Chapter XXVI: Section I: History of the Yellow Fever (7)

“Various have been the causes assigned to this disease. That its origin was domestic, I have not a single doubt. No instance of the arrival of any vessel from the warmer latitudes, with this sickness on board, has been discovered; and it is believed that the local causes are sufficiently numerous to account for its existence. At most of the places, where its ravages have been made, very large quantities of putrid substances had been for some time accumulating. The offals from the fish market, as well as damaged fresh and salted fish to an immense amount, had been thrown into the dock. A very great number of raw hides had been imported, and stored in places contiguous to those in which business was constantly going on. The influence of a continued heat through the summer, to a degree scarcely before known in this country, had rendered these articles highly putrid; and from the same cause several articles of provision, such as barrelled beef, &c. which had been prepared for exportation, but, by reason of the restraints laid on our commerce, retained in store, had become tainted. The effects of these were in some instances incontestibly evinced; three lads, who had been employed in repacking beef, were at about the same time seized with the disease in its most fatal form; and a person, who had purchased some of the hides at a low price, immediately after their removal fell a sacrifice to his folly.

“Two or three thousand of the inhabitants removed into the country, and began to return about the middle of October, when the decline of the disease justified the measure.”[192]

[192] The 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.[193] In 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 the _dock 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 become _epidemic_ in 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.”

[193] _Printed in 1799._