OBSERVATIONS 
ON"'- , 
miOW FEVER; 
AND ITS 
RELATIONS TO QUARANTINE, 
AND OTHER 
HYGIENIC MEASURES, 
BY 
S. L. GRIER, M. D. 
NEW ORLEANS: 
PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF " THE CREOLE," 94 CAMP STREET. 
1854. PREFACE. 
The following observations-the, result of some investigation of the 
subject, made dufhw ar'ptTrtod^ iCTstFro not'OiWmjsp'-'available-are 
addressed to all, whether professional or non-professional, who feel inter- 
ested in the matter under discussion. 
It is recorded that "from no other cause than the errors of physicians, 
who constantly maintained that the disease, then epidemic, was not 
contagious, happened that terrible visitation which, in 1743, ravaged 
the city of Messina and its vicinity with the loss of above forty-three 
thousand individuals in the short space of only three months." 
From the frequent sneers against the medical profession in this city, 
we would suppose the late disastrous epidemics wera ascribed to a simi- 
lar cause. They are, say some, so obstinately wedded to their theories 
that no appeal from suffering humanity can touch them. Others say 
that " Commerce is King" and all other considerations must bow to its 
behests, and therefore it is that no protective measures are attempted to 
save the city from an imported pestilence. A third reason assigned for 
the existing state of things is still more discreditable to those concerned, 
to-wit: that many of the citizens of New Orleans, being acclimated 
and believing themselves exempt from the disease, are therefore entitled 
to all the benefits and immunities of that exemption. To neither of 
these causes do we believe the neglect of proper precautionary means is 
justly chargeable, but rather to the real obscurity which invests the 
subject, together with a characteristic apathy of the citizens of New 
Orleans in regard to all matters of public concern. " That which is 
every one's business is no one's business," and therefore rarely receives 
due attention, and of course while the importation of Yellow Fever is 
involved in so much doubt, it is not likely to gain much consideration. 
The history of the disease in this country seems to favor the idea of its 
foreign origin, inasmuch as those decennial periods in which commerce 
was most active the disease was most rife, and vice versa. Nor do we 
conceive there is anything incredible in the idea of such a disease being 
transported. It is a well attested fact, that in 1854 the infection of 
Yellow Fever was carried from this city to Newark, N. J., in a bundle 
of rags; and we have somewhere read, that in Breslau, in 1542, the 4 
contagion of a plague, which lay buried in a fomes of old linen, for 
fourteen years, spread, on the opening of the cloth, and destroyed six 
thousand people. This partakes somewhat of the marvellous,Jbut to 
our mind not more so than the fact that the cereal seeds fouip in Her- 
culaneum ana the Pyramids will still germinate and reproduce their 
kind. The doline of^fhe^impofted infection of Yellow Fever in this 
city has no such marvel attached to it, but is a simple truth, which is 
every year receiving additional testimony. If the following pages serve 
to throw the feeblest ray of light on the subject, the purpose of the 
writer will have been accomplished. If there is any efficacy in quaran- 
tine measures, it is desirable that New' Orleans should not be deprived 
of such a benefit. A year ago the city of Charleston had presented for 
its acceptance the best devised plan and most complete system of 
quarantine ever instituted in this country. The plan was rejected by 
the municipal powers, and, during the last summer, the most grievous 
epidemic which ever visited them has prevailed, introduced, we are 
assured on the best authority, by the ships of commerce. Let New- 
Orleans profit by the experience of her sister city, and spare no efforts 
to reach her legitimate position, and be in population and general pros- 
perity what she is confessedly in commercial importance, the second 
city of the Union. 
New Orleans, Dec. 23, 1854. OBSERVATIONS 
ON 
yeliM FEVER and quarantine. 
In making a few observations on the origin and mode of propagation 
of Yellow Fever, and the relation which it bears to Quarantine and other 
hygienic measures, it will be necessary first to state certain facts which 
may be considered as established in regard to this disease, so that a 
discussion of a variety of topics in connection with the subject may be 
avoided, and thus the presentation of essential points be restricted within 
appropriate limits. 
1st. It may, we think, be safely asserted that Yellow Fever is not of 
American origin-that its course can be traced to the eastern continent, 
in the same manner that we trace epidemic cholera to its nativity in 
remote India. 
2nd. It is now naturalized or endemic in certain parts of inter-tropi- 
cal America. The exact limits of this Yellow Fever zone, North and 
South, have not yet been determined. 
3rd. It is a disease which has prevailed almost exclusively in seaport 
towns, and in places directly in communication with these seaports, 
either in the way of travel or of trade. So uniformly has this been the 
case that it may with propriety be styled a coast disease. To establish 
this position it is only necessary to mention some of the cities and towns 
in which it has most extensively prevailed-such as New York, Phila- 
delphia, Baltimore, Norfolk, Wilmington, Charleston, Savannah, Pensa- 
cola, Mobile, New Orleans, Havana, Vera Cruz, Rio Janeiro, Seville, 
Cadiz, Gibaraltar, Malaga, Barcelona, &c. 
4th. Yellow Fever, in common with other epidemics, has & periodical 
character. It has a tendency to recur after an interval, during which it 
has been gradually subsiding both in force and extent. Thus, for a 
series of years about the close of the last century and the beginning of 
the present, it raged in the cities along our northern sea-board, then, sub- 
siding for a time, it again prevailed with renewed force during the 
decade, commencing about the year 1820. The late epidemic of 1853 
may also be considered as a fresh invasion of the disease, being marked 6 
by certain distinctive features in its action and mode of propagation. 
This periodicity has been termed by medical writers the cyclical charac- 
ter of epidemics. f 
5th. This disease obeys another general law of epidemics, wh/:h is a 
disposition to travel from the place of their origin and extend, ever sur- 
rounding^nd. even distant countries. This general lawj^, perhaps, 
nnost plainly exemplified in the progress of/tfif^rst cholera epidemic, 
which reached Wr ItWourse comdbe traced with as 
much precision as the route of a kingly procession or the march of an 
invading army. This feature is not so apparent in Yellow Fever 
epidemics, but we think all who have observed their mode of action will 
admit that they partake more or less of this character. This is known 
as the migratory characteristic of epidemics, and in conformity with 
this law we regard the fever which visited the southern Atlantic cities 
this year as but an extension of the epidemic which commenced its 
course in the United States in 1853, beginning at New Orleans. This 
is evident from the fact they both were marked by certain peculiarities 
which distinguish them from all previous epidemics ; and, should we 
infer from past experience, we would expect to hear of the same disease 
visiting next summer the towns of Wilmington and Norfolk, and possibly 
the great cities, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. 
6th. An epidemic of Yellow Fever has a fixed and definite duration, 
which is said to be about sixty days. A certain degree of cold, how- 
ever, will cut short such an epidemic before the expiration of that time. 
7th. A high range of temperature is pre-requisite to the production 
of epi.'emic Yellow Fever. According to some writers it has never 
prevailed except during the season when the temperature reaches and 
continues for a time above 80 deg. Farenheit. In this feature it is con- 
trasted with the plague, which ceases under so high a range of temper- 
ature. 
8th. Yellow Fever, in its epidemic forms, has a natural tendency to 
prevail in towns and cities situated in miasmatic districts, and in the 
parts of such towns where the poorer classes are crowded together, 
without sufficient room and destitute of the comforts of life. That 
neither of these conditions constitute the essential cause of the disease 
is evident from the fact that it often prevails where no such conditions 
exist, and that these conditions are often combined and in full force 
without the production of the disease. 
9th. Yellow Fever is a disease sui generis and peculiar. Not, as some 7 
suppose, an aggravated type of our endemic bilious fever, but as specific 
in its character as scarlet fever or any of the exanthemata. This fact is 
demonstrated by the next postulate. 
lOth^That an attack of the disease gives exemption to the individual 
in all subsequent epidemics. The exceptions to this rule are-not- suffix 
cient to invalma'PM-heggcwCTfd truth. This feature^servesffo distinguish 
it from our ordinary endemic levers, ana sedms to ally it with another 
class of diseases which are generally supposed to be contagious. 
11th. The incursion of an epidemic of Yellow Fever into a town is 
not abrupt, but rather gradual; starting with one or two cases, after 
which a pause ensues, varying from five to twenty days, during which 
the poisonous element seems to reproduce itself, when it again breaks 
forth and spreads rapidly and incessantly. 
12th. Yellow Fever if not absolutely contagious is at least communi- 
cable under certain conditions and circumstances, and has been frequently 
transmitted by subjects of the disease and by fomites. 
This proposition has been heretofore combatted by numerous and 
strong opposers. It will now, we think, be generally conceded. 
The foregoing positions are, we think, incontrovertible, but not, how- 
ever, beyond the reach of all cavil, for there seems to be nothing like 
unity of opinion in any of the theories of medicine; and, in reference 
to the cause of Yellow Fever, the proverbial disagreement of medical 
men is fully maintained ; but there are certain principles in this as well 
as in other departments of medical science which may be considered as 
firmly established, notwithstanding the cavils and objections which are 
brought to bear against them. 
We will now proceed to state certain other propositions in regard to 
the mode of propagation and diffusion of Yellow Fever, which are not 
so well settled, and which are still the subjects of warm and sometimes 
bitter controversy. 
1st. Yellow Fever, in its epidemic form, does not originate in the 
cities of the United States where it has hitherto prevailed, but has 
always been introduced either in the hold of vessels coming from infected 
ports, in goods, or by subjects of the disease. 
2nd. The epidemic virus thus conveyed to our shores is not extended 
and diffused through the medium of the atmosphere, except to a very 
limited extent, differing in this respect from a class of epidemics of 
which influenza, may be offered as an example, and that it is more allied 
in its mode of propagation and manner of progression to another class 8 
of epidemics which are known to be contagious in their character, of 
which class scarlet fever may be cited as an instance. 
3rd. These positions being established, it follows, as an inevitable 
conclusion, that a well devised and rigorously enforced quarantine would 
be effectual in preventing the ravages of this formidable emaemic in 
Before attempting to^uppoTt these, propv^itdcT|s^ testimony as 
we may be able to collect, we will endeavor to define certain terms in 
very common use in the discussion of the general subject of Yellow 
Fever. 
Contagion is a word on the lips of every one, and perhaps no word in 
the language has been more vaguely used than this, both among medi- 
cal men and others. It should mean strictly the propagation of disease 
from one individual to another by actual contact. It has always, how- 
ever, been used in a wider sense, and is made to embrace a class of 
diseases which are more properly expressed as infectious-the term infec- 
tion signifying the propagation of disease by effluvia from persons or 
fomites. 
To use the word contagion in ite wider and more popular sense, it 
embraces three distinct classes of diseases : 
1st. Those which are communicated only by contact, and having no 
poisonous exhalations do not infect the surrounding atmosphere; of 
this class are syphilis, hydrophia and psoriasis, vulgarly the itch. 
2nd. Those which are communicable by contact, and also by exhalations 
pervading the atmosphere more or less diffusely; such are small pox, 
measles, scarlet fever, etc. 
3rd. Those which are transmitted from the sick to the well through 
the medium of the atmosphere immediately surrounding the patient, 
but only under certain conditions, by virtue of which the atmosphere is 
rendered more liable to be the conductor of the specific virus. This 
class includes plague, dysentery, the various forms of typhus, and, 
according to some writers, Yellow Fever and cholera* 
Fomites is a term applied to any and all substances imbued with 
principles of a contagious or infectious nature. 
The terms sporadic, endemic and epidemic also require to be distinctly 
defined. The first is applied to occasional diseases which occur without 
any general or prevailing cause, the name denoting any thing scat- 
tered here and there like seeds. 
* Hosack on Contagion, New York, 1814. 9 
Endemic is used'to express all diseases which are peculiar to the 
inhabitants of particular countries, and which are native diseases in 
tho^ countries. 
Epidemic is a term applied to those diseases which prevail among 
the inhabitants of a city or country, but which are not_jiecessarp.y 
native in sankplaces and may be extended to other placed ther neigh* 
boring or 
These latter distinctions we consider essentially important in the investi- 
gation of Yellow Fever audits mode of propagation, for itis possible that 
this disease may prevail in this city in all three of these forms, and per- 
haps the conflicting theories and contradictory statements which have 
been so long and so constantly before the public mind are in part to 
be attributed to the fact that these distinctions have been practically 
ignored; thus, cholera has been known from time immemorial 
in its sporadic and endemic form, but as an epidemic it is a disease of 
the nineteenth century-the most modern and most terrible of all dis- 
eases. In 1853 sporadic cases of Yellow Fever occurred in this city, 
prior to the invasion of the great epidemic of that year, and which 
seemed to have no connection with the epidemic; that is, they were not 
foci of infection from which the epidemic influence was extended. Dr. 
Fenner, in his valuable history of that epidemic, (the more valuable 
because it presents a candid statement of facts, allowing each one to draw 
his own conclusions) has shown that the disease "first prevailed to an 
epidemical extent in the region bordering on the junction of the First 
and Fourth Districts, extending from the river back and around the 
WaterWorks;" but a month previous to this, cases had occurred on 
Gormley's Basin, a mile or more to the rear of this district; and it is 
well known that these first cases did not communicate the disease to 
any one in that neighborhood, but that the epidemic did not reach that 
quarter until a late period, and then only by extension of the disease 
from the front part of the city. Now, whether these sporadic cases 
were produced by the same cause which gave rise to the epidemic in 
front or not, the fact that the disease did prevail in these two distinct 
forms is undeniable, and that is all that for the present we contend for. 
We wish our readers to bear these distinctions in mind, inasmuch as 
what we have to say is on the subject of epidemic Yellow Fever; and 
we believe that more light is to be elicited from a study of the general 
laws which govern epidemics than by the everlasting discussion of the 
question of contagion and non-contagion, which we conceive has very 10 
little pertinence to the subject of epidemic diseases, unless, indeed, tb*" 
word be used exclusively in its popular sense, and its etymological 
meaning be entirely repudiated. ; 
In a very able essay on epidemics and their mode of props Ration, 
jrhich gpfrmjgd in the British Foreign Medical and Chirurgica^ lieview 
rfor January, 5 3, from the pen of Dr. Wm.ll G^mffter, (and we 
could mention noaraTnTiTWW^pn^^ authority in the medical 
world) the theory is advanced, that the cause or origin of epidemics is of 
a two-fold character-the combination of a foreign or external element 
with a certain local condition is essential to their production and propa- 
gation. This, we believe, is the only view which is competent to 
explain and reconcile the apparently conflicting facts which are on 
record in regard to Yellow Fever. For example, during the summer of 
1853 some sixty cases of Yellow Fever were carried into the city of 
Memphis ; they were found in different parts of the town ; were treated 
there; and some of them died and were buried by the citizens; but in 
no instance was the disease transmitted to others, nor was there anv 
epidemic influence generated in that city. During the past summer we 
witnessed six cases of undoubted Yellow Fever in the Pennsylvania 
Hospital, at Philadelphia, in persons recently from Charleston, Savannah 
or the West Indies; most of these cases were admitted in the later 
stages of the disease, and of course a majority of them terminated 
fatally; but there was no communication of the disease to the other 
patients in the wards, where they had been placed indiscriminately, nor 
to the nurses and attending physician; and we were informed by our 
friend Dr. Gerhard, that the same thing has occurred every summer for 
the last twenty years. Now, these are facts which a strict contagionist 
cannot possibly explain. We know it is sometimes said by such an 
one that measles or small pox sometimes occur without spreading, but 
such is not a true parallel. It is comparing a rule with an exception. 
Was it ever known that a number of cases of measles or small pox 
were thrown, here and there, through the wards of a hospital for a suc- 
cession of years, without an epidemic being generated ? We think no 
such fact is on record. 
But in direct opposition to this kind of evidence, we may cite such 
an incident as the following : A schooner leaves New Orleans, ladened 
with goods for the interior. She crosses the lake and enters one of the 
bayous which leads up into the piney woods country. By the time it 11 
Caches its destination, two or three of the men are down with the 
fever, contracted while in port. Here, the schooner is visited by some 
farmer from the heart of the pine woods, who goes down to the vessel to 
obtainhis supplies from the city. He sees the suspicious looking cases 
on board^h.urries off with his goods to his home, amm\g'*t-hej pines, 
where the saOTWre-top barrcn/^o produce. Yellow Fever or any other 
malignant disorder, and the next-'da-yis attacked with a fever, which 
ends in black vomit. This disease is communicated to other members 
of his family, and from them to the neighbors, who humanely come to 
their aid; and thus it spreads, until a large community become the sub- 
jects of this fearful scourge. We have here drawn no imaginary 
sketch, but have only selected one from a multitude of similar cases, to 
illustrate our meaning. Every one knows that such things were of 
every-day occurrence during the last two summers in the Southwest. 
How will the non-contagionist account for this? Perhaps he may 
suggest a coincidence, but beyond this he cannot go, knowing, as he 
does, that the transmissibility of the disease is incontestable. No truth 
is more strongly fortified by testimony than this. How are these two 
apparently contradictory facts to be explained ? It is evident that the 
specific poison of Yellow Fever was introduced from abroad in both 
instances; in one place it is communicated, in the other it is not. The 
reason plainly is in the different locality. In the first instance it did not 
spread, because the local element was wanting which is necessary to the 
propagation of an epidemic influence ; in the latter case it was present 
and the result is, an epidemic is generated, in exact accordance with 
the theory of Dr. Carpenter, which requires, for the production and 
propagation of an epidemic, the conjoined influence of a general with a 
local element, neither of which, singly and of itself, is sufficient to pro- 
duce the epidemic disease. 
We have premised these views as to the mode in which epidemics are 
propagated and extended in order to show what our exact meaning is, 
when we assert and undertake to prove that Yellow Fever, as an 
epidemic, is an imported disease-the foreign element which is prerequi- 
site to its production is brought to our shores by the ships of commerce. 
We will now proceed to adduce some proof, in support of our 
previous statement, that the malignant forms of epidemic Yellow Fever, 
which have prevailed at different periods in our chief commercial cities, 
were not of domestic origin, but were the result of an infection, 12 
introduced from places within the Yellow Fever zone, where the diseffS!^ 
is known to be endemic, and where it prevails perpetually. 
In an examination of the literature of this subject in search of'data 
for forming an opinion of its cause and mode of propagation, we are 
p^mdex^d'-^rWlmost bewildered by the strange diversity andpcontrari - 
JKy of testimony whiclk has been advanced of die 
different theories orcont:igionanr!*<ffi^contagion. An incident or two, 
taken from a mass of similar statements, will illustrate this. 
In the year 1792 the good ship "Hankey" sailed from England for 
the African coast, with some two hundred persons on board, most of 
them going out with the purpose of colonizing on the island of Boul- 
lam, which is situated on the coast of Africa, about 11 degrees north of 
the equator, near the mouth of the Rio Grande. Disappointed in their 
expectations, and discouraged by the reception given them by the can- 
nibals who they found in possession of the island, they retained the ship 
and remained on board. About nine months after their arrival out, a 
most malignant epidemic broke out among them and carried off three- 
fourths of their number. At the close of the epidemic, with the seeds 
of infection still remaining in the vessel, the captain, says the narration 
from which we borrow the account, " finding the water at Boullam 
unwholesome, proceeded with his ship to Bissao, where there was a 
Portuguese settlement, for a supply. The ship was navigated by about 
twelve seamen, most of whom had not experienced sickness, and had 
been probably procured from Sierra Leone: at any rate they were then 
taken on board for the first time. Of these, before the return of the 
Hankey to Boullam, nine died; and the remainder, with the captain, 
were reduced to a deplorable state. The time for which the Hankey 
was chartered being expired, Mr. Paiba, the supercargo, with his family? 
intended to return to England in her; but as no seamen could be pro- 
cured, they were obliged to proceed to sea, having on board the captain, 
sick, and only the mate, Mr. Paiba, and two seamen to navigate the 
ship. With much difficulty they arrived at St. Jago, where they for- 
tunately found the Charon and Scorpion ships of war. Capt. Dodd, of 
the former, humanely rendered them every service in his power, and on 
leaving them put two men of each ship on board the Hankey. With 
this aid they proceeded to the West Indies, a voyage to England being 
impracticable in their wretched state. On the third day after leaving 
St. Jago the men procured from the ships of war were seized with the 
fever, which had carried off three-fourths of those on board the Han- 13 
key .at Boullam; and, having no assistance, two of the four died; the 
remaining two were put on shore here (at Grenada) in the most wretched 
state possible. Capt. Dodd, on his arrival at Barbadoes from the coast 
•of Afric* was ordered by Admiral Gardiner to convoy the homeward 
bound fleet ot"merchantmen. In the execution of his order-sf'lkk carper 
to Grenada on the*2-7fh qf^MaSr and learning^pf the rnischief which 
the Hankey had been the cause '•of^rff^nuoned that several of the 
Charon's and Scorpion's people were sent on board the Hankey at 
St. Jago to repair her rigging, &c.; that from this circumstance, and the 
communication which his barge's crew had with that ship, the pestilence 
was brought on board both ships, and that of the Charon's crew thirty 
died, and of the Scorpion's about fifteen. The Hankey arrived at the 
port of St. George* on the 19th of February, in the most distressed 
situation, and for a few days lay in the bay, but was afterwards brought 
into the harbor." 
From this vessel the disease spread among the shipping in her imme- 
diate vicinity ; "these communicated the infection to the ships nearest 
them, so that it gradually spread from those nearest the mouth of the 
harbor, where the Hankey for some time lay, to those at the bottom of 
it, not one escaping, in succession. In the short spaee of time, from 
the beginning of March to the end of May, 200 of about 500 sailors, 
who manned the ships in the regular trade, died of this fever. 
"About the middle of April the disease began to appear on shore. 
The first house it showed itself in was that of Messrs. Stowewood & Co., 
situated close to the wharf; and the infection was evidently introduced 
by a negro wench who took in sailors' clothes to wash. The whole of 
the family were successively afflicted with it, and by them communicated 
to all those with whom they had intercourse. The manner in which it 
spread in the town clearly evinced its contagious nature; for all, who 
from friendship, business, or duty comunicated with the diseased, were 
themselves infected ; and no instance occurred wherein the contagion 
could not be traced to its particular source. That part of the garrison 
quartered nearest to where the Hankey lay, were the first of this class 
of men to receive the infection. One of the officers visited the Hankey, 
and, with two or three soldiers who rowed his boat, remained on board 
some time. The consequence of this imprudence was fatal to himself 
almost immediately after, and in a little time to many of the men, and 
so spread through all the regiments quartered there. 
* The port of Grenada, the most southern of the Carribean Islands. 14 
About the 1st of June the disease began to appear among the nesrws 
of the estates in the neighborhood of town ; but it did not spread much 
among them, nor was it marked with the fatality which attended it when 
it appeared among the whites. 
in the course of the months of May, (/une, and July, 
•appeared in seyeral drsfiwi^and dista^parts of"roecountry, whither 
the infection was carried by perStM^^mo had imprudently visited infected 
houses in town. 
" But the infection was not confined to Grenada alone; from this, as 
a focus, it spread to the other islands-to Jamaica, St. Domingo and 
Philadelphia, by means of vessels, on board of which the infection was 
retained by the clothes-more especially the woollen jackets of the 
sailors."* 
This statement, made by Dr. and Sir Colin Chisholm, the surgeon to 
his Majesty's ordnance in Grenada, bearing so strongly in favor of the 
importation and contagion of Yellow Fever, was not allowed to pass 
unchallenged. Dr. Bancroft, a physician and writer of distinction in 
Great Britain, soon made his appearance in the arena, as the chosen 
champion of the non-contagionists. He published a long and elaborate 
essay, setting forth the inaccuracies of Dr. Chisholm's report, and the 
false reasoning of his partizans. lie asserted the Grenada fever was of 
local origin; that the Hankey carried no infection there; and that the 
fever on the African coast, which was so fatal to the Boullam colonists, 
was only the ordinary remittent of that country, aggravated by the 
depressing circumstances in which the colonists were placed. From 
that day to this, the strife of the contending parties has kept pace with 
the continuance and spread of the disease in question; and sometimes 
the heat of controversy has risen so high that duels were among the 
fruits of it. The incident is but of yesterday, which shows the same 
diversity of opinion still exists in regard to the origin and cause of 
epidemic Yellow Fever. 
"To prove that Yellow Fever can bo imported into a place, I should 
take an island in the middle of the ocean. I would surround it with 
other islands, possessing the same characteristics of climate and soil, and 
peopled by the same race. I would have this island healthy for at least 
fifty years. Then I would have arrive at it a ship scourged with Yellow 
Fever. This ship should implore succor, and it should be granted, yet, 
as a wise precaution, some kind of quarantine should be established. 
* Chisholm on malignant fever, p. 83. all the inhabitants of the island some few only should be brought 
intothe immediate presence of the sick. Within the period fixed by 
experience for the incubation of this disease, one or two of these few 
should begin to suffer from the same disease, then from these sufferers 
the disease snwrkkgradually spread as from a centre, 
island was infectedTMVhile, however, this orfwskmd wa^hus ravaged,' 
the adjoining islands, which the imecked/fe^el had not visited, should 
remain perfectly free, in order to prove that there was no (so styled) 
epidemic constitution. Then, if all these conditions were fulfilled, I 
would confess that Yellow Fever may be contagious and can be 
imported."* 
All these conditions were fulfilled, as we learn from the same journal 
from which the above suppositious statement is taken, in the case of the 
island of Boa Vista. The English steamer Eclair was on her passage 
home from the coast of Africa, where she had contracted the Yellow 
Fever. This increased so rapidly, after starting on her voyage, that she 
was compelled to land in distress at Boa Vista, the most easterly of the 
Cape de Verde group of islands. Ilere her crew was dispersed on shore, 
and the people of the island, employed in cleansing the ship, which 
remained there about three weeks. The inhabitants soon took the dis- 
ease, which spread over the whole island. Among the first who were 
taken with the disease were persons who had tvashed the clothes of the 
sick seamen-had nursed them-and among those who had been 
engaged in cleansing the ship. We cannot dwell on the details of this 
occurrence. The foregoing are the main facts, and we believe have 
never been questioned; but what we wish to note at present is the 
remarkable difference made in the reports of two medical men who were 
sent by the English government to investigate the phenomena of this 
epidemic. Dr. McWilliam, who was first dispatched for this purpose, 
reported in accordance with the above facts, and traced its origin 
directly and solely to the importation of the infection by the steamer 
Eclair. The government of Great Britain has ever opposed any restric- 
tions on her commerce, and it is plainly her interest to do so. In this 
case she sent a second medical examiner, who reported more consistently 
with the governmental views and policy ; not, however, questioning the 
main facts as recorded, but giving more prominence to influences of a 
local character, and so attempting to demonstrate its domestic origin. 
15 
* British Foreign Medical Chirurgical Review, Oct. 1852, p. 215. 16 
With this report the government remained satisfied. Probably hall 
they tried a third commissioner he would have combined the lemming 
views of his predecessors, and thus compromised the difficulty. 
These examples of the great discrepancy between medical authorities 
we would naturally suppose could-dtT^uaced beyond 
the region of doubt,dwin<g*i-at her a matter of.obsef'mion than of opinion, 
shows with what tenacity mer^ wjH-<ling to preconceived theories and 
doctrines, not susceptible of absolute demonstration, and that those who 
are already committed to either side of the question as to the foreign or 
domestic origin of Yellow Fever, will not be much influenced by any 
amount of testimony which does not favor his peculiar views. 
" A man convinced against his will 
Is of the same opinion still. " 
It is worthy of remark, in reviewing these cases which have been the 
source of so much contention and bitter discussion, that the first reports 
made in both instances, were in favor of the importation of the disease, and 
that the facts stated by Dr. Chisholm came under his own immediate 
observation, while the views of his opponent were the result of investiga- 
tions made at a distance from the scene of actual occurrence, and sustained 
by indirect evidence. 
The history of our own navy and commerce on the African coast, and 
our more recent experience of the manner in which Yellow Fever is ex- 
tended and propagated, both go to substantiate the statement of Dr. 
Chisholm. In regard to the Boa Vista Fever, we believe it is generally 
conceded to have been imported by the steamer Eclair. 
That Yellow Fever is not of indigenous origin in the cities of these 
United States, where it now prevails in an epidemic form, or has hereto- 
fore visited, is rendered almost indubitable by various considerations. 
1st. The fact that commerce has ever been suspected or charged with 
being the channel by which this malign influence has been brought to 
bear with such disastrous effect upon us, is strong presumptive evidence 
in favor of importation. There is no reason a priori, why it should be 
attributed to such a cause as this. The process of reasoning in regard to 
it would naturally be somewhat in this manner: Here, in New Orleans, 
prevails a highly malignant and pestilential disease, known to be endemic 
in tropical climates during certain seasons of the year. This disease has 
certainly a local origin somewhere, and what place can be thought more 
likely to generate such a pestilence than this city. Situated on a marsh ; 
possessing no capabilities for sufficient drainage; surrounded by lakes, 
pools and morasses; liable to be inundated by the river, which rises an- 17 
nuallyjar above the level of the streets, and sometimes menaced from the 
rear by tlk storm-tides which dash toward it from the lake; this city, 
thus situated, is constantly receiving an influx of people from a more 
temperate climW*^io are known to be the easy prey of AwrflbfttiaLK 
demon of pestilence. These imiSiWants are habitations, 
crowded to an incredible degree, ofwu.iiiZxtFemest want and in circum- 
stances the most demoralizing and depressing. The grogshop, too, 
stands open at every corner, adding its fiery ingredient to the poison-cup 
of death. Surely, such a people, so situated, breathing malaria within 
doors and without, are the fit subjects for such a pestilence as often riots 
among them during the summer months, an 1 require no agent from 
abroad to taint the air with contagion and death. Such, we conceive, 
would be a most natural train of reasoning in regard to this subject. 
But in despite of all these probabilities, we find there has always been a 
large and now rapidly increasing party, entirely competent to judge in 
the premises, who hold that the seeds of this infection are always of for- 
eign origin and have been conveyed to our shores by the ships of com- 
merce. Now, this fact we conceive is prima facie evidence of the impor- 
tation of this formidable disease. 
When we turn our attention to the evidence, which may be supposed 
has produced this conviction in the minds of so large a number, we per- 
ceive at a glance one striking fact in regard to Yellow Fever; that is, 
the singular proclivity it seems to have for seaport towns and the more 
active marts of commerce. Perhaps this feature of the disease has been 
nowhere more s rikingly exemplified than in its ravages around the coast 
of Spain. Let any one take up the map of that country, and he will 
see that nearly every seaport on that peninsula, from Seville to Barcelona, 
has been visited by this pestilence. 
On our American coast every city, from Quebec to Rio Janeiro, has 
suffered from its ravages. 
Before the first settlements were made on the site where New Orleans 
now stands, Biloxi, an older settlement, was visited by Yellow Fever. In 
those days Biloxi was the commercial port of the Lake Shore ; but as 
soon as commerce was diverted to the new settlement of Orleans, we find 
Yellow Fever was transferred with it, and now we are not aware that it 
ever reaches the former place except by extension from this city. 
The history of this fever in our northern cities is also full of instruction 
on this point. In reading the reports made of it near the close of the 18 
last century, and during the early years of the present, we notice how* 
invariably its first ravages are in localities bordering on the wdimves 
where the foreign shipping lie. In New York, Yellow Fever'iM&nstantly 
associated with such names as Old Slip, Peck Slip, New Slip, and the 
|™s/'!tflnK^places being along that part of East^iver, where vessels 
[from abroad discfoWge/hei^ cargoes; nbCofl^tdie/North River in any one 
instance, where the commerceofv^hsGnterior finds a landing, and where 
all local causes of disease would probably be as active as elsewhere.' In 
Philadelphia, where the disease was well known half a century ago, we 
find it was always on Water street, in the immediate neighborhood of 
the wharves; that it first made its appearance, not on the banks of the 
Schuylkill, which is known to be a miasmatic district, and therefore the 
more probable point for its generation. In Baltimore, however, it has 
always been a favorite theory to ascribe its origin to marsh miasma, be- 
cause, in that city, it has been chiefly confined to a part of the town called 
Fell's Point, which is a low and marshy neck of land extending down the 
harbor, the soil not unlike that on which New Orleans stands. Some 
of it has been artificially made for wharves, and in most of the cellars 
we are told water stands. Here would seem to be reason sufficient for 
pronouncing the disease of local origin, did such a condition of things 
obtain in other places where it is wont to appear. In strict analogy, 
however, with the facts we have already stated, we are told that " Fell's 
Point is a place where all ships of considerable burthen lie, the depth of 
water not permitting vessels of this description to go farther. This is 
also the principal place of residence for sailors."* 
In New Orleans the same thing has always been observable. The 
first cases of Yellow Fever which enter the Charity Hospital are almost 
invariably sailors, or those recently arrrived on shipboard. This fact we 
cannot reconcile with the idea that the disease is wholly of local origin. 
Sailors constitute a very small minority of the unacclimated who are 
found in the city at such a time. The immigrants for the twelve months 
preceding are surely as liable to an endemic disease as those who are 
fresh from shipboard. So common and so frequent has been the preva- 
lence of this disease among sailors that a distinguished English writer, 
Sir Gilbert Blane, has made it the prominent subject of a work on the 
" Diseases of Seamen," and in France it was formerly known by the title 
of the Sailor's Fever-Fievre des Matelots. 
* Medical Recorder, Vol. III. 19 
%ese, we think, are significant facts in regard to this fever, and tend 
to show tnat it cannot be of local origin; or, if so, the locality must be 
in the neighborhood of ships and and receiving wharves. It is evident 
from these facts aio??Mhat the cause is not in marsh 
we see that it gives any ImimTation to the *HinoWlWi the exposure or 
fresh earth to the sun's rays, by gradingand excavation, has anything 
to do in originating the disease with us. 
The views of Dr. Cartwright, who attributes the origin of Yellow 
Fever to the same causes which in colder climates and seasons are pro- 
ductive of Typhus, viz : the crowding of the poor in ill-ventilated apart- 
ments and tenements, where, deprived of all the comforts of life, breath- 
ing a confined atmosphere charged with animal exhalations, the poor 
poverty-stricken inmates dwell from day to day during the long heat of a 
sc . Li. i n summer, appear to us to be a more rational explanation of the 
matter; but we cannot think this is all that is necessary to the produc- 
tion of Yellow Fever. It requires a spark from some other source to 
ignite this combustible material and start the flame ; else, why do we 
not see an epidemic created wherever these same conditions exist ? 
There are cities on this continent where a greater mass of suffering poor 
are crowded in cellars and hovels, and as a class more destitute and 
drunken, than any in New Orleans. In the city of New York 20,000 
of its inhabitants live in cellars, and many of them scarce ever see the 
light of day. Why does not Yellow Fever invade those miserable 
abodes of filth and squalid poverty ? If impure air and a high tempe- 
rature are sufficient to produce Yellow Fever, why -was it that in the 
summer of 1853, when in New York they numbered their sun-smitten 
v ti n by hundreds in a day, there was not such an epidemic generated 
along the Bowery or down in that maelstroom of misery, the Five 
Points? It is evidently because the peculiar virus was wanting which 
gives effect to these pestilential materials. Yellow Fever has been said 
to be the result of animal decomposition, of putrescent vegetation, of 
all the filth and feculence which collect in cities where the means of 
sewerage and drainage are insufficient; but it is palpable, from the 
numerous instances in which towns in the same latitude subject to the 
same local influences have escaped, that to no such cause can it be attri- 
buted. Not all the rottenness in Denmark, and out of it, can generate 
an epidemic of Yellow Fever beyond the Yellow Fever zone, without 
the introduction of the specific infection which is the essential cause 
the disease. Whence comes this infectious principle? We have said 20 
it reaches the cities of these United States through the channels of wm 
merce, chiefly from the West India part of our trade. WcpwTTOtro- 
duce some further testimony in proof of its importation inJffis manner, 
and must beg the indulgence of our readers while wc CTO some cases of 
BSH^^lrononlnto Amer^an ports by/Jij^ winch are so striking and 
[conclusive that wemmk OTe foreign Origin of the disease, in some in- 
stances at least, is undeniable? 
"On the 10th of June, 1794, the Yellow Fever appeared in New 
Haven, Ct. Several deaths having occurred from this disease, the 
selectmen of the town were requested by the inhabitants to institute a 
diligent inquiry into its origin. The investigation resulted in the con- 
viction of everybody, that the disease had been brought from Martin- 
ique by the sloop Iris, Capt. Truman. The facts which led to this opinion 
were, that no person had been sick of Yellow' Fever before the arrival 
of this vessel; tWt this vessel lay at the wharf at which the first cases 
had occurred ; that her captain and crew had all been sick of the disease 
in the West Indies; that she had brought home, in a chest, the clothes 
of one of the seamen who had died of Yellow Fever in Martinique ; 
that these clothes, among which were some which this man had used 
during his illness, were unpacked in the presence of four persons, three 
of whom sickened and died shortly after this exposure ; and, finally, that 
no individual sickened in the wdiole city, unless in consequence of attend- 
ing the sick, or of exposure to some sort of contagion."* 
In very much the same manner was the disease introduced into Provi- 
dence, R. I., in the year 1805. It is stated that "at the time when the 
fever made its appearance in that city, and for a long time before, the 
town was remarkably healthy; that the district in which the disease 
appeared was remarkably clean find free from filth; that with three or 
four exceptions, all the cases occurred in the neighborhood of the wharf 
at which foreign vessels usually unloaded; that vessels were permitted 
to come up to the town without cleansing or performing quarantine; 
that immediately before the commencement of the alarm, three vessels, 
on board of which the Yellow Fever had prevailed either in the West 
Indies or on the homeward passage, had arrived in port and deposited 
their cargoes at the wharves in the immediate vicinity of the first cases 
which occurred ; that upon the removal of these vessels and the inhabi- 
tants of the sickly district the disease disappeared." 
* Medical Recorder, vol. IV, p. 280. 21 
rt In 1819 the disease was imported into New York from the neighbor- 
in^pity of Baltimore, by a coasting vessel, and was communicated to 
persons Tkn ng near the wharf where such crafts generally lay. A 
woman on slt^e washed the clothes of a man who had died at sea of 
the disease. JI 
"In 1820 the fever appearecMtn Afiddl^mvr^^^lcnd was traced toj| 
diseased vessel from the West Mme's? She first lay in front of the 
town near its centre, and the fever spread in her immediate neighbor- 
hood. She then proceeded to a point in the upper part of the town, 
from which the disease again appeared around her; from thence she 
passed up the Connecticut river to Hartford, and was again the centre 
of a new infection of the disease."* 
In 1821 the Yellow Fever was epidemic in Norfolk, Va., and was 
imported there, as will appear from the following statement: "On the 
20th of July a vessel from Point Petre, Guadaloupe, laden with rum, 
sugar, and molasses, arrived in the harbor. Having discharged her 
cargo at an upper wharf, her bilge water was pumped out on the dock 
between Southgate's and Warren's wharves, which was found to be so 
putrid and offensive as to render it expedient that the doors and 
windows of a neighboring house should be closed in order to exclude 
the effluvia arising from it. This and Southgate's wharf were about 
equally distant from the vessel-one on the east the other on the west 
side of the dock. On the 18th of August a clerk in the warehouse 
was taken sick with the fever and died; then several females in the 
same neighborhood; also, a man and boy who had assisted in pumping 
the vessel: and so the disease spread over the whole place." 
This case is almost an exact counterpart of the occurrence in Phila- 
delphia of the bark Mandarin. The pumping of stinking bilge water 
is too common along our wharves to be looked upon as the sole cause of 
malignant disease ; and we notice in both cases the vessels came from 
West Indian ports, when the fever was there prevailing, and we infer 
the presence of a specific infection in the ships which made them the 
centre of so fatal an influence. 
The appearance of the disease in Philadelphia in 1820 was somewhat 
in the same manner. It was traced at first to some decaying hides and 
damaged coffee, which lay exposed upon the wharf. But on farther 
investigation it was found these articles had been deposited there by a 
* Medical Recorder, volume IV. 22 
brig from Laguira. We have received some of the particulars of this5 
case from a private source, but they are of the most reliable autlrority 
and so graphically related that we cannot forbear to present, them. 
A medical g ntleman, who visited Philadelphia jot the purpose of 
ex^Thining the mailer, tinier reports: "Tetron to the wharf on Walnut 
Street, where the disease first appeai^n-inquired where the first case 
occurred-was pointed to the house-went there, and was told it was a 
hand who assisted in discharging the cargo of a brig from Laguira; he 
died, and very soon all who had been engaged in the work sickened and 
died and nearly all who were employed in removing the cargo from the 
wharf. I asked, did it appear nowhere else? Was answered, no: the 
district was fenced in and all intercourse with it cut off. Was there 
then no cases elsewhere than on the wharf? 
A. None, except a few cases at Bristol. 
Q. Where is Bristol ? 
A. 20 or 30 miles up the Delaware river. I proceded there forth- 
with; inquired of the landlord if they had Yellow Fever there that 
season; was answered in the affirmative. I asked, where? and was di- 
rected to a house where the first case occurred; found an old woman 
there, to whom T addressed my inquiries. 
Q. Have you had Yellow Fever here ? 
A. Yes. 
Q. Did any body die ? 
A. Yes, ray two daughters. 
Q. How, and where were they taken ? 
A. Their brother's trunk or chest was sent up from Philadelphia, he 
having died ou board a brig on his return home, from Yellow Fever. I 
told his two sisters to carry it to the beach, open it and wash the 
clothes, then put them back and bring it here. They did so, and were 
both taken sick that night and died of black vomit in three days. 
Q. Who were the next victims ? 
A. They were two women who were washing on the beach close 
by ray daughters, on the same day. One of them died, the other 
recovered. 
I then ascertained that this young man was the mate of the brig 
from Laguira, that landed the damaged hides and coffee, and that he 
died on board, of Yellow Fever a few days after leaving port." 
The foregoing sketch contains some very striking " coincidences," as 
the non-importationists would call them. 23 
Iii 1800 this disease was carried from the West Indies to Europe, to 
ui<3*city of Cadiz. In 1803 it was conveyed in the same manner to 
Malagm^In 1804 it appeared at Gibraltar-was carried there as it 
appeared from a judicial examination, by a shopkeeper who had been to 
Cadiz and contracted the fever there. Of the ga^nsmV^o'hr. 1 000 
died, and near 5000 of the CTtizehs. Th^ station is not subject to mia^j 
matic diseases, but is ordinarily most healthy. In 1802 the whole mor- 
tality was only 35. Nor do wTe suppose they are much given to grading 
or excavation there; at least no such cause is stated to have existed. 
We will here give an example of the disease being transmitted from 
an infected vessel to a healthy one, while yet at sea : " On the 16th of 
May, 1795, the British frigates Thetis and Hussar captured two French 
armed ships from Guadaloupe, on the coast of America. One of these 
had on board some men ill of the Yellow Fever; and, out of fourteen 
hands, sent from the Hussar to navigate and take care of her, nine died 
of this fever before she reached Halifax, on the 28th of the same 
month, and the five survivors were sent to the hospital, sick of the same 
distemper. Part of the prisoners were sent on board of the Hussar, 
and though care was taken to select those seeming in perfect health, 
the disease spread rapidly in that ship, so that near one-third of the 
whole crew was more or less affected by it."* 
That this infection may sometimes be introduced from abroad, with- 
out our being able to trace the connection between its first outbreak as 
an epidemic and the case or circumstances of its importation, is shown 
by the following account of its introduction into Charleston in 1843. It 
is impossible, in large towns, to trace the origin of such diseases, and 
doubtless many cases, which look like spontaneous generation of the 
disease, are owing to some such occurrence as that we now relate. In 
1843 the fever invaded a portion of Charleston Neck, in the vicinity of 
Wolfe and Reid streets. The first case, admitted to be Yellow Fever, 
occurred on the 14th of September, on the southwest corner of Wolfe 
and Meeting streets. The cause, of course, was referred to the general 
and local conditions of the climate and soil, there being no apparent 
reason why it should be considered of foreign origin. From the follow- 
ing letter, received after the lapse of sometime, it appears there was 
such a cause in existence, and no doubt can be entertained that this was 
the reason of its invasion in that particular quarter of the town. 
* Sir Gilbert Blane's letter to Hon. Rufus King, 1798. 24 
" On the 27th of July, 1843, I arrived in Charleston in tl^hrtf 
Hayne, Capt. Trescott, from Havana, suffering under fever. Dr^mionds 
came on board, and was told by Dr. Wurdeman (also pOraiger) that 
no bpard, he thinking that-! bWrommon bilious 
fo^r. rI he day beforc^acft Havana, anJBnglishman, who soon after 
(lied, was laying for hours with a nigh fever on my mattrass. I took 
him off with much difficulty, as he was delirious, rolled up my mattrass 
and sent it on board the Hayne. I think I put it in my berth and 
slept on it during the passage. The mattrass went with my baggage, 
and was given to a negro in the house. I was taken to the house, 
northwest corner of Wolfe and Meeting streets, as soon as possible after 
the vessel touched the wharf, where I remained until I recovered, fifteen 
days in bed, and then went to Aiken. The first deaths I heard of in 
my neighborhood were two Dutchmen in a small bouse on the south 
side of Wolfe street, nearly opposite my room.* Yours, 
"E. E. HEWES." 
We might continue to cite cases like the foregoing, showing the 
manner in which this disease has generally been introduced into Ameri- 
can ports, but we think enough has been related for our present pur- 
pose. We see no reason why New Orleans should differ, in this res- 
pect, from other cities of the Union. It is difficult to decide how far from 
the equator the Yellow Fever zone extends; but we should judge that 
30 degrees was beyond its limits, both on this and the eastern continent. 
A late writer suggests the limits of black frost as the extent to which 
the origin of Yellow Fever is carried. However this may be, it is but 
just to give our city a fair trial before she be condemned as guilty in 
this charge. It is generally admitted that the towns in the southwest, 
which suffered so lamentably during the last two summers, had the in- 
fection conveyed to them from this city. In a report made by Dr. J. L. 
Riddell, of the Sanitary Commission, appointed after the epidemic of 
1853, we find this point is thus decided : " That the towns and plan- 
tations of the southwest have thia year derived their Yellow Fever from 
New Orleans." Now, the conclusion we wish to draw from this is sim- 
ply that the disease, being known to be exportable from here, may have 
been imported. That such was the fact, we think there is strong 
evidence in the history of that epidemic, as given by Dr. Fenner. It is 
clear to us that the epidemic first began near the river in the Fourth 
* Hume on the Sources and Origin of Yellow Fever. 25 
District, as before referred to, and that the first case was found in the 
shiptAlgusta, which came up the river in company with an infected 
vessel, me Camboden Castle. A similar state of things doubtless 
occurred in the jieighboa'hood of the lower shipping' and the fact that 
the centre of the city dnknot receive the urfeCfltto ns soon as mftyarr™ 
above and below, is most probably to be accounted for by its having the 
interior commerce lying along it\ Jer^e instead of ships from foreign 
parts. It cannot be denied that the epidemic of 1853 had two foci of 
infection ; one in the upper and the other in the lower part of the city, 
corresponding with the two divisions of shipping; and these two 
epidemics continued, each widening its sphere, until they met and the 
whole city was enveloped in a common doom. 
But we have said enough on the subject of the importation of Yellow 
Fever, and we owe our readers an apology for dwelling so long on so 
hackneyed a theme. The day has gone by when there was a necessity 
for argument on this point. Whether' Yellow Fever be endemic in 
New Orleans or not, one thing is certain, it can be transported from one 
place to another, and the rapidity of its communication is in exact pro- 
portion to the facilities for commercial intercourse and trade. 
There is one other point in this connection we wish to notice in pass- 
ing, viz: the remarkable exemption of interior towns, except when in 
direct connection with seaport cities where the epidemic is raging. We 
do not know of a solitary instance of the disease originating in an inte- 
rior town of the United States, and spreading from thence as from a 
focus of infection; nor do we admit that it has ever existed even as an 
endemic disease in any place so situated. Here we are prepared to be 
met by the famous Gallipolis Epidemic-the stronghold into which non- 
importationists have invariably resorted when assailed in this quarter. 
It is described by a traveler, who was an eye-witness to it, as follows: 
Extract from Mr. Andrew Ellicott's voyage down the river Ohio in the 
11 November 15.-Arrived at Gallipolis about 11 o'clock in the morn- 
ing. This village is a few miles below the mouth of the Great Kanha- 
way, on the west side of the Ohio river, and situated on a high bank; 
it is inhabited by a number of miserable French families. Many of the 
inhabitants this season fell victims to the Yellow Fever. The mortal 
cases were generally attended with the black vomiting. This disorder 
certainly originated in the town, and in all probability from the filthi ■ 
month of November, 1796. 26 
ness of the inhabitants, added to an unusual amount of animal and- 
vegetable putrefactions in a number of small ponds and marshes-wjvm 
in the village. # 
"This fever could not have been taken there from the Atl-amic States, 
as.«p^4iQ^%4WmWirst41\yi descended the riv^^tfrthe fall of the 
water in the spring ; meither cM»dd it have bjenJtaken from New Orleans, 
as there is no communication ataWts^Mm of the year, up the river, 
from the latter to the former of those places. Moreover, the distance is 
so great that a boat would not have time to ascend the river, after the 
disorder appeared that year in New Orleans, before the winter would 
set in." l 
This looks like very decided testimony in the case on hand; but a 
traveler's story must always be received with some grains of allowance* 
We prefer the statement made by Major Prior, who was on duty at the 
military post there during the epidemic, and who made the following 
report, in writing, to Dr. Potter, of Baltimore. Dr. P. was an able 
champion of the non-contagion party, and obtained this account of the 
Gallipolis fever to corroborate his own peculiar views regarding the 
cause and origin of Yellow Fever. Major Prior states what he had 
seen in the following words : 
"As the garrison was severely afflicted by this fever, I could but take 
great interest in it. The fever was, I think, justly charged to a large 
pond near the cantonment. An attempt had been made, two or three 
years before, to fill it by felling a large number of trees that grew on and 
near its margin, and by covering the wood thus fallen with earth. This 
intention had not been fulfilled. In August the weather was extremely 
hot and dry; thj water had evaporated considerably, leaving a great 
quantity of muddy water with a thick, shiny mixture of putrefying veg- 
etables, which emitted a stench almost intolerable. The inhabitants of 
the village, principally French, and very poor as well as filthy in their 
mode of living, began to suffer first, and died so rapidly that a general 
counstemation seized the whole settlement. The garrison continued 
healthy for some days, and we began to console ourselves with the hope 
that we should escape altogether. We were, however, soon undeceived, 
and the reason of our exemption heretofore was soon discovered. The 
wind had blown the air arising from the pond from the camp, but, as it 
soon shifted to the reverse point, the soldiers began to sicken; in five 
days half the garrison was on the sick list, and in ten half of them were 
dead. They were generally seized by a chill, followed by a headache, 27 
toains in the back and limbs, constant sick stomach, or vomiting, and 
g>imrally, just before death, with a vomiting of matter like coffee grounds. 
Theyw?te often yellow before, but almost always after death. The sick 
generally ored^u the seventh, ninth, and eleventh da/^i though some- 
times on the fifth and^Kthe third. As some<ffmve measm'es*Decaml 
necessary to save the remaiuderof the troop^T first thought of changing' 
my quarters, but as the stationWas iu/Cvery respect more eligible than 
any other, and had been made so by much labor and expense, I deter- 
mined to try and change the condition of the pond, from which the dis- 
ease was believed to have arisen. A ditch was accordingly cut; what 
little water remained was conveyed off, and the whole surface was cov- 
ered with fresh earth. The effects of this scheme was soon obvious. 
Not a man was seized with the worst form of the fever after the work 
was finished, and the sick were not a little benefited; for they generally 
recovered, though slowly, because the fever became a remittent, or grad- 
ually assumed the intermittent form. As soon as the contents of the 
pond were changed by cutting the ditch, the cause (whatever it was) 
seems to have been incapable of communicating the disease in its worst 
form."-[Medical Recorder, Vol. 1, 1818. 
This report of Major Prior's must be considered at least as semi-official, 
but we do not acknowledge that it establishes the point at issue. We 
doubt whether the disease he describes was Yellow Fever, and we think 
there is internal evidence in his statement sufficient to justify such a 
doubt. In the first place, it seems the epidemic did not continue during 
the full term of Yellow Fever epidemic, being cut short by draining the 
pond, conjoined with a favorable change in the wind. Now, the pre- 
vailing idea with us is. that Yellow Fever, as an epidemic, has a fixed 
and definite duration ; and whatever effect such sanitary measures might 
have in preventing such an epidemic, they are utterly incompetent to 
cut it short after it is once started and in full career. It counter- 
marches the wind in all its changes, and defies the hurricane's power. 
The filling of the pond with fresh earth we deem peculiarly unfortunate, 
as that is a favorite method with some for producing Yellow Fever. 
Besides, Yellow Fever is known to ue a specific disease-a disease sui 
generis and peculiar, and not, as some assert, an aggravated type of our 
endemic remittent and other fevers, and therefore not convertible, as 
the Gallipolis fever seems to have been, into those fevers. 
The duration of the disease itself looks more like a type of malignant 28 
bilious than of Yellow Fever. This, we think, is above the average for- 
Yellow Fever. .J 
We, therefore, question the conclusions drawn from this qpiflmnic by 
Dr. Potter qnd others, who contend for the same ^lodrine of the 
Fever. At best it>^^Rnit an endemic dis- 
ease, for we do not hearwf it as the focusjfrom which an epidemic 
influence spread. But we should not Ixrve presumed to challenge this 
time-honored authority had we not ahe weight of a more experienced 
judgment than our own in the premises. We are happy to be in pos- 
session of the opinion of the chief officer of the medical staff of the 
western army at the time of the occurrence inquestion. WerefertoDr. 
John F. Carmichael, who was for many years in active service as sur- 
geon both in the West and Southwest, and who had ample opportuni- 
ties to become acquainted with the various diseases to which the army 
was subjected during that time. As surgeon in chief of the southwest- 
ern division he was well known in this community, and is doubtless still 
remembered by many of the older citizens of New Orleans. We are 
indebted to Dr. John C. Jenkins, of Adams county, Miss., for these 
views of Dr. C. He has in his possession the papers of Dr. Carmichael 
and had frequent opportunities of hearing him express, verbally, his 
opinion of the matter. From a letter on the general subject we quote: 
" There is one point upon which I desire to furnish you with the 
opinion of my maternal uncle, Dr. Carmichael. He, as you perhaps 
know, was senior surgeon to the army during the campaigns against the 
Indians of the Ohio, and also at Fort Adams from 1797 to 1804; he 
had seen Yellow Fever in the eastern cities, and felt great interest in the 
question, whether the disease had ever originated in the interior of our 
country. He assured me that in all the quarters of the army in the 
West, exposed as the troops were in their encampment in some localities 
to marsh malaria during the summer, that he had never seen a case of 
Yellow Fever among them. Neither was a case ever seen in all the 
years of their encampment at Fort Adams; and in regard to the spo- 
radic cases reported by Volney as having been seen by him during his 
travels in the West, as well as the fever among the troops at Gallipolis, 
on the Ohio, he declared, after a searching examination, that he was 
satisfied that the disease there and elsewhere in the West was not 
Yellow Fever but the bilious remittent, aggravated by local miasma. 
" Dr. Chapman, of Philadelphia, in an able paper upon 'The causes, 
phenomena and laws of epidemics,' published in the Philadelphia 29 
Journal of Medical and Physical Sciences, November, 1824, asserts, 
•that there is no proof, so far as he knew, on which we can rely, that 
YeTJatv. Fever had ever prevailed out of our seaboard cities, although 
the conmtny was affirmed; and in speaking of the alleged to have 
occurred in the mtelor, remarks, that he confers thOseVrastf^Very 
imperfectly authenticated. If the fever whicli originated in GallipoliS 
was Yellow Fever, as is^fotended h^H^FFotter and others, doesit 
not strike you, as passing strange, that during the past sixty years not a 
well attested case, or any case at all so far as I have heard, should have 
been reported among the millions of the people of the West, exposed 
as they are, in many localities, to the malaria of rivers and swamps? 
"Very truly, yours, 
"JOHN C. JENKINS." 
From the great doubt which is thus thrown about these instances of 
Yellow Fever, originating in the interior towns, we think the argument 
in favor of the foreign origin of the disease, drawn from their exemp- 
tion, remains in full force. At best, they can be considered but as en- 
demic fevers; and in no instance did these places become the centres of 
infection whence the disease radiated to surrounding and remote coun- 
tries. They were not strictly examples of epidemic disease. 
The argument in favor of the infectious character of Yellow Fever, 
drawn from analogy, is, we think, too important to be overlooked. 
Yellow Fever belongs to a class of epidemics, some of which are con- 
fessedly contagious, and all possessing characteristics more or less strik- 
ing. The different diseases of this class serve to illustrate and explain 
each other; and we are inclined to the belief that there is more profit 
to be derived from a study of the general laws which govern these epi- 
demics, than from the constant wrangling and quibbling about indivi- 
dual cases, which are said to prove either contagion or non-contagion or 
any other such vague and unmeaning term as medical partizans may 
choose to adopt as a watchword. These epidemics, to which we have 
referred as a class, have some characteristics which are common to all, 
and so also have they, each one, its distinguishing features. For exam- 
ple, scarlet fever is a disease of childhood, for the most part. Yellow 
Fever, on the contrary, prevails chiefly among adults. Cholera attacks 
either indifferently. Plague is a disease incident to warm climates, but 
ceases when the temperature ranges above 80° Farenheit. Here are the 
distinctive features of diseases which have a strong family resemblance; 
and we are satisfied there is a law common to them all, in obedience to 30 
which they are, under certain conditions, transmitted from place to place 
and communicated from the sick to the well. S 
Perhaps there is rto disease to which Yellow Fever is so closaMWiTied 
as the Plaane jjrwVthis was probably more apparent in our lah^pidemics 
tPa^rnJbeftue. rhf mode of propagation of tl^nmtCT disease may 
^probably throw some lignt on the former. It should at least be received 
as corroborative tcstiinoifl^Xoijcernintr/ttreauses of the Plague we 
quote from Dr. Wood as follows : x&f 
" It appears to be impossible to resist the testimony advanced in favor 
of the doctrine of contagion. Numerous instances are on record, in 
which a perfect isolation of large bodies of people has secured to them 
an entire, or almost entire exemption, whilst the disease was raging 
around them; and positive proof appears to exist, that the disease has 
been communicated, through individuals or families, from an infected to 
a healthy neighborhood. Persons exposed to the cause of the disease in 
a sickly district have removed to a distant and healthy place and have 
there died of the plague, and shortly afterwards numerous individuals, of 
their own particular family have become affected. Besides, the almost 
universal opinion of the community in which the disease prevails should 
be allowed some weight, as also should the fact that the Franks in the 
Levant, who take precautions against contagion, are much less frequently 
affected than the Turks, who are practical predestinarians and use no 
precaution. It would appear that certain individuals are insusceptible 
of the contagious influence under all circumstances; for, of those exposed 
to it in the highest degree, during its prevalence, many escape. It would 
appear also that the susceptibility of persons is generally much less un- 
der certain circumstances than under others; otherwise the sporadic 
cases which are asserted to be always in existence would be constantly 
acting as the centres of new infections. But these are no arguments 
against contagion altogether; for we find the same exactly to be the case 
with Scarlet Fever, and to a considerable extent with Measles, both of 
which are contagious. It is generally supposed that the ^dntagion may 
not only be imparted from individual to individual, but that it may be 
conveyed, by means of clothing or articles of merchandize, from 
place to place; though some, who even admit personal contagion, 
deny the latter mode of communication. Difference of opininion has 
also existed as to the necessity of actual contact-some supposing that 
the poison is communicated like that of syphilis, only by the touch, 
others that it may be exhaled in an aeriform state from the body, and, 31 
like other contagious fevers, act through the medium of the atmosphere. 
Analogy is in favor of the latter opinion."-[Wood's Practice, Vol. 1, p. 
Tlnso^riptian of Plague and its mode of propa^/fmp, only requires 
a change of names tAmake it applicable to much of our 
in regard to Yellow l^ver. ( 
The very striking anm^gy between YeHuw^Fever and Cholera is also 
worthy of notice. A late waiter on ,tfm subject of Cholera makes the 
following very forcible observations: 
" Its mode of progression favors the supposition of its being contagious 
more than it does that of being a non-contagious disease, dependent on 
some telluric or atmospheric influence for its development. It travels 
more or less slowly from town to town, overruns one country after 
another, taking often years to traverse a continent, now diverging, then 
retrograding or appearing to be arrested in its course. It advances 
along the great lines of communication that exist between different 
towns and countries, along the tracts of trade and the highways of com- 
merce, and overspreads a country more or less quickly, just in proportion 
to the facilities of intercourse existing between its respective towns. 
This is the way that one would expect an infectious epidemic fever to 
propagate itself. How different from this the mode in which influenza 
develops itself, a disease unquestionably not contagious, and depending, 
in all probability, on telluric or atmospheric influence ? This epidemic 
spreads itself with the utmost rapidity, affecting different countries almost 
simultaneously, and bringing whole continents under its influence at nearly 
one and the same time. But cholera took sixteen years to travel from Hin- 
dostan to Britain in 1832 ; it accomplished the same journey more rapid- 
ly in 1848 ; and the epidemic has reached us again after an interval of only 
five years; facts that militate against the idea of its atmospheric origin, 
and show that its progress is regulated, to a great extent, by the freeness 
and frequency of a communication existing between the towns and coun- 
tries which are the scenes of its ravages. It reached us sooner in 1853 
than it did in 1832, because the facilities of intercourse between Britain 
and the continental countries and the East have been greatly increased 
within the last twenty, but more "especially within the last ten years. In 
fact, the rapidity of the march of the epidemic of 1853 over that of 1832 
bears a strict proportion to the increased means of intercourse that have 
taken place during that interval between this country, the countries of 
the continent and the east; and were the means of intercourse between the different countries of Europe and Hindostan still freer, were the same 
freedom and frequency of communication to exist between them as occur 
between the large towns in this country, there is nothing improbabhnn 
the supposition t^fVwe should have the epidemic not after intnT^ls of 
have one epidemic follox^n^^iWuier in close 
Succession, until the disease became endemic amongst us. Nay, for any- 
thing we know to the conwar^ this may actuary become the case with 
cholera. 
" Again, cholera has never been knoWr to have reached any place 
sooner than the means of communication existing between it and an 
infected town could have conveyed the contagion. And it has often 
taken a far longer time to arrive at a place comparatively near to an 
infected town, but where slow and unfrequent means of communication 
existed, than it has taken to traverse extensive tracts of land and ocean 
intervening between towns and countries having free and rapid inter- 
course with an infected part. 
" In the first epidemic, of cholera, the disease appeared in Naples- 
which enjoys free intercourse with Marseilles, where the epidemic 
existed-about twelve months before it made its appearance at Rome. 
It took six months to spread from Oporto to Lisbon, owing to the siege 
having interrupted the free communication by water between them; 
while it crossed the Atlantic from Europe in a few weeks. This is 
strongly in favor of the contagious nature of cholera. The spread of 
cholera in a town has some striking points of resemblance to that of a 
contagious epidemic, as scarlet fever for instance, which must have been 
remarked by every one who has seen much of both diseases. 
"The above circumstances, together with the consideration of the im- 
munity from cholera enjoyed by the inmates of public establishments 
isolated from infected districts, and the breaking out of the epidemic in 
similar establishments where no such regulations existed; the many 
well-authenticated and probable cases of the importation of cholera into 
towns and villages by parties from infected localities; its gradual diffu- 
sion over a town and through a family ; its march, so different from that 
of influenza, and so similar in many respects to that of epidemics, known 
to be contagious; such conditions as these should make us pause before 
we dogmatically proclaim cholera to be a non-contagious affection. It 
would be more prudent, and more in accordance with the spirit of true 
philosophy, to act upon the supposition that it is contagious until it has 
been proved not to be so, which I affirm has not yet been done. Nay, 
32 33 
the evidence respecting cholera supports the opposite conclusion, that it 
.is a contagious disease, and that it never breaks out spontaneously, or 
through telluric or atmospheric agency, in any town, however filthy or 
otherwlseulelective in every sanitary improvement; ffhat the contagion 
must always lite-ported into a town from an infected part' bp-infected 
parties or otherwise; 'find that in whatever partxrfparts of a town tire* 
contagious matter or principle is deposited, be these the cleanest, most 
airy, and healthy, or the nrosf- impure, overcrowded, and worse drained 
parts of it; that from these cWtyes OT-^ioci the disease will generally 
spread itself all over the town with greater or less rapidity, just in pro- 
portion to the nature of its situation, external conditions, and the state 
of its inhabitants; and that cholera, like scarlet fever or small pox, if 
imported into a town as defective in sanitary arrangements as Newcastle 
was said to have been at the time the present epidemic broke out in it, 
will spread itself more rapidly and with greater virulence over such a 
place than it will do over a town superior to it in point of cleanliness 
and sanitary regulations. The evidence with respect to the progress of 
cholera favors the supposition, that impure air, defective drainage and 
ventilation, and the use of water contaminated with decaying vegetable 
and animal matters, are never the cause, if they are ever even the occa- 
sion, of the irruption of cholera into a town; that they act as predis- 
posing causes of cholera, and in all probability, in the case of this dis- 
order as in that of other contagious epidemics, render it more deadly in 
character, and give more permanent and extensive bounds to its ravages, 
by concentrating, intensifying, and probably diffusing, the choleraic con- 
tagion. And therefore every endeavor should be made to remedy the 
defective sanitary condition of our towns, and every hygienic precaution 
adopted which might lead to the improvement of the general health of 
the inhabitants, and to the purification of all the probable mediums 
through which the choleraic poison may be conveyed into the system ; 
so that, should cholera prevail in them, it may prove less destructive in 
its course, and shorter in its duration."* 
We think our readers will be reminded by the above of many things 
in the history of Yellow Fever in the Southwest during the last two 
years and will imagine there has been some error among the types; and 
that, as the errata say, for "Cholera" read "Yellow Fever." 
* Rae's Observations on Cholera, Lancet, November, 1824. 34 
But we have extended our remarks on this branch of our subject 
beyond the limits we had intended for it. We will now state atffN 
endeavor to support more briefly our second proposition, to-wit: 
The epidemW*vhus of Yellow Fever, thus conveyed to shores 
from-abrnpjlTdTnot extended and diffused through- the Ufinosphere, ex- 
cept to a very limitetPPxtent, differing, in this mpect, from a class of 
epidemics of which in^enza may be offered ?Ts an example; and that 
it is more allied, in its^mode /qf propUgation, to another class of 
epidemics, which are known tckbc contagious or infectious in their char- 
acter, of which class scarlet fever may be cited as an instance. 
We cannot but believe that the solution of this question is of vast 
importance in a practical point of view ; for, on this question, we con- 
sider, hinges that other grand question, so much vexed among us, as to 
the efficacy and utility of quarantine measures. If the epidemic influ- 
ence, which is productive of Yellow Fever, is a pervasive principle, 
infecting the atmosphere to an indefinite extent and requiring only a 
certain condition of things in any given place in order to become local- 
ized and operative there, this local condition, acting somewhat as the 
metalic point attracts electricity from the cloud, then certainly all 
human attempts to barricade the enemy will be unavailing. 
The celebrated Dr. Rush advanced the theory that the cause of Yellow 
Fever was in vegetable decomposition, and that the effluvia thus genera- 
ted pervades the atmosphere generally. Many refer it vaguely to an 
epidemic constitution of the atmosphere over a large district of country, 
by virtue of which the specific infection, however communicated, 
becomes active and disseminates itself indefinitely. 
If such be the character of the influence which produces epidemic 
Yellow Fever, thus subtle and all-pervading, there is poor encourage- 
ment to hope for any good results from quarantine. Dr. Cartwright 
asserts, quarantine can have "no more effect in walling out Yellow 
Fever than in excluding caloric, magnetism, or electricity." 
From these views, respecting the nature of the Yellow Fever infec- 
tion, we respectfully beg leave to dissent. We believe the extent of its 
diffusion through the atmosphere is very limited. We will now give 
our reasons for this opinion. 
1st. We infer this to be the fact from the manner in which Yellow 
Fever extends and progresses through a city which it invades. It does 
not suddenly envelop the city as though the whole atmosphere was 
poisoned, but, beginning in points which become centres of infection, 35 
gradually spreading and each widening its circle until the whole city is 
mWec its influence. Sometimes its progress along a street can be 
watchcHJjom day to day. Dr. Nott, of Mobile, saws., he has seen it 
pass from house with the regularity of a faxwollector. This 
is very much after tl/e manner of contagious diseawg^md shows nbuirrm 
of a general epidemM constitution. Beside/, it has frequently 
occurred that, by fencingwff a district in a qny where the disease is 
known to be prevailing, prints the farthewspread of the disease, by 
cutting oft' all communicationThis has several times been 
tried with effect in the cities of New* x ork and Philadelphia. One 
year a large portion of the city of New York, bordering on East river, 
was thus isolated, and the progress of the disease stayed. Very amus- 
ing stories were told at the time of countrymen, who were made to 
believe that within the mysterious enclosure Yellow Jack might be seen 
parading the street in his brimstone habiliments, engaged in his destruc- 
tive work, in propria personae ; and many were seen gazing through 
the apertures of the fence, trying to catch a glimpse of his orange-col- 
ored majesty ! 
This "fencing off" a Yellow7 Fever district, however, teaches us an 
important lesson in regard to the mode by which Yellow Fever propa- 
gates itself, and the conclusion, we think, is unavoidable, that a disease 
which can be thus shut in a certain part of a city might be " walled 
out" altogether. We submit, with all deference, that "caloric, magne- 
tism and electricity" cannot be enclosed by a board fence I 
Another striking fact, pointing to this same conclusion, is the re- 
markable exemption of persons who are secluded in jails and asylums, 
situated often in the heart of an epidemic of Yellow Fever. This fact 
has been frequently noticed in this city. The inmates of the city prison 
have almost invariably escaped during the epidemics which have visited 
the city. The same thing was observed in regard to the Galveston 
nunnery during the last twTo years. We might cite numerous examples 
in proof of this, but it is unnecessary. The fact was noticed by Dr. 
Rush, in Philadelphia, a half century ago, and has been a matter of 
common observation from his day to the present. There is to us no 
possible way of explaining it except on the principle of non-inter course ; 
but what we wish more especially to deduce from it in this connection 
is, that there can be no general infection of the atmosphere of a city, or 
such phenomena would never have been noticed. It proves conclusively, we 
think, that our position is correct, in asserting that the epidemic views 36 
of Yellow Fever is not diffused indefinitely through the atmosphere, but\ 
is extremely limited in the extent of its influence. Some writers^TWve 
attempted to fix/he limit of the infectious influence. Dr. Lirra states, 
it did extend farther than six feet. Sir Gilbffi Tflanenas recorded 
/Kat sKips, anchorecMwo cables length from shore, escaped the infection, 
if communication was!put off; and at Gibraltar, during the epidemic 
there in 1813, the following remarkable occunence was observed: 
" All those who cut off V >mmunicatio^Jlmh the infected, escaped the 
disease; of five hundred per -onscyMTned to the dockyard during all 
the time of the sickness, there was not an instance of one of them being 
attacked, although this was, of all others, the most likely spot for marsh 
effluvia to exist, and which, during the fever of 1804, suffered equally 
with other places, in consequence of the communication, not having been 
cut off. In a street, within thirty yards of the dockyard, not a house 
escaped the fever."* 
The numerous instances recorded of persons who have secluded them- 
selves and families closely during the prevalence of epidemics, tend to 
establish the same point, and the popular opinion that persons who sleep 
in the upper stories of dwellings are more exempt than others, is also 
of significant import; and, in view of all this concurrent testimony, we 
feel prepared to state our last proposition, to wit: 
The two foregoing propositions being established, it follows as an in- 
evitable conclusion, that a well devised and rigorously enforced quaran- 
tine would be effectual in preventing the ravages of this formidable epi- 
demic disease in this city. 
The proof of this is, of course, involved in that of preceding postu- 
lates. If Yellow Fever has ever been imported into this city in any 
one instance, the plain duty in regard to the matter is, to prevent, if 
possible, a repetition of the infliction and its attendant horrors. And 
when, by a strict and persevering system of quarantine against all man- 
ner of foreign diseases, we shall have demonstated what are native and 
arising from domestic causes, we shall be able to devise such sanitary 
measures as the wants of the city may demand. The proper sewerage 
and drainage of the city is a question of which there can be but one 
opinion. Of the importance of well paved streets all are convinced. 
Perhaps the most difficult part of hygienic reform is that which relates 
to the habits and mode of life of the immigrants and poorer classes. 
* Edinburg Med. and Sur. Journal, Vol. II, p. 394. 37 
The crowding of so many human beings in small, ill-ventilated apart- 
'Eqents must be productive of malignant disease at all seasons; and, 
added^to this, is the great reform movement of the day, the license 
questiom^tlrere can be no doubt that were a Maine IFquo^aw practi- 
cable in this city, itjwould be the most effective oCall sanitary measures 
and tend more to the, hygienic improvement oft New Orleans than aln 
other means combinedX The connection between intemperance and 
crime is plain and palpable to all-the connection between intemperance 
and disease is still more intimate and direct. We believe that for every 
one the grogshops send to the Recoraffs Court and Parish Prison, they 
send two to the Charity Hospital and Potter's Field; and the remedy 
for both the one and the other is simply to remove the cause. The 
responsibility is resting on those who control the government of this 
city. Let them see to it. 
We have extended these remarks beyond the limits of our first pur- 
pose. Our object was simply to try to elucidate the subject of the 
origin and mode of propagation of Yellow Fever, and to show the bear- 
ing it has to the much vexed question of quarantine. Of the policy or 
practicability of quarantine measures we have nothing to say ; but it 
seems strange to us that the interests of our interior trade and of a 
large portion of the foreign commerce, together with the general pros- 
perity of the city itself, should be thus sacrificed to the interest of the 
West India trade, which would only require to be restricted during a 
third of the year, and which would itself be the gainer if the health of 
the city could be preserved by those restrictions. These, however, are 
questions which do not come within our province. It has been truly 
said, that quarantine is no longer a medical, but a mercantile question. 
As such, we are content to leave it, but we believe there is decided 
testimony in favor of the utility of such a measure ; and we are credi- 
bly informed that a majority of the medical men of this city are of the 
same opinion. We remember, during the days of our pupilage, one of 
our preceptors in the university-since gone to rest-made this the 
subject of an elaborate investigation, and urged strongly upon the legis- 
lature the importance of adopting precautionary means against the 
importation of this formidable disease. Perhaps it had been better for 
NeW Orleans if our city fathers had listened to the suggestions of Car- 
penter. The history of the last two years has done much to confirm 
the views he then expressed, and has fulfilled many of his predictions. 
We annex the conclusions he reached, after a careful and thorough 
examination of the whole subject: 38 
" 1st. Yellow Fever is a disease not native to the continent of Amer- 
ica, but of foreign origin, introduced first from Siam, and afterwards^ 
aggravated in its type by the importation of the Bulam Fever/psee 
Historical Noticerjiw 
well anthjenticated case of the specific, disease called Yel- 
low Fever has yet been^nown to occur on the Arfrerican continent un- 
der circumstances whicMprecluded the possibility of infection, or even 
rendered it probable thajit originated in^ pendent of transmission, 
either by going into infect' 'd localities, /^ning boxes or parcels from 
infected places, visiting boats from infected towns or opening- 
rooms closed during the prevalence of an epidemic."* 
"3d. Since the introduction of Yellow Fever into America, it has 
always existed on some part of its coast. It prevails almost perpetually 
near the equator, where the temperature of winter is rarely low enough 
to destroy the infection; and it is carried by commerce to the countries 
lying north during the portion of the year between February and Novem- 
ber, and to the regions to the southward from August to May. Thus in 
Surinam and Demarara it is indifferent as to seasons; in Campeachy** 
Vera Cruz and Havana it begins from February to May ; in the United 
States from June to October ; while at Pernambuco and Rio Janeiro it 
prevails generally from November to May. In this way it prevails per- 
petually, changing its place as the seasons vary, visiting the cities as soon 
as they are filled with fresh subjects, and where commerce offers facili- 
ties for its introduction. 
"4th. Yellow Fever is a disease sui generis and peculiar, and not a 
grade or type of bilious fever, as is shown by the fact, that as in the 
plague, measles, small-pox and other specific and infectious diseases, one 
attack diminishes the liability to and almost exempts from a second at- 
tack;. while it in no way diminishes the liability to bilious fevers at all. 
Neither do attacks of bilious fevers of the severest grades in any manner 
diminish the liability to take the Yellow Fever. 
" 5th. The Yellow Fever is not produced by a crowded population ; 
neither by heat, moisture, marsh air, miasm, filth, nor by any combina- 
tion and concurrence of these; otherwise it should always occur when 
these concur, and should not occur when the particular combination is 
absent, neither of which we find to be true. 
* In large cities the complicated relations of daily life render it difficult to trace 
up the infection to its source, and it is only in small towns that we can always arrive 
with certainty at the desired information. 39 
"6. The transmission of Yellow Fever depends exclusively on inter- 
course and commercial relations; any city being liable to infection in 
^tn^^bcise ratio of its proximity to and of its unrestricted communication 
with porP^pr places where the disease is epidemic. It is from this cir- 
cumstance tnat^uarantine derives its pre-eminent ^cacyrJKttTejexclu- 
sion of this disease Dorn cities. Dr. Townsend re;narks, that ' although^ 
the imperfection of medical science places th^ure of the disease too 
often beyond our control|and that our meansrof counteracting its pro- 
gress are limited, a wise Fl'ovidence has inermnified us for these losses 
by putting into our hands an effectual metfod of totally preventing its 
occurrence, by shutting out its introduction from abroad. It is left for 
us to carry into execution what our own judgment must now teach us 
is the only resort that is left.' ' I firmly believe that the source of the 
disease can be only cut off by a rigorous code of quarantine restrictions.' 
[Townsend, p. 228.] 
" 7. Yellow Fever requires for its transmission a moderate summer 
temperature, a certain accumulation of people, as the crew of a vessel, 
or the population of a town, city, etc. 
" 8. Under certain circumstances of population and temperature, the 
introduction of persons with Yellow Fever, or of the air from places 
where the disease is epidemic, will frequently give rise to new cases, and 
finally to an epidemic of the disease. 
" The infection may be conveyed : 
" Istly. In boats or vessels which remain at the wharves, etc., in the 
infected city, receiving and discharging freight, and then closing their 
hatches upon the contained air, may become the real vehicles of the 
transmission. 
" 2dly. Boxes or bales containing goods, particularly woolens, if packed 
and closed in an infected atmosphere, may convey the infection. 
" 3dly. The clothes, bedding, etc., which have been used by persons 
with Yellow Fever, have been known to communicate the disease. 
" 9. Certain ports are almost annually subject to epidemics of Yel- 
low Fever. These during the summer we should always regard as in- 
fected, and during that period we should enforce quarantine against all 
vessels sailing from or touching at them. Now, such rigor against the 
towns of the United States would be unnecessary, for should cases of Yel- 
low Fever occur in any of our towns we should hear of it by mail before it 
could become epidemic in the place, and often in less time than it would be 
required for a vessel to arrive here from there. But with the West Indies 40 
the case is different; for we learn that at at the quarantine in New York, 
the first intimation they have of the disease prevailing in these places, is 
from cases of, or death by it occurring on vessels arriving from thepe^-wr 
that if we only enforce quarantine against those places where ihelHisease 
is knowp^tg^pw.vfii^ we may have " cargoes of infection"'Wrodneed into 
ettMntics before thbJiealth officer even suspects any place of being the 
^eat of an epidemic. Wk Jig 
1110. The healthy slate of a vessel's crewpno proof that she may 
not be infected; for the clew may all be aqclmated, while the infection 
may be sealed up in her hoM. or contains in the cargo, etc., and may 
only exhibit itself after the arn^^^^Ricalthy port, and among the un- 
acclimated persons who may visit or receive freight from her. [See 
Bayley's letter, Townsend, p. 92.] 
"11. Cleansing and ventilation do not always destroy the infection of a 
vessel. Therefore quarantine, with its precautionary measures is not a 
sufficient guarantee for the public health. [See case of the brig Enter- 
prize, also case of ship Diana, which introduced the disease into Brook- 
lyn in 1823.] 
" 12. The only measure by which the public safety can be guarded is, 
to prevent all vessels coming from sickly ports or places from coming 
above the quarantine ground, whether their crews be sickly or not. Pro- 
vision should be made, enabling them to discharge and receive freights, 
safely and expeditiously, and arrangements should be maintained by 
which the freight so discharged should be delivered to the consignees as 
soon as the time expires which may be deemed necessary for its perfect 
ventilation and disinfection. 
" 13. The principal difficulties against which it will be necessary to 
guard in establishing quarantine for New Orleans, is presented by the 
Tow Boats engaged in towing vessels from the mouth of the river. These 
boats, by communicating with infected vessels, or towing them np 
abreast, or even at hawser's length, become liable to infection, and in turn 
become the medium of infecting the city. The fact is established beyond 
a doubt, that in two of the years during the time the quarantine wras in 
force here, the introduction of the disease was mainly attributable to 
these boats ; and experience should lead us to provide against similar 
disasters in future. 
" 14. It would certainly be safest to prohibit Tow Boats from towing 
up vessels from infected places at all; as in the various turnings of their 
course and shifting of the wind, it is possible that infection would be com- 41 
jmmicated at even a hawser's length ; at any rate whatever the law pro- 
videssftAu-ld be most strictly and scrupulously enforced, and Tow Boats 
should be priced under the heaviest bonds to answer tnlfilu*®^eryance 
of all the particulars of the law. jjK" 
"15. An accuraro^account should be kept by The quarantine estab- 
lishment of the state oq health on board of each of these boats, which 
should be subject to the sank kind of examimuion as vessels coming in 
from sea; they should be requn'd to report uie occurrence of any case 
of fever, or any infectious or contl^WnWhsease occuring on board; and 
during the period from the 1st of May to the 1st of December, these 
sick should immediately be sent to the quarantine infirmary. 
"16 In case of their crews becoming infected with any of the contagious 
or infectious disorders contemplated by quarantine arrangements, they 
should be subjected to the same restriction and rules as the other in- 
fected vessels. 
"17. They should be particularly prohibited from taking as passen- 
gers any person from vessels declared in quarantine, or from receiving 
any freight, box, parcel, or package, from on board of such vessels. 
" A landing or wharf should be provided for Tow Boats at a point 
not in front of the thickly inhabited portions of the city."