Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 4: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the Author — John Shaqi
Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 4: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the AuthorRush, Benjamin
History
Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 4: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the Author
Rush, Benjamin
Medicine; Yellow fever -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
The weather was cool, rainy, and hot, in succession, in the month of
June. The scarlatina continued to be the prevailing disease.
During the first and second weeks in July, there fell a good deal of
rain. On the 4th of the month I was called to visit Mrs. Harris, in
Front-street, between Arch and Market-streets, with a bilious fever. The
scarlatina had imparted to it a general redness on her skin, which
induced her to believe it was that disease, and to neglect sending for
medical relief for several days. She died on the 13th of the month, with
a red eye, a black tongue, hiccup, and a yellow skin. Three other cases
of malignant bilious fever occurred this month. Two of them were attended
by Dr. Dewees and Dr. Otto.
On the 15th of the month, the city was alarmed by an account of this
fever having appeared near the corners of Front and Vine-streets, a part
of the city which had for many weeks before been complained of by many
people for emitting a f[oe]tid smell, derived from a great quantity of
filthy matters stagnating in that neighbourhood, and from the foul air
discharged from a vessel called the Esperanza, which lay at Vine-street
wharf.
On the 2d of August, it appeared in other parts of the city, particularly
in Front and Water-streets, near the draw-bridge, where it evidently
originated from putrid sources. Reports were circulated that it was
derived from contagion, conveyed to Vine-street wharf in the timbers of a
vessel called the St. Domingo Packet, but faithful and accurate inquiries
proved that this vessel had been detained one and twenty days, and well
cleaned at the lazaretto, and that no one, of fourteen men who had worked
on board of her afterwards, had been affected with sickness of any kind.
On the 5th of August, the board of health publicly declared the fever to
be contagious, and advised an immediate desertion of the city. The advice
was followed with uncommon degrees of terror and precipitation.
The disease continued, in different parts of the city, during the whole
of August and September. On the 5th of October, the citizens were
publicly invited from the country by the board of health.
During this season, the yellow fever was epidemic in Baltimore and
Wilmington. In the former place it was admitted by their board of health,
and in the latter it was proved by Dr. Vaughan, to be of domestic origin.
It prevailed, at the same time, in Sussex county and near Woodbury, in
New-Jersey. Sporadic cases of it likewise occurred in New-York and
Boston, and in Portsmouth, in New-Hampshire. The chronic fever was
epidemic in several of the towns of North-Carolina; cases of fever, which
terminated in a swelling and mortification of the legs, and in death on
the third day, appeared on the waters of the Juniata, in Pennsylvania;
and bilious fevers, of a highly inflammatory grade, were likewise common
near Germantown and Frankford, in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia.
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