An account of the malignant fever which prevailed in the city of New-York : during the autumn of 1805

Front matter

KRC 211

THE LIBRARY

OF

Dedication

TO THE HONORABLE DE WITT CLINTON, ESQ.

mayor of the city of new- york.

Sir, // has, from time immemorial, been it si; ters of Books and Pamphlets to dedicate their respective performances to such persons of influence and respectability in society, as they thought they' might take such a liberty with, without giving offence. In addresses of this nature, however, s* much fulsome adulation is generally heaped upon the patron,as none but a sycophant could write, and a republican could not peruse without disgust. In this manner, I shall not transgress ; but the occasion surely requires, nor docs delicacy forbid me to record, that, during the last spring and early part of the summer, you, with the greatest vigilance and assidu^ ity, exercised every power vested in you by law, for the purpose of preventing the origin or introduction of malignant fever into our city ; that after the commencement of that cruel disorder, you were never absent from your post, as President of the Board of Health, even for a single hour ; and that it was your highest ambition in conjunction with the other respectable members of that body to use your utmost exertions in bringing about such measures, as seemed best calculated to mitigate the distresses of the poor and afflicted, to secure the property of the citizens and to maintain the peace and tranquility of this great metropolis ; and that your efforts to accomplish objects of such vast importance to the community were crowned with a success, which the most sanguine could not have expected is so well known, that even your political opponents forgetting the distinction of party, cheerfully coincide in opinion with your friends, that

Preface

THE Malignant Fever, which has of late years, been so prevalent, in different parts of the United States, has unfortunately been the cause of more disputes between physicians of respectability, than any other disease which has afflicted the human species, within the last century.

Although the great question, whether the disease is imported from abroad and contagions, or of local origin, aud non-contagious, has been agitated, for many years, amongst practitioners in the West-India islands, and in the southern parts of Europe ; yet, if I am rightly informed, it did not become the subject of much discussion, amongst medical gentlemen in this country, till the autumn of 1/93, when the city of Philadelphia was afflicted with a Pestilential Fever, which, in respect to its mortality, has never been equalled by any endemic or epidemic ', which has since that time appeared, in any port or place of the Unit- States. Upon the close of that calamity, various publications appeared in Philadelphia, written by gentlemen highly respected for their literary and professional abilities, some of whom espoused one side of the question, and some the other ; and since that period, a vast number of pamphlets and several volumes upon the same controversy, have issued from the press in many parts of the United States. Many excellent essays, have, likewise, appeared in our public prints, written with a view to elucidate the subject, but still,it is to be regretted, that the point remains unsettled, and our citizens are in general as much in the dark, respecting the cause and origin of pestilence as ever,

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It is not because I have been greatly conversant amongst the sick in every malignant fever, with which our city has been afflicted since the year 1798, and that during these years I have thought and conversed much with intelligent men upon the subject, that I have been induced to submit the following sheets to the public. Indeed, since the first, and most eminent physicians in America, notwithstanding all their exertions, have not been able to satisfy their fellow citizens with respect to the origin or nature of the disease, it would certainly have been unpardonable vanity in me to have thought, even for a moment, that any thing could flow from my pen, which could settle" the matter in difference.

From the nature of my official situation, however, during the last season, I was acquainted with all the proceedings of the Board of Health, and being persuaded that a summary thereof, would be highly gratifying to our fellow citizens, I respectfully present them with the following. Several of our physicians were, likewise, pleased to furnish the Board with their observations respecting the nature of the first cases of the disease in this city. On whatever side of the question their opinions lay, I have placed them before the public without reserve, thus affording an opportunity to those who wish to decide impartially, the more effectually to judge for themselves; and I have likewise, acted in the same manner with respect to communications respecting the origin of pestilence in other ports and places of the United States. The list, containing the names of the dead and some other tables connected therewith, it is hoped, will be found accurate and interesting. The chapter containing desultory observations and reflections, comprises a number of particulars which have come under my own cognizance. They are not advanced with a view to support any particular theory ; but merely to record Jacts, from which the intelligent reader can

Vll

draw his own conclusions. It is, therefore, hoped, they will be received with candour.

Upon the whole, however, on taking a retrospective view of the different opinions, which have been advanced this season, by the most eminent physicians, respecting the matter in dispute, it may be observed, that though those gentlemen who advocate the doctrine of importation and contagion, consider, in opposition to their opponents, our present quarantine laws as very defective and susceptible of much legislative improvement; \et they readily agree with, them, that token the disease has once been introduced, offensive privies, filthy streets, foul docks, putrid animal and vegetable substances, &c. tend greatly to spread and propagate the disease. Since, therefore, we have, as yet, bad no proof sufficiently satisfactory to the public mind, to which of the two sources the evil with which we have been afflicted is to be attributed, is it not the wisest and best policy to suppose, that it may proceed from either ?

Should we be influenced by a belief of this kind, a wise and intelligent legislature, upon due representation, will undoubtedly render the quarantine law s, so much more efficient and rigorous, as to preclude the importation of the disease from abroad ; and such undoubtedly will be the vigilance of our Board of Health, that for the sake of themselves as well as of their fellow-citizens, they will assiduously endeavour to remove every cause of impurity, which can be supposed to engender or propagate it from within. Proceeding in this manner and living, in all respects, conformably to the nature of the climate, which we inhabit, may we not expect, under the blessings of Divine Providence, an absolute exemption from the disease commonly called Yellow Fever, which has for so many years, been the scourge and terror of our country *?

JAMES HARDIE.

STORY

OF THE

MALIGNANT FEVER