UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
* ,  .  v
FOUNDED  1836
WASHINGTON,  D.C.
GPO  16—67244-1 
 
 
^KPOPT
v
OF
THE COMMITTEE
APPOINTED TO INVESTIGATE THE CAUSES AND
EXTENT OF THE LATE EXTRAORDINARY
SICKNESS AND MORTALITY
IN THE
TOWN OF MOBILE.
    PHILADELPHIA :
PUBLISHED BY S. P01TER AND CO.
    NO. 55, CHESSUT-STREET.
1820. 
I. MUTEUS, PRINTER. 
REPORT.
 The Committee afifiointed to investigate the causes and extent
   of the late extraordinary sickness and mortality in this to<wny
      REPORT:
    That they  have carefully attended  to the duties assigned
 them, and have examined all the wharves, the docks, and ves-
 sels, the buildings and lots near the river,  as well as in other
 parts of the town, and find in their examination numerous lo-
 cal causes, which, under the co-operating influence of the late
 season, might,  in their opinion, have produced the fever, in-
 dependent of the supposition of its foreign  importation.
   Some of the most prominent we will mention, and first, the
 condition of the wharves, built with hewn timber, closely laid,
 confining  the  water within  the outward  dimensions of the
 wharves, and filled up with rotten logs, bushes, shavings, anJ
 other vegetable matter, covered lightly with swamp mud of
 earth, presenting to view an immense  mass, in the most nox-
 ious state of decay.   Two of these wharves, about 450 feet in
 length, and 30 to 40 in breadth, were commenced in the spring,
 and the work of filling them up with  logs, mud, and bushes,
 was carried on during the summer, till the  storm on the 28th
 July, and the sickness of the workmen put a stop to it.   They
 were, however, nearly filled up to the length and  breadth men-
 tioned, and to  the depth of four to ten feet, and  the surface of
 about a third part covered with pieces of swamp marsh, cut
 m convenient sizes for the purpose, and marsh mud.  When
 the committee viewed these wharves, the sight was most dis-
 gusting, and the smell so offensive, that they felt their health
 endangered by delaying about them.
   The other wharves,  five in  number, also  deserve a  more
 particular notice.  Three of them appear to be built upon the
 plan of  the former; and with  like materials, two are  partly-
 built upon piers, giving a more wholesome circulation to the
 water.   One was built  during  the spring and summer, but
 chiefly destroyed by the storm of July, the others from one  to
four years since, each of them,  affording a mass of decaying
vegetable matter, from 200 to 400 feet in length, 25 to 30  in
breadth, and 3 to 10 in depth, covered with a thin layer of earth, 
(  4  )
or mud.   Such a quaniity of noxious materials collected to-
gether in a state of decay, must necessarily produce miasmata,
and mortal disease.
   Water street is also observed to be filled up with the same
kind of materials, in many places to the  depth  of from 4 to 6
feet, and computed together might afford a mass of such mat-
ter, several hundred feet in length, and fifty in breadth,  thinly
covered with earth.  The lots adjoining this  street, on one
side, are found to have been chiefly filled up with rotten logs,
green pine sapplings, and pine tops, with a thin  layer of earth,
and might comprise more than an acre of ground, thus filled
from one to two feet; and on the water side, the docks are ob-
served to  have been much clogged up with timber, drift logs,
and old boats, which during the low summer tides, and north
wind, collected together in the docks, great quantities of sea-
weed,  and other filthy matter, in a state of decay, particularly
under  the stores  standing  over  the water.  The prevalent
north wind, and  low tide, during the  months of September and
October,  left the docks, and a large  extent of marsh mud
about them, exposed to  the heat of the sun, and the water, va-
riously obstructed about the docks and wharves, became itself
stagnant and offensive.
   The committee also observe that many old boats, or barges,
damaged during the storm on the  28th July, were suffered to
remain filled with water, as well  as the schooners Sally and
Piper, at the wharves south of the fort, during the months of
August, September, and October, even to the time the  com-
mittee visited them.  The  water in these boats and vessels,
we scarcely need to add, was in a most  putrid  and offensive
state.  Several  lots upon Water street were suffered  to  re-
main covered with  stagnant water, filled up with  old  rotten
logs, old  casks, bushes, and, in short, seem to  have  been  re-
cepticles for  refuse and  offal substances of every kind.
   The badly constructed foundations of  the stores and build-
ings near the river,  retaining beneath  them much unwhole-
some matter, or stagnant water, affecting the inhabitants with
their deleterious damps and effluvia, must have proved a fer-
tile source of disease, under the influence of the late season.
   To  these causes we  must add, the general condition  of the
back yards and enclosures in the town.   All the prudential
measures of an effective police seem to have been totally aban-
doned, and the  committee  are compelled to say, that every
part of the town presented  a  striking proof of the extreme
neglect of a large portion of our citizens to the  ordinary duty
they owe themselves and their neighbours—that of keeping 
                      T 5  )

their yards and possessions  clear from every species of filth,
which may be injurious to health.  Ponds of water in various
parts of the town were suffered to remain, undrained after the
rains, and became stagnant, thus affecting the air with poison-
ous exhalations.  Dead animals, heaps of  oyster shells, and
other offensive matter, were commonly observed through the
town.  Weeds were cut down, and  suffered to decay without
removal.   A store upon  one of the new wharves contained
a large quantity of hides during the months of August and Sep-
tember, and the greater  part of October, in a most offensive
state—such an outrage against the health of the  inhabitants is
scarcely  credible.
   In this general state  of the town, succeeded the violent hur-
ricane ofthe 28th and 29th of July, from the S. and S. E. which
raised  the water to an uncommon height, overflowing all the
wharves, and the foundations ofthe buildings on Water Streetj
even to the height of  several inches in many  store rooms»
leaving, as the  water subsided, a vast  quantity of logs, drift
wood, sea-weed, and other vegetable matter in the streets and
lots, much of which was there suffered to decay and infect the
air.  The docks were clogged up with tike materials, and da-
maged barges and  vessels.  No attention whatever seems to
have been paid  to cleaning the docks after the storm, to give a
free circulation to the water, too much confined before  by the
mode of building wharves.
   The committee feel much regret that they are compelled,
in discharge of the duty assigned them, to present such a view
ofthe town anterior to, and immediately after the storm in July ;
but the facts were obvious to all, whether citizens or strangers,
and evince an almost unparalleled indifference in regard to our
own health.  In such a state of our town, the most strenuous
advocates  for  foreign importation  of the  yellow fever, will
surely admit that  there existed abundant causes for less ma-
lignant fever.
   But we  have to add to the causes enumerated, the potent in-
fluence of a most unprecedented season.  The last winter was
generally moderate, very  dry, and less severe than usual. The
river* Alabama and Tombecbe scarcely reached the height of
their banks \  during the winter, not more than half the quantity
of rain fell.  The spring was cool and chilly ; in March, a se-
vere frost, which killed the early garden beans, corn, and other
lender plants.—April, May, and the earlier part of June, afford-
ed light falls of rainy very seasonable for vegetation: winds gen-
erally S. and S.  West. June and July were uniformly hot, great-
est heat 92 degrees. The storm of July 28, terminated  a long
                          a2 
(  6   )
drought, and deluged the whole country around ; all the lesser
rivers and creeks overflowed their banks to the height of win-
ter floods.  From  the 2Sth of July to the 1 Ith of September
it rained without a day's intermission : and  often descended in
torrents.    All  the  neighbouring swamps, and low  grounds
about the town, were filled with water to a height unexampled
at that season of the year.   The sun at times  burst forth with
sultry, suffocating heat.  The brick walls, houses, furniture,
books, and clothing, all became mouldy, and the latter required
frequent sunning to preserve them from destruction.
   On the evening ofthe 10th September, it cleared off, wind
N. W. with hot sun, and so continued for  66 days, to Novem-
ber 16th, the wind varying from N. W. toN. and N. E.—dur-
ing the whole of this period, there was scarcely rain sufficient
to lay the dust in the streets : in November, however, the wind
was occasionally S. and S.  W.—The effect of such an unexam-
pled series of weather, such an excessive drought following
a flood of rain, in the month of August, with  the influence of
the combined causes afore-mentioned, upon the human consti-
tution, as exhibited in this town, the committee will carefully
relate.  During the previous winter, spring,  and summer, to
the first of  July, the town was healthy, and no unusual sickness
appeared.  In the latter part of July, a number of violent cases
of bilious fever occurred among  persons unaccustomed to the
climate, and some of a more questionable character.   Several
persons employed as workmen, in filling  up  one of the new
wharves, were taken \ iolcntly ill, and died after a short illness
of two or three days.  About the same time two persons, usual-
ly employed about Dauphin street wharf, were taken  in like
manner, and died, after a short illness. A number of carpenters
and sailors employed about the wharf south ofthe fort, and were
much on board the schooner Sally, filled with stagnant water,
and the steam saw-mill, where there was a pond of like offen-
sive water, were taken with violent fevers, and several of them
died ;  but  as the physicians who attended  all  the persons al-
luded to, are dead, the particular symptoms of the fe\er cannot
be well ascertained.   It is,  however, known,  that Dr. Lavvton,
one  of the attending physicians,  spoke of these cases as malig-
nant fever.  Soon after these cases occurred, Snyder, an en-
gineer, at work on a steam-boat, at the same wharf,  died with
violent symptoms of fever, after an illness of  five days. Plank,
 who attended Snyder, and  employed at the same place, and  a
 Dutch servant boy, who lived in the house where Snyder died,
were a few days after  taken with like symptoms of fever, and
 died on the third or fourth clay.   All these cases, were, by the 
(  -I   )
attending physicians, (now dead) declared cases of yellow fe-
ver, and it is in evidence to the committee that they died with
black vomit.    Snyder died on the 7th August, and Plank on
the 9th, several  other  cases occurred  about the same time
among the workmen, at one of the new wharves, and termina-
ted fatally, after a short illness.  At the two wharves mention-
ed, the first unequivocal  cases of the yellow fever made their
appearance,  and about the same time,  other  cases occurred,
which terminated fatally, with persons usually about the stores,
near the wharves and river, about the same period.   A young
man of the name of Carson  died on the  26th August, after an
illness of 48 hours, with unequivocal symptoms of yellow fever,
he occupied a store near the river and the wharves.  Ellsworth
died on the 5th September, after an illness of about 48 hours,
and 17 days after the arrival ofthe sloop Patriot,  from the Ha-
vanna, in which he came passenger from that place.   He also
occupied a store near the river and wharves.
   But as there are persons who strenuously maintain an opin-
ion that the fever was imported into this town from the Havan-
na, in the above named vessel, the committee  have given  the
subject diligent  attention, and have  examined  a number of
persons, and taken their examinations  in writing, particularly
the officer of the customs,  who first visited the vessel^ and a
sailor, who was  on  board the vessel during the voyage.  The
vessel arrived at  the wharf,  direct from sea,  on the 19th of
August, after a passage of 15 days from Havanna.   The offi-
cer states that " he was the first person on board  the Patriot af-
ter her arrival—that he examined her cabin,  hold,  and cargo
—that the cabin and hold  of the vessel appeared, from  any
thing he could discover, in a pure and wholesome state.  Six-
teen bags of coffee, however, were  wet, and considerably da-
maged, arid  some fruit rotten ;  the rest of  the cargo in good
order—that  he attended the unlading of the cargo three days :
the master, passengers, and crew  appeared to be  in good
health, excepting Graham, a seaman, and  the cook, who ap-
peared to have had a fever—Graham  was able  to do duty on
board—the cook not much unwell—that the vessels which ar-
rived at Mobile during the months of June,  July, and August,
were generally healthy—no vessel, except the Patriot, arrived
from a West Indian port.  The schooner M'Donough  arrived
the 17th of July, from Nassau, N. P."  He further states that
" he took care of Snyder  and Plank during their illness, and
assisted in burying them—that the attending physicians, Law-
ton and Robinson, pronounced their disease yellow fever, both 
(  8  )
before and after their deaths—that they both died with black
\ omit on the third or fourth day."
  Graham, the seaman, states that " he shipped on board said
sloop at New Orleans, and was on  board when she  sailed from
Mobile—nine persons were on board outward,  four  of which
were passengers, one passenger died at the Havanna three days
after he arrived—had  seven passengers on board when the ves-
sel  left Havanna—no person unwell when they left there, or
during the voyage, excepting the cook and himself—the cook
was sick all the time he was on board—was himself sick at Ha-
vanna, and went on board unwell—thinks he had not  a  malig-
nant fever—took no medicine—had none  on  board—and that
the passengers knew his  situation when they came on board."
  From the most diligent enquiry in regard to the state of the
town, and the cases of fever, which had existed before the ar-
rival ofthe Patriot, the condition of that vessel, the passengers
and crew, as well as the vessels which arrived from  New Or-
leans and elsewhere, the committee are constrained to express
their decided conviction, that the malignant fever which so re-
cently afflicted our town, originated  in  the numerous causes
they have mentioned, favoured by the destructive effects of the
storm and the subsequent season.   The effects of  the change
of weather on the 10th of September, were very obvious to all.
In a few days after the wind changed to the northward, with
a clear sky  and  hot sun, the fever made  its appearance in dif-
ferent parts of the town in all its fearful, deadly type.   On the
16th, 17th, and  18th, thirty persons are reported to have died.
Alarm spread through the town,  and those who could  conve-
niently, left it.  Many, however,  remained, and  those  of the
poorer class of people, who either lived in small, crowded, fil-
thy dwellings, or even without any,frequenting the  grog-shops
near the wharves, lodging under the market-house,  or other
places exposed  to  the damps and vapours of the night.   In
addition to these circumstances,many  of them were  intempe-
rate.  Among this class of people, which embraces nearly all
those who arrived in town from the  public works on Mobile
bay, the fever was observed to be dreadfully mortal—almost
all of them  died.  Of more than a  hundred discharged at those
works, who came  to Mobile, it is believed that very few are
alive.  At certain places in town, there was a continual suc-
cession  of  these  people  arriving, and  passing to the grave.
Regardless, through intemperance, of all the usual cautions
for the preservation of health—they were often crowded into
rooms with the dying and the dead, till they became them- 
(  9  )
stives the victims of  their temerity.  We cannot doubt that
this class of people greatly increased and spread the disease.
The old cloaths, bedding, and such like articles, belonging to
them were, after their death, thrown into the streets, or back
yards, and there suffered to reman to infect the air with their
poisonous effluvia.
  The want of proper attention, nursing, and nourishment, to
the sick (which could by no means be had) was a cause, ever
to be lamented, of the great mortality attending the disease.
  Medical  aid, also, was often neglected till the disease had
made a mortal  progress beyond the power of medicine.   In
many cases medical aid could not be obtained  when desired.
Several of the physicians themselves were sick, and the others
unable to  attend  the  numerous  calls for  their assistance—
hence, many perished without medicine, or physician.
  The building used for a hospital for the poor was in the cen-
tre  of the town, and probably  contributed to spread  wider  the
disease, and  increase its malignity.  Fear in many instances
was observed to produce most unfortunate effects upon  the
patient, and defeated  the intended operations of medicine.—
Some, in dreadful apprehension of the disease, seemed  to
abandon hope of life, and sunk in death.
  With all these causes for the increased prevalence and mor-
tality of the fever, it plainly exhibited in its progress and vari-
ous symptoms, the most malignant  character.   The number
of those who recovered from an attack, between the 15th Sep-
rember, and  10th  October, the period of its greatest  preva-
lence, was  small;  though the number cannot be ascertained.
After the latter period,  as cooler weather advanced, the dis-
ease assumed a milder character, and more frequently yielded
to the powers of medicine.
  In its type and symptoms it seems to have  exhibited no  pe-
culiar characteristic marks or effects tb distinguish it from the
yellow fever of other  seasons and places, as described by phy-
sicians ;  unless it  be  the greater mortality which attended it,
and that is believed to be justly attributed to the causes alrea-
dy mentioned.  Patients died commonly in one, three, or  five
days after taken, with all the  symptoms  of decided  yellow fe-
ver. In the character of the disease, all the physicians agreed,
but different  methods of treating it were  practised.
  The committee find difficulty in ascertaining  " the extent of
the sickness  and mortality" with  arithmetical  exactness;  al-
though four of their number were continually in town, during
the  prevalence of the  fever,  and two others a considerable
portion of  the time.   For a while  the disease seemed to be 
                        (  io  )
                                  (
mostly  confined  to  those  employed  about  the  river  and
wharves, but in a few days after the prevalence of north wind,
and clear, hot sun, (September  10th,) it  spread  rapidly thro*
the whole town, and  from that date seems to have affected the
Creole inhabitants, people  of colour, and even slaves.  It  is
also noticed to have been  equally mortal with  the  female, as
the male population ; though  the former might be supposed
less exposed to the influence of the general causes of the dis-
ease, but they  were,  perhaps, oftentimes more exposed to the
fever in their immediate attendance on the sick-  The number
of deaths  from the first August to the tenth September, em-
bracing every description of people, was estimated by the phy-
sician who attended  the hospital, and the greatest number of
the poor, and was probably better informed on the subject than
any other person,  at an average of one a  day-—forty souls.
This may be nearly correct:  and of this number  it is ascer-
tained that only nine  were inhabitants of the town, or embraced
in any estimate of our population.  These persons  are known
to have died of various dieases incident to the climate, except- <
ing five or six—who  are supposed to have died  of yellow fever.
After the above period, the fever assumed the  predominant
type, and spread  death and dismay.  From the tenth of Sep-
tember  to the termination of the fever in November, 113 died,
(four not of fever;)  making  the number of our inhabitants,
who probably  died of the malignant fever, 115.   From July
first to December first, the total number of deaths, including
those who died out of town, and those who died by casualties, ■
was 137.  The number of boatmen, sailors, and workmen dis-*
charged from  the public  works, and transient persons, who
died at Mobile, during the latter  period named, is  supposed,
from the best information that can be obtained, to have equal-
led that of the inhabitants, giving a total of 274.
   But to give  an adequate idea of " the extent of the sickness
and mortality," it seem^ necessary to notice the population  of
the town at different periods of its prevalence; and here we
must necessarily resort to conjectural estimates. In the month ,
of July, the resident population of the  town is estimated  at
1,300 souls, and on the tenth September, 800,  which were,  in
a few days after the known prevalence of yellow fever, reduced \
to 500,  and it is to be remarked that a  considerable portion  of
these were in the suburbs of the town, where the fever did not
prevail.
   But in a proportional view of the mortality to the  population,
exposed to the disease, the number of our citizens who died of
other diseases antecedent to the prevalence  of  the fever, boat- 
(  11   )
men, sailors, and other transient persons are to be deducted,
which would shew the loss of our inhabitants by the recent fe-
ver to be 115: and affords a proof oLits dreadful malignity.
  It was observed that the suburbs of the town, at no greater
distance than one mile from the river, were as healthji^djllring
the prevalence of the fever, as more distant parts of the coun-
try ; and it is not known that the disease was communicated, in
any instance, to persons out  of the town, by the removal and
attendance of the sick.   Hence we infer that the disease is only
communicable  in the  atmosphere where it originated ; and
even there, some pre-disposing causes appear to have been ne-
cessarily existing, as a number of persons frequently in rooms
with the sick, the dying and the dead, in circumstances of the
greatest exposure, never took the fever.
   Some remarks upon the general state of the country around,
in  regard  to sickness or health, being intimately connected
with this subject, as influenced by general and common causes,
may not be  deemed improper.   At  New-Orleans,  Baton-
Rouge, Natchez, and perhaps, generally upon the Mississip-
pi, as high as the latter place, the same species of fever seems
to have prevailed with great  mortality.  Natches and New-
Orleans, it is understood, have suffered beyond any former ex-
amples ; and in fact, almost all our cities upon the sea coast,
from Main to Louisiana, appear to have  suffered  in a  greater
or less degree  from the same species  of fever;  though they
were favoured by a long established and well regulated police.
   In the interior of the country, upon the waters of the Tom-
becbe and Alabama, the  sickness and mortality  was  greater
than was ever known before.  At St. Stephens, Jackson, Fort
Claiborne, and other places on those rivers, bilious fevers,  of
the worst grade prevailed ; and in many instances we are war-
ranted in saying, that in type and symptoms it differed little
from the fever, which prevailed in  this town.
   The season has been a very uncommon one, and has produ-
ced as uncommon effects ; and wherever it has operated upon
local causes, it appears to have produced  malignant fevers.  In
the town of Mobile,* art and labour could scarcely have com-
bined a more  destructive mass, for the production of malig-
nant fever, under the operation of such a  season, than is found
to have been laboriously collected together  in filling up lots,
streets, and wharves: and the committee would do injustice
to their own feelings, and their sense of the duty they owe their
* Limits ofthe town—three miles in circumference. 
                        (  «   )                          1

fellow-citizen9,  were they to suppress a warning voice of the  I
danger that yet  awaits them : if they be not zealous and active
in removal of the numerous causes of disease, daily trodden
under their feet, daily presented  to their view.  While they
walk^.the streets, disease will assail them in every quarter,
while tfiey slumber in their beds, they will breathe the poison
of death, until  the  yards and enclosures are cleansed—until
the streets and  wharves are radically reformed ;  and then, by
the blessing of God, we shall prosper in health.

             JACOB LUDLOW,
             DAVID RUST,
             H. V. CHAMBERLAIN,
             ADDIN LEWIS,
             Dr. MAJOR,
             EDWARD  HALL,
             PHILIP M'LOSKEY.
>  Committee. 
 
 
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