect exemption from that disease in common with northern climates.
II. The yellow fever makes its appearance in those months chiefly in which the bilious fever prevails in our country, and is uniformly checked and destroyed by the same causes, viz. heavy rains and frosts.
III. The symptoms of the bilious and yellow fever are the same in their nature. They differ only in their degree. It is no objection to this assertion that there is sometimes a deficiency or absence of bile in the yellow fever. This symptom is the effect only of a torpid state of the liver, produced by the greater force of the disease acting upon that part of the body. By means of depleting remedies this torpor is removed and the disease thereby made to assume its original and simple bilious character.
IV. The common bilious and yellow fever often run into each other. By depleting remedies the most malignant yellow fever may be changed into a common bilious fever and by tonic remedies, improperly applied, the common bilious fever may be made to assume the symptoms of the most malignant yellow fever.
V. The common bilious and yellow fevers are alike contagious, under certain circumstances of the weather and of pre-disposition in the body. That the common bilious fever is contagious, we assert from the observations [Page 4] of some of us, and from the authority of many Physicians, who have long commanded the highest respect in medicine.
VI. The yellow and mild bilious fevers mutually propagate each other. We conceive a belief in the unity of these two states of fever, to be deeply interesting to humanity, inasmuch as it may lead patients to an early application for medical aid, and Physicians to the use of the same remedies for each of them, varying those remedies only according to the force of the disorder. It is no objection to this opinion, that that state of bilious fever called the yellow fever, is a modern appearance in our country. From certain revolutions in the atmosphere as yet observed only, but not accounted for by Physicians, diseases have in all ages and countries alternately risen and fallen in their force and danger. At present a constitution of the atmosphere prevails in the United States which disposes to fever of a highly inflammatory character. It began in the year 1793. Its duration in other countries has been from one to fifty years. It is not peculiar to the common bilious fever to have put on more inflammatory symptoms than in former years. There is scarcely a disease which has not been affected in a similar way by the late change in our atmosphere, and that does not call for a greater force of depleting remedies than were required to cure them before the year 1793.
VII. And LASTLY. The yellow fever affects the system more than once, in common with the bilious [Page 5] fever. Of this there were many instances during the prevalence of our late epidemic.
The fever which lately prevailed in our city appears from the documents which accompany this letter to have been derived from the following sources.
I. Putrid exhalations from the gutters, streets, ponds and marshy grounds in the neighbourhood of the city. From some one of these sources we derive a case attended by Dr. Caldwell on the 9th of June—one attended by Dr. Pascalis on the 22d July, and two cases attended by Dr. Rush and Dr. Physic on the 5th and 15th of the same month; and also most of those cases of yellow fever, which appeared in the northern parts of the city, and near Kensington bridge, in the months of August, September and October. We are the more satisfied of the truth of this source of the fever, from the numerous accounts we have received of the prevalence of the same fever, and from the same causes, during the late autumn in New York, and in various parts of New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina, not only in sea ports, but inland towns. The peculiar disposition of these exhalations to produce disease and death, was evinced early in the season by the mortality which prevailed among the cats, and during every part of the season, by the mortality which prevailed in many parts of our country among horses. The disease which proved so fatal to the latter animals, is known among the farmers by the name of [Page 6] the Yellow Water. We conceive it to be a modification of the yellow fever.
II. A second source of our late fever appears to have been derived from the noxious air emitted from the hold of the snow Navigation, capt. Linstroom, which arrived with a healthy crew from Marseilles on the 25th of July, and discharged her cargo at Latimer's wharf after a passage of eighty days. We are led to ascribe the principal part of the disease which prevailed in the south end of the city to this noxious air, and that for the following reasons.
1. The fever appeared first on board this vessel and in its neighbourhood, affecting a great number of persons nearly at the same time, and so remote from each other that it could not be propagated by contagion.
2. There was in the hold of this vessel a quantity of vegetable matters, such as prunes, almonds, olives, capers, and several other articles, some of which were in a state of putrefaction.
3. A most offensive smell was emitted from this vessel, after she had discharged her cargo, which was perceived by persons several hundred feet from the wharf where she was moored.
4. A similar fever has been produced from similar causes, in a variety of instances: we shall briefly mention a few of them.
[Page 7] At Tortola, a fever was produced in the month of June, in the year 1787, on board the ship Britannia, capt. James Welch, from the noxious air generated from a few bushels of potatoes, which destroyed the captain, mate and most of the crew, in a few days.
Two sailors were affected with a malignant fever, on board the—, capt. Thomas Egger, in the month of March, 1797, from the noxious air produced by wine that had putrified in the hold of the ship, one of whom died soon after her arrival at Philadelphia.
In the month of June, 1793, the Yellow Fever was generated by the noxious air of some rotted bags of pepper on board a French Indiaman, which was carried into the port of Bridgetown, by the British letter of marque Pilgrim. All the white men and most of the negroes employed in removing this pepper, perished with the Yellow Fever, and the foul atmosphere affected the town, where it proved fatal to many of the inhabitants.
On board the Busbridge Indiaman, a Yellow Fever was produced in the month of May, 1792, on her passage from England to Madrass, which affected above two hundred of the crew. It was supposed to be derived from infection, but many circumstances concur to make it probable that it was derived from noxious air. The absence of smell in the air does not militate against this opinion, for there are many proofs of the [Page 8] most malignant fevers being brought on by airs which produced no impression on the sense of smelling. This is more frequently the case when the impure air has passed a considerable distance from its source, and becomes diluted with the purer air of the atmosphere.
Several cases are related by Dr. Lind, in his treatise upon fever and infection of the Yellow Fever, originating at sea under circumstances which forbade the suspicion of infection, and which can only be ascribed to the impure air generated from putrid vegetables.
So well known, and so generally admitted is this source of Yellow Fever in warm climates, that Dr. Shannon, a late writer upon the means of preventing the diseases of warm climates, in enumerating its various causes, expresly mentions ‘the putrid effluvia of a ship's hold.’
We wish due attention to be paid to these facts, not only because they lead to the certain means of preventing one of the sources of this fever, but because they explain the reasons, why sailors are so often its first victims, and why from this circumstance the origin of the disease has been so hastily, but erroneously ascribed solely to importation.
The fever which prevailed along the shore of the Delaware, in Kensington, and which proved fatal to Mr. Joseph Bowers and two of his family, we believe [Page 9] originated from the noxious air emitted from the hold of the ship Huldah, Capt. Wm. Warner. This air was generated by the putrefaction of coffee, which had remained there during her voyage from Philadelphia to Hamburgh, and back again.(a)
In the course of our enquiries, we were led to suspect one source of our late fever, to be of foreign origin. The fails of the armed ship Hinde, on board of which several persons had died of the Yellow Fever, on her passage from Port au Prince, and which arrived on the 4th of August, were sent to the sail store of Mr. Moyse. Four persons belonging to the loft were soon afterwards affected, with symptoms of a bilious Yellow Fever. We shall not decide positively upon the origin of the fever in these cases; but the following facts render it probable that it was not derived from the persons who had died of it on board the suspected vessel.
1. The sails emitted an offensive smell; 2. three of the cases of the persons affected in the sail loft were of a mild grade of the fever; 3. the fever was not propagated by contagion from any one of them; 4. the sail loft was within the influence of the noxious air, which was emitted from the hold of the snow Navigation, being not more than fifty yards, and was in the direction of the wind which blew at that time over her. The extent of this air has not been accurately ascertained, [Page 10] but many analogies give us reason to believe that it may be conveyed by the wind, in its deleterious state from half a mile, to a mile.
In support of the opinion we have delivered of the origin of our late fever, we must add further, that in that part of the city which lies between Walnut and Vine streets, and which appeared to be free from the effects of exhalation and the noxious air of the ships, there were but few cases of the fever which appeared to spread by contagion, even under the most favourable circumstances for that purpose.
Having pointed out the nature and origin of our late fever we hope we shall be excused in mentioning the means of preventing it in future. These are,
FIRST, A continuance of the present laws for preventing the importation of the disease from the West-Indies, and other parts of the world where it usually prevails.
SECONDLY, Removing all those matters from our street, gutters, cellars, gardens, yards, stores, vaults, ponds, &c. which by putrefaction in warm weather afford the most frequent remote cause of the disease, in this country. For this purpose we recommend the appointment of a certain number of Physicians whose business it shall be to inspect all such places in the city, the Northern Liberties and South wark, as contain any [Page 11] matters capable by putrefaction, of producing the disease and to have them removed.
THIRDLY, We earnestly recommend the frequent washing of all impure parts of the city in warm and dry weather, by means of the pumps, until the water of the Schuylkill can be made to wash all the streets of the city; a measure which we conceive promises to our citizens the most durable exemption from bilious fevers of all kinds, of domestic origin.
FOURTHLY, To guard against the frequent source of Yellow Fever from the noxious air of the holds of ships, we recommend the unlading all ships, with cargoes liable to putrefaction, at a distance from the city, during the months of June, July, August, September and October. To prevent the generation of noxious air in the ships, we conceive every vessel should be obliged by law to carry and use a ventilator, and we recommend in a particular manner the one lately contrived by Mr. Benjamin Wynkoop.—We believe this invention to be one of the most important and useful, that has been made in modern times, and that it is calculated to prevent not only the decay of ships and cargoes, but a very frequent source of pestilential diseases of all kinds, in commercial cities.
In thus deciding upon the nature and origin of our late fever, we expect to administer consolation to our fellow citizens upon the cause of our late calamity, [Page 12] for in pointing out its origin to the senses, we are enabled immediately and certainly to prevent it. But while the only source of it is believed to be from abroad, and while its entrance into our city is believed to be in ways so numerous and insidious, as to elude the utmost possible vigilance of health officers, we are led in despair to consider the disease as removed beyond the prevention of human power or wisdom. It has been by adopting measures, similar to those we have delivered for preventing pestilential diseases, that most of the cities in Europe, which are situated in warm latitudes, have become healthy in warm seasons, and amidst the closest commercial intercourse, with nations and islands constantly afflicted with those diseases. The extraordinary cleanliness of the Hollanders was originally imposed upon them, by the frequency of pestilential fevers in their cities. This habit of cleanliness has continued to characterize those people, after the causes which produced it, have probably ceased to be known.
In thus urging a regard to the domestic sources of the Yellow Fever, we are actuated by motives of a magnitude far beyond those which determine ordinary questions in science. Though we feel the strongest conviction that the value of property, the increase of commerce and the general prosperity of our city, will be eminently forwarded by the adoption of the foregoing propositions, yet these are but little objects in our view, when compared with the prevention of the immense mass of distress, which never fails to accompany [Page 13] a mortal epidemic. We consider ourselves moreover as deciding upon a question, which is to affect the lives and happiness, not only of the present inhabitants of Philadelphia, but of millions yet unborn, in every part of the globe.
- BENJAMIN RUSH,
- CHARLES CALDWELL,
- WILLIAM DEWEES,
- JOHN REDMAN COXE,
- PHILIP SYNG PHYSICK,
- JAMES REYNOLDS,
- FRANCIS BOWES SAYRE,
- JOHN C. OTTO,
- WILLIAM BOYS,
- SAMUEL COOPER,
- JAMES STUART,
- FELIX PASCALIS,
- JOSEPH STRONG.
MEMORIAL OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS
THAT your Memorialists, deeply affected with the calamities produced by the disease which has recently occurred amongst us, are impelled by a sense of duty to their fellow citizens and themselves, to inform you, that they consider the laws which were enacted for the purpose of preserving this city from malignant, contagious disorders, as very imperfect.
The subject being of immense importance, they hope to be excused for stating their sentiments with respect to it at large.
They are of opinion, that the disease which produced so much mortality and distress in the year 1793, was imported into this city from the West-Indies; and they are confirmed in this sentiment, by the circumstances attending the disease of this year, which they consider as of the same nature, and derived from the same source.
Some of their most important reasons for this opinion, are as follow:—The disease in question is essentially [Page 15] different from the fevers that occur in this climate, and which originate from domestic causes. This difference particularly regards the general progress of the symptoms, and the mortality, as is evident upon a comparison of its history with that of the ordinary diseases of this city.
A disease which resembles the fever of 1793 and of this year, in many important points, has long been known in the West-Indies, and those parts of America situated between the tropics; and in seven or eight different instances in which a similar disease has occurred in the United States, in the course of this century, there is good reason to believe that it was derived from those countries. In most of the instances, the original history of the disease contains the information that it was imported. In some cases, the infection can be traced to the imported clothing of persons who died in the West-Indies. In most of the cases where the importation cannot be ascertained, the first appearance of the disease has been, as in the other instances, in the neighbourhood of the shipping, or among persons connected with vessels.
The circumstances attending the fever of this year are extremely in point; and the narrative which accompanies this, will, we trust, satisfy you that it was imported.
The disease in question, commences invariably in our sea-ports, while inland towns, equally exposed [Page 16] to the ordinary causes of fever, escape; and in the two last instances of its occurrence in Philadelphia, the suburbs and the country adjacent, were more healthy than usual at the same season; and at the commencement of the disease, all the parts of the city, excepting the small spaces to which it was confined, were remarkably healthy.
It exists in the West-Indies, particularly in time of war, when great numbers of strangers are to be found there; and reference to dates will shew, that in most of the instances of the occurrence of the disease in the United States, there has been war in the West-Indies.
Your Memorialists are aware, that cases may be adduced where the disease has occurred in persons, who were not known to have been exposed to imported contagions, but such is the subtile nature of this power, that it often exists unsuspected; and similar difficulties occur respecting the small-pox, and other contagions, allowed by all to be of foreign origin. There also occur, although very rarely, solitary cases of malignant remitting fevers, the symptoms of which resemble so much the disease in question, that they are often supposed to be the same; but there is this essential difference, that a malignant remittent fever has never been to our knowledge contagious in this climate.
[Page 17] The difference of sentiments among physicians, now so much regretted, resembles that which almost always takes place, when the plague is introduced into any of the civilized parts of Europe, where it is not well known. The identity of the disease, its origin and its contagious nature have been often the subject of controversy. Some physicians have considered it as of domestic origin; but proper health laws, strictly enforced, have latterly protected the commercial parts of Europe from its ravages.
With these sentiments of the nature of the disease, your memorialists cannot but regard a proper law respecting the subject, as a matter of the greatest importance, and although they are perfectly sensible of the imperfection of the science of medicine, yet from a conviction that physicians are the best informed, as well as the most interested in the subject, they approach you with that respect which is due to your legislative authority, and declare their belief, that the existing health laws of this Commonwealth are not such as are best calculated to obtain the desired end, and that they ought to be improved.
Having lately communicated in writing to the governor their ideas respecting the best methods of preventing the introduction of contagious diseases, they beg leave to refer you to that communication. At the same time they tender you their professional [Page 18] assistance in framing an efficient law for this purpose; and thus having performed their duty, they hold themselves discharged from all responsibility, on account of the evils which may arise from the present imperfect state of the legislative arrangements respecting this important subject.
- JOHN REDMAN, President.
- Attest, THOMAS C. JAMES, Secretary.
Narrative of Facts relative to the probable Origin, and Progress, of the Malignant Contagious Fever which lately appeared at the junction of Penn and Pine Streets.
THE ship Arethusa, Captain Keith, sailed about June 1, 1797, from Port Royal in Jamaica for the Havannah, with slaves; during the passage two men died with a fever, which Mr. Stephen Kingston, a gentleman of this city, who was a passenger on board, and has frequently seen the disease, believes to have been the Yellow Fever, one having the black vomit. After remaining some days at the Havannah, the vessel proceeded for Philadelphia, and arrived in the stream opposite to Pine Street, July 23, 1797. At the Capes of Delaware she took on board a Pilot, and performed a quarantine of five days at State Island. [Page 19] The Pilot was attacked with a fever, the day of their arrival at the city, and went on shore the same day, when he was visited by Dr. Currie, who has been much conversant with the Yellow Fever, and was so sensible of the resemblance of his symptoms to those of that disease, that he mentioned the case as suspicious, to one of his friends.
The Arethusa was moored at Mr. Joseph Russell's wharf, outside of two vessels which lay there when she arrived, her crew left her immediately after she was moored, and the next day returned for their cloathing, &c. when they crossed and re-crossed the above mentioned ships. Two boys only and the captain (who was on board occasionally) composed the crew of the outermost ship, or that immediately contiguous to the Arethusa; but the innermost vessels, the brig Iris from Oporto, had a crew of the usual number. On the twenty ninth day of July, five men of this crew were taken ill with fever, and attended by Dr. J. Stuart, who states in his report to the College of Physicians, that the symptoms were similar in all, tho' varying in the degree of violence; four of these recovered, but one died with unequivocal marks of the malignant Yellow Fever. A servant of George Latimer, Esq. who lived about 100 yards to the north of this vessel, and was frequently on the wharves, was attacked, July 30, with a fever which was highly contagious and malignant, of which he died in a few days.
[Page 20] Mr. N. Lewis, who kept a compting room which was about the same distance from the Arethusa, was attacked about the same time, and died also in five days, of a fever which was supposed to be of the same nature.
Mr. Dominick Joyce, who was much engaged on board a ship near the Arethusa, was attacked, August 3d. with a fever of the same kind, but recovered. A man who lived in a store on the South side of Pine Street, about 150 yards from the river, was attacked with a malignant fever about this time, and died in a few days.
About the sixth of August, Mr. Ferguson, whose yard adjoined the wharf where the Arethusia and Iris lay, was attacked with a malignant fever, and the same day Mr. John Plankinghorn's girl, who lived nearly opposite to Mr. Ferguson's across Penn Street, and worked in a yard which was situated very near to the above mentioned store in Pine street, was also attacked with fever, they both died on the fifth or sixth day after the attack, Mrs. Ferguson with very suspicious, and Mr. Plankinghorn's girl, with complete and unequivocal symptoms of the Yellow Fever. In this manner the disease continued to spread, so that by the middle of August, or within three weeks from the arrival of the Arethusa, above ten persons had died, who either lived or were engaged in business within 300 yards of the Arethusa, and this at a time when the other parts of the city were so healthy, that it is [Page 21] probable all the other deaths which occurred in it were not equal in number to those which occurred in this small district. After this the disease gradually extended itself to Southwark, and at the same time became thinly scattered through the city, where its destructive effects are but too well known.
December 26th, 1797.
Facts relative to the sickly state of the ship HIND.
It appears from the depositions of Francis Tow, Nicholas Benson, and William Cooper, seamen on board the armed ship Hind, taken before Chief Justice M'Kean, that about the beginning of July 1797, the Hind sailed from Port-au-Prince, bound to Philadelphia, with a cargo of sugar and coffee, and with 43 passengers; of which number 23 were whites and twenty coloured persons, that they touched at Cape Nichola Mole, where they remained eight days and discharged a part of their cargo, in lieu thereof taking in a quantity of stone ballast; during the time they lay at the Mole the passengers were occasionally on shore. It would appear that they left the Mole between the 12th, and 15th, of July, and arrived at this port, after a passage of twenty or twenty one days. About three or four days after their departure from the Mole, five or six white persons and one negro of the passengers were attacked with fever, the white persons so attacked were observed to become very yellow. [Page 22] During the passage four other coloured persons and five of the crew fell ill of fever: on or two of the latter number, after the vessel entered the capes of Delaware; but only a coloured boy and child died during the passage, and were thrown overboard after the vessel entered the river. Upon the arrival of the vessel opposite the Marine Hospital, in consequence of orders from the captain, four sick persons were secreted and did not come under the inspection of the Physician of the Port; exclusive of these, two women were sick in the cabin. After passing the Fort one of the seamen was taken ill, went on shore, and was afterwards carried to the Marine Hospital; and two other and persons were taken on shore sick. So far go the depositions.
From information obtained from the Health Office, it appears, that the Hind was examined at the Fort on the second, and arrived at Philadelphia on the fourth of August; and that Mr. Doughty, one of the Inspectors of the Health Office, sent to the Marine Hospital on the 13th of August, Peter Malosio, one of the crew of the Hind then residing in Love Lane, and on the 14th a Portuguese from near the junction of Penn and South Streets, who had been landed there; and that another person was sick of a suspicious fever at Mrs. O'Connor's, in Almond near Front Street. Both these were from on board the Hind, and the Portuguese above-mentioned had been visited by Dr. Currie, who declares his disease to have been Yellow Fever.
Letter from the ACADEMY OF MEDICINE to THOMAS MIFFLIN, Esq. Governor of the State of Pennsylvania.
THE Physicians, who answered your letter of the sixth of November, respecting the origin and nature of the epidemic fever which lately prevailed in the city of Philadelphia, having, with others of their medical brethren, associated themselves under the name of "The Academy of Medicine of Philadelphia," beg leave, in that capacity, to address you again upon the interesting subject of the said letter.
The Academy have seen, with regret, a memorial, from the College of Physicians of the city, to the legislature, accompanied with a "narrative of facts" intended to establish an opinion contrary to that, which the subscribers of the answer to your letter, conceive they had therein proved in the most irrefragable manner.
As the opinion appears to us replete with danger to the lives of our fellow citizens, and to the prosperity of our city, we deem ourselves bound by the principles of humanity, and the obligations of patriotism, to make a few remarks upon it; and to shew that it is founded upon partial investigations, and mistaken ideas of the nature of the Yellow Fever.
[Page 24] The College have ascribed the origin of the late epidemic to the ships Arethusa, captain Keith, from Havanna, and Hind, captain Patot, from Port-au-Prince. The memorial sets forth that, ‘the ship Arethusa, capt. Keith, sailed about the first of June, from Port Royal in Jamaica, for the Havanna with slaves; during the passage two men died with a fever, which Mr. Stephen Kingston, a gentleman of this city who was a passenger on board, and has frequently seen the disease, believes to have been the Yellow Fever, one having the black vomit.’ Admitting the fact, which rests merely upon the belief of a person not medically educated, yet the arguments hereafter to be adduced, it is presumed, will destroy the probability of its being introduced by this ship. That the island of Jamaica was healthy at the time the Arethusa sailed, appears from the answers given by the captain of the said ship, to the official interrogatories filed in the Health-Office relative to this subject; and from those of capt. Henry Latimer, of the Brig Maria, who sailed from the above port about the same day. That the disease of which the men died was not contagious is rendered probable by its not having spread among the passengers or crew who amounted to seventy, all of whom arrived in good health at the Havanna on the twenty-first of June. But supposing the disease to have been of a contagious nature, the precautions taken after the deaths, would have been sufficient to have destroyed any remains of [Page 25] the contagion. From Mr. Brien's deposition it appears, that ‘The cloathing, bedding and articles belonging to the deceased were thrown overboard, and their births cleansed and well sprinkled with vinegar.’ And we are authorized further to assert, that the ship underwent such a complete cleansing while at the Havanna, after landing the slaves, as prudence would dictate to a ship-master, in every similar case. The ship, moreover, after lying at the Havanna fourteen days, during which time all on board remained well, arrived opposite the Health-Office on State island, on the eighteenth of July. During the whole of this passage her hatches were constantly open, whereby the most ample means for a free current of air were afforded, which could not fail to dissipate any remains of contagion which could possibly have continued after her former purifications. The ship performed five days quarantine opposite the Health-Office, on State-Island, during which time the bedding was every day exposed upon deck and was once washed by a rain. The crew moreover remained well, except the captain, who was affected with a rheumatism, and the mate, with a lax, both of whom soon recovered. The pilot who conducted this ship was attacked on the twenty-third of July, and allowing three days for the time he had been exposed to the contagion before his fever appeared, there will remain forty six days from the time the ship left Kingston till her arrival in our river. From the known laws of the contagion of the Yellow [Page 26] Fever, and the distance of time at which it usually appears, after persons have been exposed to the contagion, the Academy conceive it scarcely possible, if any portion of contagion had been left by the before-mentioned persons, that it would have remained inactive for above forty six days, exposed as the crew were to the exciting causes of fatigue, night watching and the vicisitudes of the weather. The perfect freedom from disease which all on board enjoyed, must therefore be admitted as proof that no contagion did exist, and consequently that the pilot and others could not have derived their disease from that source.
The College further state that ‘The pilot was attacked with a fever, the day of his arrival with the ship at the city and went on shore the same day, when he was visited by Dr. Currie, who has been much conversant with the Yellow Fever, and who was so sensible of the resemblance of his symptoms to those of that disease, that he mentioned the case as suspicious to one of his friends.’
In addition to the arguments, before adduced, for supposing that the pilot could not have taken his disease from any remains of contagion on board, the Academy further remark, that the source from whence he derived his disease was probably, and as he believes, from a current of cold air during the night, while sleeping in the open cabbin of the ship, after a warm day, which preceded that on which the quarantine [Page 27] of the ship was ended. His indisposition came on the next morning, and soon after his arrival in this city, a violent fever succeeded, of a kind, which we every year observe in Philadelphia, from sudden changes of the weather, in the summer and autumnal months, and especially from similar exposure on the river. It may be added, that he was but a few days confined, and that none of his friends who nursed him, or others who daily visited him were affected by him; neither were there any precautions taken to avoid contagion, nor the least intimation of danger given to those who constantly attended him. Under all the circumstances which have been mentioned, it is impossible to believe that the pilot's disease was derived from an imported contagion.
The College in their memorial have insinuated that the crew of the Brig Iris were infected with the Yellow Fever by the crew of the Arethusa passing across her deck to the wharf. If this had been true or even possible, it must have been in one of the three following ways: 1st. By the actual sickness of the crew; 2d. By the contagion blowing off their cloaths in passing over the decks; or, 3d. By the contagion, which had adhered to the timbers of the Arethusa, being conveyed by the wind over two intermediate vessels to the Iris.
It is not pretended that any of the crew of the Arethusa were indisposed, therefore the first supposition [Page 28] must be rejected. They could not have infected the crew of the Iris in the second mode, because it is not alledged that they stopped a moment when passing over her deck. But admitting they did, it cannot be believed, that a disease could be conveyed by their cloaths, to the crew of the Iris in the open air, when it is well known, that those cloaths when worn, and even washed in confined lodging houses afterwards, did not infect a single person, in any part of the city. Lastly, it is highly improbable that the crew of the Iris could have been infected by the timbers of the Arethusa, because, we have no proofs that the contagion of the Yellow Fever ever adheres to wood; but admitting this to be possible, we reject the probability of it, because, as we before observed, the ship had been well cleansed and freely ventilated on her voyage from the Havanna to Philadelphia. We are the more disposed to ascribe the destruction of contagion, if any had existed, to the pure air of the ocean, from having so repeatedly observed the effects of country air in weakening or destroying it in the United States. The Academy are moreover authorised by Dr. Stewart to assert, that none of the family, with whom the five men of the Iris boarded, were infected; but that they preserved their health the whole time of the prevalence of our late epidemic.
As the Iris lay at Pine-street wharf, and entirely within the limits of the exhalations from the snow Navigation, [Page 29] to which we formerly referred, it is highly probable that they were infected thereby, and that the disease was excited by their intemperance in the use of Port wine, with which the brig was loaded, and by the practice of bathing themselves in the river while under the influence of liquor, and heated by labour. From this conduct it is conceived by the Academy, the peculiar violence of their diseases can be accounted for, as a similar cause is always ranked among the most powerful, in the production of malignant cases of bilious yellow fever; and Dr. Stewart authorises the Academy to assert his belief, that the Fever, in the cases he communicated to the College, proceeded from exhalation; and he thinks most probably, that of the snow Navigation*.
Two of the other persons mentioned by the College, viz. Mr. Lewis and Mr. Latimer's man, said to have been infected by the Arethusa, were much nearer the snow Navigation than the Iris was, and were exposed to the exhalation from the former vessel. With regard to Mr. Lewis, we shall observe, that he was absent from the city when the Arethusa arrived, and did not return until six days afterwards, which was on the thirtieth of July. On the first of August, the day of his attack, it is known that he complained very much of the stench [Page 30] of the snow Navigation, which had now pervaded the whole neighbourhood, and expressed great concern at her being permitted to remain at the wharf. The Academy are authorised, by Mr. Dominick Joyce, to express his surprise at the assertion of his having taken his fever from the Arethusa; for, though his business led him to the neighbourhood of that ship, yet he was still within the sphere of the extent of the foul air from the snow Navigation, and he acknowledges he was almost every day upon the wharf at which this vessel lay, and from which he, in all probability, derived his disease.
As all the other persons whose cases are mentioned by the College, lived within the extent of the exhalation from the snow Navigation, there can be little doubt, but that they derived it from the same air which affected the persons, whose names they have mentioned. It is remarkable, that the disease was in no instance propagated from any of them.
The Academy have good reason to believe, that the persons who were indisposed on board the armed ship Hind, after her arrival, derived their diseases from the noxious air of the snow Navigation, in common with the persons who were affected on board the Iris, and in the neighbourhood of Mr. Latimer's wharf. It appears that none of them propagated the disease to any of their attendants in the city, or in the hospital at State Island, to which place some of them were sent, [Page 31] It is well known, moreover, that many citizens repeatedly visited and spent whole days on board this vessel, none of whom were indisposed in consequence of it.
From the depositions of the supercargo and of the pilot of the Hind, it will likewise appear, that the whole of the testimony of the three boys is disproved, except as to some unimportant particulars*.
We are unable to give credit to the traditional rumours of the foreign origin of the Yellow Fever, in any part of the United States, inasmuch as from the inaccuracy of the few records which have been preserved, of the places from whence it was said to be derived, and of the manner in which it was said to have been introduced into our country, we have reason to conclude they were assumed without sufficient investigation. Had the proper steps been taken at all times to investigate its origin, it is probable it would have been discovered, in most cases, to have been the offspring of domestic putrefaction. We cannot close the arguments against the importation of the Yellow Fever, without remarking, that many recent facts and observations render it probable, that the reports of its contagious nature have been exaggerated, and that it is not so often propagated by contagion as has been supposed, more especially in warm weather, when sick [Page 32] rooms are open night and day, to the constant accession of fresh air.
We observe in the memorial of the College of Physicians an assertion, that the Yellow Fever ‘Is essentially different from the fevers that occur in this climate, and which originate from domestic causes:’ but as no proofs are adduced in favour of that assertion, we shall rest our opinion of the original sameness of both those states of fever, upon the facts and arguments which were stated in our former communication. We shall only observe, that the idea maintained by the College, has been exploded by some of the most distinguished writers upon tropical diseases; and by most of the American physicians of the southern states, who constantly consider and treat both the common bilious fever, and its higher grade, called Yellow Fever, as the same disease, varying only in violence.
The Academy observe also, with surprise, another assertion made by the College, that ‘The disease in question, invariably commences in our sea-ports, while inland towns, equally exposed to the ordinary causes of fever, escape.’ To this we reply, it is well known, that in various parts of the United States, remote from sea-ports, precisely the same disease, with all its characteristic symptoms, has frequently prevailed.
The College in their narrative have taken no notice of the origin of the Yellow Fever in Kensington, nor at [Page 33] and near Red-Bank upon the eastern shore of the Delaware. Its origin in the former of those places from the noxious air emitted from the putrid coffee of the ship Huldah, and in the latter from marsh exhalation, we conceive to be fully established by the documents communicated in our appendix*. The College have also observed a total silence in their report respecting those cases of Yellow Fever, which appeared in our city, before the arrival of the Arethusa, Hind or Navigation. These cases were evidently derived from some of the numerous sources of exhalation, from putrid substances in and about the city. They were attended by Doctors Rush, Physic, Caldwell, and Pascalis.
We cannot take leave of this important subject without expressing our earnest desire for its candid and close examination, by the Legislature of the State.
Facts and arguments similar to those we have urged, have produced a conviction of the domestic origin of the Yellow Fever, in Boston, New York, Baltimore, Norfolk and Charleston, and many of the other towns of the United States. This conviction has been followed by measures, in New York, which promise in future years an exemption from the disorder.
With ardent wishes for the prevalence of truth, upon this important subject, in the capital of the United [Page 34] States, we have the honor to add our most respectful wishes, for your health and happiness.
- PHILIP SYNG PHYSIC, President.
- FRANCIS BOWES SAYRE, Secretary.