(315) 
ARTICLE II.
An INQUIRY into the Cause of the Prevalence of the  YELLOW
FEVER in New-York.
By Valentine Seaman, M. D.
THE following inquiry into the history of the epidemic Yel-
low Fever that has appeared in this city, at different times
since the year 1791, was instituted for the purpose of ascertaining
its most probable and essential causes. If I have succeeded, my
end is answered, and my trouble fully compensated; if not, I still
gratify myself with the thoughts of having established, with a con-
siderable degree of accuracy, facts, that may be useful to some
more fortunate inquirer.
The great difficulty of coming at the simple truth, even near at
home, has made me cautiously avoid attending to hearsay stories
of what has happened abroad; obscured by their distance, often
warped by their relators, and too generally eagerly caught at by
their favourers, and equally neglected by the adverse party. An
instance of the impropriety of giving a currency to such fly-about
tales, is glaringly exhibited in William Currie's letters to Benja-
min Wynkoop, this penetrating man having convinced himself,
notwithstanding a bulwark of opposing evidence, (Webster's pa-
pers on Bilious Fevers, and Bayley's Account of the Epidemic of
1795,) impassable by any body else, that the Yellow Fever that deso-
lated our city in 1795, was introduced into it by the brig Zephyr.
One naturally would conclude from Dr. Currie's account, that he
had confined his inquiries merely to the superficial scum of newspa-
per observations, and flying reports; but his subsequent reflections
prove him to have been acquainted with what ought to have cor-
rected his premature and ungrounded conclusions. But these cir-
cumstances, so discordant to his wishes, it seems he has thought
proper not to attend to, but rather to rest his opinions upon the
slender support of his ipse dixit authority; while he soothes his
feelings, by flying from the narrow path of reason and truth, into
the unbounded field of hard-strained invective and feeble scurrility.
I cannot, in this place, forbear noticing the different effects that
opposite opinions have had on the subsequent fate of Philadelphia
and New-York. While the physicians of the former place,* I will
* I do not hereby mean to include all their physicians, but only the majo-
rity of them, as several worthy characters among them have risqued their
very reputation at the shrine of public welfare, in attempting to call the
attention of that afflicted city to its true interests.

316 MEDICAL REPOSITORY.
not say, "actuated by some malignant motive;" * as I can hardly
conceive human nature capable of such depravity, have been flat-
tering the pride and vanity of their fellow citizens, with a notion,
that their city was all-perfect, and its situation, in regard to heal-
thiness, beyond amendment; and that to keep up a sharp look-out to
their neighbours was all that was necessary; they have induced
them to disregard that attention to cleanliness, which the terror of
their first attack had driven them into; and hence have those who
unhappily confided in their judgments, returned to their former
neglect of domestic causes, which has again involved them in a ca-
lamity, as general, and, perhaps, as fatal, in proportion to the re-
maining predisposed inhabitants,† as that of 1793. In the mean-
time, the learned physicians, as they have, in a sneering way, been
called, of New-York, have had honesty and independence enough
to speak their minds freely, and to let their fellow citizens know,
that "without the air of putrid effluvia, they need have no ap-
prehension of a Yellow Fever spreading among them;" and their
silly hearers, from being so weak as to put confidence in their opi-
nions, have removed most of the suggested causes of pestilence;
and hence have confined the effects of the disease, this year, to the
narrow limits of a few filthy spots; and the number of deaths to
within thirty: notwithstanding the severity of attack, and malig-
nancy of the complaint, where it prevailed, were fully equal to that
of 1795.
I shall not impose upon the time of the reader, with quotations
from different authorities, in various parts of the world, in proof
of the particular prevalence of Yellow Fever in places especially
favouring the accumulation and fermentation of putrefactive ma-
terials of some sort or other; these facts being too well known to
need recapitulation: but shall endeavour to trace the history and
progress of the disease, for the purpose, if possible, of ascertain-
ing its true cause, as it has occurred to my observation, in this city
for several years past.
In the autumn of 1791, the Yellow Fever was considerably
prevalent in a part of Water-street, in the neighbourhood of Peck's-
slip, noted, at that time, for having the docks near to it loaded with
every kind of filth that could be scraped up out of the adjoining
slips which had been long collecting every species of corruptible
materials that the citizens wished to get rid of. (See also Jonas
Addoms' Inaug. Dissert.)
In 1792, at the season wherein those complaints mostly prevail,
a long indisposition confined me to the house, and prevented
* Currie's charge upon those who dare to think differently from him.
† By the remaining predisposed inhabitants, I mean to include only such
of those that continued in town, who had not undergone the complaint be-
fore, as a former generally screens us from a future attack, at least a fatal one. 

317 MEDICAL REPOSITORY. 
my knowing much about what was going on out of doors, or of
the state of the city, either as favouring health, or threatening dis-
ease. However, I did not understand that there was much alarm
of Yellow Fever that year. Probably there was little or none.
Nor, in 1793, was the alarm of Yellow Fever heard of among
us, excepting from a few solitary cases imported from Philadel-
phia, and which was lost in the fate of the unfortunate individu-
als who had brought it from its source, without the least injury to
the healths of our citizens, either in the capacity of friends, nurses,
physicians, or neighbours; none of these patients, as far as I could
learn, having been permitted to seat themselves in places abound-
ing with putrefying substances.
The complaint in the year 1794, appeared to such a degree, as
to occasion considerable uneasiness in the minds of many of the
citizens. The Committee for preventing the introduction of contagious
diseases, met regularly to establish measures for the welfare of
the city. To them, in a communication made the 11th of 9th
month (September), among other circumstances, I intimated as a
reason for believing that it was supported by causes within our-
selves, "That most of the patients that  had  been, or then were,
"affected with dangerous fevers, were either such as resided in the
"neighbourhood of the slips, (which then were or lately had been
"cleaning out) or whose employment led them to frequent those
"places; as cartmen, measurers, labourers, &c. at least such was
"the situation of the cases that I had heard or known of, and
"respecting which I had taken some pains to inform myself. I
"then had, at that early part of the season, attended four patients;
"and they were all of that description. Two of them were boat-
"men, who lay at the New-slip; another lived not far from it;
"and the business of the fourth obliged him to frequent the slips."
It was observed, that during the very time that these persons were
taken sick, the MUD-TURLE (as the machine was  called, the
temporary suspension of whose operations was the object of that
communication) was performing its pestiferous purgations on this
filthy slip.
In 1795, that part of the town that bore the chief burthen of
our calamity, was remarkably distinguished by peculiarity of cir-
cumstances and situation (aided by the singular regularity of our
rains), seemingly well calculated for the accumulation and decom-
position of all kinds of perishable animal and vegetable substances.
(Webster's Collection of Papers on Bilious Fevers.)
The chief prevalence of the disease in 1796, seemed evidently
fixed where, from our former experience, we ought reasonably
to have expected it. For no doubt, at that time, the neighbour-
hood of the Whitehall, from the nature of materials wherewith a
large dock was there filling up, aided by the noisome exhalations,
Vol. I. No. 3. E 

318 MEDICAL REPOSITORY. 
from the exposed bottom of the Exchange-slip at low water, must
certainly have been rendered the most noxious part of the city.
(Bayley's Letters, Medical Repository, No. 1. Appendix.)
But it was not intirely confined to that particular neighbourhood
in 1796. Four deaths from the Yellow Fever occurred, during
that season, within fifty yards of where Roosevelt-street drain
empties itself into an inlet which was then open quite up to the
southerly side of Water-street; the bottom of which (S on plate
I.) was frequently in part left bare even at high water. Every
ebb-tide exposed at least eight hundred square yards of its surface,
covered with the numerous perishable materials, furnished by the
different streets of that crouded part of the town, which descend
into this common sewer, in addition to the other putrid matters
that such handy places are always collecting.
One of them, James Callender (marked .1 on plate 1.) was
an Irishman, who had resided about five months in this city, and
was the first that I could hear of who had the disease in that neigh-
bourhood. He died on the 22d of 7th month (July), after a few
days illness, with a yellow skin, and smelled extremely offensive,
as I was told by those who assisted in burying him. Two others,
of the above cases, came under my own particular observation,
and were decidedly of that complaint. Both of these patients
were foreigners just arrived from  London. One of them (.2) I
attended. He had been in town but five days when he was taken
sick: On the fifth day afterwards, 19th of 8th month (August),
he died, with coffee-ground vomitings and yellow skin. To the
second (.3) I was called a few hours before his death, to deter-
mine whether he was a proper object for the New-York Hospital.
He had been more or less indisposed, from the second day after
his arrival, which was on the 2d of 10th month (October), but
was not seriously taken till the fifth. He died on the seventh day
of his disease, very yellow, but I know not what was the nature.
of the matter he puked up. I was told he had been much dis-
tressed by his sickness of stomach. The last (.4) of these four
patients died the 20th of 9th month (September), after five days
illness, with yellow skin and dark vomiting.
Another person also died with this complaint, some little dis-
tance off, in Cherry-street(.5). I saw him in the latter stage of
his complaint, in conjunction with the physician who had attended
him from the beginning; and we were perfectly agreed as to the
nature of his disease. He died the 21st of 8th  month (August),
on the seventh day of his complaint, with yellow skin.
Besides these fatal cases, there were a number of persons also,
that were seriously affected by severe fevers, but yet recovered,
(designated ☉ in the plate.) I attended three of this description;
one of them lived in a house built upon piles, over a part of the


319 MEDICAL REPOSITORY.
above-mentioned flat; another passed a great proportion of his
time, during the day, in a store adjoining it; and the last lived in
Cherry-street, and the yard of his house backed upon Water-
street, about eight rods distant from the same spot. Dr. Bor-
rowe informed me, that he had also attended one, at the corner of
Water and Roosevelt streets, with the complaint well marked, and
from which he, with difficulty, recovered.
There were several other cases of fever, of a suspicious nature,
though slight and soon  recovered from. Their situations are
marked (o) on the plate.
It may not be amiss here to observe, that none, as far as I could
learn, that had the fever in 1795, suffered with it in this neigh-
bourhood this year, excepting one of the slight cases above-men-
tioned: Its general prevalence the year before was, perhaps, the
reason why no more were affected about this spot this year; their
former indispositions probably securing them against a second
attack. This much is certain, that the nine patients first above-
mentioned, had not had it in 1795. Indeed, seven of them might
be said not to have been exposed to its cause; one having lived
only a few months in town, two having just come from Eng-
land, one absented herself from town in the sickly season, two
had lately come from the country, and one that year lived at the
Whitehall; and one of the others continued in town for only a
part of the time during the epidemic of 1795.
Why the disease did not become as general about the easterly
low part of the city in 1796, as in the year before, probably was
owing to the removal of most of the causes that were supposed to
have promoted such complaints; and perhaps also, in a degree, to
not having such regular rains, to favour the deadly operations of
remaining deficiencies. (See Webster's Collection of Papers.)
Many of the lots in that part of the town had been filled up; the
filth and dirt of the streets and yards had been more carefully
cleared away; the unpaved streets, in general, had been paved and
regulated, so as to prevent any water from standing in them;
and several of the slips and vacancies under the stores set upon
piles, had been filled up with wholesome earth. But, in this de-
voted spot, partial neglect, we see, was followed up by its predict-
ed, I had like to have said merited, consequences.
It remains to notice the disease as it has shewn itself among us
this season. The cases that have occurred being too numerous to
attempt to get an accurate history of them all, and the want of
proper marks to identify it where it is slight, if attempted, would,
at best, leave but a very objectionable result: I have therefore
only noted the fatal ones; nor do I think we need much to regret
the omission of the others, since, from the number of deaths, we
can nearly calculate upon its degree of prevalence, and particularly 

320 MEDICAL REPOSITORY.
since the proximity of cause will, most probably, correspond
with its mortality.
To proceed, 1st. William Cummings, two days after having
taken his lodgings in East George-street, was attacked on the 1st
of 9th mouth (September), with chills, head-ach, and the other
common symptoms of fever, which increased in the night with
delirium, &c. The next day many circumstances giving occasion
to suspect his complaints to be of a dangerous nature, he was car-
ried to the Lazaretto, on Bedlow's island, where, in a few days, I
have understood, he died.
2d. Margaret Wiggins, in the same street, was taken on the
14th of the same month. On the fifth day of her disease, accord-
ing to the account of the person with whom she lived, she puked
a black, offensive, ropy matter. Two days afterwards, on the
morning  of the 22d, she died very yellow, and with black effu-
sions about her breast.
3d.—Brown was taken the next day, the 15th, and died also
on the morning of the 22d. He had vomited, during his disease,
much blackish bloody matter, and was very yellow.
4th.—Price, after having passed a part of the evening of
the 16th of 9th month (September), in East George-street, was
taken in his return home at midnight, with dizziness and lassitude,
succeeded by a chill, followed by a hot fever, &c. He died on the
19th, very yellow; he had, during his disease, puked a black matter.
5th. William Templeton sickened on the 16th, with chills, &c.
and died in the afternoon of the 22d, very yellow.
6th. John Busson was taken on the same day with Templeton.
During his disease he puked much: the nature of the discharge I
could not learn. He died on the 23d, with yellow skin, and black-
ness about his neck and breast
7th. A lad, by the name of Parcells, died in Cedar-street. His
mother lived in Henry-street, two doors from the corner of East
George-street, where he used frequently to pass his evenings, and
sometimes to stay the whole night. He became sick on the 19th,
of the complaint of which he died on the 23d. According to the
account of his physician, his must  have been a decided case of
Yellow Fever He had the black vomiting and yellow skin.
8th. Seth Fairchild was taken on the 27th of 9th month (Sep-
tember), and died ont he 2d of 10th month (October), with black
vomiting and yellow skin.
9th. George Ross was taken sick the 11th of 10th month (Oc-
tober), and died on the 20th. He had puked a blackish matter.
His skin was yellow.
10th.—Hulshart was taken on the 12th, and died on the 17th
of 10th month (October). He was yellow, and had puked, during
his illness, a greenish brown matter, and purged clear blood. 

321 MEDICAL REPOSITORY.
All the above cases appear to have originated in East George-
street; and all, excepting Price and Parcells, resided within the
small compass of seventeen houses, in the lower part of the street.
11th. On the 13th of 9th month (September), John Holmes,
after having been a little complaining for a week, according to
the relation of his landlady, was taken with a chill, succeeded
by a hot fever, violent head-ach, red eyes, &c. On the 19th he
was sent to the New-York Hospital, where he died on the 23d,
with a yellow skin, after having puked up a dark brown seculent
looking matter. He had taken lodgings in Chesnut-street three
days previous to his indisposition.
12th.—Havens, who lay on board a vessel at Lynch and
Stoughton's wharf, from the time of her arrival, the 25th of 8th
month (August), was taken unwell the 14th of 9th month (Sep-
tember), more unwell the next day, still more the day after, but
not to such a degree but that he walked up to Roosevelt-street,
where he took lodgings. He was confined the next day; on the
18th he was very yellow, and vomited, in great quantities, a black
matter, mixed with coagulated blood, almost incessantly. He dis-
charged the same by stool, and died in the night of the 19th.
13th. On the 17th, Samuel Suydam, who resided near the Ex-
change, in Water-street, but who passed the greatest part of his
time, during the day, in his store, a little to the east of Lynch and
Stoughton's wharf, in Front-street, was taken down with his com-
plaint, which terminated fatally, on the morning of the 23d. His
physician informs me, that his disease appeared to him to be a Yel-
low Fever of the most malignant type. He had the black vomit-
ing, to a great degree, and his skin was very yellow.
14th.—Kelly (.1 of plate II.) was taken on the 7th of 9th
month (Sept.), with fever, attended with a particular determination
to his head, hot skin, and great derangement of his mind. His
complaints being suspected of a malignant nature, he was conveyed
to the Lazaretto on the 13th; where, a few days afterwards, he died.
15th. Daniel Wiggins, who lived in the lower house on the
west side of the Fly-market, (.2) his physician tells me, was, on
the 20th of 9th month (September), attacked with a fever, which
assumed a most malignant appearance, attended with black vomit-
ings and a yellow skin. He died on the 28th.
16th. John Van Deventer, (.3) as the family informs me, was
taken on the 20th of 9th month(September), and died on the
29th, with a yellow skin.
17th. Samuel Hitchcock, at the corner of the Market and Front-
street, (.4) sickened on the 23d, and died on the 29th, in Fletcher-
street, where he had been conveyed after he became unwell. His
attendant, in her simple narrative of his case, says, he puked matter
just like the grounds of coffee, but he was not yellow. 


322 MEDICAL REPOSITORY. 
18th. James Hamilton belonged to the schooner Ellice, which
arrived on the 16th of 9th month (September), after eight days
passage from Richmond, in Virginia. He was employed in assist-
ing to unload her, at the easterly side of Murray's wharf (.5).
He was taken sick on the 27th, and then took lodgings at the
Crane wharf; where he died in the morning of the 30th, with
pukings of a greenish matter, and with a yellow skin.
19th. T. Comstock resided in Front-street, between the Market
and Depeyster-street (.6): he was taken on the 28th of 9th month
(Sept.), and was afterwards carried to the New-York Hospital;
where he died on the 3d of the next month, with a yellow skin.
20th. J.Rogers (.7) was taken in the night of the 20th of 9th
month (September), with chills and sickness at stomach, followed
by a hot fit, which was succeeded by a sweating. In the morn-
ing he was so well as to be about house. His complaints returned
towards evening, without a preceding chilliness, and continued,
with little or no abatement, till his death. He did not have much
sickness at stomach, nor great pain in his head. The tunicæ con-
junctivæ of his eyes appeared bloated, with a reddish yellow fluid:
his skin was yellow; his pulse most of the time soft, and not fre-
quent; and he was much harrassed with a very painful hickuping,
with short intermissions, for about twelve hours before his death; 
which occurred on the morning of the 26th.
21st. Abel Beers attended a store in Water-street (.8). He was
taken with chills, pains in his head, &c. on the 10th of 10th
month (October), and died on the 16th. During his fever, which
regularly remitted every morning, he was much deranged in his
mind; his bowels were constipated, and stools, procured by art,
dark; his eyes and skin became yellowish on the fourth day; he
puked a brownish matter several times on each of the two last days
of his illness, and vomited a great quantity of blood just before
his death. After death, the skin was observed to be universally
yellow, except that there were purple effusions about the neck,
breast, and on the lower extremities.
22nd. Elias Mowatt, in William-street, died on the same day, of
a fever with which he was attacked on the 12th. During his com-
plaint, he had, several times, puked a black matter: he had some
yellowness about his neck.
From the foregoing list, which comprehends all the deaths from
this fever, which have occurred in this city this year,* up to the
present date, as far as I can learn, it appears that nearly one half
* Since writing the above, one other death, and only one, has come to my
knowledge, and the present steady coldness of the weather and hardness of
the frost, seems intirely to have checked the disease; it is not probable a
single case of it exists in the city at this time. 



323 MEDICAL REPOSITORY.
of them originated in a small part of East George-street; and the
greater part of the remainder near about, and just below the Fly-
market. We are, therefore, naturally led to examine the situation of
these afflicted spots, to ascertain the cause of its particular pre-
valence there. And, indeed, the southerly part of East George-
street, where the complaint prevailed, (if we can suppose filth and
putrefaction of any kind to produce it,) seemed well prepared for
the purpose. The street itself, unpaved, was so rutted and broken
up, in particular parts, as effectually to prevent it from being kept
dry. Frequently, for some time after wet weather, it was almost
impossible for footmen to pass through it, without miring half shoe
deep; and, at the best of times, one fourth of this particular part
of it was a filthy mud-puddle. Besides this, most of the houses are
occupied by several families; all of whom have the yard in com-
mon; and really, upon inspection of these places, all of which
are lower than the street, one's mind is struck with an idea that the
several joint-tenants are not only determined not to clear away the
other's dirt, but also that each one exerted himself to put, at least
his share into the noisome collection; because be had as good a right
to make dirt as his neighbours. Hence these sunken spots became
a dreadful mass of garbage and offal matters of every kind. This,
however, was not the case with all: One house, the cellar of which
contained fourteen persons, men, women, and children, black
and white, all huddled together, having no yard at all. But here
there was no loss in the end; for what of every refuse and excre-
mentitious matter the yard would otherwise have gained, was here
thrown into the open street; the common  place for all kinds of
putrefiable substances. But, beside this, at the upper part of this af-
fected portion of the street, between four and five rods up Lumber-
street, is a declivity that appears to crave every kind of rubbish that
comes near it; nothing seems to be too gross for it; even the night-
man's filthy load, as I have observed, here finds a free reception.
The cause of the prevalence of this disease near the Market,
appeared very evident upon examining the spot. The south-
eastern end of Pine-street, (S on plate II.) lies considerably lower
than the dock which is continued from it; so that it there keeps a
constant puddle of stagnant filthy water and mud. But this is a
more trifle in comparison to its pestilential neighbours. The slips
(S S) on each side of this central spot, have been left, during the
summer, to be fortuitously filled up by the free contributions of
the neighbourhood. Hence they became the common receptacles
of rubbish and filth of every description. I have seen in them
the guts and trimmings of fish, shavings, the clearing of shops,
mud, that appeared to have been the cleaning of sinks, cabbage
leaves, potatoe peelings, &c. &c. and further, to render this noi-
some collection the more complete, the necessary night-man did

324 MEDICAL REPOSITORY.
not fail to do his part: more than once have I observed their ful-
some loads exposed in these places, and that even above the ordi-
nary mark of high water. But beside all this, the spaces on the
annexed plate, marked S with crosses, particularly that to the north-
eastward of the dock, has, from its being open and so contiguous
to the Market, become the common convenience to a multitude of 
people; and indeed so effectually have they bespattered the ground
with their excrementitious depositions, that it requires a good
degree of circumspection in walking there, to tread clear of the
filth.
Havens and Suydam appear to have taken their complaints in
an atmosphere contaminated by the emanations from the exposed
flat at the inlet by Lynch and Stoughton's wharf. This inlet, in-
cluding the spaces under the adjoining buildings on each side,
which are set upon piles, exposes a surface of mud and every kind
of filth that is constantly gathering in such places, of at least one
hundred square yards at low water: and, as though it was feared
that the parts under the stores should not receive their share of
what is so freely thrown into such reservoirs, several of the boards
of the platform before the door are left loose, so as to be taken
up at pleasure: and, indeed, the pile that is heaped up under the
opening shews that it has well answered its purpose. Still more
completely to involve this dock in the most offensive effluvia, at
the end of it is affixed a conveniency, erected, it is true, over the
water; yet, with seeming care, such obstructions are introduced
under it as to support great piles of matters, not less offensive to
the smell, than disgusting to the eye. Havens attended and slept
in a vessel that lay at this very wharf; while Suydam attended his
store about eighteen yards from it, and in a direction for the regu-
lar southerly wind to blow the whole power of this loaded atmos-
phere upon him.
Rogers lived in a part free from the circumstances attending the
residence of the afore-mentioned persons. Might he not have
picked up his complaint at the Market?
Beers (.8) spent the day in a store between Beekman and Burling
slips, which is remarkable for backing upon an inlet in the form of
a T, that opens into Front-street. This place is unpaved, and, too
much like many of the Philadelphia alleys, is bounded by the backs
and gable ends of houses, and by yard, without a single house
lronting it. It contains upwards of 200 square yards; one third
of which, at the most moderate calculation, is constantly covered
with mucky filth of one sort or other. It may be thought strange
that this place should furnish us with but one death. This may
have been owing to two causes. In the first place, to its being
surrounded, in great degree, by stores that are only inhabited dur-
ing the day; and secondly, to most, of the inhabitants near it being 

325 MEDICAL REPOSITORY.            
old residents. However, two other persons, to my knowledge,
have here suffered with the complaint, both of whom recovered.
One, Moses Judah (o2), occupied and slept in the same store that
Beers attended: and the other, George Burchell (o1), resided in a
house at the corner of this place and Front-street. They both
had removed to this place this year, and Abel Beers (Judah's ap-
prentice) had never spent a summer in New-York before.
Holmes, who died at the Hospital, took his complaint in Ches-
nut-street, the next door to the corner of Bancker-street. This
same spot, at the junction of these two streets, is unpaved and
sunken, and seems not only to solicit the accumulation of every-
thing worthless or unclean, but also to forbid the idea of any at-
tempt to clean it out, lest it would make the pond the deeper. In-
deed, so remarkable was this spot, as to make me, as early as the
7th month (July) last, request both of the Health Commissioners,
and the Alderman of the ward, to give some attention to it; as I
considered it a place highly favourable to the promotion of Yellow
Fever. However, it was not amended. Fortunately for the re-
maining inhabitants, they were a hardy set; most of them had
undergone the fiery trial of 1795, in their families, and the re-
mainder were old residents in town, as I have been informed, ex-
cepting one person, who lived the very next door to where this
man was taken; but he luckily had been several months of the
summer out of town, and did not return till some time after
Holmes died.
The last person mentioned as having died of this complaint,
resided in a healthy, cleanly part of the town: and how or where he
could have taken his disease is still a mystery. Possibly he might
have received it at some one of the sources above-mentioned.
These circumstances, being well considered and candidly exa-
mined, I think must clearly prove to every unprejudiced mind, that
in this city there appears to be an intimate and inseparable con-
nection between the prevalence of the Yellow Fever, and the exist-
ence of putrid effluvia; whether it be septon or hydrogene, or
whatsoever other peculiar principle that is the active ingredient of
their composition, is not my business at present to inquire into; nor
shall I pretend to decide whether these effluvia alone are the sole or
original cause of the complaint; or whether, merely like a smoak-
ing hot combustible, it burns only after having received a spark from
elsewhere. However, from some facts, particularly that from the
Busbridge Indiaman, (Annals of Med. vol. I.) and  others that
might be brought if necessary, it seems highly probable, that such
matters may, of themselves, sometimes burst out as it were, into
actual flame at some point; from whence a general conflagration
may spread through and involve the whole of these susceptible
materials.
Vol. I. No. 3. 
F 


326 MEDICAL REPOSITORY.
In 1795, from the inseparable connection observed to exist be-
tween this disease and putrid miasmata, I had strong suspicions
of their being its sole cause; and, indeed, the evidence then adduced
to the contrary, by the advocates of importation, being so weak and
ungrounded, seemed rather to support the idea: however, from
subsequent inquiry, and more minute information, in regard to
some circumstances, not then so generally known, it now appears
to me probable, that a foreign fomites might at first have excited our
pestilential vapours into the action that spread such devastation in
the most afflicted part of our city.
The brig Caroline arrived from Hispaniola on the 19th of 7th
month (July), 1795, and hauled in at Dover-street wharf on the
20th; where, on that and the two following days, she discharged
her cargo. She had lost one hand on her passage, his symptoms
unknown. George A. Valentine, who attended the vessel after
her arrival, was taken ill with the fever on the 25th of the same
month, but recovered. On the same day, "four persons from
" on board the ship William, from Liverpool, which arrived here
" several weeks before, (all the hands having, previous to that day
" and during the voyage, been perfectly healthy) were taken ill
" with fever, attended with a yellow skin, hemorrhagies, vomiting
" of black matter resembling coffee grounds, &c. and all died
" within seven days." (Health  Committee's Letter to the Go-
vernor.) It may be observed, that this ship and the Caroline lay
at opposite sides of the same wharf, and that the people of both
were employed on this wharf, at the same time, in unloading their
cargoes.
On the same day also, "the owner of the ship Connecticut,
" that had lately arrived from some part of England, and which
" had drawn in at the next wharf, about the 20th or 21st of this
" month, was seized with the fever, from which he recovered;
" and about the same time, one of the mates, the steward, and two
" of the hands, were seized in the same way, and all died." (Smith's
Letter to Buel.)
Benjamin Paine, a custom-house officer, who was at that time
attending the brig Active, which lay in the same slip, was like-   
wise attacked on the 25th: he died on the 30th.
William Fitch's clerk, who was occupied in a store on the
next wharf to where the Caroline lay, was taken on the 26th, and
died a few days afterwards.
A. Jenkins, at the head of the wharf, was attacked on the 30th
or 31st, and died. A few days afterwards, several of his family
were taken sick, and the disease began to spread through the sur-
rounding neighbourhood.
The circumstance of so many persons being taken on the same
day, renders it highly probable, that                cause of this 

327 MEDICAL REPOSITORY.
disease must have been introduced by the Caroline; since, had
the contagion arisen from the pre-existing circumstances of the
place alone, it is not likely that it would have shewn itself in so
many instances at the same time. In that case, we should have
looked for one to have been first taken, from whom a prin-
ciple might be derived to stimulate the vapours of that noxious
neighbourhood into their pestiferous operations. Had the disease,
in these instances, originated solely from the surrounding filth, we
should not have expected to find the men of the Connecticut, and
those of the William, taken at the same time; since the former
had drawn in there only about four or five days, whereas the latter
had lain there for "several weeks" before they were taken sick.
In 1796, the brig Patty, Capt. Snow, from St. Bartholomews,
arrived on the 28th of 6th month (June), and not July, as er-
roneously stated (probably by an accident of the press) in Dr.
Bayley's Letter. (Medical Repository, No.I. Appendix.) This
vessel drew in at Delafield's wharf; which is the next to the dock
that was then filling up, and is adjoining the Exchange-slip; and
although "none of the crew had been sick of a malignant fever," still
she might have brought a fomites sufficient to set the putrid mias-
mata of such a place into a pestilential action. Jonathan Thomp-
son, a shop-keeper, who lived No. 24 Moore-street, but a short
distance from this dock, and upon which he was in the daily habit
of taking his walk, became sick on the 4th of 7th month (July),
and died on the 10th, with well marked symptoms of a highly
malignant Yellow Fever. Capt. Neal's wife, who resided half
way between the Exchange-slip and Moore-street, in Front-street,
was seized on the 7th, and died on the 10th. Nathan Strong died
on the 17th; from which time the disease became more and more
general about the neighbourhood of the dock that was filling up,
as stated in the letter just referred to.
The first person who died this year about the disemboguement
of Roosevelt-street drain, if I am informed rightly, was James
Callender(.1 on plate I.). He was a labouring man, who was
employed somewhere towards the lower end of the town; and
perhaps he was affected with the complaint from being about the
Exchange; and transported, by his disease, the seeds of infection
to that fertile neighbourhood in which he lived.
In 1797, the first person that was taken sick in East George-
street, was W. Cummings: he arrived the 13th of 8th month (Au-
gust), in the sloop Polly, from George-town, South-Carolina. One
hand died on the passage, and Cummings was slightly indisposed
at the time of his arrival, with what he supposed an ague and fever,
but was not taken seriously unwell till two nights after he had
lodged in this street. It may be, that a partial principle of death
lurked in his system, during the whole time after the death of his 

328 MEDICAL REPOSITORY.
comrade, and most likely, never would have seriously acted upon
him, had he not immersed himself in this or some such like fury-
fostering miasmata. From him the disease seems to have spread.
Two of his next door neighbours fell under its power, and it ex-
tended itself, as above related, through all the most offensive part
of this street.
—Kelly, of the brig Bellona, (which arrived the 3d of 9th 
month (September), from Savannah, with all her hands and passengers
in good health) unfortunately pitched himself within the noxious
effluvia of the Fly-market; and, still more certainly to fix his fate,
lodged in a room, two of the windows of which opened towards
the places where the putrid collections were gathered, and from
whence the southerly winds must have brought their vapours im-
mediately upon him. He is the first that appears to have had the
disease in that neighbourhood; and perhaps the effluvia arising
from his body, united with the putrid vapours emitted from the
Collections before noticed, spread the complaint around this little
vicinity.
Another of the hands from the same vessel, took up his quar-
ters at Chesnut-street; where he met with the necessary ingredi-
ents to bring his latent poison into life. He was afterwards taken
to the New-York Hospital, where he died. It may seem some-
what strange, that the cause of disease that must have been kin-
dled up at this spot did not affect any of his neighbours; probably,
from circumstances already mentioned, they were proof against its
operations.
The systems of the two persons who lived at or near Lynch and
Stoughton's wharf, being richly loaded with the emissions from
that offensive spot, might possibly have catched a spark of excite-
ment in passing near the Market,
George Burchell may have taken his disease, after having been
immersed in the effluvia from the inlet between Burling and Beek-
man slips, from the hands of the same vessel, as they frequented
his shop immediately after their arrival. He probably set the whole
materials in action, whence Beers and Judah were afterwards af-
fected.
The other persons mentioned in the list of deaths, may have
received the cause of their complaints at one or other of the afore-
mentioned sources.
These circumstances render it probable that the cause of Yellow
Fever, in the particular parts of our city, has of late, been set in
action by an enlivening spark from abroad. However, I do not
consider it as decidedly determined. It is possible that Cummings,
having suddenly changed from a purer air, with his already infirm
body, to this hot-bed of putrefaction, may, from  those predispo-
sitions, have had the disease created in him,  before it had ripened

329 MEDICAL REPOSITORY.
in the bodies of his neighbours; and he thence may have intro-
duced the principles ot his complaint to the surrounding air.
Just arrived from sea, and of a profligate habit, Kelly might
thence have been a person,  more than any other about the mar-
ket, prepared for the deleterious operation  of the putrid vapours
in which they were enveloped; and thereby have been first affected
by surrounding causes of fever; and, in turn, may have imparted
a principle to the air,  that usuriously repaid it for its fatal effects
upon him.
And although James Callender worked towards the lower end
of the town, there is no proof of his having brought his com-
plaint, or even of his  having been at Whitehall. Nor, indeed,
is it certain that the Patty imparted any principle of disease to the
poisonous vapours of that neighbourhood.
The Caroline, it is true, lay at Dover-street wharf for some
days before the people thereabout became sick; and although such
a number becoming suddenly sick, at the same time, and so soon
after her arrival, render her very justly suspected, still it is pos-
sible, that, from the particular and similar predisposition of most
of them, only one having been an old resident, and, all excepting
three, having lately come from the same place, and having been
alike accustomed to the same habits of diet, exercise, &c. they may
have had the complaint generated and arrived to maturity in them
all at the same time. From which beginning, the disease might
have been communicated to the whole of that peculiarly filthy
part of our city, in 1795, without the necessity of believing that
the Caroline brought any deleterious principle from Hispaniola.
Although the circumstance of some of these people having lain at
that place a much longer time than the others, and others again
having continued there during the whole summer, shew, beyond
a doubt, that some cause of the complaint must have began to ope-
rate after the 20th of the month, still this does not necessarily de-
volve upon the Caroline:  perhaps some particular change in the
air,* or some other peculiarity might have occurred, just at that
time, to have given the putrid miasm its rankest perfection.
Whether the complaint is ever generated by putrefaction alone
or not, still I am  rather inclined to believe, that, generally, in
our city, it has been set in action by an assisting cause from
abroad. For, did simple putrefaction of itself give rise to this
complaint among us, we should expect to find more or less of it,
in that row of tenements called Moore's buildings, in the years of
1796 and 1797. For although those buildings are set upon high
* It must, however, be acknowledged, that no particular change was evi-
dent in the temperature of the air. (See the Meteorological Observations in
my account of the Epidemic of 1795).


330 MEDICAL REPOSITORY.
ground, still they are upon a perfect level, and are the most crowd-
ed with, perhaps, the most dirty set of residents of any in the city;
and these chiefly newly arrived Irish people. Still I cannot learn
that a single case of Yellow Fever has been  there for these two
years past. And, I can hardly believe, that if a person with that
complaint had  been introduced among them about six weeks ago,
but that he would have spread mortality around him.
In East George-street also, during the last year, we should have
expected to find, at least, a few cases of the complaint; yet I
cannot, notwithstanding the most diligent inquiry, find a single
instance. Had a single instance occurred, probably it would have
caused a general prevalence there.*
In addition to this, it may be observed, that the singular filthi-
ness that has existed in different parts of our city, and particularly
about some of the slips, towards the lower part of the town, for
several years before 1791, was not attended with any material in-
jury to the health of those in its vicinity; at least, we have no ac-
count of the Yellow Fever's spreading around  them.
In the years 1792 and 1793, the mud machine was employed
in clearing out the docks, the same as in the preceding and the
succeeding year. But we heard of no Yellow Fever being the
consequence.
But that the simple emanations from a person under the Yellow
Fever, without the joint action of putrid miasmata, will not produce
a like disease in another person is very clear, not only from the
many facts heretofore adduced in the accounts of that disease, as it
appeared in 1795, (see Webster's Collection of Papers) but also
from the confirming occurrences that have happened this year.
The person supposed to have enkindled the disease in East George-
street, as well as the one at the Market, were both conveyed to,
and died at Bedlow's Island; yet none of the boatmen that took
them there, nor any of the attendants, nurses, or those confined
in the Lazaretto with other complaints, suffered any indisposition
from them. A person, as I am informed, who took his complaint
* I am aware of an objection that may be made to this idea, in account-
ing for the healthiness of this street it 1796; first, that the preceding year's
depopulation, and the dreadful character that the street sustained thereby,
probably prevented it from being so crowded as before and since; and, second-
ly, that the street having been filled up during that summer might prevent so
great an accumulation of filth. In answer to this it may be remarked, that
notwithstanding the character of the street, it had not been observably more
thinly inhabited; and although the street was filled up that year, yet that
was done in the sore part of the summer, and some time before the sickly
season, and that the yards were equally unfavourably situated as before or
since; and that although the filling up of the street might have had its use,
still we can hardly believe such a partial business would have produced such
an intire exemption from this disease, had filthiness been its sole cause. 

331 MEDICAL REPOSITORY.
at Philadelphia, was also carried to the Island, and was there at-
tended by his friends, who had come directly from the fresh free
air of the country, and with as little inconvenience. Two of the
patients afore-mentioned died at the New-York Hospital, one
from the market, and the other from Chesnut-street; yet they com-
municated the disease to no one there. Parsells, who died in
Cedar-street, infected no one in that neighbourhood. Nor did
Suydam spread any disease around the Exchange where he died;
and Havens' complaint terminated with his existence, in the upper
part of Roosevelt-street.
To the foregoing circumstances may be added, that about the
same time that Kelly and Holmes (the former of whom is sup-
posed to have introduced the disease about the market) arrived
from Savannah, there also were several other arrivals from the
same place, none of whose hands, or passengers, as far as I can
learn, suffered with a like disease;* probably from their having
taken more eligible lodgings.
The simple result of the foregoing facts and observations ap-
pears to be,
I. That the general cause of the Yellow Fever, as it has appeared
in this city, is what chemists call a tertium quid, neither one thing
nor the other, but a result of the junction of certain matters emit-
ed from a human body, labouring under such a disease, with the
effluvia arising from animal and vegetable substances in a state of
putrefaction.
II. That putrid effluvia may possibly, of themselves, generate
the disease in persons highly predisposed, and from whom, by
their assistance, the fatal epidemic may be spread through a neigh-
bourhood.
III. That most probably, the spark that has kindled up the pu-
trid vapours, in certain parts of our city, into action, was originally
introduced from other places.  And,
IV. As I have uniformly believed, and repeatedly  expressed,
"that no Yellow Fever can SPREAD, but by the influence of putrid
"effluvia" (Account of the Epidemic Yellow Fever of 1795.)
Hence then, the grand, the much agitated "question of im-
"portation or non-importation, as it respects the health of a place,"
to use the words of Dr. Smith, "sinks into its merited insignifi-
* This, perhaps, by some, may be thought inaccurate, as one of the hands
of the Shepherdess died soon after her arrival here, and, as was currently
reported, of the Yellow Fever; but, from inquiry, I do not find that his
indisposition exhibited any marks of that disease. He did not vomit at all,
at least after he was on shore; nor was he in any wife yellow; he being,
when dead, according to the expressions of his wife, "as fair a corpse as
any in the world." 

332 MEDICAL REPOSITORY.
"cance; the efficient cause, the causa sine qua non, being clearly dis-
"cerned as depending on local circumstances." (Letters to Buel.)
To depend, therefore, for our safety from Yellow Fever, upon
the rigours of our port laws, or the vigilance of our Health Offi-
cers, while these pools of putrefaction are suffered to remain, is like
building a city with cedar and pine, and confiding in the watch to
secure us from fire. But if these pregnant sources of destruction
are dried up, we may, like those who case the wooden work of
their brick-built, tile-roofed houses, with iron, rest at ease in our
habitations, equally secure against the deceitful captain's intru-
sions, or the incautious sailor's blundering into our ports, in the
one case, as, in the other, we should be of the vile incendiary's
match or the careless neighbour's spark. As the latter would die
in their own combustion, so the former would end in the fate of
the single sufferers.
To rest our security from the Yellow Fever (should it finally
appear that it is always imported) solely upon the slight precaution
of making such vessels, from the West-Indies and Southern States,
as may have, or may have had persons with that complaint on
board them, do ten days or two weeks quarantine, must certainly
be a very venturesome business. The Patty  had not had any of
her crew sick with a malignant fever. The people of the Bellona
were in good health from their leaving Savannah, till some days
after they were in this city. And the Polly might have done the
usual quarantine, without any security to us, as Cummings was
not seized with his disease till seventeen days after his arrival.
Nothing less than completely prohibiting all commercial inter-
course from the Southern States and the West-Indies, during the
summer and first fall months, or (what would, in the end, amount
to the same thing) making every vessel from thence do full qua-
rantine, and have their cargoes unloaded and  properly unpacked
and ventilated, before they are permitted to come into our city,
can ensure us against the introduction of a cause of the Yellow
Fever: however, these severe restrictions may be superceded by
merely having ourselves properly prepared. It we only keep
decently cleanly, it will be perfectly indifferent to us, whether a
Carolinaman or a West-Indian should die with Yellow Fever in
our city or in our harbour, since, then, we should'be guarded
against any ill effects from them.
New-York, l0th Month; 1797.