-A_ HISTORY, 
CHRONOLOGICAL AND CIRCUMSTANTIAL, 
OP THE 
VISITATIONS OF YELLOW FEVER 
At NEW YORK. 
JOHN H. GRISCOM, M.D., 
Physician to the N. Y. Hospital; Fellow of the N. Y. Academy of Medicine. 
(Read before the Academy of Medicine, and printed by permission.) 
The history of the epidemic diseases of North America dates back 
to the commencement of the 17th century. It is related in a dedica- 
tory epistle of a sermon delivered by Elder Cushman, at Plymouth, in 
1620, just after the Colony arrived, that, 
1618-19. “They, (the Indians,) were very much wasted of late 
by a great mortality that fell amongst them three, years since, which, 
with their own civil dissensions and bloody wars, hath so wasted them, 
as I think the twentieth person is scarce left alive.” “ It raged in 
winter, and affected the Indians only.” 
Noah Webster, in his work on Pestilence, attempts to decide that 
this pestilence was the fever which has since received the appellation 
of “yellow fever;” his reliance for this opinion being the state- 
ment of Gen. Gookin, as follows: “What the disease was which so 
generally and mortally swept them away, I cannot learn. Doubtless 
it was some pestilential disease. I have discoursed with some old In- 
dians that were then youths, who say that the bodies all over, were 2 
exceeding yellow, (describing it by a yellow garment they showed me,) 
both before they died and afterward.” 
That this was not small pox, (a frequent scourge of the aborigines,) 
is evident from several circumstances; but the basis (above cited) 
for the inference that it was Yellow Fever, is too slight, especially 
when we remember what Webster ignores, that it raged in winter, 
which Yellow Fever never does, at least in Northern latitudes. It 
was most probably a malignant typhus, with bilious complications, 
jaundice, and nasal haemorrhages, of paludal origin. Gookin wrote 
40 or 50 years after the settlement of New England. 
The same destructive principle devastated the settlers of Virginia, 
destroying 300 of them in 1619. 
1632-37. America, as well as Europe, was severely annoyed by 
pestilential diseases. In 1633, a “ pestilent fever ” invaded the little 
Colony of Plymouth, carrying off 20 of their number. 
1668. Malignant diseases again prevailed in America, and the 
first mention is now made of New York, at which time the epidemic 
was so fatal, that a fast was appointed in September, on that account. 
This was possibly the “ autumnal bilious fever, in its infectious 
form.”—Webster, vol. 1, p. 202. 
1695. A mortal sickness prevailed among the Indians in the East- 
ern parts of this Continent, and a contagious sickness prevailed in 
Bermuda in the same year. 
1699. This malignant fever, whatever might have been its symp- 
toms, was followed by more general sickness. In this year, there 
raged in Charleston, S. C., and in Philadelphia, the most deadly bil- 
ious plague that probably ever affected the people of this country up 
to this period. It commenced in Philadelphia, about the first of Au- 
gust, and was called the “ Barbadoes distemper.” “ The patients 
vomited and voided blood;” 220 persons died of it, of whom 80 or 
90 belonged to the Society of Friends. No mention is made of its 
appearance in New York. 
1702. The American plague, as it is called by some writers—mean- 
ing, doubtless, the Yellow Fever—raged severely in New York, to such 
a degree that scarcely a patient survived it; and, by some accounts, 
it was more fatal than any disease since that period. It was popu- 
larly known as “ the great sickness.” One account states that 500 
died up to September, and 70 more during the succeeding week, in a 
population of only 6,000 or 7,000. On account of it, the Assembly 
was held at Jamaica, Long Island. It was said to have been im- 
ported from St. Thomas. 3 
1119-20. A malignant pleurisy prevailed in some parts of Amer- 
ica; and in 1120 the village of Duck Creek, in the State of Delaware, 
was almost depopulated by some disorder, the name or character of 
which is unknown.— Webster, vol. 1, 221. 
1123. What was denominated a “burning ague,” prevailed in 
Rhode Island, which, in proportion to its patients, was never exceed- 
ed in mortality in America.—Idem, 228. 
1132. In the autumn, in New York, there raged a malignant in- 
fectious fever, of which died 10 persons in a few weeks.—Idem, 341. 
In the same year the “ American plague” prevailed at Charleston, 
South Carolina. 
1141. The “ American plague” appeared in Philadelphia and 
Yirginia. 
1142. A mortal fever prevailed in Holliston, Massachusetts, of 
which died Mr. Stone, the minister, and 14 of his congregation. 
1143. New York was severely afflicted by the bilious plague, 
where died in one season, 211 of the inhabitants—a considerable num- 
ber for the population, which was 1,000 or 8,000. “ According to Mr. 
Colden, in a paper written in this year, it appeared chiefly in parts 
of the town which were built on swampy ground, from which the water 
could not be easily drained, and there was a filthy smell from the 
slips.” 
This year is interesting, for having been, as far as our information 
extends, the date of the first official report of the mortality of this 
city, which was made by the Mayor, John Cruger. The whole report 
is as follows: 
“ New York, October 24, 1143. By the Mayor of the city. An 
account of persons buried in the City of New York: 
From July 25 to Sept. 25, 1143. 
Children 51 
Grown persons 114 
165 
From Sept. 25 to Oct. 22. 
Children 16 
Grown persons 36 
52 
165 
217 
“ And I do find, by the best information I have from the doctors, 
&c., of this city, that the late distemper is now over. 
John Cruger, Mayor.” 
Idem, 238. 
1145. A malignant bilious fever prevailed in New York, of which 4 
an eminent physician, Dr. Nicoll, died. “ There appears to be no 
question that it was the same disease now called Yellow Fever.”— 
Idem, 841. 
In the same year, an infectious fever prevailed in Boston. The 
Yellow Fever prevailed in Charleston, S. C.; and Stamford, Ct., was 
distressed by a malignant dysentery, which swept away 10 inhabit- 
ants out of a few hundred.—Idem, 239. 
About the same time (the precise year is not known) a malignant 
epidemic disease laid waste the Indian tribes, which, from the descrip- 
tions given by the traders, would appear to be, though it probably 
was not, the infectious Yellow Fever. In consequence of it, the 
Senecas removed their quarters two or three times in a few years. 
The disease was said to have been confined to the Indians, the white 
people living and trading with them not being affected. 
1746. The Mohegan tribe, between New London and Norwich, were 
wasted by the same malady. From an account given by a Mohegan 
priest, “ a man of good sense and integrity,” as related by a Mr. 
Tracy, son of Dr. Tracy, of Norwich, who attended them as a phy- 
sician, and was the only white man affected, the following were the 
symptoms of this disease: The patient first complained of a severe pain 
in the head and back, which was followed by fever; in three or four 
days the skin turned as yellow as gold; a vomiting of black matter 
took place, and generally a bleeding at the nose and mouth, which 
continued till the patient died. 100 of the tribe died.—Idem, 341. 
Albany was this year visited by a malignant disease, called by Col- 
den, a nervous fever, and by Douglass, the Yellow Fever. The bodies 
of some of the patients were yellow: the crisis of the disease was the 
ninth day; if the patient survived that day, he had a good chance for 
recovery. The disease left many in a state of imbecility of mind, ap- 
proaching to childishness or idiocy; others were afterwards troubled 
with swelled legs. The disease began in August and ended with frost, 
after having carried off forty-five inhabitants, mostly men of robust 
bodies.—Idem, 239. 
It was reported that a like disease prevailed in New York, and that 
it had been imported in a vessel from Ireland, but we find no account 
of any such. 
1747. A bilious plague prevailed in Philadelphia, and, with a slight 
mortality, also appeared in New York. 
1748. It appeared in Charleston, S. C. 
1761. Again appeared in Charleston; and it was about this 
time that the office of Health Officer was instituted, but what gave 5 
occasion to it was the arrival, in 1758 or 1759, of a ship crowded with 
Germans, in a very sickly state. 
1762. It appeared in Philadelphia. The summer was extremely 
hot. 
1776. The Mohawk Indians were scourged by a malignant dis- 
ease.—Idem, 342. 
1778. A bilious plague occurred in Philadelphia. 
1780. A bilious remittent fever prevailed in the sfime city, which, 
from some peculiar symptoms, received the soubriquet of “ break-bone 
fever.” 
1783. A bilious pestilential fever occurred at Fell’s Point, Balti- 
more, and sporadic cases in various parts of the country. Almost a 
whole family in New Jersey perished by it in the autumn. 
“ It is to be remarked as a striking and interesting fact, that dur- 
ing the eight years’ War of the Revolution, no Yellow Fever appear- 
ed in the United States.—Idem, vol. 2, p. 75. 
1791. In New York, the Yellow Fever prevailed in Water Street, 
in the autumn, in the neighborhood of Peck Slip, which was loaded 
with every kind of filth. 200 died of it.—Med. Rep., vol. 1, p. 305. 
1792. There was little or none in New York, though it occasion- 
ed considerable mortality in Charleston, carrying off patients in 3 days. 
1793. There was none amongst us but a few solitary cases import- 
ed from Philadelphia, the alarm from which was lost in the unfortu- 
nate individuals who had brought it from its source.—Dr. V. Sea- 
man, Idem, 305. 
But in Philadelphia, in this year, the Yellow Fever spread terror 
and dismay over the city, sweeping into the grave 4,040 of the in- 
habitants. A controversy arose among the physicians in Philadelphia 
relative to its origin, one party tracing the disease, as they supposed, 
to infected vessels from the West Indies, and the other ascribing it to 
exhalations from damaged coffee, and filthy streets,—a controversy 
which was marked by great acerbity, and the unhappy schism which 
it produced among the citizens generally, as well as the profession. 
The summer of this year was very hot, after a dry spring. 
In illustration of the popular sentiment (at least in the rural dis- 
tricts) respecting another mooted question connected with this di- 
sease, viz., its contagiousness, we may be permitted to introduce here, 
as apropos to the epidemic under consideration, an anecdote from a 
MS. Autobiographical Sketch of a late professor in one of the Medi- 
cal Schools of this city. In 1793 he was a student in Philadelphia, 
and says he, “ we had made a pleasant commencement, and just begun 6 
to relish our new pursuit, when the yellow fever, which proved so 
calamitous in that year, made its appearance. Our school was rapid- 
ly thinned by the removal of the inhabitants to the country. I con- 
tinued until no one but myself remained, and until my teacher him- 
self was seized with fever and confined to his bed. He considered his 
recovery, I apprehend from the beginning, to be doubtful, and fur- 
nishing me with the outlines of his will, desired me to prepare it in 
due form. Having assisted him in signing it, and perceiving him to 
be very ill, I was induced, although very desirous to remain with him 
and assist his wife in nursing him, to yield to their advice and leave 
the city. * * * I embarked in a sloop for Alloway’s Creek, and 
spent one night on the water, and on the following night I was seized 
with a heavy chill, followed by high feverish excitement, which was 
considered as an evident attack of the disease from which I fled. My 
parents, 8 miles distant, were informed in the morning of my situa- 
tion, and no time was lost in sending for me. By gentle and cautious 
travelling, I reached home without being injured by the journey, and 
found in an airy upper room, and in the faithful nursing of a tender 
mother, the most grateful auxiliaries to a restoration, which could 
possibly operate through the medium of the mind and affections. 
“ My situation excited much sympathy in the Town of Salem, (N. 
Jersey,) where I was pretty well known, and the attendance of my 
physician, who resided in the town, was very assiduous, until the fears 
of the inhabitants for his and their own safety, laid him under a posi- 
tive interdict, as I grew more and more ill, no longer to enter my 
room or to go inside of the house. The very atmosphere of our 
dwelling was considered to be infected, so that travellers along the 
road, apprised of my illness, would climb over the fences and make a 
wide circuit, to avoid the danger. But my physician, Dr. Rowan, 
deeply interested in the case, and touched, I believe, by real sympa- 
thy and friendship for the family, though prohibited from seeing me, 
or coming to the house, continued his daily journeys to a tree above 
a quarter of a mile distant, where he met my father, learned the 
symptoms, and prescribed what he thought best. The disease ter- 
minated in a dysentery, which being suitably treated, I began rapidly 
to recover, and was soon restored to health.” 
1794. Twenty or thirty cases occurred in New York, occasioning 
considerable uneasiness in the minds of many of the citizens. Ac- 
cording to Dr. Y. Seaman, in a communication of Sept. 11th. to 
“ the Committee for preventing the introduction of Contagious 
Diseases,” wrhich met regularly, “ most of the patients that had been, 7 
or then were, affected with dangerous fevers, were either such as re- 
sided in the neighbourhood of the slips, (which then were or lately 
had been cleaning out,) or whose employment led them to frequent 
those places.” Its chief locality was the vicinity of New Slip, (foot 
of James Street.) During the very time that these persons were 
taken sick, the Mud Turtle, as the machine was called, “ was per- 
forming its pestiferous purgations in this filthy slip.”—Idem, p. 306. 
In Philadelphia, in this year, from 70 to 100 died of this disease, 
and on the 10th of June it made its appearance in New Haven, Ct., 
attributable, according to some, to local causes, and according to 
others, to foreign origin. 
1795. Yellow Fever again made its appearance in New York, car- 
rying off 730 persons, at least 500 of whom were foreigners, (452 
belonged to one Catholic congregation,) most of whom had been so 
short a time in the country, that the pastor, Rev. Mr. O’Brien, did 
not know them. 
The first case that attracted public attention, was Dr. Treat, Health 
Officer of the port, who fell a victim on the 29th of July. It is al- 
leged, however, that 14 days at least, before the death of Dr. Treat, 
a man in the hospital died of a similar fever, and that another case, a 
blacksmith, was visited by Dr. Pitt Smith, with a similar disease, 
early in July. The evidence is, however, clear that Dr. Treat, him- 
self, imputed his final sickness to communication from the sick and 
dead whom he visited on ship board, especially to the corpse of one 
which he assisted to bury on Governor’s Island.—Rev. Jno. McKnight, 
M. and P. Reg., vol. 3, p. 293. 
It prevailed on the borders of the East River, in the low streets, 
and what was formerly the swamp, and in the narrow alleys. A 
small part only of the citizens fled; most of them remained and pur- 
sued their occupations in the greater part of the city, with perfect 
safety. 
It occurred also in Norfolk, Ya., both in this and the preceding 
and subsequent years. 
1796. In New York, there had been built at Whitehall, the 
southern extremity of the city, a new dock, 60 feet into the river, 
with a front of 458 feet, the piles and timbers of which only, at this 
time, had been put down, forming an immense crib, having an area 
within of an average depth of 9 feet, and which, for a year past, had 
been gradually filling in with the accidental accumulations of all man- 
ner of filth, street dirt, dead animals, &c., &c. It was estimated to 
require 24,000 cart loads to fill up this dock, one-third of which, or 8 
8,000 loads of perishable material, being above the ordinary height 
of the tides, was exposed to the action of the summer sun, while the 
balance of the mass was but slightly covered with water, at variable 
depths. 
A somewhat similar condition of things was observable at Exchange 
Slip, foot of Broad Street, which was the receptacle of an extensive 
common sewer, with a great portion of its muddy bottom exposed at 
low water. In addition to these circumstances, the adjacent quarters 
contained a large number of old wooden houses, many of which, built 
before the raising and paving of the streets, had their lower floors 
two or three feet below the surface of the pavements; precisely such 
an arrangement as is observable at the Five Points and its vicinity, 
and some other parts of the city in the present year, 1856, showing 
how little wisdom thre# score years may produce. 
It will surprise none to learn that 70 persons lost their lives by in- 
haling the poison evolved from such a seething mass of corruption. 
At the foot of Pine Street, and near Burling Slip, also, cases of Yel- 
low Fever, if such it was, occurred, and four deaths occurred within 
fifty yards of the Roosevelt Street drain; and five others in adjacent 
streets. The disease did not become general, but was confined to the 
localities mentioned. 
In Wilmington, N. C., it was preceded by dysentery, producing 150 
deaths in 130 families. It also appeared in Charleston, S. C., in New- 
buryport, Mass., Boston, and Philadelphia.—Med. Rep., vol. 1, p. 
306. Webster. 
1797. Yellow Fever appeared in Charleston, Norfolk, Baltimore, 
and in Philadelphia, where 1,000 persons died of it. 45 deaths oc- 
curred in Providence, R. I. It appeared to a moderate extent in 
New York, causing 23 deaths. Its chief locality then was East 
George (now Market) Street, and its vicinity. The first case occur- 
red July 1. The patient was removed to the Lazaretto, on Bedlow’s 
Island. Two of his next-door neighbors next fell under its power, 
and thence it extended itself through the most offensive parts of that 
offensive street; 10 of these cases occurring in the compass of 17 
houses, and 12 around Fly Market, at foot of Maiden Lane. 
1798. In the language of Webster, this year “was remarkable 
for the most general prevalence of the plague that has been known; 
and in some cities the disease was peculiarly malignant.” It has been 
known since as the year of the “ great epidemic.” It will long be 
marked in annals of mortality, and it seemed as if, in the few years 
immediately preceding, the morbid influences of earth and air and 9 
sky had been training for one grand, terrific, and universal onslaught 
upon civilized humanity. 
The preceding winter was unusually long and cold. The month of 
May was dry, beyond many previous years. June was remarkable 
for numerous deluging rains, occasioning severe floods in the Connec- 
ticut, Delaware, and Susquehanna. Two or three of the first days of 
July were excessively hot, succeeded by 20 days of very cool weather, 
and then commenced a long period of the most sultry weather ever 
known in our climate, accompanied in some places with great rains. 
In Philadelphia, the pestilence made its first appearance in June, 
increasing rapidly in July, and in August the city was deserted by 
three-fourths of its inhabitants. The disease was unusually mortal, 
and extended to the remotest parts of the city, where it had not for- 
merly prevailed. The number of deaths there; was 3,440. At Mar- 
cus Hook, 57; Chester, 50; Wilmington, Delaware, 250; and it pre- 
vailed in other parts of that State, besides many deaths in Bridgetown 
and Woodbury, N. J. It showed itself also in Norwalk and Hart- 
ford, Connecticut. 
It broke out in New York iu the first week in August, in Front 
Street, between Old and Ccenties Slips, a place renowned for great 
accumulations of filthy substances. It disappeared from here, how- 
ever, by the 26th of the month, in consequence of the active sanitary 
measures that were adopted, among the most important of which was 
the covering up of the nuisances with fresh earth. 
On the 12th of August, the fever appeared iu Water Street, foot 
of Dover, in an old broken building, where 11 had died in 1795; on 
the same day, corner of James and Batavia Sts.; also, 51 Cherry St.; 
13th at Bruce’s Wharf, (Pine Street,) and about the 20th it began to 
extend and assume a more formidable aspect. Its worst effects were 
observable in Cliff Street and that neighborhood, between John and 
Beekman. The aggravating cause in that locality was believed to be 
the fetid air from large quantities of spoiled beef, stored in the cellars 
in Pearl Street, on the windward side of this section. These cellars 
were filled with water by heavy rains, and even by high tides, and 
were always damp. The effect was augmented by large quantities of 
pickle, which, in the process of repacking, was discharged into the 
gutters and suffered to run into a sewer in Burling Slip, producing a 
very offensive smell. About the last of August, the inhabitants be- 
came greatly alarmed; some removed from the east to the west side 
of Broadway, but a great portion deserted the city. The disease 10 
was unusually malignant, and exhibited frequent bubo and carbuncle. 
— Webster. The number of deaths from it was 2,086.— TTardie. 
It carried off 200 in Boston. It appeared also in Portsmouth, N. 
H., in New London, Ct., where it destroyed 81 lives out of a popu- 
lation of 3,000. In one space in that city were 15 houses, inhabited 
by 92 persons, of whom all but two were attacked, and 33 died; and 
yet the locality is described as being as well built, clean, and airy as 
any street in the town. 
It occurred in Salem, Mass., and in Albany, also, where about one- 
half who were seized, died. 
In Port Elizabeth, N. J., a place of 19 dwellings and 97 inhabit- 
ants, there occurred 13 cases and 6 deaths. 
It is a remarkable circumstance, (one which is quoted to sustain the 
doctrine of importation,) that while these northern cities and villages 
were sinking under its resistless fury, the Southern ports of Savannah, 
Charleston, Fell’s Point, and Baltimore, were exempt from its rava- 
ges, although noted for their insalubrity in the autumnal season.* 
1799. It appeared again in Philadelphia and New York. In this 
city some cases occurred early in July, increasing in August, and at- 
taining its height in September, and declining so much in October as 
to be nearly extinguished by November. 
1800. In this year, the type of the disorder was so mild as to reu- 
der the name of Yellow Fever of somewhat doubtful application, until 
towards the latter part of its brief season. It at first assumed the forms 
rather of irregular intermittent and remittent fevers; it did not com- 
mence its attacks until August, and a frost on the night of the 3rd or 
4th of October, very soon destroyed the poison. Dr. Y. Seaman relates, 
(Repository, vol. 4, p. 250,) “of upwards of 150 persons with this 
disease, where I attended, all of them, except one, resided (or else 
had stores, wherein they were occupied during the greater part of the 
day) either in Pearl Street, or between that and the East River. 
This one lived on the North River shore, but lodged in a bed that had 
been immediately before occupied by a sick person, who had been 
just taken with her complaint, after removing there from Cherry 
Street.” Of these 150 cases, but one died; but Dr. Seaman witness- 
ed a like termination in three others, whom he saw in consultation. 
Two of them became yellow, with brown dry tongues and coffee- 
ground vomiting, which sufficiently characterized the disease. 
1801. In New York it commenced about the middle of September, 
* Currie. Am. and Phil. Reg., vol. 1, p. 189. 11 
and by the last of October caused 140 deaths—besides, of 30 who were 
sent to the Marine Hospital, a considerable proportion died. Its local- 
ities were chiefly East Rutgers and Lumber Streets, where overflowing 
privies and corrupting olfal abounded, as well as moral and physical un- 
cleanness—the inhabitants being outcasts of bawdy houses and others 
of similar condition of life; and Front and Water Streets, between 
Coffee House Slip and Fly Market, a great part of which “ was made 
ground, and underlaid and overspread with all that collection of nuisan- 
ces which length of time and negligence of police could allow to be 
brought together.” The writers of that day state, that “no rea- 
sonable doubt could exist of its domestic origin.” 
In this year also it prevailed in New Bedford, though limited to a 
small compass, the immediate vicinity of a vessel from Demarara, 
whose crew had been affected with it. The vessel lay at the foot of 
a dirty and ill-ventilated laue; 8 or 9 deaths occurred. All the per- 
sons who sickened had either been on board of her, or lived very 
near her. She contained a large quantity of damaged coffee. 
A few persons died also at the port of Norwich, Ct., with yellow 
fever, but which, it is said, could not be traced to any arrival from 
abroad. 
It prevailed also with violence, but not for a long period, at Nor- 
folk, Va.; and at Charleston, S. C. 
1802. Philadelphia lost 250 by yellow fever. It prevailed also 
in Baltimore; and in Wilmington, Delaware, where 86 deaths occur- 
red, it was most severe in proportion to the population. 10 died in 
Portsmouth, N. H.; 96 in Charleston, S. C., (not one of whom was 
a native of Charleston,) and 60 in Boston. Notwithstanding this 
general prevalence in these seaports, and various other places, New 
York remained exempt, one death only being reported. In this year 
commenced the regular mortality reports, which have been, with more 
or less care, continued ever since. 
The first of these was made out by an esteemed citizen, John Pin- 
tard, who argues their value in his peculiar quaint style, remarking 
among other suggestions, that “ the progress of increase and popula- 
tion can be estimated by these tables, which, to be rendered more 
complete, ought to be accompanied by those of births and marriages. 
The melancholy back-ground of mortality ought to be relieved by the 
more cheering and enlivening scenes of nuptials and christenings.” 
1803. It commenced in Philadelphia on the 19th of July, and in 
New York on the 17th. In the former place, it commenced at three 
different points on the Delaware side, £ of a mile separate from each 12 
other, within the space of 9 days, no communication whatever being 
traceable between the patients. A sudden and extensive depression 
of the thermometer lulled the disease for several days, when a reverse 
change occurred, the atmosphere becoming humid, warm and oppres- 
sive—a dreadful fire broke out almost simultaneously with this change 
in the elements, the concurrence of which circumstances relighted the 
pestilential flames, which continued with varying intensity until about 
October 20th—195 died of it. In reference to this epidemic in Phila- 
delphia, Dr. Charles Caldwell remarks: “ The shadows of night do 
not vanish more precipitately or certainly on the approach of the sun, 
than their dreams of importation recede from the touch of rigid 
inquiry.” 
In New York it commenced at Coffee House Slip, and was ob- 
served at the same time in several other parts. The weather during 
the greater part of July was intensely and uniformly hot, the ther- 
mometer being frequently above 90° and rarely below 80°, and the 
nights brought little relief to the oppressiveness of the day. The 
streets lying near the margins of the two rivers, and those inhabited 
by the poor, uncleanly and dissolute classes of the community, suffered 
the principal ravages of the disease. The deaths amounted to be- 
tween 600 and 700. 
It was more generally diffused than before. The 186 patients ad- 
mitted to Bellevue Hospital were from fifty-seven streets, mostly on 
the east side of the city. Proofs of its domestic production greatly 
accumulated this year. One person was attacked in the Debtor’s 
Prison, who had not been beyond its walls in 3 months. 
In the village of Cattskill it prevailed severely, where it was at- 
tributed to the putrefaction of a large mass of fish; rigid inquiries, it 
is said, failed to establish any reason for belief in its importation from 
any other place.—Yols. 7 and 8, Med. Rep. 
Alexandria was visited by it to a severe extent, commencing in 
July. The population of that place was estimated at upwards of 
6,000, at least one half of whom left, and yet the number of deaths 
was upwards of 200. The evidence of a domestic origin of the dis- 
ease in this place was alleged to be very clear; at least it is stated 
that there was no arrival of any vessel from abroad to which it could 
be traced, until 10 days after its first appearance there.—Med. Rep., 
vol. 7, 190. 
1804. The summer and autumn were distinguished by a singular 
mildness of temperature, and no malignant epidemic took place in any 
of the Atlantic cities. 13 
1805. The temperature in the latter part of June, and till 20th of 
July, was oppressively hot, though a suspicious case of malignant 
fever occurred during the mild weather of the early part of June, in 
Roosevelt Street. The man recovered at the Marine Hospital, and no 
other case occurred until July 9th, when an ostler, recently from Eng- 
land, was attacked in a livery stable, in an alley in Maiden Lane. 
He died on the 13th day of the accession at the Marine Hospital; and 
two others belonging to the same stable, also recently from Great 
Britain, were taken ill with the same disease, but recovered at the 
Marine Hospital. The next case was on the 24th of July, in Water 
Street. The cases soon became more abundant, and were much dis- 
persed over the city, though chiefly confined to the eastern side of 
the city, though it extended, by the middle of September, to the mar- 
gin of the North River, and prevailed in Greenwich Street and the 
adjacent parts of the town, till the close of the epidemic. Six hun- 
dred cases were reported to the Board of Health. The number of 
deaths in the city, at Bellevue and Marine Hospitals, was about 300, 
exclusive of about 40 who died after their retreat into the country. 
43 cases are stated to have occurred in the State Prison, (then in this 
city, at the upper end of Washington Street.) The Board of Health 
declared the principal seat of the prevailing disease to be that part 
of the city included between Burling Slip and Old Slip, as far west 
as Pearl Street, covering not more than 33 acres. De Witt Clinton 
was then Mayor and President of the Board of Health. One account 
states, that “no practitioner of physic in New York suffered any at- 
tack of this disease.” 
Between 300 and 400 deaths occurred from it in Philadelphia. It 
appeared also at New Haven, Providence, Newport, Norfolk and 
Charleston, and some sporadic cases in Boston and Baltimore, as well 
as in many other towns near, and at a distance from, the seaboard. 
—Rep., vol. 9. 
1806. “Though nothing approaching to an epidemic took place, 
several cases of Yellow Fever, highly and exactly characterized, were 
observed in the course of the season from June to November, in this 
city, and served to show what might have been reasonably apprehend- 
ed from a more unfavorable course of the weather.”—Med. Rep., vol. 
10, p. 214. 
Two deaths by “ malignant fever,” only, are noted in the bill of 
mortality.—Yol. 11, p. 38. 
1807. During this season only a very few sporadic cases of Yel- 
low Fever were observed in the City of New York—not exceeding 14 
20. Most of these occurred in September, or early in October. 
Four of them were in the New York Hospital. 
In Charleston, S. C., it commenced about the middle of August, 
and proved fatal, by the 2nd of November, to 116 persons, who were 
almost exclusively strangers. 
1808. The summer and autumn passed without any alarm of the 
malignant epidemic which, in so many previous years, had visited the 
Atlantic cities. This, and the two preceding summers were noted for 
their remarkably moderate heat. 
An exception to the general exemption of the American cities from 
Yellow Fever was experienced by the small town.of St. Mary’s, on 
the river of that name, which then formed a portion of the southern 
boundary of the United States. This town was nearly depopulated 
by the disease. 
The question of the prime source of the disease in this instance, 
would appear to be clearly settled on the side of importation. Dur- 
ing the spring and summer the town was (as usual) remarkably 
healthy. During the latter end of August and first part of Septem- 
ber, there were continued heavy rains, which filled the low grounds, 
and the water lay on the surface for some time; the wells were full 
to the surface, and the water became bad and offensive, yet no change 
in the health of the inhabitants occurred till September 5th, when a 
coasting packet, wffiich was employed in carrying corn and a variety 
of provisions between that place and Savannah, and was in a distress- 
ingly foul state, arrived with two sick sailors, one of whom died in a 
few hours, and the other lingered for some time. A white citizen and 
a free black, both of whom attended these sick sailors, died—the first 
on the 9th, and the other on the 10th. The fire thus lighted, spread 
rapidly, fed by the state of the ground, a quantity of rotten provis- 
ions stored by speculators and smugglers, and the exceeding neglect 
of the health officers and police of the town. 
A census taken the year before, showed a population of 350 whites 
and 150 blacks. By the 2nd of October, not more than 100 whites 
remained, sick or well; of this number, upwards of one-half died. 
There were in the town about 30 French people, who were very 
useful in attending and relieving the sick, not one of whom had the 
prevailing fever. 
The difference of mortality between the whites and blacks was also 
a remarkable circumstance. 
Of 87 whites taken sick, 42 died. 
Of 45 blacks taken sick, 3 died. 15 
The exemption of the French residents was attributed to their 
mode of living, their diet being entirely very light food, vegetables, 
and thin gruel, and no flesh meats; their drink, lemonade. 
Doubtless the light mortality of the blacks might be due to similar 
circumstances.—Med. and Phil. Reg., vol. 3, p. 417. 
1809. The city of New York remained free from malignant fever, 
but the neighboring village of Brooklyn suffered from it. It appear- 
ed there early in July, and continued in a greater or less degree, till 
late in September. Between 30 and 40 persons died of it, and nearly 
20 persons were attacked in this city who had been exposed to the 
noxious air of Brooklyn—to a large portion of whom it proved fatal. 
This attack occurred in a season of unprecedented mildness. 
It appears to have commenced at the margin of the water, and was 
confined to a circle of 200 yards, semi-diameter, from a ship (Con- 
cordia) which had recently arrived from Havana, the first patient 
being one of the hands of said vessel—Havana being infected with 
Yellow Fever at the time of, and four months previous to, her de- 
parture.*—Med. and Phil. Reg., vol 1, p. 101. 
Eight cases occurred at Charleston, S. C., amongst strangers, all 
of whom died, and a few sporadic cases were seen in Philadelphia. 
1810-18. The city of New York appears to have been entirely 
exempt from all appearance of Yellow Fever, nor do we find any re- 
cord of its occurrence in this vicinity, except in 
1811, when it made its appearance at Perth Amboy, then an 
entrepot of considerable importance. The Board of Health of New 
York appointed a committee consisting of Drs. Jos. Bayley, Jno. H. 
Douglas, and David Hosack, to investigate the facts respecting it. 
They proceeded to that locality and made a minute investigation, and 
reported four deaths from, and three other cases of, undoubted Yellow 
Fever, one of which subsequently died, with a few others of more 
* The advocates of the theory of the domestic origin of the disease on this 
occasion, attributed it to an extraordinary assemblage of nuisances in the lower 
parts of the town of Brooklyn, consisting of a variety of putrefying vegetable 
and animal substances, together with water lodging in many low, sunken pla- 
ces, and also that it was partly owing to the contents of the '• Mud turtle,” (a 
machine for cleansing docks,) being exposed for some days on the wharf of New 
Ferry, so as to be offensive to the neighborhood. It was satisfactorily shown, 
however, that no more filth was observable in that vicinity than for several 
years previous, and that the operations of the mud turtle were not commenced 
until fifteen days after the first case of Yellow Fever had occurred, and that the 
mud removed by it consisted of an innocent blueish .clay, which was quite 
odorless. 16 
doubtful character; and their conclusion was unanimous, confirmed by 
the judgment of the physicians and residents of the place, that there 
were no local causes to which the calamity could possibly be referred, 
and that it was derived solely from vessels from the West Indies, 
twelve having arrived from there between June 1st and the breaking 
out of the fever. It was traced more distinctly to two, the ship Fa- 
vorite and the brig Ocean, both from Havana. Every case was trace- 
able to these vessels, and none took the disease from them. Non-in- 
tercourse with Perth Amboy was declared by the authorities of this 
city and Philadelphia, until its disappearance thence was satisfactorily 
established. 
1819. Old slip and its vicinity (the foot of William Street) was 
the scene of another irruption of the Yellow Fever, though to so mod- 
erate an extent as scarcely to deserve the title of an Epidemic. It 
was confined almost exclusively to the vicinity of its first appearance. 
Out of 57 cases, 84 or 35 occurred in a single block, on the West side 
of Old Slip, between Front and Water Streets. It was a space an- 
ciently called “Rotton Row,’' where long and contested claims be- 
tween the Corporation and the estates of some private individuals 
prevented the ordinary improvements, which might have purified or re- 
newed the ground. The slip then extended as high as Front Street; 
(it is now filled and paved up to the Eastern or outer line of South 
Street;) was shallow, and its sides, like many others, composed of wooden 
piles, thick, uncovered, rotten, worm-eaten and coated with black mud, 
which, besides being the receptacle of the animal exuviae and decayed 
matter, which naturally accumulated in such a place, from the sur- 
face, was likewise the place of disemboguement of a private sewer, 
which extended up to Pearl Street, across Hanover Square to Sloat 
Lane. 
Of 83 persons sent to Fort Richmond, on Staten Island, which, 
with the consent of the Government of the United States, was occu- 
pied by the poor of New York, under the care of the city authori- 
ties, ten were taken sick with the disease, and three of them died in 
the Marine Hospital. It commenced on the 5th of September. The 
district, extending from Ccenties Slip up Pearl Street to Wall Street, 
and down Coffee House Slip to the river, was fenced in, was declared 
infected, its inhabitants urged to remove from it, and the shipping at 
its water front all sent away, and a strong guard appointed to pro- 
tect the property, with a pledge of medical aid in case of sickness, 
and a liberal remuneration. Whole number of cases reported, 63; 
deaths, 38; besides a few others out of the city. 17 
In Boston this year it also made its appearance, as well as in Balti- 
more and at Fell’s Point, Charleston and New Orleans, at which lat- 
ter place it was exceedingly severe. Of its degree of prevalence 
here and at the other places named we have no precise information, 
although at all of them, it is asserted, that it made its commencement 
in every instance, and continued its existence almost exclusively, at 
the margin of the water, in the immediate vicinity of the shipping. 
1821. The yellow fever made its appearance in St. Augustine, a 
place the salubrity of whose climate and atmosphere are almost pro- 
verbial. Here it commenced about the first of September, and ter- 
minated near the close of December, within which time 140 were at- 
tacked, and 132 died. 
1822. Heretofore, almost without an exception, this dreaded pes- 
tilence had selected as the scenes of its manifestations, those portions 
of the city of New York which lie along the borders of the East 
River. From Whitehall to Roosevelt Street, at various spots in dif- 
ferent years, but, be it always remembered, in the immediate vicinity 
of the slips, and of course of the shipping, the yellow fever had its 
favorite localities, whence it spread, as from a centre, over areas vary- 
ing in extent, from time to tiftie, as circumstances favored its growth 
and diffusion. 
The scene of its irruption was, however, now altered, and the oppo- 
site side of the city was for the first time to feel its blighting influ- 
ences. And another important variation in the circumstances, (im- 
portant in its bearing upon the question of domestic or foreign origin,) 
is now to be noticed, viz., the condition of these localities in relation 
to their power of producing the disease de novo. 
In the vast accumulations of filth of every description, in the docks 
and slips, and in the depraved and vitiated position and character of 
the dwellings and inhabitants of the quarters heretofore infected, the 
advocate of the theory of the domestic origin of yellow fever found 
strong reasons for the faith that was in him, but the circumstances, as 
well the scene, are now changed. 
In Rector Street—a narrow but short and rapidly descending street, 
commencing at Broadway, between two large and elegant churches, 
and in its brief descent to the North River having on either side but 
a few dwellings, and those occupied only by the most cleanly families, 
and crossing only two streets before reaching its other terminus, 
Greenwich and Lumber Streets, the former then for many squares the 
home of the wealthiest and most refined of the inhabitants of New 
York—in Rector Street, would the non-importer of yellow fever fail 18 
to find so much as a square foot of soil capable of emitting the poison. 
On the 10th of July, two little girls, children of Mr. Reder, a cooper, 
having a shop on the corner and residing in Rector Street, next the 
corner of Washington, (which latter street then faced the river,) and 
a young man named And. Thomas, a clerk in a grocery on the oppo- 
site corner of the same streets, were attacked with symptoms which 
afterwards were distinctly recognized as those of yellow fever. One 
of the girls and the young man died on the 17 th, the other girl recovered. 
On the 15th a son of Reder, aged 16, was attacked and died on the 
22d. In a few days it showed evidences of expansion, but not, unfor- 
tunately, of attenuation or dilution; it soon gave proof that it could 
“ spread undivided, operate unspent.” From the spot where it began, 
it spread slowly and regularly in every direction. In less than a 
month it had mounted the declivity of Rector Street, half wTay to its 
summit, and stretched a considerable distance along Washington and 
Greenwich Streets, north and south. On the 19th of August, it 
showed itself in Cedar Street, and soon after in Liberty Street. By 
the 23d of August, it had reached the further end of Rector Street, 
on Broadway, which it now crossed, and descended Wall Street to 
New Broad Street, and passing down Garden Street, met the Wall 
Street current at the corner of Garden and New Sts. In the old Sugar 
House in Liberty St., next the old church, now Post Office, it proved 
very fatal. It finally ascended as far as the Park on Broadway, and 
swept the whole of that part of the city lying below Fulton Street. 
The former localities of the fever, Ccenties, Burling, and Old Slips, 
though furnishing evidence of its existence there, were not affected till 
near the middle of September, and then gave comparatively few cases, 
doubtless in a great measure to be attributed to the general stampede 
of the inhabitants. 
This was, however, not the only infected district. On the 16th of 
September, three cases were reported at No. 4 Lombard Street, 
(now Monroe Street,) and on the 20th, 5 cases occurred in Cheap- 
side Street, (now Hamilton Street,) a short distance from and parallel 
with Lombard, but a remarkably cleanly street. This locality, as 
just stated, was a very cleanly and decent place, containing not more 
than 60 houses, and those not crowded—and was within a few hun- 
dred feet of Bancker Street, which was famous for being the very 
reverse in its physical and moral characteristic, and was the scene of 
a destructive local distemper of a peculiar nature three years pre- 
viously. 
And yet, while there occurred among the persons living in and 19 
frequenting the former, 46 cases and 28 deaths, amongst the latter 
there was not one reported. The origin of the first case which occur- 
red in this locality, which was at least half a mile from any part of 
the other infected district, is asserted by the historians of that epi- 
demic to have been distinctly traced to exposure to the atmosphere of 
the latter. 
The whole number of cases which were reported to the Board of 
Health as having occurred between July 10th and November 5th, 
when the disease terminated, was 415, of whom over 230 died. The 
precise number of deaths is not known from the records of the Board 
of Health, a large number of cases having been removed to the coun- 
try, to the suburbs of the city, and to Marine Hospital. These figures 
would have undoubtedly been swelled ten-fold but for the voluntary 
desertion of that portion of the city by the wealthy, and the compul- 
sory removal of others to distant places. 
As to the source of the disease of this occasion, there appears no 
other mode of accounting for it than its introduction from Havana, 
by means of four cargoes of sugar, brought to the city from Quaran- 
tine, from vessels which were there detained in consequence of their 
infection with Yellow Fever, on two of which deaths had recently 
occurred. Between the 1st and 9th of July, twenty-four lighter loads 
of boxes of sugar were brought from these vessels at Quarantine, were 
landed at and near the foot of Rector Street, aud stored in the adja- 
cent warehouses. The first cases of Yellow Fever on shore, it will be 
remembered, occurred on the 10th July. 
From 1822 until the present time, a period of 34 years, we have 
rested in repose from any serious apprehension of a visit from this 
dire enemy of our race—a most striking contrast with the thirty-four 
years immediately preceding, in which period there were seventeen 
visitations of it. And this is notwithstanding its continued preva- 
lence from year to year in the Southern ports of the Union, and even 
last year coming so near to us as Norfolk, Virginia, where it prevail- 
ed with intense malignity. 
The present year has not been without exciting apprehension among 
our citizens, in consequence of its abundant appearance at Quarantine, 
and its spread to a considerable extent over our sister city of Brook- 
lyn, in aggravated imitation of its operations there in 1809; but, hap- 
pily, we have escaped with only the few sporadic cases incident to 
our proximity to those scenes. 
The history of the epidemic of the present year is yet to be writ- 
ten; we have not yet seen its conclusion. 20 
With the questions which have so often and so deeply moved the 
intellects and feelings of both professional and non-professional men, 
in days of yore, viz., the contagiousness and the origin of Yellow 
Fever, your Committee have in this place no concern, any further than 
as we are instructed “ to report upon its relations to the sanitary con- 
dition of the city in the present and past years;” and in concluding the 
task imposed upon us by the resolution of August last, we shall en- 
deavor to satisfy the demands of public duty, by the presentation of a 
few general considerations, derived from the research which has re- 
sulted in the foregoing chronological outline. 
Coming to this investigation as with the miud of a student, wholly 
unbiased, desirous of seeing only facts, and determined to be influen- 
ced by nothing else, we have found an abundance of that only true 
basis of philosophy; but in too many instances overlaid by so huge a 
mass of special pleading and perversion, as to satiate us, usque ad nau- 
seam. If, as has been truly said, “ History is philosophy teaching by 
example,” how important is it that the facts, which alone make his- 
tory, be examined and understood without prejudice or bias of any 
kind. In this spirit of impartiality we have endeavored to pene- 
trate to the bottom of the well, in which the truth lies con- 
cealed, in order to present those rules of prophylaxis and defence 
most clearly indicated by the habits and laws of the disease in ques- 
tion, and from the facts pertaining strictly to the relations which it 
bears to the City of New York, to indicate the course which we 
think the medical profession and the public authorities should pursue. 
Yellow Fever being a disease resulting from the infusion into the 
human system, through the respiratory and perhaps the cutaneous or- 
gans, of certain influences which are of a vehemently poisonous and 
deadly character, producing great perversion of function, and disor- 
ganization of fluids and solids, it is necessary to determine, in the first 
place, the source of the poison or the channels through which it comes 
to us. That it is invisible, intangible, and inodorous, will be admitted 
on all hands; that it is the product of cotnbiued terrestrial, vegetable 
and animal emanations, high temperature, and other peculiarities of 
certain latitudes and seasons, will be disputed by but few, if any; that 
it is a disorder of a peculiar type, as distinct from any other as small 
pox is from measles, any one of experience in diagnosis need but look 
upon it to be convinced. The question then arises, In what latitude 
and localities does it or can it originate? and this, as far as we are 
directly interested, brings us to the question, Has it ever originated or 
can it originate here at our own doors? Is any combination of terres- 21 
trial and meteoric circumstances possible, in this latitude and climate, 
from which this venom can be evolved? 
As just now stated, on this question your Committee are not called 
upon to express an opinion; and though they may entertain a decided 
view upon the subject, it is their duty to look upon it only in its re- 
lations to the public sanitary interests of this great city, and to re- 
commend such a course as will best conduce to their preservation. 
True history alone can solve this intricate problem. The domestic 
origin of the poison is asserted by numerous writers, and in many 
instances of proof quoted by them, reasons of plausible character, 
based upon apparently well-authenticated facts, are urged in support 
of their views. We say apparently, because at this distance of time, 
and in the impossibility of cross-examination as to the facts, we can 
only yield a passive acquiescence to many of their statements. And 
in view of the importance of the subject, prudence would also justify 
an acquiescence in the theory of its possible domestic production, pro- 
vided always that we, at the same time, do not ignore the existence 
of the incontrovertible proofs of its importation from abroad, and the 
necessity of a vigorously enforced quarantine at whatever cost. 
Such shocking collections of all that was vile and offensive, as we 
know to have existed in the numerous slips and docks, in the unpaved 
streets and alleys, and the crowded cellars of this city, in the latter 
part of the last, and the early part of the present century, were cause 
enough for miasmata of some kind, capable of sweeping off scores and 
hundreds of the people living adjacent; and whether the atmosphere 
of these localities was a direct provocative of yellow fever, or served 
only as a richly manured soil in which the germs of that disease, intro- 
duced from abroad, would grow with redoubled vigor, it matters not 
to us practically. It is enough to know that such conditions of things 
are inimical to human life, and should never be permitted. Sad ex- 
perience has too often shown, that in them there exist, wanting only 
the proper time and temperature to leap into active life, the seeds of 
evils as numerous and pungent as Pandora ever dreamed of. 
It is nevertheless at least a coincidence, that in such a depraved 
condition of its Eastern margin, New York sustained in 16 years, 
(from 1791 to 1807,) 13 attacks of yellow fever, causing the death 
of at least 5000 persons, and each time compelling the flight from 
their homes and occupation, of many thousands of the population. 
And it is another interesting fact, that since the year 1807, New 
York has been visited by it but twice, viz., 1819 and 1822, and the 
latter visitation was on the opposite side of the city, against which no 22 
complaints of nuisances could be made; and the commencement of this 
period of exemption was moreover coeval with the enforcement of a 
law for the filling up of these slips, and the general improvement of 
those ancient haunts, in which the opponents of its importation so 
clearly saw the domestic source of the disease. 
Whatever consolation, therefore, the advocates of domestic origin 
may derive from these facts, they are fairly entitled to, after we have 
stated some other remarkable coincidents which bear strongly upon 
the opposite doctrine. 
The circumstance which was quoted from N. Webster, that during 
the revolutionary war onr country was not visited by yellow fever, he 
would doubtless attribute to an interposition of Providence, though 
he does not hold so in express language. He speaks of it simply as a 
“ striking fact,” in the middle of his labored effort to prove the source 
of nearly all epidemics to lie in local domestic circumstances, in com- 
bination with meteoric influences, and the appearance of comets. A 
more rational solution of the circumstances may, we think, be fouud 
in the fact, that during the war nearly all foreign commerce was sus- 
pended. 
In relation to the localities at which the fever invariably appeared, 
before 1822, attention has already been drawn to the fact, that they 
were upon the borders of the city, and of course in the immediate 
vicinity of the shipping, where importations of every kind were first 
received; while at the same time there existed in the centre of the 
city other localities, the receptacles of all manner of filth and nasti- 
ness, in whose neighborhoods the fever not only did not originate, but 
which were, in fact, exempt from its incursions when it prevailed else- 
where. Of these places the most noted was “ the Collect,” in Centre 
and Canal Streets. 
The next coincidence to be remarked in the relations of this city to 
the yellow fever, is this, that it was not until the commencement of 
the present century that our Quarantine laws took a definite shape, 
and sanitary enactments were enforced with the vigor which now 
characterizes them. It was only in 1805 that infected vessels were 
prohibited from coming within 300 yards of the Island of New York, 
after being discharged of their cargoes; while the law of 1806 even 
restricts vessels from the West Indies and the Mississippi, arriving 
between June and October, to only 4 days’ detention at Quarantine, 
and prohibits intercourse between their crews and the city of New 
York, except under regulations of the Health Officer. And since 
a year after that time, though yellow fever has frequently hovered along 23 
onr border, it has on bat two occasions, up to the present year, plant- 
ed its foot beyond. 
These, then, are the premises from which, as conservators of the 
public health, we are to draw our conclusions of duty with respect to 
yellow fever: 
1st. To maintain a thorough condition of cleanliness and purity in 
all the borders, and throughout all the interior of the city. 
2d. By a rigid continuance of the Quarantine, to watch its ap- 
proaches from abroad, and arrest its progress ere it reaches even our 
threshold. 
Supplemental Report on Yellow Fever. 
(Read August 5th, 1857.) 
In the Report on “ Yellow Fever and its relations to the sanitary 
condition of the city in the present and past years,” presented to the 
Academy of Medicine, in October last, by the Section on Public 
Health and Legal Medicine, a review was given of the different attacks 
which New York had experienced up to the year 1822, the date of 
its last appearance within the precincts of the city. The attack of 
1856 being then incomplete, the account of its appearance and preva- 
lence in that year was left for future consideration; so that, unbiased 
by any of the conflicting views of different parties, we might, when 
all the facts connected with its advent and progress had become win- 
nowed out and established, arrive, if possible, at a clear, judicial under- 
standing in relation to it. The Section propose now to complete the 
work assigned them, and believe that their fellow academicians will 
find in the facts and views which will be presented, an interest equal 
to their own. 
The history of the manner of attack, and the extent of Yellow Fe- 
ver in this vicinity, in 1856, have been detailed with great particular- 
ity in his report to the State Legislature, by Dr. Elisha Harris, then 
physician of the Marine or Quarantine Hospital. To this able docu- 
ment the Section refer for a more complete exposition of the facts 
connected therewith, while we shall content ourselves with a recapitu- 
lation of the main points, and a few remarks upon some of the ques- 
tions which have agitated scientific circles respecting the circumstan- 
ces which have controlling or modifying influence over the origination, 
communicability, and power of extension, of the disease. 
The most recent theory respecting the relations of Yellow Fever to 
terrestrial and atmospheric circumstances, and which has arrested the 24 
attention of medical minds in a powerful degree, is that advanced by 
the New Orleans Sanitary Commission of 1853. 
The doctrine of the causes and controlling influences of Yellow 
Fever, as laid down by that able board of professional gentlemen, as 
understood by us, is as follows: 1st. That there must exist in the 
soil such a condition of animal or vegetable, or a combined animal 
and vegetable material, as by the decomposition thereof a malarious 
agency will be emitted, capable, upon being received into the human 
system, under proper circumstances, of developing that peculiar dis- 
ease. 2nd. That in order to give efficacy to the poison power of this 
terrene malaria, a certain condition of the circumambient atmosphere 
is necessary; which atmospheric condition consists of a combination of 
two distinct elements, viz., a high temperature, and a high degree of 
humidity. 
To illustrate this position, the report of the Commission employs 
the figure of the “ Shears of Fate,” of which, one blade represents the 
terrene, the other blade, the atmospheric circumstances. In the ab- 
sence of one or the other of these parts, the remaining one is power- 
less. Thus, though the necessary terrene exhalations be ever so abun- 
dant, if the temperature of the air be not high enough, and the 
atmosphere does not contain a sufficient amount of moisture, Yellow 
Fever will not ensue; and, vice versa, if the temperature and moisture 
of the air are at their highest point, and there be no appropriate ter- 
rene emanations, no danger will exist. The shears are themselves 
shorn of their power; but one blade exists, a harmless instrument. 
But by a combination of all these circumstances—by upturning a dele- 
terious soil, and exposing it to a tropical atmosphere replete with 
vapor, then we have every reason to apprehend the appearance not 
only, but also the epidemic prevalence of Yellow Fever. 
Such is the doctrine enunciated by the New Orleans Commission, 
which they maintain has been verified in that city and other places; 
which has been given to the world in their elaborate and learned re- 
port, and which was last November boldly and eloquently proclaimed 
from this rostrum, by one of that commission’s most learned members, 
Dr. E. H. Barton, as of sufficiently frequent observation to justify its 
establishment as a law. 
The position thus assumed, is, if correct, one of vast importance— 
the only theory, in fact, ever presented of a really philosophical and 
practical character; and of sufficient amplitude to coverall cases; and, 
from the evidence adduced, seems justified, so far as the city of its 
birth is concerned. At any rate, it is not within our province, under 25 
the resolution of last year, to criticise the theory as it relates to any 
other locality than our own; but it appears to be our duty to inquire 
into its applicability to the epidemic visitations of Yellow Fever to 
this city and vicinity, and to this extent, and by that light, we pro 
pose now to complete the labor assigned us by the Academy. 
From the years 1791 to 1807, inclusive, this city experienced eleven 
attacks of Yellow Fever. It did not appear again till 1819; and all 
of these attacks had their locality on the southeastern margin, in 
the vicinity of the wharves of the East River. 
Besides these, in 1809, it broke out in Brooklyn, destroying be- 
tween 30 and 40 lives; it was there confined entirely to a well-defined 
area of about 200 yards semi-diameter, the centre of which was a 
vessel from Havana, on board of which the first case occurred. It 
did not extend to the New York side of the river. 
• In our former report, allusion was made to the difference in locality 
of the disease before and after 1820. Prior to that period, every 
eruption of it was on the East River border, while in 1822 it 
suddenly shifted its point of attack, and lor the first time the western 
margin of the city, on the Hudson River, received its approaches, and 
over the adjacent streets it swept with desolating marches. Nor were 
the topical characteristics of these localities less marked than their 
• geographical positions. 
While the former were, from all the accounts we have read, low 
and marshy, and pregnant with an abundance and great variety of 
filth, natural and acquired, the opposite side was equally opposite in 
character. If such a term can be applied to any class of inhabitants 
in this land, it was the aristocratic quarter; the residence of a popu- 
lation, aristocratic at least in cleanliness, and the cultivation of the ele- 
gancies of life, and did not preseut a square foot of soil from which 
such a fatal miasm could possibly have emanated; nor was it charged 
by the most strenuous of the domestic-origin theorists, that it could 
have originated from any other locality than the graveyard of Trinity 
Church, and even that idea was soon abandoned as untenable. 
With respect, therefore, to the theory of the exclusive domestic 
origin of Yellow Fever in this city, we had then and there a case in 
which that idea was inadmissible, and the circumstances connected 
with the landing at this very point, of large cargoes of produce from 
vessels recently from ports where Yellow Fever prevailed, and which 
were themselves infected, are abundautly sufficient to establish its 
exotic origin and importation. With regard to its source, in the at- 
tacks experienced on the eastern side, all of which were prior to 1820, 26 
we have, perhaps, sufficiently discussed that question in the conclusion 
of our former report, and it will suffice here to express the opinion, 
that the evidences of its domestic origin, though at first sight numer- 
ous and somewhat powerful, are either susceptible of other explana- 
tions, or are outweighed by strong negative, if not positive testimony 
of opposite character. This consists of the fact, that other quarters 
of New York were equally, if not more filthy than the slips and docks 
of the East River, and, therefore, more capable, under the theory of 
its domestic origin, of producing the disease; yet it was unknown in 
those localities; and further, that the places where it appeared were 
the wharves at which the shipping from infected ports hauled in and 
discharged their cargoes, and the vicinities of which were frequented 
by their crews. And furthermore, it must not be forgotten that its 
frequent repetitions prior to 1808, ceased simultaneously with the adop- 
tion of new and vigorous Quarantine laws. 
1856. Commencement and progress of the Yellow Fever of 1856, 
at the Port of New York, (as given in Dr. Harris’ Report.) 
April 10th. The first case observed this year was admitted to 
Marine Hospital from a vessel from Havana. 
June The “Julia M. Halloed arrived with three sick, and 
three lost on the passage from St. Jago de Cuba. 
June 21 st. The “Jane H. Gliddon” arrived from Havana, witlf 
several sick, and two deaths on the passage. As part of her cargo 
she had several bales of uncleansed rags. 
July 2d. The “Eliza Jane” and “Lillias,” from Havana, with 
one sick each. E. J. lost three on the passage. 
July 6th. “ Lady Franklin,” from Havana to Trieste, put in in 
distress, all hands sick; two died on the passage. 
From June 18th to July 15th, a period of 27 days, 27 yellow fever 
infected vessels arrived at Quarantine. 
July 12th. A marked case of yellow fever was received in the Ma- 
rine Hospital, from 14 Oak Street, (the first one known in New York 
city,) with black vomit. The patient had arrived from Ireland, July 
3d, in a vessel which had anchored at Quarantine, in the midst of the 
infected fleet. He remained in the ship over-night, and was subse- 
quently landed at Castle Garden, and was taken sick a week after- 
wards. 
July 14th. Two persons were taken sick in the Quarantine village, 
who had been unloading cargo from the “ Gliddon” and “E. Jane.” 
July 15th. A lighterman engaged in conveying cargoes from Quar- 
antine to Atlantic Dock, was taken to the Marine Hospital, with 
the fever. 27 
The whole number of infected and suspected vessels arriving up to 
October 4tb, was 79. 
July 29th. It made its advent on Governor's Island, producing in 
four weeks 64 cases, but being confined wholly to the “ South Bat- 
tery,” which is nearest and most exposed to the Atlantic Docks, and 
separated therefrom only by a narrow channel. 
July 22d. It commenced in epidemic form at Marine Hospital, 25 
of the officers and employees, and 8 other residents were affected, of 
whom 5 died. 
July 11 th. Two men employed by Mr. Bergen, on Hunt’s Place, 
a little below Greenwood Cemetery, opposite Marine Hospital, went 
bathing Saturday evening, July 11th, and examined a quantity of 
straw left on the beach by the receding tide, and removed it to the 
farm yard. One of these men was attacked on Monday, and the 
other on Tuesday following, and both died with black vomit. After 
their death, two other laborers were hired, lodged in the same room: 
both successively sickened and died with black vomit. 
July 2*11/1. By this time 14 cases, 10 of which proved fatal, had 
occurred on the Long Island beach, opposite Marine Hospital. 
August 1st. Fort Hamilton district was attacked. It attacked the 
shore line from Gravesend Bay and Gowannus, about 4 miles, at three 
nearly equi-distant points. 
September 10th. It was received into a house at Partridge’s Mill, 
near Coney Island; the persons affected were believed to have handled 
materials which had floated ashore. 
Fifty cases in all were admitted to Marine Hospital from New 
York City, 8 of which were traceable to Brooklyn, and nearly all 
the others directly to infected vessels. 
July 23d. A man from Bergen shore, New Jersey, was admitted 
to New York Hospital, a farm laborer, and had not been absent from 
the farm for a long period. He died next day. 
September 4/A. Four persons, citizens of New York, who had been 
2 or 3 weeks at Craven Point, Bergen, N. J., were admitted to Ma- 
rine Hospital. Two of the family had died previously. The dwelling 
they occupied was nearly surrounded by water at high tide, and much 
refuse material was frequently left on the beach. The owner of the 
dwelling suddenly sickened and died, and his widow had subsequently 
been ill, but recovered. 
“The total number of well-authenticated cases of yellow fever 
occurring in the various localities in the vicinity of the port of New 
York, during the summer and autumn, (of 1856,) as ascertain- 28 
ed by the most rigid investigation, was five hundred and thirty-eight. 
More than one-third of this number died of black vomit.” (Dr. Harris’ 
Report, p. 39.) 
It is quite probable that the number of cases recorded as having 
occurred in New York and Brooklyn is incomplete, but we think it 
will be entirely safe to set down the whole number of cases which 
occurred within a circle of 5 miles radius, having its centre at the 
Marine Hospital, at much below 600. 
From this brief summary of the circumstances of the attack of 1856, no 
one can reasonably hesitate as to the true source of the disease on that 
occasion. We have seen that the first case occurred as early as April 
10; this, under the most liberal construction of the New Orleans the- 
ory, with the thermometer at only 50°, could not have been the pro- 
duce of domestic causes; and besides that, we are told that the case 
was taken to Hospital, from a vessel from Havana. More thau two 
months then elapsed before the occurrence of another case, which was 
from a like source, on 18th June, from which date, in 27 days there 
arrived 27 infected vessels. 
With such abuudant cause as this for all that followed, both on 
land and water, during the next three months, we could not be seri- 
ously asked to scrutinize the adjacent shores in the hope of a disclo- 
sure of some upturning of soil, upon which to cast the burden of 
causation. We have nevertheless made inquiries upon the subject, 
from intelligent residents of the section most seriously affected, and 
failed to find any ground whatever for such a conclusion. 
But there is another circumstance of interesting character, which 
cannot be regarded as a mere coincidence in this history. In speak- 
ing of the meteorological phenomena of the season, Dr. Harris remarks 
upon the record kept at Fort Hamilton “ between the 21st and 30th 
July, the wind was continually from the southwest during the after- 
noon of each day, while the temperature ranged unusually high, and 
was accompanied with a corresponding degree of humidity of the at- 
mosphere,” p. 59. (The wind prevailed also in the same direction all 
day in 6 of those 9 days.) 
Now, by an inspection of the map accompanying Dr. Harris’ Re- 
port, it will be seen that this S. W. wind wras in a direct line from 
the fleet of infected ships near Gravesend Bay to Fort Hamilton, and 
it was at the end of that time, viz., on the “ first of August, the pes- 
tilence set its fatal seal on the Fort Hamilton district. On that day, 
Gen. Stanton died, and as his mansion was situated on an elevation 
which looked out on Gravesend Bay, and was surrounded North and 29 
West by a dense grove, it is fair to presume that the deadly infection 
was wafted to his delightful residence by the winds which swept over 
the infected shipping at Gravesend,” p. 55. From that date to Aug. 
8th, 12 cases occurred in the Fort, and thence it gradually spread, 
and uniting with the infected atmosphere at the other points of the 
same vicinity before alluded to, it soon covered with its fatal pall the 
whole sweep of that beautiful locality; yet, nevertheless, (a fact hard 
for domestic theorists to explain,) confining itself to a belt not over 
300 yards wide, though stretching four miles along the shore. 
There are few persons who, after this recital, we apprehend, will 
deny the importability of the Yellow Fever miasm, in the cargoes and 
holds of vessels from infected ports, and its communicability to others 
who may go on board of them after their arrival at this port. If any 
such there are, we would recite for their consideration the following 
case, kindly furnished us by Dr. Elisha Harris, from the Quarantine 
history of the present year, 1857, not as a new or rare case, but be- 
cause of its perfectness and entire invincibility: 
253 4th Avejjue, July 13, 1857. 
Jno. H. Griscom, M.D., 
Dear Dr.—The first vessel subject to Quarantine restrictions on ac- 
count of Yellow Fever, this season, was the “ Lucy Heywood,” that 
arrived at this port from Gonaives, June 12th, having lost captain, 
mate, and two seamen, from Yellow Fever, on her passage, and on 
arriving at Quarantine, one sailor convalescent from the fever was 
transferred from the vessel to the Marine Hospital. 
The vessel was laden with sugar and woods, and was ordered to 
anchor in the lower bay, off Seguine’s Point. June 20th, (or 21st,) 
a robust man, aged about 30, a seaman, who had just arrived directly 
from Bangor, Maine, was employed by the consignees to proceed to 
the vessel, and take charge of her, as master and sliipkeeper, while 
her cargo was being discharged on lighters. He remained constantly 
on board, and on the morning after the 7th or 8th night, viz., Juue 
29th, he was seized with the premonitory symptoms of Yellow Fever, 
which disease soon became unequivocally marked, and he was sent up 
to the Marine Hospital, where he died of black vomit on the 14th day 
of his fever. 
Haemorrhages aud profuse evacuations of blood, imperfectly trans- 
formed into black vomit, occurred on Wednesday, the 10th day of 
his fever. 
It is worthy of remark, that in this instance there could have been 
no other source for the origin of the fever in that man, who had just 30 
arrived from Maine, than such infection as inhered in the cargo and 
cavities of the “ Lucy Heywood.” 
It is an incontrovertible instance of the imported origin of Yellow 
Fever in the Port of New York. 
Another case of a doubtful character was received from the same 
vessel, July 4th, the final history of which is unknown to me. I saw 
the cases first mentioned, and know them to have been Yellow Fever. 
Respectfully yours, 
E. Harris. 
The members of the New Orleans Commission, in their able report, 
admit “ the susceptibility of the importation of Yellow Fever with the 
atmosphere which generated it;” at the same time claiming for almost 
every visitation of the disease in New Orleans, a local origin; by such 
modes as “upturning of the soil in digging the Carondelet and other 
canals;” “by extensive exposures of fresh earth in street paving;” 
“ large fillings up and enclosures of the batture,” or “ immense expo- 
sures of a swampy soil in digging the Bank canal,” or “ digging ex- 
tensive trenches and canals in draining,” or “ the immense excavation 
of two acres of ground, and with the removal of upwards of 336,000 
cubic feet of earth for the foundation of the new Custom House in the 
heart of the city,” during which latter occurrence a severe epidemic 
of cholera destroyed 3,843 lives, and 769 were lost by Yellow Fever. 
Extensive upturning of new earth, levelling streets, digging cellars, 
spreading acres of sawdust over the streets and low places filled with 
it; exposures of the river bank from large cavings; excavations for 
cisterns and wells; marshes and pools near the town, and a great va- 
riety of other circumstances of a similar character, are mentioned as 
furnishing one blade of the “ Shears of Fate,” for a considerable num- 
ber of other instances of Yellow Fever in other places in Louisiana 
and the neighboring States. 
Now, as before remarked, with respect to this part of the New Or- 
leans theory, we have nothing to say as to its applicability to 
that city, or any other Southern port; any criticism upon it by us 
must be confined to its relations to this city and vicinity, and with- 
in that range we unhesitatingly declare the opinion, that it has no 
shadow of ground upon which to stand, since the year 1820, nor do 
we believe it can be maintained for any of the attacks which this city 
has experienced within the present century. For if the theory of its 
domestic origin in this city possessed any validity whatever, surely, 
since the year 1807, a period of 50 years, there have been more than 
three occasions for its spontaneous production. There are compara- 31 
tively young men living, who can remember the vast alterations 
which the face of this island has undergone within that time; what 
hills have been levelled; what valleys filled; what miles of streets 
have been paved, repaved, and paved again; how many thousands of 
cellars dug, wells sunk, cisterns, cesspools, and privies excavated, filled 
and emptied by the hundred annually, and numberless nuisances of 
every description created, abolished, and re-created. Within a few 
years, 90 miles of railroad track have been laid within the city limits, 
and since the introduction of the Croton water, in 1842, trenches have 
been dug for 255 miles of pipe; and finally, 130 miles of sewers have 
been put down, which receive, besides the ordinary overflow of the sur- 
face, the washings of nearly 40,000 water closets, and a vast amount 
of other refuse matter, all of which is discharged into the docks, and 
which, in turn, the “ mud machine” is continually at work upon, rak- 
ing it up from the bottom, and exposing to the air, regardless of win- 
ter’s cold or summer’s heat. 
It is true that the soil of New Orleans is of a different character 
from that of New York; but we claim the palm for filthy streets, and 
for density of population, with all their concomitant evils. 
We turn now to the consideration of that part of the theory which 
relates to the atmospheric influences which affect the development 
and extension of yellow fever, and we have to perform the more 
agreeable duty of giving an assent to that part of the doctrine of the 
New Orleans Commission, as far as our observation of the circum- 
stances of last year’s epidemic enables us to express an opinion. 
It is claimed by Dr. Barton, (to whom, we believe, must be award- 
ed the credit of the discovery,) that without a high general tempera- 
ture, combined with a high point of evaporation, yellow fever cannot 
spread, cannot become epidemic. It was a matter of great interest 
to us, as well as to its distinguished discoverer, to ascertain whether 
this idea was in any degree verified last year in the precincts of the 
Quarantine and the opposite shore. In company with that gentle- 
man, the Chairman of the Section visited some parts of the “ infected 
district,” particularly the region about Fort Hamilton, in the month of 
November last, with the double purpose of inspecting the locality, and 
ascertaining the condition of the atmosphere at the time of the fever 
visitation. The meteorological register kept at the Fort was opened 
before us, and on inspecting its columns, we found indubitable confir- 
mation of these views. 
In order to render this matter more fully understood, it must be 
remembered, that the meteorological observations referring to these 32 
points are taken with a double thermometer, or rather two thermome- 
ters attached to one frame. One is a simple Fahrenheit, to ascertain 
the temperature; the other is a wet-bulb thermometer, to ascertain 
the temperature of evaporation. The bulb of the latter is covered 
with a layer of muslin, which is kept constantly moist by connection 
with a small reservoir of water, and the elevation of the mercury in 
the stem is influenced by the evaporation of the water on the bulb. 
If the water evaporates rapidly, the cooling thus induced causes the 
mercury to fall, and the number of degrees of difference between the 
two thermometers indicates the rapidity of evaporation. It is at 
once apparent, that if the atmosphere in which the instrument is 
placed is highly charged with moisture, the evaporating process must 
proceed slowly, and hence there will be little difference between the 
two thermometers; but if, on the other hand, the air contains but 
little moisture, its capacity for vapor being unsupplied, it will absorb 
the water more rapidly from the wet bulb, and the cooling thus in- 
duced depresses the mercury in the stem. The difference thus created 
between the two thermometers is the indication of the amount of 
moisture in the air, and is technically called “ the degree of dryness” 
observed. In other words, the greater the difference, the drier the air. 
Based upon these observations, calculations may be made of the 
number of grains of vapor contained in each cubic foot of air. 
The atmosphere, like allother elastic fluids, has a capacity for vapor 
in proportion to its temperature; an amount that would saturate it 
at 50° would come far short of supplying it at 80°, and hence at low 
temperatures we find the mercury of the two thermometers in closer 
approximation; but in a heated atmosphere, the point of saturation 
being less easily attained, rapid evaporation is induced, and the two 
scales indicate a greater difference except under extraordinary cir- 
cumstances. Wheu, therefore, in hot weather we find the two columns 
of mercury approximating, or equalizing each other, we have an ap- 
proach to, or the actual existence of, the point of saturation. 
Let us now inspect the Meteorological Record of New Orleans 
during an epidemic of Yellow Fever. One of the severest attacks 
with which that city has.been visited, occurred in 1853, when 1,849 
died of that epidemic, besides 1,954 of various endemic disorders. On 
turning: to the record we find 
The average temperature of the air in July was 79.88° 
“ “ of evaporation “ 76.16° 
Degree of dryness 3.72° 33 
The average temperature of the air in Aug. was. . .81.25° 
“ “ of evaporation “ ...*16.13° 
Degree of dryness 5.12° 
The condition of the atmosphere thus expressed is regarded by the 
Sanitarians of the “Commission” as an example of true Yellow Fever 
atmosphere; as presenting, in fact, in perfect unison, the elements of 
the upper blade of the “shears of fate.” 
Let us now inspect the records kept at Fort Hamilton during the 
epidemic of Yellow Fever at that place in 1856. We find the 
average 
Temperature of the air in July was. .’ll.28° in Aug.. .75.06° 
“ of evaporation “ ..72.52° “ 70.03° 
Degree of dryness 4.76° 5.03° 
Here, then, we find a very close correspondence in the condition of 
the atmosphere of the two localities, and so far as this instance goes, 
a verification of this part of the theory advanced in New Orleans. 
But the question will probably occur to others that occurred to us 
on the discovery of these facts: 
Why did this city, with its teeming populace, its unmeasured filth, 
and the actual introduction of at least fifty cases from without, and 
doubtless some fomites with them—why did this city escape a partici- 
pation in the epidemic which trod so closely upon its southern border? 
Could there have existed a difference in the condition of the atmo- 
sphere of the two localities, sufficiently marked to account for our 
exemption, and if so, how shall it be ascertained? This exceedingly 
interesting inquiry, upon which, indeed, hung, in great measure, (at 
least in our opinion,) the fate of the theory which has been discussed, 
received upon investigation a solution as gratifying as it was unex- 
pected. 
For a long time, no reliable clue could be obtained to the secret. 
Upon reverting to our recollections of the season, it was well remem- 
bered that, to our personal feelings, the general temperature in both 
July and August, of last year, was unusually cool and comfortable for 
the season, and the air possessed a remarkable degree of balminess, 
and it was a matter of frequent remark, that the probabilities of a 
spread of the disease were, from these circumstances, very slight. 
But such evidence was too loose to base a conclusion upon, and it was 
not until some months afterwards that a record of the weather, kept 
on the eastern side of the city, fell under our observation, in which 34 
we found indications of a decided difference in the atmosphere of the 
two localities. These records were made by Dr. J. P. Loines, of the 
Eastern Dispensary, and were furnished us by him. 
We have obtained also, from the Report for 1856, of the Gover- 
nors of the Almshouse, the Meteorological Record kept on Black- 
well’s Island, which so decidedly confirms the existence of a wide 
difference between the atmospheric conditions of the infected and the 
non-infected districts, that we think no apology is necessary for their 
full insertion in this place. 
wcobst'OtotcrotONstototoh-■ w-»>—* t—*►—*»—»»—'i »—» ►—* i-j 
lMO«G0^050>^WKHCOC0<lC5U'^WtvMQC5a*^C:C^^WtCH 
1856. 
■ 0C®'l<I»)C131<la300M'JO!OffiC'. 
•_ 
Mean Out-Door Temp. 
New York City. 
• to WOC <1 Cl fO 00 O CJ» M C5 CC OD 
Evaporation below. 
■ 
»Or- top k*- k,— tojM 
Ditto at 
Blackwell’s Island. 
S' 
H 
• cjfca tsjko cs|ts Ci|- c.|~ «ko cj|to 
Ditto at Fort Hamilton. 
'IOC^OCCOOOSMOO'J-I'I-JOJOOQOOOOOMM'IMCiciM'I-J'T'J'JM 
lOf tSH 
Mean Out-Door Temp. 
New York City. 
K5*-* »»- * to*- to*- to— 
Evaporation below. 
n 
H- — — K- h-* t—* 
COMMWWOOHOO^COWCOO*O^^^WW^N5^^0C'.WC»CCO 
Ditto at 
Blackwell’s Island. 
Wjt4 C4- wlta e-lta c*a c*|~ c-fco c+- t>kc «|~ c-|~ wka oka o|~ oka o|ta o|ca o|- o|- 
Ditto at Fort Hamilton. 
at cicjcscsact^i^icsc; 
COOOOCOCnMC5WW?OHO»4h-HlCWH'-tvt^l>S4-Cia5COOOiC:Hwi 
Mean Out-Door Temp. 
New York City. 
acoa»i^o<ficcooooiM«5t:c*)»i:(»(io»*)3^MiM)"ic 
**-• ten co— to,*- tot- 
Evaporation below. 
► 
c 
'i-}Oie:aooo»'(»oooaciwo<)K^*a»)oooo(»'iw>»j-i“wwcnt,'i 
to— toi-toiv- to!—to— 
Ditto at 
Blackwell’s Island. 
§ 
CD 
cjK- o|— oka «ka oka o|~ o|~ o|~ oka oka o|ta o|~ oka oka oka oka ok- o|ta o|~ oka oka o|~ ojta 
Ditto at Fort Hamilton. 
Mean Out-Door Temp. 
New York City. 
CG 
Evaporation below. 
3 
K 
g 
Ditto at 
Blackwell’s Island. 
W 
K 
W 
Ditto at Fort Hamilton. 
Mean average of evaporation below temperature of three months : New York 
City, 8i°; Blackwell’s Island, 7°; Fort Hamilton, 4£?. 35 
We submit, then, that in these facts and figures we find a confirma- 
tion of that part of the rule laid down by the New Orleans Com- 
mission, that a concurrence of high heat and abundant moisture is 
a “ sine qua non ” to the development and spread of Yellow Fever 
miasma; and with the admission that the germ which is planted may 
have been transplanted from another soil, and is not necessarily or exclu- 
sively indigenous, the whole doctrine of our Southern [friends stands 
justified in our own experience. 
The next important inquiry is 
the practical one, how far this dis- 
covery may be applied to the pre- 
vention and extension of the dis- 
ease in question, in this climate. 
Although this point has not been 
given to the Section to discuss, 
we may be indulged with a few 
suggestions on the subject. In 
the first place having demonstra- 
ted that Yellow Fever cannot be 
produced here from our own soil, 
we have only to be vigilant in pre- 
venting its importation, to avoid 
the approach of that blade of the 
“ shears of fate,” to escape it alto- 
gether. This is certainly not an 
impossibility, with stringent Quar- 
antine laws, administered with in- 
tegrity and intelligence. But 
should it again find a lodgment by 
accident or otherwise, should this 
blade of the “shears” be menac- 
ingly presented, then should all 
our energies be given to the ap- 
plication of every known mean-s by 
which the second blade may be de- 
prived of its temper; every means 
of drying and purifying the air 
should be resorted to. 
The heat of the season, which is 
one of the necessary elements, we 
may not indeed be able to modify; 
Figure of the Hygrometer referred 
to on page 112. 36 
dwellings, and of the atmosphere immediately surrounding, we may 
in some measure control. Chemistry presents us with a variety of 
means for this purpose. Quick lime is a powerful absorbent of it; a 
low temperature will condense, a high temperature will dissipate, and 
a strong current will remove it. By these and other means of like 
character, we might, on certain occasions and circumstances, present 
a decided check to the progress of Yellow Fever, and probably had 
the public authorities possessed a knowledge of this law, the epidemic 
of 1822 might possibly have been somewhat controlled, both in extent 
and virulence. 
But it is not alone in connection with the disease under discussion 
that this law assumes a great importance. It has long been known 
that dampness exerts a powerful influence over epidemic diseases. 
Cholera luxuriates in cellars, and other damp and noisome localities ; 
dysentery becomes infectious in pent and humid atmospheres; and all 
other diseases, especially of the zymotic class, derive increased activ- 
ity from dampness and confinement, and are greatly shorn of their 
virulence and fatality by the presence of sunlight, and aerial currents. 
Every one is aware of the disagreeableness and oppressiveness of 
a dwelling teeming with moisture—so much so, indeed, that a newly 
finished house and other similar damp places are instinctively avoid- 
ed, if possible. Its effects are perceptible to those in good health; 
how much more injurious, then, must be its influence in disease of al- 
most every kind, but particularly those which depend upon atmos- 
pheric influences for their propagation and extension. Like the fungi 
of vegetable and the amphibiae of animal life, they find their pabulum 
in the dampness and gloom of the forest and cavern; under the drying 
power of the breeze, and the warmth of unobstructed sunshine, they 
shrink and vanish. It is in these enlarged views that the science of 
Hygiene, the preventive branch of medical art, takes a higher rank, 
and fills a wider field of usefulness and power. 
We see in these facts and inferences potential reasons for the pro- 
hibition of cellar residences in cities—for the requirement of sunlight 
in sleeping rooms, school rooms, work shops, and in fact everywhere ; 
for ventilation, or the transmission of currents of air through apart- 
ments; for the rapid removal of the moisture and other matters which 
continually distil from our own bodies ; for the thorough paving of 
our streets, that no water may stagnate upon them; and for the in- 
cessant practice of the virtue of cleanliness, not only in our public 
thoroughfares, but also in our private quarters. In a word, the phi- 
losophy of the precepts of Hygiene becomes more apparent than ever.