REPORT 
ON 
QUARANTINE 
ON THE 
SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS 
OF THE 
UNITED STATES. 
4 
BY 
HARVEY E. BROWK, 
ASSISTANT SURGEON UNITED STATES ARMY. 
NEW YORK: 
WILLIAM WOOD & CO., 
27 Great Jones Street. 
1873. LETTER 
FROM 
THE SECRETARY OF WAR, 
communicating 
Additional information regarding a quarantine system for the Southern and 
Gulf coasts. / 
December 19, 1872.-Referred to the Committee on Commerce and ordered to be 
printed. 
War Department, December, 18, 1872. 
The Secretary of War has the honor to send to the United States 
Senate, in connection with the report of Assistant Surgeon Harvey E. 
Brown, United States Army, transmitted .to the Senate on the 6th 
instant, a communication from the Surgeon-General forwarding the re- 
port of Surgeon Brown upon a quarantine system for the Southern and 
Gulf coasts, which it is requested may be published with the report first 
named. 
WM. W. BELKNAP, 
Secretary of War. 
War Department, Surgeon-General's Office, 
Washington, D. C., December 4, 1872. 
Sir : I have the honor to transmit herewith the report of Assistant 
Surgeon Harvey E. Brown, United States Army, on quarantine and 
yellow fever, as called for by the joint resolution of Congress approved 
June 6, 1872, "providing for a more effective system of quarantine on 
the Southern and Gulf coasts," and for which duty Assistant Surgeon 
Brown was detailed by order of the honorable the Secretary of War, by 
Special Orders No. 139, dated War Department, Adjutant-General's 
Office, Washington, June 17, 1872. 
Assistant Surgeon Brown's researches have been very thorough, and 
his deductions will have the support of a very respectable proportion of 
the medical profession ; but nothing less than a fair trial of an absolute 
and properly regulated quarantine will decide the question of its effect- 
iveness. Jn regard to the recommendation of Assistant Surgeon 
Brown, (page 112 of his report,) I have the honor to state that, IV 
QUARANTINE system for the southern and gulf coasts. 
with the present number of vacancies (fifty-nine) in the Medical Corps of 
the Army, and even if it were filled up to the number authorized by act 
of Congress approved July 28, 1866, it would be impossible to furnish 
officers from it for quarantine duty, without serious interference with 
their military duties and detriment to the interests of the service. 
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
J. K. BARNES, 
Surgeon- General. 
The Hon. the Secretary of War. LETTER 
FROM 
THE SECRETARY OF WAR, 
COMMUNICATING, 
In obedience to law, information in relation to quarantine on the Southern 
and Gulf coasts. 
December 9, 1872.-Referred to the Committee on Commerce and ordered to be 
printed. 
War Department, December 6, 1872, 
The Secretary of War has the honor to transmit to the United States 
Senate and House of Representatives, in compliance with the require- 
ments of a joint resolution, approved June 6, 1872, providing for a more 
efficient system of quarantine on the Southern and Gulf coasts, the in- 
closed copy of the report of Assistant-Surgeon Harvey E. Brown, United 
States Army, who was detailed to make the investigations called for. 
WM. W. BELKNAP, 
Secretary of War. 
Washington, December 2, 1872. 
Sir : I have the honor herewith to present a report of the work per- 
formed by me, in obedience to Special Orders No. 139, current series, 
from the War Department, of which the following is a copy: 
[Special Orders No. 139.-Extract.] 
War Department, Adjutant-General's Office. 
Washington, June 17, 1872. 
On the recommendation of the Surgeon-General, Assistant Surgeon Harvey E. 
Brown is hereby detailed to make the inspections and reports required under the joint 
resolution of Congress approved June 6, 1872, ''providing for a more effective system 
of quarantine on the Southern and Gulf coasts," and will proceed, via New York City, 
to Norfolk, Virginia; thence to such other towns or ports on the Atlantic coast as may 
be comprised in the said resolution ; thence to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he will 
take his station, and make the necessary visits and inspection on the Gulf coast. On 
the 1st of November next he will return to this city and make his report to the Secre- 
tary of War, through the Surgeon-General. 
By order of the Secretary of War : 
E. D. TOWNSEND, 
Adjutant- General. 2 
QUARANTINE ON TUB SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
The joint resolution referred to in the foregoing order is as follows : 
JOINT RESOLUTION providing for a more effective system of quarantine on the Southern and 
Gulf coasts. 
Whereas experience has proved that the present system of quarantine on the South- 
ern and Gulf coasts is inefficient to prevent the ravages of yellow fever in the cities and 
towns of that section: Therefore, 
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in 
Congress assembled. That the Secretary of War be, and is hereby, directed to detail one 
or more medical officers of the Regular Army, who shall, during the coming season, 
visit each town or port on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic coast, 
which is subject or liable to invasions of yellow fever, and shall confer with the 
authorities of such port or town with reference to the establishment of a more uniform 
and effective system of quarantine, and who shall ascertain all facts having reference 
to the outbreaks of this disease in such ports or towns, and whether any system of 
quarantine is likely to be effective in preventing invasions of yellow fever, and, if so, 
what system will least interfere with the interests of commerce at said ports; and 
shall make, also, a detailed report on this subject to the Secretary of War, through 
the Surgeon-General, on or before the assembling of the third session of the Forty- 
second Congress, in December, eighteen hundred and seventy-two. 
Approved June 6, 1872. 
In obedience to these instructions I have the honor to report that I 
have visited the Various ports on the Southern and Gulf coasts which 
have been in the past the seat of epidemics of yellow fever. In each 
place visited I have examined the quarantine laws in operation, con- 
ferred with the local boards of health when any such existed, con- 
versed on the subject with physicians of experience, and with those 
whose long residence or commercial or professional position would 
qualify them to give an intelligent opinion on the subject; and have 
endeavored, so far as was practicable in the brief space of time allotted 
me, to ascertain the facts connected with the various epidemics of 
yellow fever in the ports and towns visited, both by examination of pub- 
lications on the subject and by personal conversations with those most 
likely to be conversant with such facts; and have endeavored to arrive 
at a correct opinion as to the value of quarantine restrictions against 
yellow fever, and to what extent such restrictions can be enforced 
without material interference with commercial interests. The result 
of my inspections has been such as to convince me- 
1st. That in the vast majority of epidemics, if not all, that have oc- 
curred in the United States, the germinal principle of the disease was 
imported from elsewhere, and was not due to local causes. 
2d. That a system of quarantine can be organized which will prove 
effective in preventing invasions of yellow fever. 
3d. That a properly-organized system, so far from interfering with 
the interests of commerce, will prove really beneficial to the commercial 
prosperity of ports where established. 
4th. That the present quarantines at the South, being established bv 
either State or municipal authority, lack that uniformity which is abso- 
lutely necessary to their efficiency, are not founded on rational views 
of the pathology of the disease, and are generally defective in their ad- 
ministration, and that, consequently, a system of a different character 
must be adopted to attain the end desired. 
5th. That yellow fever needs to be planted in a favorable soil in 
order to become epidemic, and that, consequently, the danger from the 
disease is measurably lessened in proportion as attention is paid to the 
local hygiene and sanitary condition of those parts of the ports or 
towns which, by reason of the character of the inhabitants or other 
causes, are usually the habitation of the earlier cases. 
I am aware that, in enunciating the first four of the above proposi- 
tions, I am in opposition to the views of some of the ablest and best QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
3 
minds at the South, who have had the largest experience in this malady; 
and it is with great diffidence that I feel obliged to differ from such 
distinguished gentlemen as Doctors E. Geddings and W. F. Wragg, 
of Charleston; E. A. Anderson, of Wilmington, North Carolina; 
R. D. Arnold, of Savannah; and Warren Stone, of New Orleans; but, 
believing that the history of the epidemics in the United States war- 
rants the conclusions to which I have arrived, and that a very de- 
cided change has taken place of late years in the minds of the pro- 
fession on the subject of the portability of the yellow-fever poison, and 
the consequent value of quarantine measures, I propose, before enter- 
ing into a consideration of the subject of quarantine, to present a brief 
abstract of the history of the epidemics that have occurred in this 
country, so far as any such can be obtained. To do this intelligently 
demands some notice of the early appearances of the disease in the West 
Indies, and of the great epidemics in New York, Philadelphia, and 
other northern ports, between 1790 and 1822 ; for, although these are not 
properly embraced in the scope of my report, yet they have such an 
important bearing on the subject, that some reference to them is necessary to 
do justice to the question at issue. I proceed, therefore, to an account of 
the epidemics that have appeared in various northern ports, before giving the 
details of those in the southern sections of the country, and along the 
Gulf coast. 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF YELLOW FEVER. 
The earlier historians of the West Indies ascribe the origin of the 
yellow fever to the East. An insurrection having broken out in Siam, 
the French colonists at Bannock were driven from the country, and 
embarked on the ship Oriflamme and two other vessels in the latter 
part of the year 1690, and sailed for Martinique. The Oriflamme 
touched at Brazil, where yellow fever had been prevailing for seven 
or 'eight years, and soon after the disease broke out on board, and by 
the 5th of January, 1691, over a hundred deaths had occurred 
on the vessel. The disease spread to the shore, and was carried by other 
vessels to many of the other islands. Moreau de Jonnes, in his work 
on yellow fever, argues, however, that the disease had existed in St. 
Domingo for many years previous to that time, and had prevailed in the 
first settlements formed by the immediate followers of Columbus, 
(pp. 14-60.) However this may be, it is certain that the disease 
was known for many years as " Mai de Siam," and the fact of its impor- 
tation by the Oriflamme received general credence, with the medical 
writers of the eighteenth century. Another account ascribes its introduction 
to slave-ships from Africa in 1669, in which year a fatal epidemic prevailed 
in St. Domingo. 
It seems certain from the narratives of some of the Jesuit missionaries, 
as well as the historians of the period of Columbus and his immediate 
successors, that fevers of a malignant type, and accompanied with a 
yellowness of the skin, were peculiarly fatal to the newly-arrived 
Europeans. Such fevers prevailed epidemically in St. Domingo in 1494, 
in Porto Rico in 1568, at Darien in 1514, in Guadaloupe in 1635, at 
Martinique in 1640, at Barbadoes in 1647, and at St. Croix in 1652, and, as 
before mentioned, at St. Domingo in 1669, and in 1686 the local author- 
ities in the last-mentioned island, passed ordinances to prevent the in- 
troduction of contagious and malignant fevers by means of slavers. 
(Moreau de Jonnes, op. cit., pp. 58, 59.) It seems most probable that 
these earlier epidemics were of yellow fever, but that after the arrival 4 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
of the Oriflamme in 1690, the disease acquired a peculiar degree of 
malignancy, which it did not before possess, and which led the inhabit- 
ants to imagine that a new disease had appeared among them. Chis- 
holm fell into this same error in reference to the disease, which was 
imported into Granada in 1792, on board the ship Hankey, from the 
abandoned colony of Boullam, coast of Africa. This epidemic made its 
appearance after the West Indian islands had enjoyed a complete im- 
munity from the disease for twenty years; and differing materially in 
its type and the degree of malignancy from former outbreaks, it was regarded 
by Chisholm (Essay on the Boullam fever, p. 89) as a disease previously 
unknown, and he dates the origin of the true yellow fever of West Indies 
from this year. 
Probably much of the obscurity that hangs around these earlier epi- 
demics arises from the confounding of the genuine " vomito nrieto " 
with the malignant remittent of the West Indies (all these fevers being 
designated by the common name of "yellow" previous to 1690,) on the 
part of the earlier writers, who were, most of them, non-professional 
men-an error which is made in more recent times in every southern 
city with the first cases of an epidemic, and sometimes, throughout its 
whole duration, physicians of learning and experience are unable to 
determine, positively, whether they have had any yellow fever among 
them or not, as was the case, a few years since, at Jacksonville, Florida, 
and last year in Charleston, South Carolina, as will be shown on a subsequent 
page. 
The first. appearance of the disease in the United States was in 1693 
at Boston. Previous to this time, x"pestilent" and "malignant distem- 
pers " are reported as prevailing at various early periods among the 
Indians in New England, and attempts have been made to convey the 
idea that this sickness was yellow fever; but, as La Roche remarks, "We 
cannot be censured for undue skepticism if we entertain doubts as to 
its identity with true yellow fever, especially as it is acknowledged to 
have raged in winter" (vol. 1, p. 47). Numerous towns suffered dur- 
ing the last half of the seventeenth century from epidemic disorders, 
but it is more than probable that most, if not all of these, were fevers 
of malarial origin, due to the felling of the forests and the constant 
upheaval of the soil, which would take place in young and growing com- 
munities in settling a new country. 
In 1693, an English fleet, under command of Sir Francis Wheeler, 
which had been sent the previous year to effect the reduction of Mar- 
tinique, and had spent a month at Barbadoes, returned to Boston with 
yellow fever on board. The mortality had been so great among the 
troops and sailors, that over one-half of the whole number of persons in 
the fleet had died, and the disease is stated to have been introduced 
into Boston and prevailed with great severity. Its next appearance 
was in Philadelphia and Charleston in 1699. It was asserted by one 
writing long subsequently, that the disease was imported from Barba- 
does in a vessel laden with cotton; but none of the contemporary chron- 
iclers mention this circumstance, although the fact that it was known by the 
inhabitants as the Barbadoes distemper, would seem to give a warrant to the 
assertion. 
In 1702 it appeared for the first time in New York, and was said by 
contemporary writers to have been imported from Saint Thomas, West 
Indies, in a bale of cotton. It was called the " American plague " and 
"the great sickness." Although the population of the city at this time 
was not more than eight thousand, over five hundred persons died. 
(Griscom's History of Visitations of Yellow Fever at New York, p. 2; QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
5 
Currie, Diseases most prevalent in the United States of America, p. 63.) 
The disease did not appear again in New York until 1745, although Web- 
ster, in his book on Epidemics, speaks of "malignant infectious diseases" 
in 1732 and 1743. In 1741 it made its second appearance in Philadel- 
phia. There were at this time a large number of German immigrants in 
the city, who suffered severely. It prevailed until the approach of cold 
weather, and caused about two hundred and fifty deaths. Carpen- 
ter (Sketches of Yellow Fever, p. 12) gives Lind as authority for, the 
assertion that it was introduced about the 1st of June " by means of a 
trunk of wearing-apparel belonging to a gentleman who had died of 
the disease in Barbadoes." (Lind on Fevers and Infections, p. 107.) A 
rather doubtful outbreak of disease, thought by some to be yellow fever, 
occurred in 1744; and in 1747 it was again epidemic. It was the uni- 
versal opinion that it was due to foreign importation from the West In- 
dies, as it prevailed chiefly in those parts of the city near the wharves, 
in sailors' lodging-houses, and among the classes of people most likely 
to be about the shipping. Like the previous epidemic, the clothing of a 
person who had died in the West Indies was asserted to be the source of in- 
fection. • . • 
Dr. Thomas Bond ascribed it to the presence in port of infected ships, 
upon which the disease broke out after their arrival. No person seems 
to have thought of giving the disease a local origin. (Bond, North 
American Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. 4, p. 271 ; La Roche on 
Yellow Fever, vol. 1, pp. 60, 61.) In 1762 it again prevailed in Philadel- 
phia, commencing about the middle of August and terminating the 
last of October. Dr John Redman, in his account of this epidemic, (pp. 12, 
13,) says : 
Its first and greatest ravages were about the new market and the square to the east- 
ward of it, in which, after some considerable search and tracing it, it was found to 
have originated in a number of small back tenements, forming a kind of court, the 
entrance to which was by two narrow alleys from Front and Pine streets, and where 
sailors often had their lodging, to which a sick sailor from on board a vessel, from the 
Havannah, (where it then raged,) was brought privately after night, before the vessel 
had come up to town, to the house of one Leadbetter, where he soon died, and was 
secretly buried; and, I believe, Leadbetter, with most of his family, and many others 
in that court, soon after fell a sacrifice; and from thence it spread rapidly, first 
affecting the houses nearest adjoining, in Front and Pine streets. 
Public opinion was universal in ascribing it to foreign importation, from 
the West Indies. 
La Roche lays great stress on the fact that, in all of these epidemics, 
contradictory statements are made by different writers as to the especial 
vessel, or other source, from which the infection spread; but this is not 
to be wondered at, when we consider, as stated by that distinguished 
author himself, that we have no accurate professional accounts of these 
epidemics, being dependent for what we know of them entirely to let- 
ters, &c., written by eye-witnesses, who would be likely to indite what 
was the prevailing opinion, without any minute investigation of the sub- 
ject. Moreover, there is no reason why they should not all have been 
correct, and the fever introduced by two or three different channels in 
the same season. From this time until 1791 the country was free from 
the fever, an immunity which Carpenter shows (op. cit., p. 45) was due 
to the destruction of the West India trade by the passage of the 
series of acts of Parliament known as the " commercial monopoly," and 
by the subsequent war of the Revolution, which, of course, destroyed 
all trade. With the return of peace, however, came a renewal of the 
West India traffic, and with it the long respite which the coast had 
known from yellow fever came to an end, it making its appearance in 6 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
1791 in New York, and in 1793 in Charleston and Philadelphia. About 
the middle of August, 1791, it broke out in the neighborhood of Peck 
Slip, New York, a locality well fitted by its surroundings to propagate 
the disease-" a part of the city thickly inhabited; its houses generally 
small and badly ventilated; many of the inhabitants were in indigent 
circumstances, which is a frequent cause of the want of cleanliness." 
(Addoms, Inaugural Dissertation on Yellow Fever, p. 7.) For some 
time it confined itself to this locality, but at length began to spread, 
being carried to other parts of the town by those who had nursed the sick. 
It continued to rage until about October 15, and, on the approach of 
cold weather, disappeared. (Medical Repository, vol. 1, p. 305.) 
The epidemic in Philadelphia, in 1793, has acquired a permanent 
interest, in the eyes of those interested in the subject, not only by 
reason of the great mortality, but on account of the bitter controversies 
which arose relative to its origin, the doctrines of a local cause for the 
disease being now advanced for the first time. The weather was very 
variable during the season, the spring being pleasant; July veYy hot, 
August moderate, and September hot. From August until October 
there was a great drought. Fevers of the ' exanthematous ?ype had 
been prevalent during the season, but disappeared soon after the out- 
break of the fever. The disease made its appearance about the 15th of 
August on Water street, in the vicinity of the docks. It was confined 
for a time to this locality, but toward the last of the month spread up 
Water to Vine street; thence along Front; and by the 15th of Septem- 
ber was generally prevalent throughout the city, as well as in South- 
wark and Kensington, then separate villages. It raged with great 
violence until the 10th of November, when a severe frost put an end to 
it. " It did not escape observation that, during the whole course of the 
epidemic, the greater number of cases occurred in the vicinity of the 
Delaware River; that there also, as in close alleys and small streets, 
the disease assumed its most aggravated form, and proved most usually 
fatal; and that its severity lessened in its progress westward, and toward the 
districts." (La Roche, op. cit., p. 68.) 
The population of the city was over forty thousand, of whom four 
thousand and forty died, and upward of twelve thousand fled from the 
city. As regards the origin of this epidemic, the College of Physicians 
gave it as their opinion, in an official report to the governor of the State, 
that it was imported from the West Indies in July, many vessels having 
arrived from infected ports in that month? Some, however, of the mem- 
bers, including Dr. Redman, the president, Dr. Benjamin Rush, Dr. Jos. 
Hutchinson, and Dr.' Foulke, dissented from these views, and an angry 
controversy ensued, which has been handed down from epidemic to .epi- 
demic, and maintained on either side, with varying success, until the 
present day. The local causes were to be found in the filthy condition 
of the streets and wharves, the want of any adequate police arrange- 
ments, and the exposure of a lot of damaged coffee, on a wharf, near 
Front and Water streets, the smell of which " was putrid and highly offen- 
sive," so that persons living in the neighborhood were obliged- to keep their 
doors and windows shut to exclude the fetor. 
Mathew Carey, in his account of this epidemic, ascribes it to the 
arrival of numerous vessels' from the West Indies, and among them one 
from Cape Francois, which brought a large number of refugees from the 
island of Saint Domingo, whence they had fled to escape the horrors of 
the revolution. There was no attempt at a quarantine ; the vessels came 
freely up to the wharves; and in some cases sick persons and infected 
articles were landed in the city. Dr. Currie gave to it the same origin. QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
7 
(Carey on Epidemics of 1793, pp. 69-70; Currie, Treatise on Synochus 
icteroides, pp. 1, 84 ; Haygarth's Letter to Dr. Percival, April 9, 1801, pp. 
169-170 ; Rush, Medical Inquiries, vol. 3, pp. 17-26.) In 1794 the fever 
prevailed moderately in Philadelphia, and was ascribed by Dr. Rush 
(Medical Inquiries, vol. 4, p. 63) to the exhalations from the gutters, 
and to the stagnating ponds of water in the neighborhood of the city. 
The following year it appeared in New York, prevailing, as before, in 
the streets bordering on the East River, as far up as the swamp; a 
part of the town " remarkably distinguished by peculiarity of circum- 
stances and situation, seemingly well calculated for the accumulation 
and decomposition of all kinds of perishable animal and vegetable sub- 
stance." (Dr. V. Seaman, Medical Repository, vol. 1, p. 306.) The dis- 
ease was unquestionably imported this year in a vessel from Saint Do- 
mingo, which arrived at the Dover-street wharf on the 19th of July, 
having lost one man from yellow fever on the passage. On her arrival 
she had three persons ill of the fever, and one died on 'the 20th July. 
On the 22d the health-officer, Dr. Treat, ■was taken sick, and died on 
the 29th. On the 25th a man by the name of Valentine, who was em- 
ployed about the vessel, took the disease. At this time the ship William 
from Liverpool was lying at the same wharf as the infected ship ; and on the 
25th four cases occured on her, all of whom died within a week. The 
next cases were from the - ship Connecticut, lying about two hundred 
yards from the other ; then cases began to occur on shore among 
clerks and employes of the store-houses on the docks, and soon the 
disease spread through the surrounding neighborhood, causing seven 
hundred and thirty deaths, most of whom were recently-arrived for- 
eigners. (Dr. V. Seaman, Medical Repository, vol. 1, pp. 316-318; John 
Hay garth, M. D., Letter to Dr. Colin Chisholm on Yellow Fever, pp. 
58, 61; Rev. J. McKnight, in American Medical and Philosophical Reg- 
ister, vol. 3, p. 293.) The disease was carried from New York to Hun- 
tingdon, Long Island, where many died. (Dr. David Hosack, American 
Medical and Philosophical Register, vol. 3, p. 191.) There were a few 
cases in New York in 1796-'97, due according to the statement of Griscom, 
(op. cit., p. 7,) to the detritus collected by the building of a great dock 
at the foot of Whitehall street, and to the emptying of a sewer at the 
foot of Broad street; tlie slip being exposed at low tide to the action of 
the sun upon its muddy bottom. In the first of the above-mentioned 
years it was imported into Knowles's landing on the Connecticut River 
by means of the brig Polly, which arrived there from Cape St. Nicholas, 
St. Domingo, in August, and had on the passage lost several of her 
crew from yellow fever. About this same time a number of cases oc- 
curred at Chatham, Connecticut, near Middletown, the first victims 
being two - young men from that village, who visited Knowles's landing 
and slept in the cabin of the infected vessel. (Miner and Tully on Fevers, 
pp. 359, 363 ; Tully's Letter to David Hosack, M. D., New York Medical and 
Philosophical Journal, vol. 1, p. 153.) In 1797 Providence, Rhode Island, 
suffered from an outbreak of the disease, which caused forty-five deaths. 
It prevailed almost entirely along Water street, and other streets and 
alleys near the water's edge, a very dirty and filthy portion of the town, 
where the tide ebbs and flows beneath the docks, leaving mud and 
oyster-shells exposed at low tide, and being the receptacle of all the 
waste and offal of the town. The first cases occurred about the 13th of 
August, and the disease disappeared about the last of the month. 
(Wheaton, Short Account of Yellow Fever, Medical Repository, vol. 10, 
p. 329.) 
This year there was another severe epidemic in Philadelphia, where 8 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
it broke out about the 1st of August, prevailed extensively during 'that 
month and September, and was checked by a frost on the 15th of 
October, having caused about thirteen hundred deaths. There was 
the usual controversy as to its origin. The College of Physicians, as 
before, traced it directly to the arrival of two infected ships, in July, 
one from Havana and one from Port an Prince, while the Academy of 
Medicine called attention to the putrid exhalations from the gutters, 
privies, and docks, which were, if possible, in worse condition, than in 
1793. Strobel (Essay on the Transmissibility of Yellow Fever, p. 120) 
quotes the late Professor Chapman as asserting that his recollection 
was positive that this epidemic was imported from the West Indies. 
The fever this year was much more contracted in its area than before ; 
a result, doubtless, owing to a policy of isolation adopted by the author- 
ities, by which all communication was cut off with the infected districts 
during the epidemic. (Dr. Felix Pascalis on Contagious Epidemic Yel- 
low Fever in 1797, pp. 8-29 ; Philadelphia United States Gazette, Sep- 
tember 13, 1798; Condie and Folwell, on Pestilence of 1798; Rush, on 
Epidemic of 1797, Ac.) This year the disease prevailed as an epidemic 
in Baltimore, and, as in 1794, it was confined to the vicinity of Fell's 
Point, a low, swampy, unpaved locality, in the immediate vicinity 
of the shipping. The first case which occurred in the city had just 
arrived from Philadelphia. (Davidge, Treatise on Yellow Fever, p. 17; 
Potter's Memoir on Contagion, p. 20.) 
The year 1798 introduced the most wide-spread epidemic ever known 
in the history of the country. 
At Boston, Massachusetts, it caused about two hundred deaths, pre- 
vailing, as it had previously, in 1796, about the docks, near the water's 
edge, along Front Street, and in the vicinity of Market Square, the vic- 
tims being those persons who passed most of their time about the ship- 
ping. From here it was wafted by the wind to higher localities. Dr. 
Saihuel Brown believed the disease to be entirely local in its origin. 
(Yellow Fever in Boston, pp. 21-37.) Portsmouth,'New Hampshire; 
Norwalk, Hartford, and New London, Connecticut; and Salem, Massa- 
chusetts, also were visited by the disease. 
In New York, the disease broke out about the 28th of July, on Front 
street near Coenties Slip, then in the neighborhood, and during August 
spread along New Slip, Cliff, John, and Water streets, all localities 
renowned for their filth and general offensiveness. To those causes 
must be added the arrival of infected ships from the West Indies. 
The epidemic lasted without intermission until October, when a frost 
suddenly caused its cessation, but not until two thousand and eighty- 
six persons had died. (Dr. James Hardie, Account of Yellow Fever in 
New York, pp. 2-6; Currie, Memoirs of the Yellow Fever, 1798; Mc- 
Knight, American Medical Philosophical Register, vol. 3, p. 293; Sea- 
man, Letter to Dr. Miller, Medical Repository, vol. 4, p. 250.) 
In Philadelphia there were three thousand five hundred deaths 
between the 1st of August and the 1st of November. Its introduction 
was most positively traced to the arrival of the ship Deborah, with 
yellow fever on board, from San Domingo, on the 18th of July, and to 
the subsequent arrival of other vessels. 
The disease, as before, began in the vicinity of the wharves, and pre- 
vailed chiefly along Walnut, Spruce, and other streets at first, but sub- 
sequently spread all ovei' the city. The ship Deborah, which introduced 
the disease, was removed to Kensington for repairs, and in a short time 
the fever broke out in that village, first among the persons who had 
been on the vessel, and then among those who had visited or nursed the QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
9 
first cases. (Condie and Folwell, op. cit., pp. 31-53 ; Currie, op. cit., pp. 
130-135.) Immense numbers of the inhabitants of Philadelphia fled 
from the city as the fever became generally diffused, and some of them 
carried the disease to other places. At Chester and Marcus Hook, 
Pennsylvania; Wilmington, Delaware; Bridgeton and Woodbury, New 
Jersey, it was introduced by refugees from Philadelphia, and carried off 
large numbers. (Currie, op. cit., pp. 136, 138 ; Dr. James Tilton's Letter 
to Dr. Miller, Medical Repository, vol. 3, p. 128; Dr. George Monroe, 
Medical Repository, vol. 3, p. 136.) During the progress of this 
epidemic, the ship Nestor, of Portland, left Philadelphia for Peters- 
burgh, Virginia. She had four deaths on the passage, and the disease 
soon spread to those employed in loading her, and others who visited 
the ship, and many died, both in City Point and Petersburgh. (Currie, 
op. cit., pp. 109, 113.) 
Two points are worthy of note in connection with this epidemic-one, 
that the authorities of Philadelphia had become frightened at the yearly 
appearance of the disease, and had placed the city in excellent sanitary 
condition compared to what it had been previously, by a careful and 
vigorous system of police, and yet entirely neglected any quarantine 
measures; and the other, that the authorities of Baltimore established 
a quarantine, not only against vessels coming from the West Indies, 
but also against persons and baggage from Philadelphia, and entirely 
escaped the disease. 
In the next year there was a mild epidemic in Philadelphia, which 
the College of Physicians, as before, traced to importation from the West 
Indies. In 1800 it visited Providence, Rhode Island, and Baltimore, 
Maryland, prevailing, as in previous years, in the immediate vicinity of 
the wharves and shipping. It broke out this year in New Bedford, 
Massachusetts, where a vessel arrived from Demerara with the fever on 
board. She also contained a large quantity of damaged coffee. All 
the persons attacked had either been on board of her, or lived in the 
vicinity in dirty and ill-ventilated quarters. 
In 1802-3 and in 1805 there were moderate epidemics in Philadelphia, 
after which the disease entirely disappeared from that city until 1819. 
There was more or less of the fever in 1802-5 in Baltimore, Maryland; Bos- 
ton, Massachusetts ; Alexandria, Virginia ; New Haven, Connecticut; and 
Providence, Rhode Island. In 1803, in New York City, it made its first 
appearance in some houses on Coffee House Slip, and prevailed chiefly, 
as before, in the dirty, filthy streets, and among the wretched inhabitants 
living nearest to the river. The season was an unusually hot one, and 
Griscom says, " Proofs of its domestic production greatly accumulated 
this year;" but it is difficult to reconcile this statement with the asser- 
tion of Dr. P. S. Townsend (Observations on Yellow Fever, p. 368) that, 
" about this time" (i. e., the first appearance of the disease) " several 
vessels, having sick on board, were ordered from the Coffee House Slip 
to the quarantine ground." The total number of deaths was between 
six and seven hundred. From New York it was carried to the village 
of Catskill, on the Hudson, where a number died. The next year there 
was a mild epidemic in New York, prevailing along the streets border- 
ing on the East and North Rivers, and causing about three hundred and 
fifty deaths. 
A few sporadic cases were noticed in 1806 and 1807, but from this time 
New York was free from any serious epidemic until 1822. In 1809, how- 
ever, the neighboring city of Brooklyn suffered to some extent. Early 
in July the ship Concordia arrived from Havana, at which port yellow 
fever was epidemic. The first case was a sailor on this ship, and all the 10 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
subsequent cases were living in the immediate vicinity, (a very low, 
filthy portion of the city,) and were directly traceable to infection from 
this ship. There were about forty deaths. (Gillespie, Yellow Fever in 
Brooklyn, American Medical and Philosophical Register, vol. 1, p. 101.) 
In 1811 a similar outbreak occurred at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, 
which was directly traceable to the ship Favorite and brig Ocean, in- 
fected vessels, which had recently arrived from the West Indies. The 
first cases were of persons who were either connected with these vessels 
or had been on board. (Hosack and Bayley's Report to Board of Health, 
American Medical and Philosophical Register, vol. 3, pp. 94, 106.) 
In 1819 there was a good deal of fever at quarantine, New York, and 
cases occurred in September, at its old haunt in the vicinity of Old and 
Coenties' Slips, but there was nothing approaching an epidemic, there 
being less than a hundred cases in all. (Drake, Yellow Fever in New 
York, Medical Repository, vol. 6, p. 125.) 
In this year the fever appeared in Baltimore, being immediately pre- 
ceded by the arrival of an infected ship from Havana; communication 
having been held between her and the city. (Revere on Fever in Balti- 
more in 1819 ; Carpenter on Yellow Fever, p. 18.) 
1820, Middletown, Connecticut.-The fever was introduced early in 
June by the sloop Antelope from New York. This sloop had on board 
a man from the schooner Milo, from Savannah, who was sick from yel- 
low fever. The captain of the Antelope was then taken sick and recov- 
ered, but the first case died. About this same time the brig Sea Island 
arrived from St. Iago de Cuba, having lost two men on her passage, and 
with others sick. A man named Harrington, who went on board of her, 
died, and all the earliest cases were traced to this infection. (Dr. John 
B. Beck'q Report to New York Board of Health, New York Medical and 
Physiological Journal, vol. 1, p. 158.) 
In 1820 it prevailed epidemically, and, as before, broke out subse- 
quently to the arrival of infected ships from St. Iago de Cuba and other 
places. The first case was on the 24th of July, in Water street, near 
Race, and nearly simultaneously to these were cases on Hodge's wharf, 
where a vessel, recently from Cuba, was lying. About the 9th of August 
it broke out near Walnut-street wharf, also occupied by infected ships, 
and spread from there to the adjacent street. In both of these cases 
its progress was arrested by sanitary measures. It prevailed afterward, 
to a limited extent, on Mulberry, Front, Water, and other streets, but 
the total number of cases was very small-about one hundred and 
twenty-five, of which died. 
After this the authorities of Philadelphia became fully awakened to 
the importance of measures to prevent the introduction of the disease, 
and devised a rigid quarantine law, as well as local sanitary measures. 
The result was, that the city enjoyed an immunity from the disease until 
1853, a period of thirty-three years. Then the disease re-appeared, 
from the want of a vigilant quarantine, being clearly due to importation, 
as follows: 
On the 12th of July, 1853, the bark Mandarin arrived at the Laza- 
retto below Philadelphia from Cienfuegos, Cuba, which port she left 
June 25, with a cargo of molasses. There was more or less fever pre- 
vailing at her port of departure when she left, and two of her crew died 
on the passage, of fever. Although all on board were healthy, the ves- 
sel was detained one day for fumigation and disinfection, and all the 
effects of the deceased sailors destroyed. The next day she came up to 
the city, and stopped at South-street wharf. Three days later she was 
moved to the next pier above, at the foot' of Lombard street, where she QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
11 
discharged her cargo. On the 20th she was again moved to the second 
pier belew, at the foot of Almond street, where she remained until the 
26th, when she was sent back to the Lazaretto by the board of health. 
After the discharge of her cargo, and especially while lying at the Al- 
mond-street wharf, it was noticed that there was a very offensive smell 
about the vessel, and especially when the bilge-water was pumped out. 
On the 19th of July a case of "suspicious fever" occurred in a man 
named Sharp, who occupied the head of the South-street wharf as a 
stand for business. It proved fatal on the 26th. On the 20th another 
case occurred, in the captain of a brig lying next to the Mandarin, in the 
Lombard-street dock. He died on the 23d, at a boarding-house on 
shore, called the Champion House. The same day a German and his 
wife, who kept the South-street Ferry House to Red Bank, took sick; 
one died on the 26th, and the other on the 27th. The same day a young 
man named Koehler' who was daily on the dock, took sick, and died 
at the Champion House on the 27th. On the same day the mate 
of a bark lying just below where the Mandarin discharged her cargo 
was taken, and died on the 22d. On the 21st the mate of the Mandarin 
was taken, and died in hospital on the 23d. Three cases now occurred 
within the next week at the before-mentioned Champion House, and a 
large number of others in the immediate neighborhood. These cases all 
presented well-marked symptoms of yellow fever, and most of them 
had the black vomit. 
The hygienic conditions of the vicinity of the docks were bad; a large 
sewer, emptying into the South-street dock, and there being foul wharves 
and dirty houses on shore. Dr. Wilson Jewell (from whose paper- 
read before the College of Physicians August 5, 1853, I have obtained 
the foregoing details) says : 
No yellow fever existed in our city until six days after the arrival of the Mandarin; 
it broke out immediately abreast of the wharf where she first hauled to, and although 
there were existing causes in the vicinity-on shore-for the production of disease, 
there were " plague spots" in other parts of our city remote from South-street wharf, 
when, had' the question been -asked, we should have unhesitatingly located the first 
appearance of fever of a malignant type, independent of the suspected existence of a 
foreign focus of infection competent to exercise its morbific influence, on an atmosphere 
already tainted. 
The disease prevailed more or less until the beginning of October, 
confining itself, however, almost entirely to the first infected locality. 
In all, there were one hundred and twenty-eight deaths. 
In 1870 the brig Home arrived at the quarantine station, below Phila- 
delphia, from Jamaica. She arrived on the 29th of June, having lost 
her captain with yellow fever on the 24th, and had the cook sick with 
the same disease. On arrival there was no sickness on board. She was 
an old vessel and excessively filthy, so much so that the crew, while 
loading her, could hardly endure the foul emanations of her hold ; and 
planks had to be laid over the bottom of her hold, to keep her cargo of 
logwood from being drifted by the mass of filth and water which had 
accumulated there. Besides this, she was found to have on board a 
large quantity of old rags which had been purchased in Jamaica by the 
captain; these circumstances justified the Health-officer in detaining 
the vessel at quarantine. The rags were burned, and stevedores and 
lighters sent down from Philadelphia to unload the brig, while the crew 
were removed to the Lazaretto, from which, however, the second mate 
deserted on the 30th of June;/a passenger on board was allowed to go 
to Philadelphia. 
On the 30th of June, the pilot, Stephen Bennet, left the brig for the 
Delaware break-water, but was taken sick at Wilmington, Delaware, 12 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
and returned to Philadelphia, where he died of yellow fever. July 2, 
a sailor, named Elliot, from the brig, was taken at the quarantine sta- 
tion, and recovered. On the 3rd of July, the second mate, who had, as 
remarked, deserted from the quarantine, was taken sick in the city, and 
died on the 6th, of yellow fever. Soon after, a French sailor, named 
Pierre, was taken sick in the city, and threw up black vomit, but recovered. 
One of the stevedores was taken sick on the 17th of July, and two days 
later the wife of the captain of a lighter, engaged in discharging the 
vessel, his son, and a man employed on board, were reported sick with 
the fever. Subsequently to this, quite a number of cases occurred at 
the Lazaretto and in the vicinity. In all, there were twenty-nine cases, 
and eighteen deaths. (La Roche on Yellow Fever in 1870, pp. 20, 26.) 
In 1822 there were an unusually large number of arrivals at the 
New York quarantine of vessels from the West Indies. No less than 
seventy-six vessels and over fifty cases of fever reported there before 
the 1st of July. Some of these ships that were loaded with sugar had 
their cargoes lightered up to the city, and between the 1st and 9th of 
July there were four cargoes thus landed at the foot of Rector street 
from vessels that had yellow fever on board. On the 10th of July, two 
children, daughters of a Mr. Reder, living on the corner of Washington 
and Rector, next to the river, and a young man named Thomas, clerk 
in a store on the opposite corner, were taken with yellow fever. This 
man Reder was a cooper, and had been engaged in repairing the ves- 
sels and boxes containing the landed sugar. Thomas died on the 16th, 
and one of the children on the 15th; both with black vomit. On the 
15th, a brother of the girls was taken, and died on the 22d. The next 
case was a little girl by the name of Rose, who had been continually in 
company with the Reder girls; she also died. Four other cases soon 
occurred in Mr. Rose's house; from this time it spread up Rector street, 
along Washington and Franklin, and soon became generally epidemic. 
The disease ran its course until the 5th of November, causing two hun- 
dred and thirty deaths. (Griscom, op. cit., p. 19; Carpenter, Sketches of 
Yellow Fever, pp. 24, 25.) It should be borne in mind that Rector, 
Greenwich, and Washington streets were not then, as now, occupied by 
German lodging-houses, sailors' boarding-houses, and a low and vicious 
class of the population living in filth and misery. On the contrary, 
these were then the fashionable localities of the city; the houses, occu- 
pied by the wealthier classes, were roomy and cleanly, and contained 
nothing which could, by any possibility, be seized upon by the most 
ardent non-contagionist as evidence of the local origin of the outbreak. 
All observers coincide in attributing its appearance to the landing of car- 
goes of sugar from infected ships, and to that alone. (Hardin on Yellow 
Fever in New York in 1822; Townsend on Yellow Fever in New York in 
1822.) This is the last visitation of the fever to New York City in epidemic 
form. It has, however, prevailed several times in the vicinity,. presenting 
facts well worthy of note. In June, 1823, the ship Diana arrived at quar- 
antine, New York Harbor, from New Orleans. She was detained thirty 
days, and then allowed to come to the wharf at Brooklyn to unload. A 
few days after her arrival, cases of yellow fever occurred in a family liv- 
ing near the wharf, who had communicated with the ship, and the disease 
spread generally throughout the village. An investigation showed that 
the Diana had cases of yellow fever on board both before and after her 
arrival at Brooklyn. (Dr. P. S. Townsend's letter, quoted by Carpen- 
ter, op. cit.) The disease has prevailed in epidemic form on Staten 
Island three times, viz., in 1799, 1821, and 1848, and each time the first 
cases were directly traceable to infected' ships lying at the quarantine QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
13 
anchorage, or to the cargoes landed from. them. (Report of Dr. Elisha 
Harris to New York quarantine commissioners, January 27, 1858.) 
In 1856 occurred the well-known outbreak of the disease at Fort 
Hamilton, Long Island. The season had been characterized by an 
unusual number of arrivals of infected ships at the quarantine. "Forty- 
seven infected vessels, from twelve ports, from the 1st of April to the 
1st of August, 1856, sent into the marine hospital fifty-eight cases of 
yellow-fever. Forty-seven vessels in 1856 reported having had in their 
ports of departure twenty-seven cases of yellow fever and sixteen deaths; 
* * * thirty-nine cases of fever on their passage to this port." (Report 
of Dr. R. H. Thompson, health officer, August 4, 1868.) 
• The cargoes of a number of these ships were lightered from quarantine to 
the Atlantic dock, in Brooklyn. One of these vessels, the ship Jane H. 
Gliddon, had old rags for a portion of her cargo. 
The first case of yellow fever, other than those who arrived in the in- 
fected ships, came to the marine hospital, Staten Island, from No. 12. 
Oak street, New York City. He was an Irish emigrant who arrived 
on the 3d of July in a vessel that had anchored over night in the midst of the 
infected fleet. 
. On the 14th two men were taken on Staten Island who had been em- 
ployed in unloading the Jane H. Gliddon, and the next day a lighterman en- 
gaged in transporting cargoes to the Atlantic dock. 
It made its appearance on Governor's Island on the 29th of July ; the 
first case being that of a young woman, who had just returned from 
Fort Hamilton, and who lived in Rotten Row, in that part of the island 
nearest to the Atlantic docks, in Brooklyn. August 1, three other 
cases occurred in Rotten Row and the adjoining South Battery. " And 
in these two places the disease fixed its abode, as it were, almost ex- 
clusively, and continued until the number of cases amounted to sixty- 
three, fifteen of whom died." " With regard to its existence in this 
garrison, there is satisfactory evidence of its not having been generated 
on the island, but that its origin was in our vicinity, either on shipboard 
or on land, and that its causes, whatever they were, being thus elimin- 
ated in our neighborhood, were wafted to us by the wind." (Report of As- 
sistant Surgeon L. Guild, United States Army, Army Medical Statistics, 
1856, pp. 13, 17.) 
Before these cases had happened, however, two men in the employ of 
a Mr. Bergen, on the Long Island shore, near Greenwood, gathered some 
straw which they found on the beach. This was on the 11th of July, 
and in a few days they both died with black vomit. Two men who 
were hired in their place and occupied their room soon sickened and died, 
and by the 27th of the month there had been fourteen cases in this vicinity, 
of which ten were fatal. 
On the 1st of August the disease broke out at three different points 
in the vicinity of Fort Hamilton. Infected ships were anchored in 
Gravesend Bay, and the southwest wind, which prevailed, blew directly 
over these vessels toward the shore. Besides this, mattresses and bed- 
ding were thrown overboard and drifted up along the beach. There 
was no reason to doubt that this was the source of infection; the hygi- 
enic surroundings of the locality being excellent. Cases occurred during 
the season from Bergen Point, and several were sent to the marine hos- 
pital from Brooklyn. In all, there were five hundred and thirty-eight 
cases, and one third died. It was a curious fact connected with this 
epidemic that, although it extended for fom- miles along the shore, at 
no time did it extend more than three hundred yards from the shore- 
road. (Report of Dr. Elisha Harris, quoted by Griscom, op. cit.) Dr. 14 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
Har ris, in a letter to Dr. Griscom, dated July 13, 1857, reports a striking 
case of the importation of the fever in the person of a sailor who was 
employed as shipkeeper on the bark Lucy Heywood, just arrived 
from the West Indies with yellow fever on board. This man had just 
arrived from Bangor, Maine;' and, after sleeping on board for seven or 
eight nights, was seized with symptoms of yellow fever, and died of 
black vomit in a few days. Harris says, " There could have been no 
other source for the origin of the fever in that man, who had just arrived 
from Maine, than such infection as inhered in the cargo and cavities of the 
Lucy Heywood." 
In September, 1868, ten cases occurred at Fort McHenry, Baltimore, 
Maryland, concerning which Surgeon Charles McDougall, U. S. A., re- 
marks, " We believe the yellow fever at Fort McHenry came from vessels 
infected with the disease, at quarantine, near by." (Army Medical Statistics, 
1856, p. 85.) 
In August, 1870, an epidemic disease broke out on Governor's Island, 
New York Harbor, in the same part of the island which had suffered 
in 1856. The disease was not at first recognized, but in the latter part 
of September, when it had become generally prevalent, it was pro- 
nounced to be yellow fever by experienced physicians, and the sick were 
removed October 1 to the West Bank Hospital, at quarantine. This 
did not, however, stop the course of the epidemic, which continued 
until October 26, when the last case occurred. The disease was con- 
fined to the southeast portion of the island, and was undoubtedly due 
to the arrival at the Atlantic and Empire, docks, at Brooklyn, of -vessels 
which, being infected, had evaded the New York quarantine by enter- 
ing at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, and coming thence to Brooklyn to 
discharge. The tide in the channel, between the island and Brooklyn, 
is such that articles thrown overboard from these ships would readily 
be carried to the shores of the island. The people of Brooklyn did not 
become infected, because no susceptible person was permitted near 
these vessels, they being unloaded by their own crews. There was a num- 
ber of cases which occurred in New York and Brooklyn of persons who 
had visited their friends on the island, but they did not communicate 
the disease. The population of the island was seven hundred and 
twenty-two, of whom one hundred and fifty-seven had the disease, and 
forty-nine died. (Report of Surgeon Charles Page, United States 
Army, December, 1870; personal information from Assistant Surgeon 
G. M. Sternberg, United States Army; report of Dr. Carnochan to quar- 
antine commissioners, October 4, 1870.) This completes what I have 
thought it advisable to note in reference to epidemics occurring in towns sit- 
uated farther north than the extent of coast over which I was required to 
make my inspections. 
I proceed now to give a detailed account of the facts, as far as they have 
been accessible to me, of the various outbreaks of yellow fever in the southern 
ports and towns, commencing at Norfolk, Virginia. 
Yellow fever first made its appearance in Norfolk in 1795. In the 
succeeding years there were a few cases, until 1800, when there 
was a most severe epidemic. During the summer, the weather had 
been unusually hot, with very frequent rains, and the sanitary con- 
dition of the city was very bad, as we learn from the report of Doctors 
Selden and Whitehead. (Medical Repository, vol. 4, pp. 329, 337.) 
About the middle of July, several vessels laden with fruit arrived from 
the West Indies. This fruit had rotted on the passage* and was left in 
a putrefying condition for many days on the wharves. The vessels 
'.themselves, as might be expected, were foul almost beyond belief. On QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
15 
the 26th of July, two fatal cases occurred, of persons who lived in the 
immediate vicinity of the wharf, where this fruit was exposed, and who 
had been employed in picking it over and repacking it. A previous 
case had occurred, in a sailor by the name of Carter, on July 22, also 
fatal. Dr. Schoolfield, in his account of epidemics in Norfolk and Ports- 
mouth, (Report of Portsmouth Relief Association, 1855, p. '98,) says, 
quoting from Doctors Selden and Whitehead, that others had died a 
few days before the 26th; but, though he argues from this fact that 
the epidemic had a local origin, and was not due to importation by the 
fruit-vessels, yet he gives us no particulars, and no dates, to substan- 
tiate his views, except in the case of Carter, who died on the 22d, 
after the arrival of one of the first vessels. And as other cases soon 
occurred, all in this immediate vicinity, it is certainly more rational to 
ascribe its origin to this cause than, with the imperfect information we 
possess, to insist on its local origin. The disease soon became epidemic, 
and raged until the 30th of October, when it ceased; having carried 
off about two hundred and fifty persons, among whom were a large 
number of negroes. 
The fever prevailed again in 1801, 1803, and 1805, but there was no 
considerable epidemic until 1821. In that year, the schooner George 
Armistead arrived on the 20th of July from Guadaloupe; yellow fever 
prevailing at her port of departure when she left. She had several 
cases on board during her voyage, and two men died on the day of her 
arrival. She came immediately to dock, and, having discharged her 
cargo, was transferred to another wharf, where they pumped out her 
bilge-water, which was " so putrid and offensive as to render it expe- 
dient that the doors and windows of a neighboring house should be 
closed, in order to exclude the effluvia arising from it." On the 1st of 
August, a clerk in a warehouse on the dock, but a few yards from the 
vessel, was taken ill, with decided symptoms of fever, and died. The 
same day, a negro woman living in the house above mentioned took 
sick, and on the 4th there were two other cases in this house, and a 
few days subsequently two more. Two persons who had assisted in 
pumping out the bilge-water were next taken,' and both died; and from 
this time the disease became epidemic. (Committee's Report on Origin 
of Yellow Fever in Norfolk, 1855.) Dr. Robert Archer, who wrote a 
history of this epidemic, (Medical Recorder, vol. 5, pp. 60-73,) and who 
was ignorant of the fact that yellow fever had prevailed on the vessel 
during her passage, or that two men had died of the disease the day 
of her arrival, ascribes the origin of the disease to the foulness of the 
vessel, and says, " It is evident that the effluvia arising from the bilge- 
water was the immediate cause of the disease in every instance that 
has been recorded; for every individual had been exposed to its influ- 
ence, and almost every one who had come within its atmosphere was 
more or less affected by it." 
In 1826 the disease prevailed again, this time being traceable to the 
unloading of a cargo of damaged coffee, and subsequent cleansing of 
the vessel, at one of the public wharves. (Committee's Report, p. 14.) 
From this time until 1852, Norfolk was not again visited by the fever. 
Long immunity from the disease had rendered the authorities very 
careless in regard to quarantine regulations; and on the 20th of July, 
a Spanish bark, the Tascio, from Havana, arrived, and, without being 
subjected to any health-inspection, discharged her cargo and pumped 
out her bilge-water at one of the wharves. She had two men sick on 
her arrival, whose cases were pronounced by a homeopathic doctor-an 
uneducated man-to be typhoid fever. On the 7th of August, a death 16 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
from yellow fever occurred in a row of tenement-houses about a hun- 
dred yards from the vessel, there being no intervening houses. Several 
other cases were soon heard of in this row, and before long it became 
decidedly epidemic in the lower part of the town; but the weather was 
unusually cool, and the cases were of a mild character. In this year, 
for the first time, the disease made its appearance at Portsmouth, sev- 
eral deaths happening at the marine hospital and in the vicinity. 
(Committee's Report on Yellow Pever at Norfolk, 1855, p. 16.) 
In 1854 .the French frigate Chimere arrived at Norfolk with the fever 
on board; fifty-four of her crew were removed to the naval hospital, 
and the vessel placed in quarantine. While at her anchorage, a large 
number of cases of spoiled provisions were thrown overboard, and, 
drifting on shore, were collected by people living in the vicinity, and 
taken to their houses. In one house, about a mile and a half from 
Portsmouth on the river-shore, a lady and her son, who had been occu- 
pied with cleaning these jars, sickened, and both died with undoubted 
yellow fever. Soon after this, some cotton floated ashore from two New 
Orleans vessels anchored in stream, and being gathered up, was spread 
out to dry at a house not far from the other. In a few days four cases 
of yellow fever occurred at this house. During this season there were 
three fatal cases in Norfolk, but in neither that city nor Portsmouth did 
the disease become epidemic, and I merely mention them to show the 
unquestioned transmission of the disease by the jars and cotton, or if 
not transmission, then certainly a very remarkable coincidence. (School- 
field, Portsmouth Relief Association Report, 1855, pp. 93, 94.) In the 
next year, the great epidemic which attracted such general attention 
over the whole country, took place; and I shall go somewhat into de- 
tail in describing the commencement of this epidemic, as the facts have 
the- most direct bearing on the general subject upon which I am called 
upon to report. Early in the season, March 19, 1855, the United 
frigate Columbia arrived at Quarantine from Saint Thomas, West India, 
with fever on board. Sixty-three cases were transferred to the naval 
hospital; of these five died, and there seems to have been no spread of 
the disease from this source. 
The earlier months of this year presented no remarkable meteorologi- 
cal phenomena, and up to June the condition of the population as re- 
gards health was unusually good. June was very wet, and rather hotter 
than the average, while the remaining months of summer were very hot. 
The condition of the streets was comparatively good, and there were no 
local causes likely to bring on a pestilence which had not existed for 
a series of years. " On the 6th of June, the Steamer Ben Franklin, Cap- 
tain Byram, arrived, in distress, from St. Thomas." As yellow fever was 
prevailing at that island, she was quarantined by the Health-officer, 
having previously sent her passengers by the Baltimore boat, in the 
lower bay. She had lost two men on the passage, neither of them from 
yellow fever, as the captain positively asserted. The vessel remained 
at quarantine until the 19th of June, but the crew were allowed to come 
up to the city. The captain of the steamer admitted to the health-offi- 
cer that he had two deaths on the passage, but denied that they were 
from fever; but subsequent testimony, obtained by the Norfolk com- 
mittee, conclusively proved, not only that these were cases of yellow 
fever, but that there had also been a third, which recovered; and that, 
while in quarantine, another man died with undoubted yellow fever, 
who was secretly buried in the woods on the neighboring shore. On 
the 19th of June, the captain having pledged his word to the health- 
officer that the hold should not be broken into or the bilge-water QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
17 
pumped out, and again, positively certifying to the health of all on 
board, the vessel was permitted to come to Page and Alien's ship-yard, 
at Gosport, near Portsmouth, for repairs. And yet, at this very time, 
he had one case of yellow fever; for, on the 21st, a man named Palmer 
was removed from the vessel to the marine hospital, and died of black 
vomit on the 22d, having been sick since the 15th. The sanitary con- 
dition of the ship-yard and the neighboring localities was very bad. 
The wharf was rotten, the mud exposed at low tide, and the ground 
covered with hotting vegetable debris several inches deep. In the imme- 
diate vicinity was a row of tenements occupied by a large number of 
Irish, whose habits were filthy to an extreme. Nearly all workmen 
in the ship-yard were unacclimated New Englanders. 
After the arrival of the steamer at the yard, the captain deliberately 
violated the promise .given but a day or two before. The bilge-water 
was pumped out, a portion of cargo and ballast transferred to the 
dock, and a large number of 'workmen employed in the hold and about 
the machinery. 
On the 30th of June three cases of fever occurred in a house on Water 
street, fronting the ship-yard; and on the 3d of July a man by the 
name of Jones, who had been employed for a week on the steamer, was 
removed to the hospital, where he died of black vomit on the 17th. A 
day or two later another man, Carter or Courtright by name, also em- 
ployed on the steamer, was taken sick and died on the 8th. The au- 
thorities now became alarmed, and ordered the vessel back to quaran- 
tine, where several more cases occurred, among them two negroes from 
the country, who passed a night on the vessel, and were subsequently 
attacked at their homes, neither of them having been in Norfolk or 
Portsmouth at all. 
On the 8th of July the fever broke out in the low Irish row before 
spoken of, and from thence spread rapidly through Gosport, reaching 
Portsmouth about the 1st of August, where it speedily became epi- 
demic. It should be mentioned that Doctor Schoolfield reports one 
case as having been seen by him on the 24th of June, in a house on the 
river-shore, about a mile and a half from Portsmouth. This was less 
than a mile from where the Franklin lay at anchorage at quarantine, 
being in the same house where some cases were seen in 1854, (above 
noticed as having derived the infection from the French frigate Chi- 
mere.) It is more than probable that this case received the disease in 
the same way, though Doctor Schoolfield thinks it positive evidence of 
the local origin of the epidemic. In the mean time there had been un- 
restricted communication between Norfolk and Portsmouth by means 
of a steam ferry-boat, which landed close to Barry's Row. The first 
cases in Norfolk were about the middle of July, in Barry's Row, (Irish 
tenement-houses on Church street, in the usual filthy and neglected 
condition of such places, and built on ground reclaimed from the river 
by filling in within twenty years.) Here the disease found a congenial 
habitation, and a large number of cases occurred. The authorities bar- 
ricaded the streets and destroyed the obnoxious houses, but this did 
not prevent the epidemic from spreading in every direction until the 
whole city was involved. From the last of August until the middle of 
September was the period of its greatest intensity, after which it de- 
clined, finally terminating in the last week in October, in Norfolk, and 
somewhat earlier than this in Portsmouth. (Williman on Yellow Fever 
in Norfolk, Charleston Medical Journal, vol. 11, p. 169.) The popula- 
tion of Norfolk at this time was about 15,000, and of Portsmouth 
about 10,000. Of these, very large numbers fled to escape the disease. 18 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
Of those who remained there died, in Norfolk, 1,807, out of an esti- 
mated number of 10,000 cases, and in Portsmouth about 1,000 out of 
4,000, who remained and took the disease. 
The disease has not appeared at Norfolk since that time, though it 
has twice certainly, and perhaps oftener, made its appearance on ves- 
sels at quarantine. In 1869 a French frigate arrived in Hampton 
Roads with the captain and two surgeons sick, both of whom died. 
She was anchored off Sewall's Point and closely watched by the military 
authorities at Fort Monroe, and no importation of the disease took 
place. In May, 1871, a three-masted schooner arrived from Charleston 
with the captain, first officer, and two sailors sick, all of whom died. She 
was anchored at the Willoughby Spit light-vessel, and the dead buried 
on the shore above Fort Monroe, and there were no cases on shore. 
(Personal information furnished by Colonel W. F. Barry, United States 
Army.) 
Wilmington, North Carolina.-There was a slight epidemic in 1796, 
but I have not been able to obtain any particulars in reference to it; 
but Dr. A. J. De Rossett, a venerable practitioner of that city, who wit- 
nessed it, was of opinion that it was entirely due to local causes, the 
disease being but an aggravated type of the common autumnal bilious 
remittent. (Medical Repository, vol. 2, pp. 153, 155.) From this time the 
city was free from the disease, except, perhaps, a few sporadic cases (of 
very doubtful authority) in 1819 and 1820. In 1821 occurred an epi- 
demic of a very severe character. Wilmington at that time was a small 
town of from twenty-five hundred to three thousand inhabitants. Its 
sanitary condition is described by an eye-witness to have been the worst 
possible, and the fever was regarded by Dr. Nathaniel Hill (Medical 
Recorder, vol. 1, p. 86) to have arisen from the great amount of decay- 
ing vegetable matter about the wharves, which was daily washed by the 
tides, leaving it exposed to the sun at other times; and also to the 
low, damp, and filthy cellars, which were so wet as to require to he 
baled out. These foci of disease had, however, existed many years 
without producing an epidemic, while, August 9, 1821, the brig John 
London arrived from Matanzas, Cuba, West Indies, having had cases 
of the fever on board, and the first cases on shore were in the immediate 
vicinity of the wharves above spoken of, and which would be most likely 
to be the portion of the town where the sailors from the newly-arrived 
vessel would congregate. At this late day we are without any positive 
data to connect the arrival of this vessel with the fever, except the 
statement of old residents, that those first attacked had been on board; 
but the facts that the epidemic soon followed her arrival, and that the 
local causes that have been claimed as causing it existed equally in 
previous years, will not, I believe, be disputed by any. In 1854 nine 
deaths occured as a direct result of importation from Charleston, but, 
it being late in the fall, the disease did not become epidemic. 
After this Wilmington enjoyed an exemption from epidemics until 
1862. 
Her people escaped the great series of epidemics that extended from 
New Orleans to New York, 1853-56. In 1862 the most severe visita- 
tion the town has ever known took place. The city at the time was in 
a favorable condition for the development or spread of the disease. 
The larger portion ot the male population had been taken away to enter 
the rebel service, and there was, consequently, a very general neglect 
of the most ordinary hygienic precautions; the authorities being so 
anxious to repel the enemy from their front by the erection of great 
lines of works, that they overlooked the necessity of guarding against QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
19 
the more, insidious foe that was soon to cause a greater mortality and 
more distress and woe than an invading army. The stringency of the 
blockade had caused a general want of all the comforts and many of 
the necessaries of life; and there was much destitution and suffering 
among the poorer classes. Dr. W. T. Wragg, of Charleston, thus 
describes the condition of the city during the height of the epidemic: 
On entering the city at the railroad depot I noticed the disagreeable odors which 
filled the air, and these became more evident as I advanced into the town. The hotels 
were all closed, and when admission into one of them was obtained I was struck 
with the same want of care as had been noticed in the street When daylight appeared, 
the want of cleanliness displayed, both in the house and on the premises, accounted 
for the foul air around. In the yard were seen piles of offal, consisting of old bedding, 
rags, scraps of vegetables and, in short, the refuse matter of all sorts usually about the 
habitations of man, when the demands of cleanliness and care have been lost sight of 
* * Along some of the principal streets I saw the cellars flooded with 
water. In the yards I was called into I saw on every side the accumulated refuse of 
the house, the kitchen, and the stable. * * * heaVy rains of 
the late summer and the early fall had created a state of things well calculated, it seems 
to me, to generate disease. Through many parts of the town, m those (suburban) por- 
tions, ponds of water, stagnant, and covered with green vegetation, existed. Some of 
these ponds, I was told, had been drained in former years because they occasioned 
sickness, and had always been kept carefully dry till this season, when from scarcity 
of labor they had been allowed to refill by the choking up of their vents. In many 
places new ponds were formed by the unusual quantity of rain. 
This statement refers to the condition of affairs toward the close of 
the epidemic; but Dr. W. G. Thomas, of Wilmington, shows (New 
York Journal of Medicine, December, 1869) that at the outbreak of the 
epidemic no such state of neglect existed; that while the sanitary con- 
dition of the city had been neglected for years to some extent, still 
the vast accumulations of offal, and vegetable debris, of which Dr. 
Wragg speaks, were the result of entire neglect of cleanliness from the 
consternation of the people after the epidemic commenced, and not before. 
There must, therefore, have been some other cause for the appearance 
of the disease than either atmospheric disturbances or neglect of sani- 
tary measures. After a careful consideration of the very able articles 
on both sides, above mentioned, as well as of information kindly fur- 
nished me by Dr. E. A. Anderson, of Wilmington, I am inclined to the 
opinion that the following is the correct solution of the question: 
During the summer, yellow fever prevailed extensively at Nassau. On 
the 2d of August the blockade-runner Kate left that city, arriving at 
Wilmington on the 6th. She had one case of fever on board on her ar- 
rival, who died on the 8th, at the Marine Hospital. Six deaths occurred 
in a few weeks, all of them of persons who had been patients in the 
same ward where this man died. In the mean time a man by the name 
of Smith, who had spent the day on the Kate, on her first arrival, died 
on the 13th of August with black vomit. On the 17th of August a sea- 
man died in a house on shore, and within a few weeks a large number 
of cases and several deaths took place in this house and in the neigh- 
borhood. 
On the 3d of September a man by the name of Swartzman died, hav- 
ing been frequently on the Kate. So with another, by the name of 
Crapen, who died on the 19th, his wife having previously died on the 
10th; and with Hyer, who died on the 13th, having been constantly 
about the vessel. From this time cases rapidly multiplied until it was 
pronounced epidemic, some time between the 14th and 24th of September. 
It is proper to state that Dr. E. A. Anderson, a gentlemen of the 
highest professional standing, asserts positively that he had cases of 
yellow fever in his practice previous to the arrival of the Kate, and 
Dr. Wragg narrates eight cases said to have occurred previous to that 20 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
time; .but as Dr. Thomas shows an error in dates in a number of these 
and that others were under the care of an irregular practitioner (who 
would be very apt to make a mistake in diagnosis). It may be assumed 
that the weight of testimony is in favor of its introduction by the Kate. 
Even Dr. Wragg states : 
In my first interviews with the resident physicians, I learned that their unanimous 
opinion was that yellow fever had been introduced into Wilmington by the steamer 
Kate, from Nassau, New Providence, which port she left on the 2d August, arriving at 
the wharf in this city on the 6th, at 2 o'clock p. M. It was stated that, at the time of 
her arrival, she had a sick man on board, and that others of her crew were taken sick 
soon after, and. being carried to boarding-houses, spread the fever among 'those who 
nursed them or were near them. It was also stated that among the earlier cases occur- 
ring amid the resident population were those persons who had the most direct inter- 
course with the vessel for trading or other purposes. 
I may add, that in my late visit to Wilmington I conversed with 
many leading gentlemen, professional and otherwise, all of whom, with 
the exception of Dr. E. A. Anderson, concurred in thifi view. 
As stated before, the disease became epidemic about the 20th of Sep- 
tember. It attained its acme about the middle of October, and then 
gradually declined, until the third week in November, when it disap- 
peared. Wilmington had at this time about five thousand inhabitants; 
of these fifteen hundred and seven had the fever, and four hundred and 
forty-six died-a percentage of mortality greater than that of almost 
any other epidemic. (Report of Acting Assistant Surgeon D. W. Hand, 
March, 15, 1866 ; Dr. W. T. Wragg, Yellow Fever in Wilmington in 1862, 
New York Medical Journal, August 1869; Dr. W. G. Thomas, Review 
of Dr. Wragg's Report, New York Medical Journal, 1869; Dr. E. A. 
Anderson's Examination of Dr. Thomas's Review, New York Medical 
Journal, September, 1872.) From that time to the present, Wilmington 
has been free from the disease in an epidemic form, though sporadic 
cases have been seen several years in the practice of leading physicians. 
The disease, however, failing to spread, no especial pains were taken 
to ascertain its origin, and this, I may remark in this place, will be 
found to be the case in almost every town coming under my observa- 
tion. Sporadic'cases occur nearly every year in almost all-the southern 
cities, and are assumed to be of local origin, and I am far from denying 
that they may be and often are so; but still, granting this, it is quite 
probable that a careful examination of these cases (such as always takes 
place at the time of a great epidemic) would develop some communica- 
tion, in a proportion, if not a majority of the cases, with extramural 
sources of infection. 
At Smithville, North Carolina, at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, 
a number of cases occurred. These are asserted to have originated as 
follows: A man by the name of Brown, belonging in Smithville, died in 
Nassau, New Providence, of yellow fever, and his trunk was sent home 
to his wife. It remained unopened for about two months, when it was 
opened, and the clothes spread out on the piazza to air. The widow 
who unpacked the trunk took the disease, and there were other cases 
in the family and neighboring houses. But, assuming that this story is 
not entirely to be depended upon, yet, as Dr. Anderson states, there 
being daily communication between the infected city of Wilmington and 
Smithville during the summer and fall, it is probably not necessary to 
go to an infected trunk to account for the appearance of the disease in 
the latter place. 
It should be added that since the close of the war, Wilmington has 
changed vastly in her sanitary condition; fi,n excellent health ordinance, 
improved drainage and sew'erage, and a more general attention to QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
21 
hygienic laws, have greatly increased the general health of the city, 
and will probably do much to prevent a return of yellow fever in epi- 
demic form. 
Coast of North Carolina, 1864.-At New Berne there was a most violent 
epidemic. The first cases were taken sick early in September, and the 
epidemic lasted until the first week in November. New Berne was very 
much crowded with soldiers, civilians in army employ, and refugees, 
and the percentage of mortality was very large; out of about three 
thousand cases there were nearly seven hundred deaths. No vessels 
had arrived at the port during the season from any place from which 
they could have brought the disease; and nothing was found in the his- 
tory of the first cases to sustain the idea of extramural infection. It 
was, indeed, considered probable that some of the infected goods, intro- 
duced within our lines by Dr. Blackburn and G. J. Hyams, might have 
been conveyed to New Berne; but Dr. Hand, who carefully investigated 
this matter, found no evidence to warrant such a supposition. (Official 
Report, April 1st, 1866.) This being the case, the medical officers on duty 
felt bound in duty to discover some cause for so unusual an outbreak 
in a town which had been exempt for fifty years, and instead of one they 
found a dozen, any one of which they considered amply sufficient to 
account for the phenomenon. Dr. Hand says the streets were well and 
thoroughly policed, but the back yards were dirty, yet " the general 
sanitary condition of New Berne, when the fever broke out, was better 
than that of most southern cities." Unusually low tides in the Neuse 
and Trent Rivers, which left exposed a strip of mud a hundred yards 
broad, was one cause assigned; the presence of filth and dead rats under- 
neath old buildings, which had been in the same condition for twenty 
years; the presence of an unusual quantity of mud in the streets, &c. 
Privies, that from the statement of the writers had been uncleaned for 
a quarter of a century, suddenly became endowed with powerful septic 
capacity and nursed in their vaults the germs of the disease. A large 
quantity of stable-manure had been thrown into the docks, though 
whether any had been brought from other places for this purpose, or 
whether any more was thrown there than ordinarily existed in such a 
town, is not stated. One writer ascribes it to the felling of forests on 
the southwestern outskirts of the city, so that the sun, acting on the 
soil, developed malarial influences which penetrated the city; and an- 
other with equal gravity, ascertained that the trees in New Berne had not 
been trimmed for several years, and that consequently the foliage had 
grown so dense that the rays of the sun could not penetrate to dry up 
the mud. All concurred in ascribing to it a local origin, and nothing 
but that. (Official Reports of Colonel Peter Pineo, medical inspector, 
United States Army, December 31st, 1864) Surgeon C. A. Cowgill, United 
States Volunteers, November, 1864; Surgeon D. W. Hand, United States 
Volunteers, April, 28, 1865, April 1st, 1866 ; and letter of Dr. J. M. Davis, 
Ninth New Jersey Volunteers, June 24th, 1865.) That some of these nu- 
merous and somewhat conflicting causes may have had an effect as afford- 
ing resting-places for the disease, no one will question; but Assistant Sur- 
geon J. J. Woodward, United States Army, whose experience in studying 
the medical history of the war entitles his opinion to the highest considera- 
tion, thinks that a more thorough investigation would have shown that 
the disease was introduced by means of the numerous refugees who 
were daily coming into New Berne in great numbers, and some of whom 
doubtless came from Charleston, at which place yellow fever was prevail- 
ing. This seems to me much the more rational view. Certainly it is 22 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
more in accordance with what we see of the history of yellow fever in 
other places. , 
The disease was carried from New Berne to Beanfort, North Carolina, 
where it broke ont on the 24th of September. The first cases were of 
persons who had been in New Berne within a few days of their seizure; 
the next, persons who lived in adjoining houses. The epidemic lasted 
until November 17, causing sixty-eight deaths. (Official report of Sur- 
geon U. P. Rice, United States Volunteers, November 18, 1864.) 
Charleston, South Carolina.-The yellow fever made its appearance at 
Charleston at a very early period in the history of that city, and has 
since that time visited it more frequently than any other place in the 
country. The following abstract of the epidemics I copy from the val- 
uable census of Charleston by Doctors Dawson and DeSaussure. 
Yellow fever first prevailed as an epidemic in this city in 1699 or 1700 ; the exact 
date cannot now be ascertained. According to the account given of it by Dr. Hewitt, 
it prevailed in that year very extensively, carried off a large number of the inhabit- 
ants, including many of the chief men of the province, and was called the plague. 
The same disease recurred in 1713, and caused as fearful a mortality as at its previous 
visitation. From this period, no mention is made of its occurrence until 1728, when it 
again recurred, and was then first called " yellow feveralthough from the description 
given of two former epidemics, there can be no doubt of the identity of the last with 
the two preceding. In this year also it caused a great number of deaths. In the 
year 1732 it commenced its ravages in May, and continued until September or October; 
during the height of the epidemic from eight to twelve whites were buried daily. It 
appeared again in 1739, 1745, and 1748, and is said to have raged as severely in these 
years as in 1732. The number of deaths which it caused in those years cannot now be 
ascertained. From 1748 to 1792 no epidemics of yellow fever occurred, although it is 
stated that in 1753 and 1755 a few sporadic cases were seen. In 1762 a new series of 
epidemics occurred; it raged in that year, and in 1794, 1795,1796, 1797, 1799, 1800, 1801 
1802, 1804, 1807. * * * From 1807 to 1817, a period of ten years, there was nearly 
a complete exemption from epidemics of this disease. In this latter year it re-appeared 
and caused two hundred and seventy deaths, a large number of whom were children. 
In 1819 it again prevailed epidemically, causing one hundred and seventy-six deaths. 
In the next year it prevailed slightly, but did not become epidemic. In 1824 another 
serious epidemic occurred, which carried off two hundred and thirty-one persons. 
From this period, 1824 to 1838, no serious visitation of yellow fever occurred, although 
several cases of it existed in each of the years 1827, 1828, 1834 and 1835. In 1838 the 
most serious epidemic occurred which has been known in the annals of Charleston, 
and causing the largest mortality which has ever resulted from the disease in this 
city. In 1839 it was again epidemic, but to a much less extent than during the for- 
mer year. From 1839 to the present time (1848), nine years have elapsed, during 
which the city has been exempt. 
In 1849 it again made its appearance, but in a very mild form, and 
has since that time prevailed with varying severity in the following 
years, 1852, 1854, 1856, 1858, 1864, and 1871. Besides this, there have been 
unquestioned sporadic cases during other years, but no approach to an 
epidemic. 
The local hygienic conditions of Charleston have always had a most 
important bearing upon the spread of the disease, and as believed by 
many of her ablest practitioners, upon its origin. (See Simons on 
Yellow Fever in Charleston, Charleston Medical Journal, November, 
1851, p. 792.) The city, situated at the junction of the Ashley and 
Cooper Rivers with the bay, is on very low ground; the average fall in 
drainage being not more than five feet. In early times, and to some 
extent still, there were numerous salt-marshes extending from the rivers 
towards the town and to a considerable extent within the limits of the 
city. These were washed twice a day by the tides, and as long they 
were left alone did not seem to be deleterious to the general health ; and, 
previous to theii' being filled in, the yellow fever was confined to what 
is known as Old Charleston, in the southeastern part of the city. Grad- 
ually, however, as land became more valuable by the natural extension QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
23 
of the town, many persons owning lots on these salt-marshes filled them 
in, thus destroying the natural drainage in the vicinage. The material 
used for this purpose was often of a highly injurious character, con- 
sisting of old wood, offal, the detritus from the drains, and filthy dirt- 
heaps, thus making a vegetable compost of highly putrefying capacity, 
to be exposed to the hot sun. In every case where this has been done, 
yellow fever has extended its area over the newly-filled localities, until 
now there is hardly any portion of the city that can be considered exempt. 
Full details of the subject will be found in a very interesting letter of 
Dr. W. T. Wragg (Report to Common Council on Epidemic of 1858, pp. 
36-45.) 
For the last seventy years the condition of the drains, privy-vaults, 
latrines, sewers, and yards around the houses has been such as to call 
for the severest comments from all that have interested themselve# in 
the health of the city. Offal and garbage, and the detritus of cow- 
yards, have been openly placed in the streets; the drains have not 
unfrequently been opened in summer to be cleaned, and their contents 
strewed over the surface to fill up vacant lots. " Another and a greater 
evil, alike favorable to the formation of an unhealthy state of the atmos- 
phere, are houses crowded, or rather packed, from basement to attic, 
with human beings; and the yards or lots of small dimensions, equally 
crowded, with horses, cows, goats, and, in some instances, hogs and 
dogs. The filth of all these animals, biped and quadruped, is frequently, 
in one mass, placed in the street, for the scavenger's cart to remove." 
(Report to Common Council on Epidemic of 1858, p. 19.) Still another 
source of disease is the large number of burial-places in the most thickly- 
settled portions of the city. These are very much crowded, and often 
in the heat of summer exhale the most offensive odors. This was the 
state of affairs in 1858 ; and Dr. Robert Lebby's report to the mayor in 
1872, as well as my own conversations with many physicians in the 
city, and personal observations during the past summer, all show that 
the condition of affairs has not materially improved since; perhaps, 
even for a year or two after the close of the war, it was worse than it 
had ever been, owing to the disorganized condition of public affairs 
caused by the war. 
We are without detailed accounts of the earlier epidemics. Dr. John 
Lining savs (letter to Dr. Robert Whytt, of Edinburgh, December 14, 
1753:) 
Within these twenty-five years it has only been four times epidemical in this town, 
namely, in the autumns of the years 1732, 1739,1745, and 1748, * * * and lastly, 
whenever the disease appeared here, it was easily traced to some person who had lately 
arrived from the West Indian Islands, where it was epidemical. 
During this period the commerce of Charlestown with the West Indies 
had attained considerable proportions, and there were many arrivals 
at the port from the West Indies in every year. Toward the last of 
this period this trade has been gradually growing less, in consequence 
of the unjust restrictions placed on the trade of the colonies, by Parlia- 
ment, in the various navigation acts, and other measures, tending 
towards a commercial monopoly. By 1750 the trade had almost en- 
tirely ceased; and it was not revived until the independence of the 
United States was secured, and affairs settled down once more on a 
quiet basis. By a singular coincidence, yellow fever disappears from the 
annals of Charlestown during the whole of this long period, and only 
makes its appearance again in 1793, when the trade had again become 
large with the West India ports. (Carpenter on Yellow Fever, p. 45.) 
A reference to the preceding quotation from DeSaussure and Daw - 24 
QUARANTINE ON TIIE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
son will show that it was epidemic nearly every year after this until 
1808, when it again disappeared from the city until 1817. Dr. Carpen- 
ter (History of Yellow Fever, pp. 45, 46) shows that this period of exemp- 
tion was exactly coincident with the suppression of traffic with the 
British West India Islands, consequent on the embargo act and the 
subsequent war with Great Britain, and that it was not until that 
traffic had been revived by the peace of 1815 that yellow fever again 
visited Charleston. The first cases this year (1817) occurred among 
sailors in the lower portion of the city, and from them it spread over 
the greater portion of Old Charleston. During the continuance of this 
epidemic a vessel left Charleston for Beaufort, South Carolina. The 
authorities of that place having no belief in the contagious or infectious 
character of the disease, admitted her to the wharf, without quarantine 
examination. " Two days after, one of her passengers complained of 
sickness, and was placed under the charge of a colored nurse. The 
fever was soon characterized ; the patient died. The nurse was the next 
taken; she died ; then some of her family, and from this point the fever 
extended over Beaufort, and destroyed one-sixth of the inhabitants." 
(Hume, " Report to City Council of Charleston on Origin and Source of 
Yellow Fever," Charleston Medical Journal, March, 1854, p. 154.) 
Dr. S. H. Dickson says of the epidemic of 1819 (Charleston Medical 
Journal, November, 1856, p. 744), that "it was the most terrible year of 
relative mortality I have known," and of that of 1827, that it was " the 
least fatal in proportion." During subsequent years, there was no 
serious visitation of the disease, until 1838, when it caused three hun- 
dred and fifty-three deaths, two hundred and eighty-one of which were 
adult males. On the 4th of July, of that year, the British bark Lord 
Glenelg arrived from Demerara, and lay at Boyce's wharf, having at 
the time several cases of yellow fever on board. At this time, the ship 
Medora, from Liverpool, lay at another wharf, about one hundred yards 
distant. The first case of fever among the citizens was the wife of 
the steward of the Medora, who had frequently been on board to see 
her husband. This case occurred on the 1st of August. The next case 
was a sailor from the Medora, who was taken to the hospital on the 4th 
of August. Both of these cases died, and the disease soon spread to 
other houses, and became epidemic. (Hume, op. cit., p. 154; Strobel, 
Essay on the Transmissibility of Yellow Fever, p. 124.) It is not known 
that there was any communication between the Lord Glenelg and the 
Medora; indeed, Dr. Thomas T. Simons denies that there was at any 
time any yellow fever on the Lord Glenelg, and finds a sufficient cause 
for the fever in the great fire which swept over the city in the spring 
of that year, and which left a great mass of filth, decaying and putrefy- 
ing material, old rags, all kinds of offal, of every description, exposed to 
the solar rays. To these causes, he thinks, must be added the influence 
of a large number of unclimated mechanics from the North, who came to 
Charleston to rebuild the burned district, and who lived in crowded 
boarding-houses, under unfavorable hygienic ponditions. (Simons' Reply 
to Wm. Hume, M. D., before the City Council, Charleston Medical Journal, 
May, 1854.) 
The following year, 1839, the disease again prevailed epidemically. 
During May, June, and July a large number of vessels arrived at the 
city from the West Indies, laden with fruit, much of which was rotten, 
and all the vessels very filthy. Strobel says: 
From the 1st of May to the 30th of July, inclusive, there were no less than thirty- 
six arrivals from infected ports in the West Indies. Now, we consider each of these 
vessels a scource of infection, for they arrived in our harbor with the epidemic atmos- QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
25 
phere of the places from which they came hermetically sealed up in their holds; not 
only so, but many of them were laden with fruit, vast quantities of which had rotted 
in their holds prior to their arrival, the effluvia from which must have added greatly 
to the virulence of the poisonous atmosphere with which they are freighted. (Op. cit., 
pp. 171, 172.) 
But the vessel to which the first cases were clearly traced was the ship 
Burmah, which arrived on the 7th of June from Havana, having recently 
had two deaths among her crew from yellow fever, and having three sick 
on her arrival, who were immediately sent to the hospital. The Burmah 
lay for some days in stream, in the vicinity of a number of other vessels 
that were either in stream or at neighboring wharves. On the 17th of 
June five men were admitted to hospital from some of these ships, three 
being from the Leonore, from Boston; one from the Chatham, from 
Boston; and one from the Elizabeth Bruce, from New York. Cases 
were soon admitted from other vessels, until they became so numerous 
that there was scarcely a vessel uninfected. The first case in the city 
was on the 26th of June, in the person of a man named Humphreys, 
who arrived on the 19th of June from Havana, and was boarding on 
Market street. On the 7th of July a case occurred a few doors west of 
this boarding-house, and soon numbers of other cases occurred, and the 
fever was pronounced epidemic. The Medical Society of Charleston 
appointed a committee to investigate the origin of this epidemic, and 
they came to the conclusion that there was no warrant for supposing 
its introduction to be due to the Burmah, but that there were "local 
and general causes" witbin the city itself amply sufficient to give rise 
to it. Simon says that " many of the lots which had been exposed by 
the fire of 1838 remained unoccupied, and continued to present the Same 
surface to the deleterious influences of the sun and rain, and many 
strangers, also, who remained in the city, engaged in the occupation of 
rebuilding." (Op. cit.) He also says, in another essay, that Dr. Robert 
Lebby, post-surgeon at Fort Johnson, had cases under his charge pre- 
vious to the arrival of the Burmah. This epidemic lasted until some 
time in October, and caused one hundred and fifty-three deaths. 
It prevailed next on Charleston Neck, in 1843, but did not become 
epidemic in the city. Hume traced the infection in this case to the ar- 
rival of a man by the name of Hewes, from Havana, sick with fever ; 
but as Hewes arrived on the 27th of July, and the first cases thereafter 
were not until the 10th of September, the time seems too long to trace 
any connection between them. 
The city was now free from disease until 1849, when again the fever 
became epidemic. The history of its introduction seems to be as fol- 
lows, though, as usual, it gave rise to the most violent controversy 
between the advocates of local origin and the importationists. As this 
is found to be the case with every epidemic in Charleston, I merely pre- 
sent the facts, and will let inferences be drawn by others*: The first case 
was taken to the hospital on the 6th of August, being a sailor from the 
bark Numa, then lying at the Union wharves, having arrived from 
Havana on the 18th of July. This case proved fatal the night of his 
admission; and the next day another case made its appearance from 
the steamer Isabel, which arrived from Havana on the 25th of July, 
and was at the same dock as the Numa. On the 20th of August the 
captain of the ship Huron, lying at the next wharf below the other 
vessels, was taken with yellow fever. On the 28th the captain of the 
British ship Queen Victoria, lying next above the infected ships, was 
taken sick and died of black vomit; and in a few days five of the crew 
of this last ship were taken. Cases began to occur in the houses in the 26 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
vicinity of the wharves by the 3d of September. Shortly before this a 
man by the name of Holman arrived by steamer from Savannah and 
died on the 29th of August at the poor-house. On the 2d of September, 
a German, who had been on the infected ships to buy cigars, died of 
the fever on the of East Bay and Elliot streets. Other cases 
soon occurred in the vicinity, and by the middle of September it was 
decidedly epidemic. In October it was very severe, commenced to de- 
cline in the early part of November, and by December 1 had disappeared. 
In all there were one hundred and twenty-three deaths; but two of 
these occurring among natives. (Hume, op. cit.) The local causes that 
had their influence toward the development of this epidemic (as has 
been the case in almost the entire history of yellow fever in Charleston) 
were a high degree of temperature, a moist atmosphere, and the 
excavation of earth in various portions of the city. " In 1849," says 
Simons, " an extensive drain was opened in Hasel street, excavating the 
most filthy and offensive materials; and likewise an extensive drain on 
Market street from Church street to the wharf. Yellow fever occurred 
earliest in these localities, and was more fatal. Again, this earth, so 
filthy and offensive, was transferred to King street from Horlbeck's 
alley to Hasel street; and in this particular spot there were sickness and 
mortality among a class of persons who are generally exempt." 
In 1852 the first case was the wife of a shipmaster named Cole, who 
died on her husband's ship, at one of the wharves, on the 16th of 
August. The ship lay at the dock, in the immediate vicinity of three 
vessels, recently arrived from the West Indies, and she had on board a 
quantity of damaged cotton, taken from a vessel that had been de- 
stroyed by fire a short time before. It is not known whether either uf 
these circumstances had anything to do with the production of the dis- 
ease. They are mentioned by contemporary writers (Hume and Simons) 
as having a possible connection with it. In January, of this year, ex- 
cavations had been commenced, with the view of laying the foundations 
for the new custom-house, and this work was continued during the sum- 
mer; about two hundred unacclimated Irish laborers being employed, 
most of whom had arrived in the city during the year. The earth taken 
from this excavation was sold, and distributed throughout the city, and 
used in filling up low and swampy lots. Dr. Simons regarded this as 
a powerful predisposing cause of the epidemic, in which Hume differs 
from him, who shows (Charleston Medical Journal, November, 1854) 
that in 1847, 1848, and 1853, much more extensive excavations and dis- 
tributions of earth took place than in 1852, and yet these were seasons 
of complete exemption from disease. Still, it can hardly be doubted, 
that this excavation did act as a factor in this epidemic, and that in the 
other years mentioned other circumstances required to produce an 
epidemic were wanting. This much may be admitted without justify- 
ing Dr. Simons's assertion that the excavation originated the disease. 
A more rational view would be that the excavation and presence of 
unacclimated laborers favored its epidemic development; its origin 
being looked for in the holds of the West India ships lying at con- 
tiguous wharves to the ship when Mrs. Cole, the first case, died. 
The disease became epidemic the last week in August, raged with 
violence during September and October, and declined and terminated 
during November. In all, there were three hundred and ten deaths, of 
which two hundred and seventy were of Irish and German laborers; 
at this time the population of the city, including the suburbs, was 
about forty-five thousand. But five of the deaths were natives of the 
city. QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
27 
Early in the season of 1854 the steamer Isabel arrived from Havana 
and Key West. She came to the wharf on the 11th of May, and on the 
14th a passenger was sent to hospital with black vomit. He, however, 
recovered, and there were no more cases from this source of infection, 
either in the hospital or on the ship. This man had been some weeks 
in Key West,. where yellow fever was prevailing. On the 11th of July 
the steamer again arrived from the same ports, and an Irishwoman on 
board was taken sick to the Pavilion Hotel, and removed the next 
day to the lazaretto, where she died of black vomit. Still there was 
no propagation of the disease from this case. (Dawson, Report of 
City Register of Charleston.) On the 22d of July the Spanish vessels 
Columbus and Concha came to the wharf from quarantine, their port 
of departure having been Havana. Four days after each vessel sent a 
sick man to the lazaretto, one of whom died with black vomit. On the 
arrivals of these vessels, the ship Sullivan, just arrived from Liverpool, 
was lying at the dock to which they came, and on the 7th of August 
a sailor was taken with yellow fever from this ship, and on the 10th 
another case occurred from the same source. Dawson (op. cit.) thus 
narrates the next cases that occurred among the shipping: 
The brig Emily arrived at Accommodation wharf from Boston on the Sth of August. 
A seaman was sent to the marine hospital on the 18th, having been three days sick 
before admission, and died on the 20th with black vomit. 
The schooner Monterey, from Philadelphia, arrived at Central wharf (next to where 
the other vessels were) on the 7th of August; on the 17th one man was sent to the 
marine hospital, and is now convalescent. 
The Susan Cannon, from Baltimore, arrived at the same wharf on the 8th of August; 
on the 17th one man was sent to the marine hospital, whois still under treatment. 
On the 8th and 9th there were other arrivals of northern vessels with 
similar results. Nor was this the only source of infection, for on the 
13th of July the bark Aquatic arrived at quarantine in distress. This 
vessel was from, Matanzas, bound to Dublin, and on the voyage, all the 
crew being either dead or sick with yellow fever, she was run ashore, 
but subsequently got off, and brought to Charleston. At the quaran- 
tine, all of her original crew were sent to the lazaretto, and she was 
brought up to the Union wharves in charge of persons living in Charles- 
ton. At these wharves was the bark Vesta, from Boston. On the 7th 
of August a case occurred on the Vesta, another on the 11th, and on 
the 12th another, this latter on shore, in the person of a man who had 
worked on the Aquatic. The first case on shore was at a hotel, in the 
person of a Spanish gentleman, who visited the Concha repeatedly. He 
was taken on the 7th of August, but recovered. An Irish servant girl, 
who washed the bed-linen of this man, was next taken on the 20th, and 
soon after other cases occurred in this house. From these various cen- 
ters the disease diffused itself throughout the city. (Frost, Review of 
Wehther and Diseases, 1853, 1854; Charleston Medical Journal, Janu- 
ary, 1855 ; Hume, Yellow Fever in 1854, idem.} 
This was the most widely-diffused epidemic that had ever been known 
in Charleston. All classes, races, and conditions alike suffered attacks, 
though, of course, the mortality was greatest among the unacclimated. 
The fever was extremely general among the black population. It was 
noticed that there was an unusual number of second attacks. 
(Wragg's Roper Hospital Report, p. 19.) The fever was decidedly epi- 
demic by the middle of August, and lasted as usual until some time 
in November, causing six hundred and seventy-five deaths. 
There was no epidemic in 18o5, but in 1856 it made its appearance on 
the 14th of July, and eight other cases occurred between this date and 
the 5th of August. Previous to this time there had been numerous 28 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
arrivals at quarantine of infected vessels, and in some cases these 
vessels had been permitted to discharge their infected cargoes at the 
city wharves within a day or two after their arrival; those engaged in 
unloading the cargoes went freely between the vessels and the city, 
and in some instances the crevV and passengers had free access to the 
city. One of the earliest cases was that of John Abbott, who was en- 
gaged in lightering the bark St. Andrew, which arrived from Havana, 
on the 18th of July. He was taken sick on the 25th, on King street, 
near Broad, and was removed to the lazaretto. " Nearly all the earlier 
cases have occurred to seamen from vessels at the wharves, where the 
cargoes of the infected vessels were landed." (Charleston Medical 
Journal, November, 1856, p. 845.) The epidemic was not general 
throughout the city, being confined chiefly to the hospitals, and to the 
vicinity of the wharves and sailor boarding-houses. There were a num- 
ber of cases, which occurred in patients in the hospitals, who had not 
been out of the wards for months previous to the outbreak of the dis- 
ease. The majority of the sick were among the Irish and those who 
lived in crowded tenementJiouses in the midst of filth. The disease was 
epidemic until the latter part of November, causing, in all, two hundred 
and forty-six deaths. Commenting on this epidemic, the editor of the 
Charleston Medical Journal remarks: 
We would, in conclusion, recommend a more stringent quarantine system, which 
would exclude all vessels from infected ports from our harbor. The petty traffic dur- 
ing the summer with the tropical ports usually infected with yellow fever should not 
be allowed to continue, as millions of dollars are lost to the city when the fever is in- 
troduced, and hundreds of lives are wantonly sacrificed. 
In 1857 there were seventeen deaths reported as yellow fever, but it 
did not attain the proportions of an epidemic. Not so in 1858, when a 
most severe epidemic occurred, and one very instructive in its details. 
Up to the 30th of June of this year there had been thirty-three arrivals 
of vessels from West India ports and five from New Orleans, most of 
them loaded with sugar and molasses, fruit, and cigars. On the 18th 
of May the bark Nueva Rosalia arrived from St. Iago de Cuba, with 
one case of yellow fever on board, who was removed to the lazaretto, 
where he recovered. 
On the 28th of June, the steamer Catawba arrived in three and a 
half days from Havana, and was quarantined, although having no sick- 
ness on board. Her passengers were sent to the railroad the next day, 
and her crew detained until the 7th of July, when they were discharged 
and came up to the city. Among them was the steward, by name Gar- 
cini, who went to a lodging-house on Tradd street between King and 
Orange. On the 9th of July the first case of yellow fever occurred in 
the person of a man named Abbott, who lived in this house, and who 
died on the 18th. On the 12th of July the steward, Garcini, was tifken 
sick, and died with the black vomit on the 15th. He was a very intem- 
perate man, had been drunk ever' since he had been on shore, and was 
reported to have'had the fever before in 1856. In the mean time the 
cook of the Catawba, a German named Schwacterer, who lodged at No. 
16 King street, near Tradd, and in close proximity to the house of 
Ahrens, where the other cases were, was taken sick on the 10th of July, 
and returned to the steamer, from whence he was sent to the lazaretto, 
where he died on the 16th with yellow fever. The next two cases were 
those of policemen living in the vicinity, and other cases soon followed, 
so that, by the 12th of August, it had been gradually diffused through all 
that part of the city and soon became epidemic, being most severe in 
September, declining gradually through October, and rapidly in Novem- QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
29 
ber. There was one death in December. (Hume, Charleston Medical 
Journal, vol. 15, pp. 1-32.) 
The report of Dr. I. L. Dawson, city register, conclusively shows that 
the premises of Tradd street were in a most filthy condition. There 
was a large heap of manure festering in the sun by the door, which had 
been brought from a neighboring cow-yard, the odor from which was 
insupportable; a cellar had recently been excavated in the house, and 
the fresh earth heaped up on one side of the house, and the privies 
were filthy and very offensive. The sewers along Tradd street were 
filled with mud and offal and choked up, as were those of many streets 
in the vicinity. In fact, the sanitary condition of the whole city was 
as bad as could be, and presented the most favorable conditions for the 
development or spread of epidemic disease. The committee of the 
common council say:- 
The filth and putrefaction found in the subterranean cesspools were alone sufficient 
to engender the most malignant fevers that could possibly affect a city. 
The committee further say:- 
The conclusions to be deduced from the foregoing facts are that if yellow fever be 
introduced by importation it cannot become epidemic, except by common causes, i. e., 
the atmosphere of Charleston must be in the same condition as the atmosphere of 
Havana, (or elsewhere,) from local causes, to produce or favor an epidemic; and if not 
in this like condition, no epidemic can possibly result from such importation. (Report 
of committee of city council of Charleston on epidemic yellow fever of 1858, p. 45.) 
Shortly after the fever became epidemic in Charleston, it broke out in 
the garrison of Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan's Island. The first case was 
a man by the name of Jones, Battery E, First Artillery, who died 
August 15. This man was orderly to the commanding officer, and was 
in the habit of associating freely outside the garrison, the island being 
then crowded with persons from Charleston. On the 20th a second 
case occurred, and on the 22d a third, the servant of the commanding 
officer; the fourth was on the 26th, and many others subsequently. The 
number of deaths in the city during the season was seven hundred and 
sixteen. (Report of Surgeon B. M. Byrne, United States Army, post 
surgeon, Fo.t Moultrie.) 
There were a few sporadic cases in 1862, most of whiqh occurred in 
the vicinity of the wharves, and were thought by Surgeon D. W. Hand, 
United States Volunteers, who investigated the subject, to be due to 
infection received from blockade-runners, "several of them having been 
quarantine! Fiat (all with yellow fever on board." In 1861 there was a 
general prevalence of the disease. " The first case was that of a Mr. 
Dallas, living on Calhoun street, near the citadel. He was taken sick 
July 27, and died nine days after, with every symptom of yellow fever. 
No more cases occurred for two weeks after this. Then it appeared in 
several parts of the town, and finally, August 24, came back to Mr. 
Dallas's .house, where three persons then had it. Soon after this General 
Jameson, on duty at the citadel, sickened and died with the same 
disease. It now became epidemic, and spread to all parts of the town. 
* * * ' It is thought that less than two thousand persons in all 
had yellow fever at this time, and that the mortafity did not exceed 35 
per cent, among all classes. Most of the physicians believe that the 
epidemic was this year originated in Charleston. Previous to the sick- 
ening of Mr. Dallas, no vessel had arrived in the port; but two or three 
days after Mr. Dallas was taken sick, the steamer Druid came into the 
harbor with three cases of yellow fever on board. Several other steamers 
came in during the month of August with the same disease on board, and 
it was known that yellow fever prevailed as an epidemic at Nassau." 30 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
(Repcrt of Acting Assistant Surgeon D. W. Hand, United States Army, 
March 8, 1866.) It seems most rational to suppose that there was an 
error in diagnosis in the case of Mr. Dallas, (an incident which every one 
that has seen yellow fever at the south knows is of common occurrence 
at the leginning of epidemics,) and that the first cases really received 
their infection from the Druid. Dr. Robert Lebby, health-officer of 
Charleston, (letter of July 21, 1872,) speaking of this epidemic, says:- 
Fever existed or prevailed in Charleston in 1864, during the war. It was then said 
it was imported in the Siren, a blockade vessel from Nassau or Jamaica. Dr. Kinlock 
and myself saw cases in Calhoun street, northeast of the citadel, on the low lots, be- 
fore the vessel arrived; she did have yellow fever on board, and it may have extended 
in an atmosphere prepared and compounded of atoms favorable for its propagation 
and extension. 
The epidemic in 1871 was remarkable from the great blending of 
other types of fever with the true yellow fever, rendering the diagnosis 
difficult, and often impossible; yet there were undoubtedly many cases 
of the latter in the city. Dr. Lebby, the health officer, also notes it as 
an extraordinary fact that, for the first time in many years, no infected 
vessels arrived at the quarantine during the season. Common report 
attributed the outbreak of the disease to infection received from the 
bark Teresa, a vessel which had been quarantined at Bull's Bay with 
yellow fever on board ; but Dr. Robert Lebby (Report cf Port Physician 
for 1871) and Dr. Manning Simons (Transactions of American Medical 
Association, 1872, pp. 316-20) both show very conclusively that this 
could not have been the case, no communication being possible between 
the ship and the first case which occurred within the time specified. 
Nor do there seem to have I een any other possible sources of foreign 
importation. Dr. Simons finds sufficient causes for the prevalence of 
the disease in the filling of sunken and low lots with the garbage and 
offal of the town, in the construction of a new drain on Market street, 
(where the disease is chiefly located,) and in the caving in of a drain 
in Rafer's Alley, near Market street. It is proper to add that the char- 
acter of this epidemic was disputed by many of the physicians of Charles- 
ton, some going so far as to insist that there had been no yellow 
fever in the city at all. 
The disease prevailed this year in Beaufort, South Carolina. " The 
first case occurred on August 6, in a man who was brought from Bull 
River, sick with fever, and died on the 17th, with marked symptoms of 
yellow fever. The disease ran its course from this time until November 
21, when the last case terminated fatally. There were forty-one cases 
among the whites, and one colored; seven of these (whites) died." 
(Transactions American Medical Association, 1872, p. 331.) 
In 1862, when a large army was concentrated at Hilton Head, South 
Carolina, there being about ten thousand troops there at the time, the 
steamer Delaware, having troops on board, left Key West for Hilton 
Head, where, after a short detention at quarantine, she landed her 
passengers on the 8th of September. It is believed that she had cases 
of yellow fever on her passage; but, however that may be, soon after 
her arrival the fever broke out among her passengers, and, by the 17th 
of the month, eight had died. On the 9th of October an employe 
of the Quartermaster's Department was taken sick, and soon after a num- 
ber of officers and soldiers on duty in the vicinity of the wharf where 
the Delaware had landed, but the disease did not spread generally 
among the troops. The total number of cases was forty, of whom 
twenty-five died. 
Savannah.-The yellow fever prevailed at this place in 1820, but I have QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
31 
not been able to put my hands on a copy of Dr. Waring's pamphlet 
describing the epidemic, and am consequently unable to give any par- 
ticulars of it. In 1827-'28 there were a few cases of black vomit, occur- 
ring during a general prevalence of ££ dengue," or breakbone fever, but 
no epidemic of yellow fever. (Waring on the Epidemics of Savannah, 
North American Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. 10, p. 145.) The 
city was not visited by yellow fever again until 1854, when a severe epi- 
demic occurred. The first case occurred on the 5th of August, on the 
corner of Lincoln and Broughton streets. Between that date and the 
middle of the month cases increased in number slowly, after which it 
became epidemic. It exhibited its greatest violence from the 20th of 
August to the 20th of September, commencing in the northeastern sec- 
tion of the city and advancing to the southwest. Professor R. D. 
Arnold, M. D., who attended the first cases, informed me that there was 
no reason to doubt the local origin of the disease. The weather was unusually 
hot, and the summer so dry that the ponds all dried up, and he considers this 
sufficient to account for the epidemic. 
The causes assigned by Hon. John E. Ward (at that time mayor of the 
city) were- 
1. The removal of mud from the Savannah River, by dredging, and 
its deposition on the wharves of the city. Lieutenant Morton, United 
States Engineers, who was in charge of this work, denied that any had been 
so deposited. 
2. The conditions of the rice-lands in the vicinity. These, during the 
height of the epidemic, were in good order, but toward the close of the 
season a heavy storm broke the banks surrounding them, and they 
became overflowed. This was, however, too late to affect the course of the 
epidemic. 
3. A peculiar epidemic condition of the atmosphere. 
4. The arrival of the brig Charlotte Hague, which put into Cockspur 
Road about the 29th of June. (Mayor's Report of City of Savannah, 
1854.) This vessel was found off Tybee Island in distress, and was 
brought into Cockspur Road, with her captain and two men sick with 
fever. Dr. Hume (Charleston Medical Journal, vol. 10, p. 31) asserts 
that these were cases of yellow fever, and that they were brought up to 
Savannah and treated in a private hospital on Broad street, and were 
the cause of the city becoming infected, while Dr. R. C. Mackall (Health 
officer) and Dr. W. M. Chartres deny that» these were cases of yellow 
fever at all, but of mild bilious remittent. (Charleston Medical Journal, 
vol. 10, pp. 150-153.) During the epidemic there were five hundred and 
eighty deaths among the white population and fourteen among the 
colored people. After this there were no more cases of yellow fever until 
1858, when there were a few deaths, and since that time the city has been 
exempt. 
The little town of Saint Mary, Georgia, suffered from yellow fever 
for the first and only time in 1808. The season was very rainy, causing 
stagnant pools of water to be formed about the town, and the water in 
the wells became offensive to the smell and taste; yet there was no 
change in the general health of the inhabitants until the 5th of Sep- 
tember, when the schooner Polly arrived from Savannah with two men 
sick with yellow fever. These were carelessly allowed to be landed 
and taken to a house in the center of the town, where they both died. 
Two men who nursed these cases died on the 9th and one on the 10th of 
September. The whole family in the lodging next took sick, and the 
disease soon became epidemic in town. The malignancy of the disease 
was undoubtedly intensified by the extremely filthy condition of the town. 32 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
(Letter of James Seagrove to Dr. Hosack, American Medical and Philoso- 
phical Register, vol. 3, p. 417.) 
An epidemic which occurred in 1839 at Augusta, Georgia, gave rise 
to much discussion, the advocates of the local origin of the disease 
claiming it as clearly an instance of its spontaneous development. 
These pointed to what was called the " trash-wharf, a slide or inclined 
plane, which was erected in 1834 for the purpose of throwing the tilth 
of the city, including dead animals, into the river. This mass of ani- 
mal and vegetable matter having accumulated to upward of 200,000 
cubic feet, it was resolved by the authorities of the city to have it re- 
moved, and accordingly, during the months of May and June, its in- 
terior was exposed to the action of the sun. Having penetrated the 
exterior crust, the heat evolved was so great that the workmen, although 
wearing thick shoes, were compelled to desist from their work for two 
hours at a time, so as to suffer it to cool." (Army Medical Statistics, 
1819-'39, p. 249.) Dr. Frank Robertson, of Charleston, informed me 
that the river was unusually low that year, so much so that a crop of 
turnips was planted on what had been the river-bed, and stated his 
most positive belief that the disease originated from these two causes. 
On the other hand, Monette shows (Yellow Fever at Natchez and the 
Southwest, p. 128) that the town was unusually healthy for two weeks 
after the fever was epidemic in Charleston and ten days after it was 
so in Savannah; that Augusta was not only the terminus of the railroad 
from Charleston, but of steamboat navigation from Savannah, and 
that very many persons had fled from these places to Augusta. The 
first manifestations of the disease were among those who had fled from 
these places. Strobel, who was in Charleston at the time, has no hesi- 
tation in affirming its importation from that place. On the subject 
Monette forcibly remarks: 
Why cua nor yellow fever manifest itself in Augusta at the same time it made its 
appearance in Charleston and Savannah ? Why was the epidemic in Augusta deferred 
until Charleston and Savannah were almost deserted by their inhabitants and the 
transient population ? Why did it not commence in Augusta first, if it proceeded from 
local causes ? Did the arrival of the people from those infected cities excite the ex- 
trication of pestiferous miasm from local causes which had lain dormant up to that 
time ? 
Monette is, however, in error, when he speaks of the disease as being 
epidemic in Savannah in that year. There were a few cases, and many 
of the inhabitants fled front the city for fear of its general prevalence, 
but it did not become epidemic, as it did in so many other towns in that 
year. 
Saint Augustine, Florida.-Yellow fever is said to have visited Saint 
Augustine for the first time in 1807. It was known to have been 
especially severe 'in Havana that year. Florida was at that time under 
the Spanish domination ; there were few or none of the inhabitants that 
were American, and the records of t,his visitation, if any such there 
are, are unknown to the profession in the United States. It did not 
appear again until 1821, the year of the cession of Florida to the United 
States. This political event had the most important bearing on the 
course of the subsequent epidemic. As a consequence of the change 
of flags, a large garrison of United States troops, all of whom were 
entirely unacclimated, were quartered in the town. Besides this, the 
city was crowded to an unprecedented degree with adventurers and 
strangers from all parts of the United States. On the 10th of July the 
exchange of flags took place, and immediately thereafter the Spanish 
garrison was sent in transports to Havana. Three of these vessels re- QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
33 
turned to Saint Augustine about the middle of August, with yellow 
fever on board, one, the schooner Alexander, having lost her entire 
crew and being navigated into port by two passengers, named Miller, 
who lived in Saint Augustine. The cook of the Alexander, being the 
only one left of her original complement of men, died the day after her 
arrival, and his bedding, clothes, and other effects were thrown over- 
board. These floated, with the tide, up the river, and were picked up 
by a lawyer named Fitch, who was then going in his boat from the city 
to his plantation, at a considerable distance from the city. Arrived 
home, he had the bedding washed and dried, intending to use it. A 
few days afterward (it is impossible to give the exact dates) a negro 
woman who had washed these things took sick, as did also Mr. Fitch, 
and returned to Saint Augustine, where the latter died on the 10th of 
September. From these cases the disease spread to the whole of Mr. 
Fitch's family, all of whom died. In the mean time two young men, 
recent arrivals in the city, had gone on board one of the returned trans- 
ports, and returning to town, soon after sickened and died. The disease 
spread slowly at first, but in the month of October it became violently 
epidemic, and nearly all the strangers in town were attacked. In all, 
one hundred an'd thirty-two cases died, besides forty among the troops, 
out of a riiean strength of one hundred and twenty. No Spaniards, 
Minorcans, or other were attacked, and but three of the deaths 
were those of negroes. 
The local causes which intensified this epidemic, and were said by 
some to have originated it, were as follows: The police of the town, 
during the Spanish occupation, had been extremely bad. Every one 
who has seen any of the New Mexican houses, or those on the Rio 
Grande frontier, can form a very good idea of its condition, without any 
special description. The streets were narrow and crooked, filled with 
filth and offal, the back-yards and . privies never cleaned. Add to this 
that many of the houses, which had been closed in consequence of the 
removal of the Spanish residents to Havana, were occupied by the newly 
arrived strangers, often without proper means to render them habitable 
or remove the previously existing nuisances. 
A second local cause was the closing of a bar, about twenty miles 
from town, at Little Matanzas Inlet, by which a broad bay extending 
from the bar toward the city was converted into a fresh-water marsh. 
In consequence, all the salt-water vegetation and the oysters and other 
shell-fish died, and putrefactive decomposition went on to such an ex- 
tent that we have the authority of General Hernandez, a very old resi- 
dent, for saying that it " gave rise to exhalations of malaria so offen- 
sive that the stench could scarcely be borne." The prevailing winds 
from the southeast blew directly over the marsh toward Saint Augustine. 
Bilious remittent fevers had prevailed to an unusual extent- previous to 
the advent of the vomito; the season had been hot and wet, and there 
was much sickness, especially dysentery. (Strobel, Essay on Yellow 
Fever, pp. 129-147 ; Dowler, Epidemics of New Orleans, p. 18.) 
After this year there was no more fever at Saint Augustine until 1839. 
Early in the summer of that year, as will be remembered, yellow fever 
broke out in Charleston. On the 15th of August a family by the name 
of Abel, who had been living in a house in Meeting street, Charleston, 
in which were cases of yellow fever, arrived in Saint Augustine and 
took board at the house of a Colonel Johnson, fronting on the bay. Sev- 
eral of this family were slightly ill within a few days after their arrival; 
but it does not seem clear, from the account given by Strobel, that these 
were cases of undoubted yellow fever. About the 1st of September 34 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
their trunks, boxes, &c., were unpacked, and the contents, consisting of 
bedding, mattresses, and clothes, hung out on the balcony and rear fence 
to air. On the 4th of September a case of sickness occurred in the 
house of Antonio Andreo, living next door to Colonel Johnson, which 
closely resembled yellow fever. On the 8th of September Mr. Andreo 
was similarly attacked, and, two days after, three of his children. All 
of these cases recovered. The next cases were in the house of a Mr. 
Circopoly, who lived directly behind Colonel Johnson, their back-yards 
adjoining. Here a child was taken sick on the 10th of September, which 
was speedily followed by four more, in the same family, all of which re- 
covered. The disease next broke out in the family of a Mrs. Brown, 
living about a block west of Circopoly's. Up to this time there had been 
no deaths, and the disease had been almost entirely confined to children, 
natives of the city, and it seems to me that these were all cases of dengue, 
or breakbone fever, although, if (as Arnold of Savannah thinks) dengue 
and yellow fever* are identical, (Arnold on the Identity of Dengue and 
Yellow Fever, 1859,) this statement is of no consequence. Now, how- 
ever, a new element arrived to complicate matters. Oh the 10th of Sep- 
tember about forty Seminole Indians, who had been confined at Fort 
Moultrie, Charleston Harbor, arrived in Saint Augustine, accompanied 
by a guard of soldiers, and were transferred to Fort Marioh. Some of 
the troops had the fever at Castle Pinckney, before leaving Charleston, 
and there were cases among them after their arrival at Fort Marion. 
Whether it was due to their arrival or not, it seems certain, from the 
evidence, that after this time the prevailing disease assumed more de- 
cidedly the characteristics of yellow fever. A German died of black 
vomit in Colonel Johnson's house, and other fatal cases soon occurred in 
the vicinity. The disease gradually extended to the westward, across 
the town, the prevailing winds being from the northeast. Those who , 
affirmed the local origin of the epidemic ascribed it to the filling in of a 
gully, behind the sea-wall, (running along the front of the bay,) with 
shavings, old clothes, garbage, and other filth of the city, producing a 
large amount of decaying animal and vegetable matter* to fester in the hot 
sun. Another local cause was that a rank growth of weeds had sprung 
up in many parts of the town in the place of the orange-groves, which 
had been destroyed by a a frost in 1835. 
In 1841 the disease prevailed to a certain extent, there being fifty-six 
cases and twenty-six deaths among the troops at Fort Marion. Dr. 
Porter, United States Army, from whose report I obtained this informa- 
tion, does not state how it originated. (Army Medical Statistics, 1839- 
1855, pp. 310, 311.) 
An incident connected with the importation of yellow fever into Jack- 
sonville, Florida, which was kindly furnished to me by Dr. A. S. Bald- 
win, of that place, may be mentioned here. I will give it in the doctor's 
own words : 
In July, 1859, I was called to attend two children of a neighbor; one, a little girl, 
■was sick for a few days and recovered ; the other, her brother, developed regular black 
vomit, and died. This case was seen by several of my professional brethren, who had 
no hesitation in pronouncing it to be a genuine case of yellow fever, and a post-mor- 
tem examination still further confirmed our diagnosis', and settled the question beyond 
doubt, for the box-wood liver was a marked characteristic. The origin of these cases 
is a matter of interest in connection with the transmissibility of the disease. The uncle 
of these children had, a few days before, returned from a visit to Cuba, and the day 
before he left Havana had been through the hospitals, that for yellow fever included. 
The only article of woolen clothes he had on was a coat, and this his aunt sponged 
with alcohol after his return from the hospitals. In going through the hospitals he 
passed by the beds of those who were throwing up black vomit. After his return home 
these children were with him when opening and taking out the contents of his trunk QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
35 
and handled the articles, and they alone of the family were present, and they were both 
taken sick together a few days after, and so far as could be ascertained, there was no 
other means by which they could have contracted disease, and no cases besides theirs 
occurred in the community. 
Pensacola, Florida.-The first visitation of yellow fever to this city was 
in 1765. An English regiment was sent to garrison the town, coming 
from home via the West Indies, and was quartered at Barrancas. 
Shortly after their arrival they received supplies of food, clothing, <tc., 
from the West Indies, where the fever was then prevailing. They took 
the disease, and lost one hundred and twenty men; but there is no 
record of its having spread among the citizens of the town. (Williams, 
. Florida, p. 15; Lind on Diseases of Hot Climates, pp. 36, 37, 179.) 
It did not appear again until 1811, and was then ascribed to some 
extensive ditching which had been made from the town to a swamp in 
its rear, thus exposing a large quantity of fresh soil to the influence of 
the sun's rays, which were uncommonly hot that year. Large numbers 
of the inhabitants perished. (Drake, Principal Diseases of Interior Val- 
ley, North America, p. 227.) 
In 1821 occurred the transfer of Florida from the authority of Spain 
to that of the United States, and immediately thereafter there was a great 
rush of emigrants from all parts of the country to Pensacola. Most of 
these were adventurers of dissipated habits, and with but little money, 
who lived crowded together under highly unfavorable sanitary condi- 
tions. More or less trade immediately sprung up with the West Indies, 
and in the summer of 1822 there were several arrivals of vessels from those 
islands. Among these was the cutter Alabama, from Havana, which 
arrived on the 12th of August, having, during her passage, lost two of 
her crew from yellow fever. The day after her arrival the captain, feel- 
ing sick, went to a boarding-house on shore, where in a few days he 
died of black vomit. His case was followed by that of the landlady 
and her daughter, both of whom died. The boarders scattered all over 
town, but most of them took the disease, and several died; and cases 
soon occurred, not only in adjoining houses to the boarding-house, but 
wherever these boarders fled. (Carpenter, op. cit., pp. 35, 36.) 
While these events were taking place the brig Franklin arrived at 
the town. Thjs vessel had left a northern port for Havana with a cargo 
of codfish, but on her arrival at that place, some of the fish being 
spoiled, she was ordered away by the authorities, and came to Pensa- 
cola, where she lay at anchor for some eight or ten days near the town. 
During this time most of her fish had been sold and distributed about 
the city, thus introducing a new source of infection. 
The vessel was now ordered away by the authorities, but in depart- 
ing went ashore at Fort Barrancas, where she was condemned and sold, 
and the remainder of her cargo unloaded by some artillery soldiers at 
the fort. The disease soon broke out among them, and a number died. 
(Army Medical Statistics, Report of Assistant Surgeon McMahon, United 
States Army, 1819-'39, p. 36.) The disease became epidemic about the 19th 
of August, and lasted until the 27th of November, and during the season 
upward of two hundred died out of a total population of about one thou- 
sand. Of the sanitary condition of the town at this time Assistant Sur- 
geon McMahon, United States Army, remarks: 
From an attentive examination of its natural position I am induced to believe that 
this city holds out a fine prospect for salubrity. Exposed in front to the sea, and suf- 
ficiently remote on every other side from swamps or large bodies of fresh water, it 
possesses so much elevation as to have a constant and free ventilation, while the soil 
of the city, as well as of the vicinity, is one unvaried bed of sand mingled sparsely 
with a rich vegetable mold. The streets are wide and spacious, intersecting each 36 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
other at right angles. * * * The houses, generally built of wood, are 
many of them in a state of decay. The lots and yards, containing the accumulated 
filth of years, are extremely offensive. The privies, being very much neglected, are 
abominably fetid. The soil of the gardens, being in a great measure artificial, vegeta 
tion is very productive, and, as the leaves and offals are suffered to remain on the sur- 
face, decomposition, forriied by heat and moisture, rapidly ensues. To these prolific 
sources of miasmata may be added a total neglect of cleanliness in the personal habits 
and domestic economy of the inhabitants. An unusual degree of heat and moisture 
during the summer has tended effectually to bring those exciting causes of disease into 
operation. 
I have quoted somewhat at length, because this description will 
apply to almost every town and every epidemic that has occurred in 
the southwest. Everywhere, in studying the disease, we find bad 
drainage, vegetable decomposition, intense heat, superabundance of 
moisture, filthy privies and yards, old decaying houses, and dirty peo- 
ple present as elements to make up a factor in the production of an 
epidemic. It was remarked, during the epidemic of 1822, that there 
was a singular mortality among the brute creation, nearly all the dogs 
in town having died and foxes in the neighboring woods. (Drake, op. 
cit., p. 228.) 
The next appearance of the fever was in 1825, in which year, 
Monette says, it was introduced, and prevailed with great fatality; but 
I can find no details of its occurrence. Drake, however, refers the 
accounts of this epidemic to the year 1827, when it again prevailed, 
though in much milder form than hitherto. I have not been able to 
find any details of its origin. In 1828 it again made its appearance, at 
the navy-yard and hospital, but not in the city, being brought to the 
navy-yard by the arrival of vessels of war having the fever on board. 
The same occurrence took place in 1834. 
In 1839 a sick person arrived from New Orleans, and stopped at the 
house of the naval surgeon there stationed. This man died five days 
after his arrival. Next the doctor took sick, then his negro servant, 
then other members of the doctor's family, and thence it spread through 
the whole yard. (Dr. J. A. Wedderburn, United States Navy, in 
Carpenter, op. cit., p. 27.) 
It was epidemic, also, in the city of Pensacola, the first cases being in 
the persons of unacclimated refugees from Mobile, who came with the 
semina of the disease in their systems. Subsequently it affected the 
resident population. (Drake, op. cit., p. 234.) During this season the 
French frigate La Gloire arrived at the navy-yard with twenty cases of 
fever on board. She was placed in quarantine, and all intercourse cut 
off between her and the city, her sick being removed to the naval hos- 
pital. There was no extension of the disease from this source to the 
city. (Monette, op. cit.) 
In 1841 the fever broke out on the sloop of war Levant, lying in the 
Bay of Pensacola. The sick were first placed under a shed on shore, 
and, after two weeks, moved to the hospital. The disease did not 
spread so long as they were isolated under the shed, but, on being re- 
moved to the hospital, they had to pass the marine barracks. After 
this, cases began to occur in the yard, first in the person of a negro 
woman who lived near the shed, then among the marines, and then 
generally throughout the yard. It was introduced, after this, every 
year to the navy-yard, by the arrival of infected ships, until 1848, and 
again in 1853. (Dr. Isaac Hulse, United States Navy, Maryland Medi- 
cal and Surgical Journal, vol. 2, p. 391 ; Dr. S. C. Lawrason, United 
States Navy, Maryland Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. *3, p. 393 ; 
Dr. Wedderburn, United States Navy, in Barton's Report of Sanitary 
Commission, pp. 124, 125.) QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
37 
In 1853 the disease once more appeared at Barrancas barracks and 
the navy-yard. Early in Jnly a detachment of recruits arrived at the 
navy-yard from New Orleans. On the 9th of that month five of them 
were admitted to the hospital with yellow fever. Several of the attend- 
ants who nursed them were taken sick, but the disease spread no fur- 
ther. On the 24th of* July the United States steamer Vixen arrived 
from Tampico, Mexico. A few days after her arrival, a boy who had 
been in the habit of going on board took sick and died, and his sister, 
who slept with him, also died, both with black vomit. About this time 
a man was removed from the Vixen to the navy-yard who had sustained 
a fracture, and his mattress was thrown overboard, which being picked 
up by a negro, he sickened with yellow fever and died in a few days. 
Cases began soon to multiply in the navy-yard and on the Vixen, until 
nearly the whole population in the vicinity suffered. From the navy- 
yard, it spread to Barrancas barracks, and of the whole command but 
seven escaped an attack. It should be remembered that the sailors on 
the Vixen had suffered from what was called "Tampico fever" on the 
voyage to Pensacola and some were sick on her arrival. (Dr. John F. 
Hammond, United States Army, Army Medical Statistics, 1839-55, p. 
32G.) 
From this time until 1867 there was no epidemic of yellow fever in 
Pensacola. In 1863 there was, however, a most instructive outbreak of 
the disease on board the storeship Relief, at the navy-yard, extending 
from the vessel to the yard and to the other vessels in the navy. This ves- 
sel had been for more than a year off Ship Island, as a store-ship. She ar- 
rived at the navy-yard some time in the month of August, and, being 
at the time perfectly healthy, was allowed to pass the military quaran- 
tine without question, and came to the anchorage off the yard. Shortly 
after her arrival a large amount of sickness was noticed on board, which 
was at first diagnosed to be typhus fever. There were thirty cases, of 
which seventeen were removed to. the hospital in the yard, and the re- 
mainder, with the ship, were sent to the quarantine station, six miles 
distant. 
The diagnosis of the cases sent on shore was soon corrected by the 
death of a man with black vomit at the yard, and by the occurrence of 
seven deaths on the Relief at the quarantine, " all these cases being the 
most decided and malignant yellow fever." About the 1st of September 
several cases died on a merchant-ship lying off the navy-yard, and much 
sickness took place in the bomb-fleet which had come from the Missis- 
sippi River and were anchored at the yard. Other cases occurred in 
the yard and a few in the adjacent village of Warrenton. There was a 
large body of troops encamped a mile and a half distant, at Barrancas. 
The camp was kept in the most perfect police, and a rigid " cordon sani- 
taire " established between the camp and the navy-yard, and the troops 
escaped the disease. Dr. Gibbs, of the Navy, thinks there can be no 
doubt that the disease originated on the Relief. He says: 
There can seem little doubt that the disease was generated on the Relief. * * * 
Stores had remained undisturbed in the vessel over a year. During this time several 
hundred gallons of sperm-oil had leaked from the casks into the bilge. The ship made 
much bilge-water, which was exceedingly offensive in its odorous gases and very 
black ; kegs of pickles were mouldy, or in a state of decomposition; and the freshly- 
preserved meats, in cans, were unsound to such an extent as to give rise to an animal 
odor. When I first visited the ship the hatches were all closed, as the offensive odor 
with them opened was most intolerable. (American Journal of Medical Sciences, April, 
1866.) 
While these events were occurring, the frigate Colorado, on the block- 
ade off Mobile, experienced a similar outbreak, there being about forty 38 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
cases and seven deaths. The disease was traced to stores received from 
the Relief. (Letter from Dr. B. F. Gibbs, United States Navy, July, 
1872.) Dr. E. F. Holden, United States Navy (American Journal of 
Medical January, 1866. Causes of Certain Diseases on Ships of 
War,) however, considers the deleterious influences of the bilge-water in 
ships to be overestimated, and does not regard it as capable of generat- 
ing disease of a malignant character; but Dr. Gibbs and others think 
that it will do so in tropical climates, especially when agitated by the 
motion of the waves after a long period of rest at an anchorage. 
The year 1867 was, as is well known, one of general epidemic tendency 
throughout the Gulf region, and Pensacola did not escape. A military 
quarantine had been established on the 21st of May. On the 21st of June 
the English ship Fair Wead arrived -from Jamaica, where yellow-fever 
was epidemic. She seemed to be clean, and had not a case of sickness on 
board, but was detained at quarantine until July 2, during which time 
one man died, suddenly, as was reported, of congestion. After coming 
up to the city yellow-fever broke out on board, and by July 10 there had 
been eight cases and three deaths. On the 19 th another man died, and the 
vessel was ordered back to quarantine. Shte does not seem to have com- 
municated the disease to the shore. Some other vessels, lumber laden, 
having fever on board, were ordered from the harbor to quarantine about 
the same time. On the 24th of July the schooner Texana arrived from 
New Orleans, and a few days thereafter her mate was taken sick with yellow 
fever and brought on shore to a boarding-house in the city. Other persons 
living in this house soon sickened, and the boarders, scattering to vari- 
ous other houses, spread the disease in several different localities. On 
the 9th of August the disease was epidemic. (Letter of Mayor to Gen- 
eral Seymour, commanding United States troops.) The troops at Bar- 
rancas were thereupon, on the 14th of August, moved to Fort Pickens, 
leaving only a dozen men at the former place. This detachment were 
positively forbidden to pass to the village of Warrenton, which was 
separated from the barracks by a belt of woods between the two. On 
the 23d of August, the United States steamer Alliance arrived at Bar- 
rancas with a detachment of the Twenty-fourth Infantry, one man being 
sick who died, two days after, with black vomit. The men in the bar- 
racks were immediately removed from the vicinity of the hospital to the 
distance of two hundred yards, and there were no cases either among 
them or at Fort Pickens, although the disease prevailed extensively at 
Warrenton and at the navy-yard adjoining, approaching to the very 
belt of woods between the village and Barrancas barracks. (Report of 
Acting Passed Assistant Surgeon N. L. Campbell, United States Navy, 
to Naval Bureau.) 
Some isolated cases that have occurred at different times have an in- 
teresting bearing on the subject under discussion. In 1867 there was 
but one case of yellow fever in the city. This was in the person of a 
little girl who died, during its prevalence, at the navy-yard. No con- 
nection could be traced with any extra-mural source of infection, and at 
first it was considered a case of purely local origin, but inquiry showed 
that the child, a few days before being taken sick, had played hide-and- 
seek in her father's garret with her playmates, where were found some 
sails that had been purchased a short time before from an infected ship 
in New Orleans. 
In 1853 a young man died in the village of Milton, a few miles from 
Pensacola. His clothing was placed in a trunk, put away, and forgot- 
ten. In 1855, two years subsequently, thip trunk was opened and the QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
39 
clothing taken out to be aired, and yellow fever broke out in the house, 
and there were several deaths. (Dr. Heron, Pensacola.) 
The medical topography of Pensacola presents a more favorable ex- 
hibit than that of any other town on the Gulf coast. With a broad bay 
to the south, from which blows continually a cool breeze, it is situated 
on a high pine barfen, with sandy streets, houses widely separated, and 
nothing about either its situation or hygiene to warrant the local origin 
of the disease. 
Key West, Florida.-This island first suffered from yellow fever in 
1824. The epidemic is ascribed by Dr. Benjamin Ticknor, United 
States Navy, to the combined influences of atmospheric vicissitudes, 
miasmata, and bad food, fatigue, and intemperance among the population. 
(North American Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. 3. pp. 21G-222.) 
In 1853 it was introduced from Tampa, Florida, by two soldiers who 
arrived in August, and died of the fever soon after their arrival. Other 
cases followed these, and in November it became epidemic, prevailing 
until August, 1854, causing one hundred and twelve deaths out of 
about three hundred cases. The most infected locality was in the im- 
mediate vicinity of a stagnant pond, near the center of the town, which 
had been 'made the receptacle for the offal and decaying vegetable mat- 
ter of the village. (Report of Assistant Surgeon R. F. Simpson, 
United States Army, Army Medical Statistics, 1839-'55, p. 323.) It is 
a little singular that, although Doctor Simpson details its mode of in- 
troduction from Tampa, he should still express his belief that the disease 
had its origin in local causes. 
In 1862 the inhabited'portions of the island were very much crowded 
by reason of the war. Three volunteer regiments were stationed there, 
besides a large number of sailors belonging to the blockading fleet, 
and mechanics employed in fitting naval vessels, all of them unaccli- 
mated. Typhoid fever prevailed in the town and camp previous to the 
appearance of yellow fever, there being upward of one hundred admis- 
sions to the military hospital with this disease in April and May. On 
the 20th of June the bark Adventure arrived from Havana, having 
yellow fever on board, and was quarantined. Four patients from this 
vessel were taken to the Marine Hospital. Cases occurred, about this 
time, in the persons of some mechanics, who had been employed about 
the machinery and in the holds of some iron-clads that had been a long 
time on the blockade, and were in a very filthy condition. By the last 
of July the disease was generally, prevalent in town, and broke out 
among the troops. By the last of October there had been three hun- 
dred and thirty-one cases and seventy-one deaths in the command, be- 
sides a very large number in the town. From this point it was carried to 
the Tortugas, where there were eleven cases and four deaths. (Records 
of United States Post Hospital, Key West; Circular No. 1, War De- 
partment, Surgeon-General's Office, 1868; Reports of Assistant-Sur- 
geon W. F. Cornick, United States Army, Octobei- 4, 1862 ; Surgeon 
E. S. Hoffman, Ninetieth New York Volunteers, October 1, 1862 ; Har- 
ris, United States Sanitary Commission Memoirs, p. 241.) Local causes 
for the propagation of the disease were the crowded state of the 
island, the clearing away of large quantities of brush and undergrowth 
for military purposes, and the removal of a large number of dead 
bodies from a grave-yard near Fort Taylor, which was done by unaccli- 
mated Irish laborers, and " accompanied by an almost insupportable 
stench." (Sanitary Report of Surgeon E. S. Hoffman, Ninetieth New 
York Volunteers, Sept. 30, 1862.) • 
In 1864, in April, a lot of blankets and other goods were received at 40 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
Key West from Nassau, New Providence, and exposed for sale. It was 
asserted that they were a portion of those sent to various places by the 
notorious Dr. Blackburn, with the view of introducing yellow fever. 
Be that as it may, the fact ig that the Rev. James H. Schneider, chap- 
lain Second United States Colored Troops, bought one of the saddles, and 
on the 23d April was admitted to hospital at the barracks, where he died, 
on the 26th, with well-marked symptoms of yellow fever. The saddle 
was subsequently sold to two other officers, both of whom took the fever 
and died. From this case others appeared in the hospital and among 
the troops, and the disease soon became epidemic. The population of 
Key West at this time was about five thousand, including about twelve 
hundred troops, two hundred prisoners of war, and one hundred and 
fifty Florida Refugees. (Dr. B. S. Thompson on Yellow Fever at Key 
West, New York Medical Record, vol. 3, pp. 246-248.) 
I have not been able to obtain any satisfactory information relative 
to its prevalence in 1865, though I was informed by the citizens of the 
town that it was epidemic in that season. 
In 1867 there was no sickness up to the middle of August. On the 
31st of July the Spanish frigate Francisco de Assis, accompanying the 
English steaiher Narva, arrived in port. The latter ship had been em- 
ployed in laying the telegraph cable from Key West to Havana. Both 
of these vessels had yellow fever on board, and both were about being 
ordered to quarantine, when orders arrived from " superior authority " 
(so stated in the report of Dr. Cornick, from which I quote) to issue 
no such orders, and, in consequence, both vessels were allowed free com- 
munication with the shore. Besides this the sick on the Narva were 
moved to the shore, and treated, some in the marine hospital and some 
in private houses, where many of them died. Dr. Cornick, who reports 
these facts, gives it as his decided opinion (Report on Yellow Fever and 
Cholera, Circular No. 1, 1868, Sur geon-General's Office, p. 152) that the 
disease was introduced by these vessels " Up to their arrival the island 
was perfectly healthy, and likely to remain so." 
At Fort Jefferson, Tortugas, during this period, the disease prevailed 
with great severity. The first case was on the 4th of July, in the per- 
son of Captain G. W. Crabb, Fifth Artillery, who had just returned from 
Havana. He recovered, and left for the North on the 3d of August. 
The next case was on the 19th of August (a private of Company K, 
Fifth Artillery), and within a week there had been four more cases, all 
from this company. On the 25th the schooner Matchless arrived from 
Tampa with a case of yellow fever on board, and the same day cases 
appeared in Company L, Fifth Artillery, and among the officers' serv- 
ants. From this time it may be said to have become epidemic. In all, 
there were two hundred and seventy cases (including fifty-eight re- 
lapses) and thirty-eight deaths. A board of officers was ordered by the 
commanding officer to investigate the causes of the outbreak. They 
ascribed it- 
1. To the prevalence of yellow fever along the Gulf coast. 
2. To persistent southeast winds and long-continued rains. 
3. To the arrival of large numbers of unacclimated recruits during the 
summer. 
4. To the damp and unwholesome condition of the barracks occupied by 
the men. 
5. To the filling up of the moat with mud along two sides of the fort, 
(nearest the barracks of Company K,) owing to the incompleteness of the 
• sea-wall. The stench from this source was very great. 
6. Defective privies and bad drainage. QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
41 
The board, after examining the whole subject, came to the conclusion 
that it was of local origin and due to the above causes, but they at the 
time of making their report were not aware of the case of Captain 
Crabb, (above referred to,) which clearly proves the importation of the 
disease. This was owing to the fact that the medical officer of the 
post had died during the epidemic. 
The disease prevailed again with violence in 1869. Large numbers 
of Cuban refugees had arrived on the island, many of them poor and 
destitute and living under very unfavorable hygienic conditions 
While I could obtain no satisfactory data in reference to the first cases 
this year, yet physicians resident in the town gave it as their unqualified 
opinion that the disease was introduced by these refugees. 
But there is ample ground for the introduction of yellow fever into 
Key West at any time without going to any special vessel or locality 
to account for it. The local quarantine regulations provide (section 5) 
that all sponge-boats, wreckers, and other small craft sailing along the 
reef shall be exempt ordinarily from visit by the health-officer, but may 
come and go with impunity. Now, these of all others are the vessels 
that most need watching. Very many of them only plead the ostensi- 
ble business of sponge-gathering to cover up their real one of smuggling, 
and make frequent illicit visits to the Cuban shores, to bring over con- 
traband goods. Of course, where a case of fever occurs in any house- 
having connection with any of these boats, the matter is carefully con- 
cealed, as an investigation would lead to an exposure of their illicit 
traffic were it to be ascertained that they had visited Havana. Hence 
all such cases are loudly trumpeted as of local origin, and, as persons 
high in position are not unfrequently interested in this species of trade, 
a certain kind of influence is brought to bear to favor the impression 
that fever always exists in Key West. That this is not so the foregoing 
record shows, it not having appeared at all in 1869, and previous to 
that not oftener than every other year. 
Key West is a sand-island, resting on a coral reef, having in its inte- 
rior lagoons, which frequently occasion outbreaks of malarial fever. 
The town is always dirty, which seems to be the normal condition of a 
great many of the inhabitants. There is always plenty of food for the 
disease, and always a convenient place for its location. I can see no 
reason why the disease should not originate here, but it certainly does 
not seem to have usually done so. 
Western Coast of lAorida.-The fever prevailed at Tampa in 1839, but I 
have not been able to find any particulars of it further than a state- 
ment in Carpenter's Sketches that " it was introduced from New Or- 
leans." Strobel also asserts (Essay, p. 214) that the United States 
troops stationed at Fort Brooke obtained their supplies from New Or- 
leans, and that the disease was brought from that city through that 
channel of communication. 
In 1853 a steamer arrived from New Orleans, in September, with 
quartermasters' supplies on board, and came up to the wharf without 
any inspection. Lieutenants Cook, Second Artillery, and Silvey, First 
Artillery, went on board on her arrival and spent some time in the 
captain's cabin. There was no sickness on the vessel at this time, but she 
had several cases and some deaths from yellow fever on her passage 
over. 
The same day, three soldiers from the garrison at Fort Brooke spent 
some time on board. These latter were taken sick three days afterward, 
and died with unmistakable symptoms of yellow fever.- Two days sub- 
sequently, Lieutenant Silvey was taken ill, but recovered, and a short 42 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
time afterward General Childs, commanding the troops in the States, 
died, as did also Lieutenants Cook and Butler, Second Artillery, and 
Redfield, post surgeon. The disease spread generally in the community, 
and there were many deaths, - both among the troops and the citizens. 
(Letter of Captain W. Silvey, United States Army, July 21, 1872.) 
In 1871, about the middle of August, the fever broke out at Cedar 
Keys, Florida. The facts are not positively ascertained as to its origin, 
but it was generally believed to have arisen from a sick man, landed 
from the Havana steamer. The hygienic condition of the place was 
bad. " At the Keys there were some half dozen saw-mills, with con- 
siderable accumulations of saw-dust and slabs, undergoing slow but 
gradual decay, while the extensive pine piling of the railroad and wharf 
was in the same condition, besides the stumps of piling burned a few 
years since." (Tampa newspaper, April 27, 1872.) Shortly after the 
disease broke out at Cedar Keys, a white boy and a negro, who lived 
in Tampa, returned to that place from the Keys. They were both taken 
sick with yellow fever after their arrival in Tampa; both recovered. 
" The next case was a mulatto woman, who had removed from the 
country and had been living here something near a year." The next 
cases were a brother of Dr. Wall, of Tampa, and his wife. The latter 
died on the 6th of September, and a child died, the same day, in a 
house opposite to the doctor's. " The disease from that time spread 
rapidly among those who had settled here since 1867. (Letter of Dr. 
John P. Wall, August 23, 1872.) While these events were occurring, a 
physician, Dr. McCaw, from Gainesville, Florida, a village about ninety 
miles in the interior of the State, visited Cedar Keys to offer his medi- 
cal services. On his return to Gainesville he was taken with the pre- 
vailing disease, and died; and the disease became epidemic in the town 
and was attended with fearful mortality. 
Mobile, Alabama.-A settlement was made on the present site of 
Mobile about the beginning of the eighteenth century, and yellow fever 
is said to have prevailed there in 1705. (Drake, op. cit., p. 216.) Its 
next appearance was in 1765, when it was imported by a British regi- 
ment from Jamaica, and prevailed with considerable malignancy. 
(Roman's History of Florida, p. 13, quoted by Drake, op., cit., p. 216.) 
From this time there was no yellow fever there until 1819, when it ap- 
peared in epidemic form. It was said to have been imported from 
Havana by the schooner Patriot, which arrived at the wharves in Mo- 
bile on the 15th of August. A young man, who was a passenger on 
her, died of yellow fever a few days afterward, and the disease spread 
in this part of the town. Professor Drake (op. cit., p. 217) quotes old 
residents of the town as confirming this view, but a " committee ap- 
pointed to investigate the causes and extent of the disease," in their 
report affirm positively that the disease had been in existence a month 
previous to the arrival of this vessel, and found a local origin for it in 
the filthy condition of the wharves and streets leading therefrom. 
(Medical Recorder, vol. 4, p. 160-163.) Such is also the opinion of Dr. 
Lewis. (New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. 1, p. 284.) 
The total number of deaths was two hundred and seventy-four, in a 
population of not more than one thousand. The disease spread from Mobile 
to various points on the Tombigbee and Alabama Rivers. The disease 
is said to have been epidemic in 1825, 1827, and 1829, but, except an 
allusion to these visitations by Drake, I can find no accounts of them. 
They are not mentioned by either Carpenter or Monette, who are gen- 
erally very accurate. In 1837 it began about the 20th of September, 
and three weeks afterward begame suddenly epidemic throughout the QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
43 
town.. There does not seem to be any evidence of foreign importation. 
(Drake, op. cit., p. 220.) , 
In 1839, about the same time it broke out in New Orleans, it appeared 
in Mobile. " In both places the first cases were among the shipping 
exclusively, or among those who had frequented certain vessels." 
(Monette, op. cit., p. 118.) It prevailed with great violence during 
September and October, and after a change of weather, about the 20th 
of October, commenced to decline. The total number of deaths was 
about six hundred and fifty. 
I have quoted above. Monette's statement in regard to this epidemic, 
but Dr. J. C. Nott says (New Orleans Medical Journal, vol. 4, p. 564) 
that the disease " commenced on the corner of Government and Hamil- 
ton streets, half a mile from the shipping, in a clean, well ventilated, and 
fashionable part of the town." 
In 1842 the fever prevailed in about half of the town, commencing in 
Spanish alley, a very filthy place, near the docks, and marching steadily 
in a northwestern direction. It was not generally epidemic, there being 
only about one hundred and sixty cases and sixty deaths. (Dr. P. H. 
Lewis on Yellow Fever, New Orleans Journal of Medicine, vol. 1. No. 2, 
p. 31 ; Nott, op. cit., p. 566.) 
In 1843 it prevailed over the half of the town untouched the previous 
year, commencing in its northern extremity, and pursuing a course to 
the southeast. The number of deaths was two hundred and forty. 
(Nott, op. cit.) Carpenter asserts that this epidemic was introduced 
from New Orleans. (Op. cit., p. 30.) 
" There was a very mild epidemic in 1847, and again in 1851, but no 
violent outbreak before the general prevalence of the disease in 1853. 
"The first cases of yellow fever which occurred in Mobile in 1853, it is 
conceded on all hands, were imported from New Orleans on board the 
bark Miltiades." 
The epidemic this year had this peculiarity, that it was not confined to 
the city alone, but spread to various localities in the vicinity which had 
previously acquired an enviable reputation for salubrity, and had on 
this account been places of considerable resort during the summer 
months. This I shall notice more in detail further on. 
The bark Miltiades arrived on the 11th of July at Dog River Bar, 
twenty miles from the city, down the bay. She was from Portland, 
Maine, via New Orleans. At the latter place her crew had contracted 
yellow fever, and on her arrival below Mobile, one of her crew was sent 
to the Marine Hospital, where he died on the 13th with black vomit. 
On the 19th a stevedore, employed on board in loading the ship, was 
taken sick and brought to the Sailors' Home, where he died on the 
25th. Four other cases were removed from the bark on the 25th. All 
of these latter cases were brought up to town on the steamer Daniel 
Pratt, and, August 1st, the engineer of the steamer was taken sick. These 
men were taken to different houses in town. About the same time 
several cases appeared in town, which, on inquiry, were found to be of 
, persons who had Hed from New Orleans to escape the epidemic. The 
next that was known was the appearance of the disease among the citi- 
zens, and occurring in quite a number of different localities ; and by the 
middle of August it had become decidedly epidemic, and continued as 
such until the 1st of November. The population of Mobile was about 
twenty-five thousand, of whom probably a third were absent from the city, 
and the number of deaths was eleven hundred and ninety-one. 
About six miles west of Mobile, in a high, dry, sandy region, in a 
heavy pine forest, is the locality known as Spring Hill. It is the seat 44 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
of Saint Josepli's College, and the residence of about thirty families; the 
population is much increased in the summer by persons from Mobile, by 
reason of its well known salubrity. Dr. Nott gives the following account 
of the importation of the disease into this healthy settlement. : 
On the 12th of August, just about the time the yellow fever began to assume the epi- 
demic form in Mobile, and one month after the first imported case, I was called to see 
a young gentleman, Mr. Alfred Murray, with a well-marked attack of the disease, at a 
boarding-house in Mobile, on Saint Louis street, near Saint Joseph, and on the 14th had 
him removed on a bed to the house of a brother-in-law, Mr. Wheeler, on Spring Hill, 
about the center of the settlement, and twenty days after he entered the house, Sep- 
tember 5, two of Mr. Wheeler's children were attacked with the epidemic, and about 
two weeks afterward two other children were attacked ; three had black vomit, and 
two died. * * * * Qreer moyed with his family to the house of Mr. John B. 
Toulmin, on the 29th, from town, carrying a daughter convalescing from yellow fever. 
Another daughter sickened on the 8th; three of Mr. Fleming's children, in the same 
house, on the 10th, and Mrs. John Greer on the next day, &c. (New Orleans Medical 
and Surgical Journal, March, 1854.) 
From these points the disease spread through the settlement, and nearly 
every person living there was sick. 
At Citronelle, at the terminus of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, thirty- 
three miles from town, a similar state of affairs existed, and there were 
twenty deaths out of a total population of two hundred and fifty. It 
also appeared at the Dog River Cotton Factory, five miles from Mobile, 
and other localities in the neighborhood of the town. (Doctor J. C. Nott, 
op. cit., pp. 571-585.) 
1867.-It was not long after the disease became prevalent in New Or- 
leans before it made its appearance in Mobile. On the 13th of August, 
Lieutenant Hezlep, United States Engineers, who had been in New 
Orleans on duty, died at Fort Morgan, below Mobile, of the fever. 
Lieutenant Breckinridge, who shared his room with him, next took it; 
and next Doctor Reynolds, the post surgeon. Many other cases suc- 
ceeded, and by the 15th of September there had been nine deaths at the 
Fort. The first case in the city of Mobile was on the 17 th of September, 
when Major Tracey, Fifteenth Infantry, died in a private hospital in the 
city. I was informed in Mobile that this officer had been exposed to the 
disease either in New Orleans dr at Fort Morgan. The next cases were 
in a sailors' boarding house near the river, where a boy died of black 
vomit, a sailor having been previously sick in the house. After there 
were some cases in the neighborhood of the camp, and before the end 
of the month, there had been about thirty-five cases and six deaths. In 
September it became epidemic and ran the usual course. 
1870.-The schooner Louisa Williston arrived on the 19th of August, 
1870, from Havana, and came to wharf near Otis's Mills. On the 22d 
August Mr. John Otis, who was employed at the mills, was taken sick, 
and died on the 28th. It was not suspected that he had yellow fever 
until after he died. The next case was John Otis, jr., who was taken 
sick September 5, and, on the 6th, Mrs. Otis, mother of the last case, 
and, on the 8th, her daughter, all with unquestionable yellow fever. 
There had been no fever on the schooner. The portion of the city 
where these cases occurred was notoriously unhealthy, being in the, 
vicinity of what is called the Choctaw Swamp, where all the refuse and 
offal of the city were deposited, and where there are many acres of stag- 
nant water, while the prevailing winds sweep from the swamp over the 
city. (Dr. George A. Ketchum, in Proceedings Alabama Medical Society, 
1871. 
In conversing in regard to this outbreak with the members of the 
board of health of Mobile, I found then! generally of the opinion that 
the disease was .due in this case to the Williston. She had just come QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
45 
from an infected port, and, though she had no fever on board, could 
readily have imparted the infection from her hold to those who were 
at work about her cargo. Still it is one of the doubtful cases. 
Dr. Henry S. Levert, of Mobile, in a letter to Dr. Barton, of New 
Orleans, (Report New Orleans Sanitary Committee, p. 110,) remarks upon 
the epidemics of Mobile : 
From the facts which have been forced upon my notice, my mind at last has been 
led to the conclusion that, if the causes existing in our midst do not generate the dis- 
ease, they favor its introduction and contribute greatly to its extension. 
One point I think is satisfactorily established, in connection with its appearance in 
Mobile upon almost every occasion, viz., that it has invariably occurred in those 
seasons when large excavations have been made, or extensive surfaces of fresh earth 
exposed to the action of the sun and air during the heat of summer; while, on the con- 
trary, our city has been almost as invariably exempt from this scourge in those seasons 
in which no such causes existed. 
New Orleans, Louisiana.-The city is situated on the east bank of the 
Mississippi River, and between it and Lake Ponchartrain, about one 
hundred and ten miles from the Gulf of Mexico, at the river's mouth. 
The site of the city is a swamp, considerably below the level of both 
the river and lake, and protected from inundations by levees from seven 
to ten feet high. The streets nearest the levee have been gradually re- 
claimed from the river by the deposit of the earthy and organic matters 
in the water, and the condition of the swamp in the rear of the city much 
improved by the digging of canals, building of shell roads, and a system 
of drainage. The whole soil of the swamp, as ,well as of the ground on 
which the city is built, is diluvial, and, until some time in the present 
century, (1822,) the streets were unpaved, and, entirely uncared for, in 
rainy weather becoming impassable from the mud. At present on either 
side of the streets are open gutters, into which great quantities of filth 
and garbage find their way, offending the sight and smell, in. the poorer 
portions of the town, by the most horrible combinations. Vacant lots on 
the ' outskirts of the city often contain stagnant water; the back yards, 
alley-ways, and sinks are unclean, and evolve deleterious effluvia. Many 
of the cemeteries are in the most thickly-settled portions of the citv, 
and the nature of the soil not permitting interments beneath the surface, 
burials take place in tombs above ground, with what effect on. the 
olfactories of the neighborhood can easily be imagined. The poorer 
classes of the population, especially the foreigners from the south of 
Europe, called here " dagos," live in narrow streets, in crowded houses, 
in the French quarter, under the most unfavorable hygienic conditions ; 
and it is in this quarter that yellow fever has ofteuest committed 
the greatest ravages, especially in those streets in the vicinity of the 
docks. 
Yellow fever did not make its appearance in New Orleans until 1796. 
During this year, and for two years previous, extensive excavations had 
been made in digging the canal Carondelet, and it has 'been very gener- 
ally declared, by the advocates of the local origin of the disease, that it 
was due to the great overturning of the soil in this work. Unquestion- 
ably, this was a most prolific source of sickness. All writers agree that 
diseases of a miasmatic character were very prevalent, and that thou- 
sands of the workmen employed on this and subsequent enterprises of 
a similar character died. It may, therefore, well be that the spread of 
the disease was decidedly influenced by it. That it did not originate 
the disease, we are assured by Carpenter, (op. cit., p. 13,) who quotes 
from the Louisiana Courier of November 27, 1820, a positive assertion 
that " it was traced to a vessel which had brought it." We are, unfor- 
tunately, without any othei' particulars as to the name of the vessel or 46 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
the origin of the first cases. This remark is equally true of 1799, when 
there was "what was considered proof of its importation." It appeared 
after this in 1801, 1802, 1804, 1809, and 1811, epidemics of which I have 
been unable to find any details. 
In 1817 the English ship Phoenix arrived on the 18th of June, from 
Havana, with yellow fever on board. The disease continued to prevail 
after her arrival, and, by the 30th, she had several deaths. On the 10th 
of July, the Virgin del Mar arrived from the same port with many of her 
crew sick. She had some deaths on her passage, others died on her way 
up the river, and still more after her arrival, " all with the black vomit." 
The first cases in the city were traceable directly to these vessels. 
The disease became epidemic about the middle of July, and prevailed 
until the last of December, causing about eight hundred deaths. 
(New Orleans Gazette, February 3, 1818, quoted by Carpenter, op. cit.) 
Among the medical men of the day the opinion was unanimous in favor 
of the local origin of the disease, but in January, 1818, Governor Villere 
sent a message to the legislature, stating that the proofs of importation 
were positive and recommending the passage' of a quarantine law. 
This was accordingly done, in a very imperfect manner, although it 
was sufficiently effective to cause a number of infected vessels to be 
stopped at the quarantine station, and there was no epidemic this year 
in the city. The next legislature, however, repealed the act and 
directed the sale of the lazaretto. (Carpenter, op. cit., 17-18 ; Dow- 
ler's Tableau, pp. 14-16 ; Faget, Premier Memoire sui' la Fievre Jaune, 
pp. 21, 22.) 
In 1819 occurred the most severe epidemic the city had known. It 
broke out about the 1st of July, among the shipping moored to the 
levee. There had been in June a number of arrivals of infected ves- 
sels, and numbers more arrived in August, several of which had lost 
men on the passage with black vomit. From the wharves the disease 
spread to the neighboring streets, and it was epidemic by the middle 
of August. 11 It assumed a character of the highest malignity; medi- 
cine lost its effects, the skill of the physician was baffled, and multitudes 
were carried to the grave." (Carpenter, op. cit., p. 18.) The Sur- 
geon-General (Army Medical Statistics, p. 10) estimated the number of 
deaths at three thousand, but this is evidently an over estimate, as 
Dowler shows that the total mortality for the year was only two thou- 
sand one hundred and ninety. Doctors de Chambery and Baxter both 
consider this epidemic to be of local origin, though the latter states that 
the first cases he saw were among the shipping in port. (Medical Re- 
pository, vol. 6, pp. 1-19.) 
Early in January, 1820, Governor Villere again urged upon the legis- 
lature the necessity for a stringent quarantine law. He admits in his 
message that his views are in opposition to those of the medical profes- 
sion of the city, but believes quarantine to be of the highest value as a 
preventive. Nothing, however, was done this year, and about the mid- 
dle of July cases of yellow fever made their appearance, at first among 
the shipping and sailor boarding houses. Au investigation, ordered by 
the governor, disclosed the fact that on the 17th of June a schooner, 
the Gold-Hunter, arrived from Havana, having had two deaths from 
yellow fever on the voyage; and on the 10th of July the brig Charles 
Fawcett arrived, having lost some of her crew. The disease prevailed in 
the city until the 21st of December. (Carpenter, op. cit., p. 19; Dow- 
ler, op. cit., p. 17.) During the progress of this epidemic a detach- 
ment of troops came down the Mississippi, en route to Bay Saint Louis, 
Mississippi, and were detained some time in New Orleans. They arrived 47 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
at Bay Saint Louis on the 20th of August, with one man sick with yel- 
low fever, who died of black vomit twelve hours subsequently. Within 
twenty-four hours there were five more cases in the command, of which 
two died, and the disease spread among the troops stationed there. 
(Army Medical Statistics, 1819-'39, pp. 20, 21.) In December of this 
year Governor Robertson, the successor of Villere, again urged upon 
the legislature the advisability of a quarantine. In consequence of this, 
in February, 1821, a quarantine law was enacted, by which a board of 
health was created, armed with the most extensive powers against the 
introduction of disease, and a quarantine was established below the 
city, at English Town. The board did not, however, seem to consider 
it necessary to protect the city from the importation of the disease by 
way of the lake, an omission fraught with grave consequences; for al- 
though 1821 proved healthy, the year 1822 was signalized by a severe 
epidemic. Yellow fever broke out in Pensacola that year, about the 12th 
of August, and caused great consternation among the people, large 
numbers of whom fled the city. On the 21st of August two sloops, the 
Ann and the Eliza, both crowded with passengers, left that town for 
New Orleans, and entered by way of Lake Pontchartrain and Bayou 
Saint John, which brought them into the heart of the city without any 
quarantine inspection. Some of the passengers were sick on the trip 
and died. The official report of the board of health says : 
The researches made by the board at the commencement of the late epidemic lead 
them to believe that the yellow fever was imported toward the end of August last by 
a vessel from Pensacola arriving at the basin of Canal Carondelet, and attention was 
first attracted to the disease in a family by the name of Lynch, passengers in said ves- 
sel. This family, of which every member but one fell victim to the yellow fever, had 
removed to Bienville street, where the disease first spread, and from here extended 
through the city. 
Besides this source of infection, Dr. Forsythe, health-officer at quar- 
antine, reports the arrival of a large number of infected vessels at the 
quarantine station, and that he had no means of preventing intercourse 
with those on these vessels, which frequently took place, and that ves- 
sels were often permitted to go to the city without being properly fumi- 
gated. This epidemic prevailed until November, the number of deaths 
being variously estimated. Dr. Dowler places it at eight hundred and 
eight, which, from his well-known accuracy, is probably correct. 
This same author states that the year 1823 was remarkable for its 
salubrity. " In no year since. the first irruption of yellow fever in New 
Orleans were the cases of the disease so few as in 1823." This does not 
accord with. the statement of Monette, who says that cases began to 
appear among the shipping in July, becoming epidemic in the city 
about the middle of August. (Observations on Yellow Fever of Natchez, 
P-65.) . ' . . 
In 1824 the fever prevailed epidemically. Its history, as cited by Car- 
penter (op. cit., pp. 55-60;) was as follows, as regards the mode of its 
introduction: On the 20th of July, the schooner Emigrant arrived at 
the Southwest Pass from Havana, and was towed up to the quarantine 
ground by the tow-boat Balize. The steamer was made fast alongside 
of the schooner until she got within six or seven miles of the quarantine 
grounds, when she dropped the schooner astern and towed her by a line 
to the quarantine station. From affidavits published by Carpenter, it 
is proved that there were at this time two cases of yellow fever on the 
schooner, and that several persons from the tow-boat visited these sick 
men, one of whom was throwing up black vomit at the time. 
On the 7th of August John White was admitted to the Charity Hos- 48 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
pital and died the next day of black vomit. On the 10th of August 
there were two cases reported on the steam-tug Rost Boy, and on the 
11th two more from the Belize. These were the first cases occurring in 
the city, and Carpenter has no doubt that the epidemic was due to this 
cause, as he shows by further testimony it was a common practice for 
the tugs to tow vessels in this manner and for there to be unrestricted 
intercourse between the boats. Of internal causes of the disease at 
this time, the chief are thus noticed by a message of the mayor of the 
city, dated September 11 (I quote from Dowler's Tableau:) 
The internal causes are: 1st, the filth daily created in a populous city; 2d, the low 
grounds and pools where stagnant water lies, the wooden gutters constantly wet and 
fermenting under the rays of a torrid sun ; 3d, the want of privies in most of the pop- 
ulous districts, which renders it necessary to recur to the disgusting and dangerous use 
of tubs. The external causes are: 1st, the marshes lying north and west of the city, 
uncovered but undrained, and deprived by the cutting down of trees of the shelter 
formerly afforded to them by the shade of a luxuriant vegetation, for which the very 
miasms that now spread death- and desolation among us were a source of li e and vigor, 
<fcc. 
In 1825 the legislature repealed the quarantine code and broke up the 
stations, it having been in operation four years, during which time there 
were three epidemics. There was much controversy at the time on the 
subject, but the general opinion of the community was adverse to its 
continuance, believing that the facts had shown it to be of no avail 
against yellow fever and an arbitrary restriction on commerce. It may 
be doubted whether the unfortunate result of this attempt was not 
rather due to defects in the law and faults in its administration than to 
the falsity of the general principle involved; certainly the accounts of 
these epidemics, as well as the confession above noted of the health-offi- 
cer, Dr. Forsythe, would seem to warrant this assertion. 
There was a mild epidemic in 1825, the disease making its appear- 
ance about the middle of July. It does not seem to have prevailed very 
generally, the number of admissions to the Charity Hospital being but 
eighty-nine, with forty-nine deaths. 
It is proper to remark that we have only the most meager accounts 
of all of these epidemics from 1825 till 1839, and it is very difficult to find 
any positive proof as to their mode of origin. The disease prevailed 
epidemically in 1829, and extended from there to Baton Rouge, Natchez, 
and Opelousas. It was asserted by Carpenter to have been introduced 
by Spaniards from Mexico, large numbers of whom had fled that coun- 
try on account of the political troubles. The commencement of the 
epidemic was coincident with their arrival. (Sketches, p. 26.) 
It was epidemic in both 1832 and 1833, and evinced peculiar malig- 
nancy, but I have been able to obtain no particulars as to its origin. 
In 1837 there was a very severe epidemic, there having been nine hun- 
dred and ninety-eight admissions to the Charity Hospital, of which four 
hundred and forty-two died. The first cases occurred on board the ves- 
sels recently arrived from the West Indies. The disease extended this 
year to various points in the interior. In another place I have given 
the facts relative to its introduction to Natchez by reason of the con- 
stant arrival of sick persons. Besides this it was carried by steamboat 
communication or otherwise to Baton Rouge, ..Opelousas, and Plaque- 
mine, Louisiana. Dr. T. A. Cooke, in an essay on the yellow fever at 
Washington, Louisiana, gives some interesting facts relative to the in- 
troduction of the disease into that place in 1826, by means of infected 
clothing : 
About the year 1826 Mr. L. Louaillier, a merchant of Opelousas, imported late in 
the fall fro n the city, du-ing the prevalence of yellow fever, so ne merchandise. QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
49 
individuals who were present in opening some of these goods contracted a violent fever ; 
one died, and all were said by an experienced physician to have had yellow fever. In 
1828 the same individual, with M. Lazaretti, another merchant, imported goods from 
the city during the prevalence of the fever. Mr. Louaillier, ever regretting the error 
he committed in 1826-for he believed in the importability of the poison or cause of 
yellow fever-opened his boxes and bales and ventilated his goods for three days before 
taking them to town, and no disease followed from contact with them, whereas of four 
individuals present on opening the goods of Lazaretti, brought directly to his store in 
Opelousas, three died with black vomit, and the fourth narrowly escaped with his life. 
(New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal, March, 1854.) 
The year 1839 was a celebrated one in the history of the prevalence 
of the fever. At no time since its first appearance did it prevail over 
such a wide extent of country; never before had it so generally extended 
to inland towns. Monette remarks that these latter were invariably 
infected subsequently to its appearance in the coast ports with which they 
had most intercourse. 
The first appearance of this disease in the United States during this summer was 
invariably in the maritime or commercial ports, and the first cases were invariably 
among the shipping in port, and especially among those which were direct from in- 
fected West India or Mexican ports. In every instance the disease for several weeks 
was confined exclusively to the shipping before it began to spread among the resident 
population. The fact is abundantly established by the concurrent statements of the 
public press ia all the infected ports. In no part of the United States was a single case 
of yellow fevet seen even on board the vessels until after it had been prevailing with 
great mortality for several weeks in the West India and Mexican ports. (Monette, op. 
cit., p. 78.) 
There was no attempt at a quarantine in New Orleans, and the arri- 
vals of vessels from infected ports were very numerous. The first cases 
occurred among the shipping about the last of June, and others through- 
out the month of July, until, by August 1, about twenty-five cases had 
been received into Charity Hospital from this source. It now began to 
appear in the streets adjacent to the wharves. The report of the medi- 
cal society says : " The first sections affected were the streets of the old 
levee." By the 12th of August it was pronounced epidemic, and thence- 
forth raged violently, there being one thousand and eighty-six admis- 
sions to the Charity Hospital and four hundred and fifty-two deaths. 
The season was noted as being unusually hot and sultry, with a great 
drought. During this season the city was unusually cleanly, and, apart 
from the fever, there was a remarkable immunity from disease of all 
kinds. From New Orleans the disease spread to a large number of the 
interior towns of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, &c. • It was carried 
to Biloxi, Mobile, Pensacola, Tampa, and Galveston along the coast, 
and to very large numbers of the towns along the rivers. " In every 
instance where this occurred the first cases of the disease were invaria- 
bly traced to New Orleans, and only such towns as had free intercourse 
with the city by steamboat were visited by the disease. Those towns 
which were cut off from such intercourse by nature or circumstances, 
invariably escaped the epidemic, although- they might have double the 
population of others and might be only one-half the direct distance 
from the city. The first individual cases in any of these towns were 
either persons landed from steamboats with the disease openly developed 
in their systems, or persons who had recently left New Orleans with, 
the infection dormant in their systems when they landed, but which soon 
after was developed in its most malignant form." (Monette, op. cit., p. 
91.) Two or three instances will suffice, as the facts in nearly every 
case are alike. Donaldsonville, eighty-five miles from New Orleans, is 
a clean, healthy town, and had no case of yellow fever until after the 
1st of September. About this time a number of persons were landed 
from steamboats and taken either to the hotel or to the lodging-houses 50 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
near the steamboat-landing, where they were sick and some died. By 
the 15th of September cases began to appear among the resident popu- 
lation, and the first taken sick were those who had visited or nursed the 
sick strangers. The disease continued to prevail until frost, giving rise to 
upward of thirty deaths. 
On the other side, Baton Rouge, which at the time had but little trade with 
New Orleans, and whose inhabitants refused to allow of the landing of any 
yellow-fever patients, escaped the disease entirely. 
At Waterloo, a few miles above Port Hudson, some creoles, believing 
they were exempt from the disease, visited New Orleans in the midst of 
the epidemic. On their return several of them sickened and died, and others 
took the disease, and there were about fifteen deaths in the place. 
In a Aianner similar to what has been narrated of Donaldsonville, 
the disease was carried to Plaquemine, Port Hudson, Fort Adams, 
Natchez, Grand Gulf, Vicksburgh, on the Mississippi, and to Alexandria, 
on the Red River, the disease in every case making its first appearance 
in the vicinity of the steamboat-landing, or among those who had re- 
cently arrived from New Orleans. (Monette, pp. 77-120.) 
Besides these river-towns, several of the villages along the interior bayous of 
the State suffered, viz., Franklin, New Iberia, Saint Martinsville, Opelousas, 
&c. It was brought to New Iberia as follows: 
A young physician, Dr. Smith, died of the disease at Plaquemine, and his remains 
were carried to his friends in New Iberia, and were exposed in the village-church ac- 
cording to the usage of the Catholics. Many persons who entered the chapel for the 
purpose of seeing the remains, or for other purposes, took the disease, and many died 
with black vomit, and the disease was communicated from these to others. (Carpen- 
ter, op. cit., p. 28.) 
At Franklin, on the Teche, a man named Thompson went on board the 
steamboat Tomochichi, from New Orleans, and spent some time. The 
boat had several cases of fever on board. Soon afterward Thompson was taken 
sick. A family named Birdsall nursed him, and they were all taken, 
and several died. The neighbors who visited the Birdsalls next suffered, and 
the infection thence spread through the village, causing about twenty-five 
deaths. (Carpenter, p. 27 ; Monette, p. 113.) 
In 1841, in 1842, and in 1843, the disease was epidemic in New Orleans, 
and presents the same history precisely as regards its first prevalence on 
the shipping and in the vicinity of the wharves as was the case in 1839. 
Like that year, also, it was carried to many towns in the interior, and, 
without exception, the earliest cases were either persons who had come 
from New Orleans, or else had communicated with steamboats from that 
place. 
There was no epidemic after this in the city until 1847. The fever 
prevailed very early in the season of this year* at both Havana and 
Vera Cruz, and, in consequence of our war with Mexico, immense num- 
bers of vessels were constantly arriving from Vera Cruz during the 
spring and summer. Graham estimates (Sketches of Yellow Fever, 
p. 36) that there were over three hundred and fifty arrivals from in- 
fected ports between the 1st of May and the 31st of July, of which over 
two hundred were from Vera Cruz. Many of these vessels were Army 
transports, and some of them had sick soldiers on board, returning to 
be discharged in New Orleans. The disease was positively introduced 
by the United States steamers Massachusetts and Galveston, arriving 
on the 16th of June; a man named John Strider being the first case. 
There were about three thousand deaths. (Fenner on Epidemic of 1847, 
New Orleans Medical Journal, vol. 5, pp. 194-196.) 
The year 1853, when the next great epidemic occurred, forms an epoch QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
51 
by itself in the history of the disease only equaled in its wide-spread 
devastation by those of 1839 and 1867. Fortunately, we have the most 
complete history of it, thanks to the labors of Fenner, Barton, Axson, 
and others, and to the admirable report of the New Orleans Sanitary 
Commission. From the great mass of testimony taken on the subject, 
much of which is irrelevant, and more conflicting, I condense the follow- 
ing statement : There was a general impression among the people that 
the disease was imported from Rio Janeiro, and especially by the barks 
Siva and Home, which arrived early in May, and both of which had 
more or less fever on board during the passage; but Dr. A. F. Axson, 
after a careful investigation of the facts, could not trace any connection 
between the earlier cases and these vessels. But, on the 16th of May, 
the British ship Camboden Castle arrived at the mouth of the river 
from Kingston, Jamaica. This vessel had been for several weeks in 
that port, where she had lost her captain and seven of her crew with 
yellow fever. After these cases she was washed with lime and cleansed, 
and had no sickness on board on her arrival. She was towed up to the city 
on the 17th of May in company with the ship Augusta from Bremen. This 
latter vessel brought two hundred and thirty immigrants, had been out 
fifty-two days, and had passed to the south of Cuba, bnt not nearer than 
thirty-five miles from shore. Her passengers and crew were healthy. 
On the trip up the river she was only separated from the Camboden 
Castle by the tow-boat, and there was free communication between the 
two vessels. On arrival the latter vessel was dropped at Post 27, while 
the Augusta was taken some half mile farther up the river to the foot 
of Josephine street. 
On the 22d of May, Dr. Schuppert was called to see a sailor on the 
Augusta, whom he found with well-marked symptoms of yellow fever. 
The same day a man named James McGingan was taken to the Charity 
Hospital from the ship Northampton, lying at the same wharf, and he 
died on the 28th with black vomit. This ship Northampton, was also 
an emigrant-ship, and had arrived on the 9th of May direct from Liver- 
pool, having passed about fifty miles to the north of Cuba. The most 
contradictory testimony was given in regard to this ship. The captain 
asserted that she was much cleaner than the average of emigrant-ships, 
while Mr. Pashley, a stevedore employed to cleanse the ship, asserts that 
she was so foul that his hands became sick, and he was obliged to 
employ a second gang and discharge the first. The truth is probably 
somewhere between the two extremes. 
The next case of fever that occurred was from the Augusta, a sailor 
named Gustave Woette, who was taken on the 25th, and died on the 
30th. Two more cases occurred on the same ship on the 27th. 
The next cases occurred on some ships that were moored near the 
Camboden Castle at Post No. 26. These vessels, the Saxon and Harvest 
Queen, had arrived in May, and were loading with cotton for Liverpool, 
and had not been near any infected port. 
Then cases began to occur on shore, two of rather doubtful character, 
of the 2d of June, at Gormley's Basin, a filthy locality in the back part 
of the city. Dr. Moses Dowler attended these cases, and pronounced 
them to be yellow fever. Faget was of opinion that they were attacked 
with swamp fever, as they worked every day in the swamp, getting out 
shingles. The next well-authenticated case was a young Irish girl, from 
a boarding-house on Tchoupitoulas street, near Race, about one block 
distant, and right between the Camboden Castle and the Augusta. 
She died on the 11th of June. The same day a young man, James 
Murray, died in another boarding-house, corner of Race and Tchoupitou- 52 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
las streets. Subsequently other cases occurred in this house. From 
this time cases occurred in other portions of the city, having no appar- 
ent connection with each other. Several of these were at a boarding- 
house for sailors, in the vicinity of the mint, and two or three miles from 
the other cases. The epidemic reached its maximum about the last 
week in August, and then gradually declined, there being but twenty- 
eight deaths in November and four in December. 
Barton estimates the total population of the city as one hundred and 
fifty-four thousand, of whom sixty thousand were unacclimated, and the 
total mortality at eight thousand one hundred, and that the total num- 
ber of cases in the city was rather more than twenty-nine thousand. 
(Sanitary Report, pp. 253-257.) The summer was an unusually hot one, 
and the amount of rain-fall greater than during any other year except 
1839. The sanitary condition of the city was as bad as it well could be. 
" In the winter and spring, when the weather was comparatively dry, 
the streets and gutters were in as good condition as is ever observed in 
this city; at all times bad enough, but when summer came with its 
scorching sun and frequent rains, the streets, alleys, gutters, battures, 
privies, vacant lots, &c., were neglected to such an extent by the street- 
commissioner, whose duty it was to have kept them in good order, as to 
call down upon him the indignation and the bitter denunciations of the 
press." (Fenner's Report on Epidemic of 1853, p. 9.) " It is worthy of 
remark that the epidemic prevailed in the unpaved, and, of course, least 
improved, part of the city all around, long before it did in the central 
and best improved parts." (Ibid., p. 212.) 
The history of this epidemic, as regards its extension to other towns, 
is but a repetition of that of 1839. As soon as it became epidemic in 
the city,\ the boats were crowded with people fleeing from the pestilence. 
Dowler estimates the number that left the city at thirty thousand. 
These scattered in every direction all through the country; many of them 
were taken sick en route, and the same wide-spread desolation ensued as 
in 1839. At all the towns on the Mississippi, and at many of the plan- 
tations as far as Napoleon, Arkansas, up the Red River as far as Shreve- 
port, along the coast to Mobile, and thence up the Alabama and Tom- 
bigbee Rivers, to Pensacola, Tampa, Galveston, Indianola, and many 
other places in Texas and Florida, and to various towns along the inte- 
rior bayous, the disease was epidemic and very fatal. The history of 
nearly all of these is so similar that it is not necessary to state them, 
and I will merely give, as an example, a short account of the disease as 
it appeared in Washington, Louisiana, condensed from a valuable his- 
tory of this epidemic by Dr. T. A. Cooke. (New Orleans Medical and 
Surgical Journal for March, 1851.) About the first of August, four col- 
ored persons, being a portion of a family who had left Washington for 
New Orleans about a year before, and who had lost three of their family 
in the latter city of the epidemic, returned to Washington. They stopped 
at the house of some acquaintances, where one of them had the fever. 
They had brought their baggage with them, and a trunk remained un- 
opened for some days, and it was at length determined to open it and 
ventilate its contents. The man who opened it complained of an offensive 
smell which arose from it, and the things were taken into a yard behind 
the store. Here a man by the name of Miller spent some time in exam- 
ining the goods or clothes in the trunk. This man, the proprietor of the 
store, and the clerk who opened the trunk, were all taken with fever 
within a few days. The next case was a colored man in the next house. 
Then some persons in the house where the person from New Orleans had 
been sick were taken, and there were seven cases in this house. Next a QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
53 
Mrs. King, who lived at a distance, visited the sick, and she was taken, 
and her death was followed by the sickness of every person in her house. 
And so the disease .spread until there were upward of two hundred 
cases in this small village. Commenting on these facts, Dr. Cooke 
remarks: 
As far as I have been able to learn, no doubt exists this year that this fever has been 
transmitted, directly or indirectly, from New Orleans to every place, in which it has pre- 
vailed as an epidemic, and I believe that the opponents of the importation of it into 
New Orleans must admit that there was this year at least a remarkable coincidence be- 
tween the actual importation of the morbific principle and the actual occurrence of the 
disease, and it may be here remarked, inasmuch as in hundreds of certified instances 
which have occurred from year to year up to this time all over the country, and em- 
bracing also New Orleans, this pestilence can be legitimately referred to an imported 
cause; that, in the absence of overt acts proving its importation, a strong probability 
of this importation should be regarded as satisfactory as if proof positive existed. In 
the country towns the fact of importation can be, and is always, verified, and another 
admitted fact, indeed a necessary consequence of the preceding one, is that it never 
prevails in the towns unless it previously exists as an epidemic in New Orleans. 
On the subject of the Value of this testimony from the small towns, 
Faget says (Deuxieme lettre a la Societe medicale de la Nouvelle-Or- 
leans, p. 3) : 
Dans les grandes villes les faits de cette nature sont enveloppes de complications 
inextricables, et il est extremement difficile, presque impossible, de savoir a leur sujet 
toute la verite, et rien que la verite meme a 1'aide d'enquetes consciencieuses et severes; 
dans les petites localites, au contraire, les faits se presentet avec plus de simplicite, 
et sans trop d'efforts il est possible de les approfondir assez pour que rien d'important 
n'echappe aux investigations. (See, also, Williams on Yellow Fever at Rodney, Missis- 
sippi, 1847, New Orleans Medical Journal, vol. 5, p. 217.) 
There was a mild epidemic in 1854, of which I have not come across 
any details, but after this the disease did not prevail epidemically until 
1858. 
On the 8th of May of that year the ship Elizabeth Ellen left Saint 
Thomas for New Orleans. She had been two months in Saint Thomas, 
where the fever was at the time prevailing. She had a number of cases 
and one death among her crew on the passage. Arrived at the quaran- 
tine on the 4th of June. She was fumigated, and authorized to proceed 
to New Orleans the same day, and reached pier 23, where, at the same 
time, was lying the ship Independence, from New York, but which had 
been for several months in port. In the immediate vicinity were two 
other New York ships, the Trumbull and the F. B. Cutting, both of 
whom had been a long time in port. Six days after the arrival of the 
Elizabeth Ellen, i. e., June 10th, a young lady named Eustis, daughter of 
the captain of the Independence (who had his family living on board), 
was taken sick and died with the yellow fever on the 22d. On the 14th 
her brother was taken sick, and died on the 20th, and a few days later 
a nephew of Captain Eustis. On the 27th Thomas a sailor on 
the Independence was taken to hospital, and died on the 7th of July. 
About this same time Captain Smith, of the Trumbull, Captain Lyons, 
of the Cutting, his mate, and his daughter were taken; the two first 
died. Two sailors "were admitted from the Cutting into hospital early 
in July, and there were other cases from other vessels subsequently. 
While these events were transpiring, a Captain Healey, who had assisted 
Captain Lyons and his mate to transfer the body of young Eustis from 
an ordinary coffin to a wooden one, was .taken ill, and died on his 
way north up the river. Dr. Delery, in his " Precis historiques de la 
fiWre jaune," reports that he attended on the iGth of June a young 
Irish girl, Catharine Maxwell, under circumstances which precluded 
the idea of any connection with the other cases. She died on the 20th. 54 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
Between the 25th of June and the 2d of July, four Italians died in Char- 
ity Hospital of yellow fever. They were all from the bark Rosalie, of 
Palermo, that was located at post No. 21, second district. At the same 
wharf was a ship that recently arrived from Rio, and at a neighboring 
one was one from Havana. Such was the origin of this epidemic as 
narrated by Dr. Chaille in the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Jour- 
nal for November, 1859, and which I have quoted from Delery's " Precis 
historiques," not having Chaille's original memoir at hand. It is proper 
to add that Dr. Moses M. Dowler, in an elaborate review of the testi- 
mony in reference to the Elizabeth Ellen (New Orleans Medical and 
Surgical Journal, July, 1859), considers the evidence entirely insuffi- 
cient to convict that vessel of having been the origin of the epidemic, 
but ascribes it to the usual local causes by the argument ordinarily ad- 
vanced by the non-believers in the importation of the disease. 
After 1858 there was no epidemic until 1867. A rigid quarantine 
was established by the military authorities during the war, which, con- 
joined with the excellent sanitary measures undertaken by the military 
authorities, effectually prevented any epidemic. Dr. Fenner reports a 
fatal case of fever in 1862, near St. Mary's market (Southern Journal 
of Medical Sciences, May, 1866), which was imported from Key West, and 
another case was seen in the same year, which was brought from the 
Bahamas, but there was no spread of the disease. (Chaille, Life and 
Death in New Orleans, pp. 7-8.) 
In 1863 there were but two deaths among citizens, but a large num- 
ber of cases occurred among the vessels of our fleet anchored in the 
river, and several of these vessels were sent to the quarantine ground 
with fever on board. (Chaille, op. cit., pp. 8-9.) 
In 1864 the fever broke out on the fleet anchored in the river off the 
city. There were about two hundred cases distributed among some 
twenty-five gunboats and iron-clads, whose condition is thus described 
by Dr. Elisha Harris : 
Filthiness, crowding, excessive heat and moisture, and utter lack of ventilation and 
lighting, together with the stagnation of the local atmosphere, of those oven-like 
boats, incident to anchorage in a tideless stream, constitute the leading facts relating 
to the infected vessels. (Sanitary Commission Memoirs, p. 264.) 
There were, in all, one hundred and ninety-one cases in the fleet and 
twelve on shore, among persons employed on board and the vicinity, 
and sixty-one deaths. Five deaths are also reported among citizens 
living in the vicinity. The cases were removed to the naval hospital 
in the city as fast as taken, and there does not seem to be any spread 
of the disease beyond its limits. 
Assistant Surgeon J. J. Woodward (Report on Cholera and Yellow 
Fever in Army in 1867, p. 37) suggests that these vessels might have 
been infected from>the Spanish frigate Pizarro, which arrived at the 
quarantine-station July 4, with yellow fever on board. La Roche 
quotes Dr. Baldwin, health-officer at that quarantine, to prove that the 
Pizarro was there in 1863 and not in 1864, and Dr. Woodward informs 
me that this error in date was not ascertained until after the publica- 
tion of the circular referred to. Assistant Surgeon G. M. Sternberg, 
Uni'ed States Army, informs me that (he was the secretary of the 
board of health at the time) he is sure several naval vessels arrived 
with yellow fever on board, and that the authorities endeavored to 
detain them at the quarantine-ground, but were unable to do so, and he 
is decidedly of opinion that the disease was communicated to the other 
gunboats in this way. This does not agree with the views of Dr. Har- 
ris, who says: , 55 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
No vessel infected with yellow fever arriving by the way of the Gulf of Mexico was 
allowed to pass the quarantine-station, sixty-five miles from the city. (La Roche, 
Yellow Fever in Philadelphia in 1870.) 
And adds further: 
Yellow fever was unequivocally generated in a large number of filthy and unven- 
tilated gunboats and other naval vessels lying idly at anchor within a mile from the 
densest portion of the city. (Sanitary Commission Memoirs, p. 266.) 
As I have shown elsewhere in this report, the facts are indisputable as 
to the development of yellow fever in the filthy holds of ships, and I see 
no reason to doubt the correctness of the views of Dr. Harris, even grant- 
ing the truth of the alleged arrival of infected vessels, as stated by Dr. 
Sternberg, who spoke merely from memory and not from official docu- 
ments. The facts in regard to the Virginia, one of these, gunboats, 
which are given in detail by Faget (Second Memoir, pp. 10-13) would 
seem to settle this point conclusively. 
On the 14th of October, an officer on board of this vessel was taken 
with yellow fever, and subsequently to this the vessel had a large 
number of cases on board, which were removed to the naval hospital. 
The vessel had cruised in the Gulf during the winter, but since spring 
had been at anchor in the Mississippi. Now, this vessel, up to the year 
1863, had been a slaver, and had landed a cargo of negroes on the coast 
of Cuba in that year. Shortly after she was captured by one of our 
gunboats off the coast of Mexico, and taken into Key West, and thence 
to New York, where she was converted into a gunboat. The bottom of 
her hold was thoroughly cleansed, but her hull was iron, with double walls, 
and this interspace between the two walls being inaccessible, was never 
cleansed. There was communication between this interspace and the 
hold, and as a consequence, when she was taken from dock and went to 
sea, the bilge-water became so foul from impurities that the pumps 
could not be use?d. She, however, remained a healthy ship until the fall 
of 1864. In September she was hauled in to the bank of the river for 
repairs, and her hold pumped out dry and cleaned. In consequence the 
impurities between the walls, which before had been to some extent 
covered by the water, became exposed to the air, and thus spread what 
might well be a source of infection throughout-the ship. 
The year 1867 was remarked by another wide-spread epidemic, ex- 
tending over a large extent of country, and although not as fatal as 
those of 1839 and 1853, yet the disease was probably more generally 
prevalent than had been known at • any previous period. The whole 
southern country was peculiarly adapted to receive the seeds of the dis- 
ease. The population of all the large cities had been enormously in- 
creased by the mustering out of troops, large numbers of whom had 
remained at the South to seek their fortunes. Consequently the ratio 
of unacclimated persons to the total population was greater than had 
ever been known before. Moreover, the political condition of the 
country was very unsettled. There was still a military occupation of 
the South, and municipal regulations were in many cases divided be- 
tween the military and civil authorities, and as a consequence the latter 
did nothing to improve the sanitary condition of the towns, which, if 
possible, was worse than had ever been known before. About the 1st 
of June there arrived in New Orleans about five hundred of the dis- 
banded <f imperial " army of Mexico, ragged, filthy, and poverty-stricken, 
and with the seeds of disease about their persons; in fact, the fever 
broke out among them on their subsequent voyage to New York. The 
fever prevailed very early and with severity in both Havana and Vera 
Cruz. There was no attempt at an efficient quarantine, and large num- 56 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS 
hers of infected ships arrived from various ports. The first case of yel- 
low fever reported was a man named John Cowarts, a seaman, who 
died in Charity Hospital, June 10th. This man had been working for 
some time in the hold of tlie bark Bessie, which had arrived from 
Havana on the 22d of April, and had been since that time in the dry- 
dock at Algiers for repairs. This man was admitted to Charity Hos- 
pital from 261 Circus street, where there were subsequently a number 
of cases. A case terminating in recovery was reported in Saint Charles 
street, near Julia, on the 13th, and a third on Julia, who died on the 
23d. The fourth case was John Bonaman, a stock-raiser, who arrived 
from Texas on the steamer Hewes on the 21st of June. This man came 
from Indianola, and while there had seen and handled some infected 
blankets exposed for sale in an auction store. (I have given the full 
history of these blankets in describing the epidemic at Indianola.) On 
the passage this man was taken sick, and on arrival went to the Texas 
Hotel, near the stock-landing, where he died of black vomit on the 
26th. 
The next case died at the Charity Hospital on the 29th, and was a man 
who had been employed among the shipping in Algiers. 
On the 30th, Lieutenant Orville Dewey, Fourth Cavalry, died at the 
St. Charles Hotel. He came from Indianola a few days before, and 
while there had slept in the same room at the Magnolia House where 
the infected blankets before spoken of were stored. The next series of 
cases occurred on the bark Florence Peters. This vessel left Havana on 
the 3d of June, arrived at the Southwest Pass on the 13th, and tied up 
at Algiers on the 23d. On the way up the river, Mrs. Hooper, wife of 
the captain, was taken sick, and on arrival, Dr. Francis Barnes, who 
saw the case in consultation, pronounced it yellow fever. She died on 
the 30th of uremia. On the 25th, two days after the bark arrived, a 
young lady aged seventeen, sister of the last patient, was taken ill, and 
the case presented decided symptoms of yellow fever. She recovered. 
On the 26th the child of the captain was taken, and on the 29th the 
mate, both of whom recovered. Next the second mate was taken, and 
died at Charity Hospital on the 8th of July with black vomit. On the 
12th of July the captain died, and on the 25th a. man by the name of 
Seth Yorke, who resided in New Orleans, and had been frequently on 
the vessel in search of employment. While these cases were occurring 
several persons died at the Texas Hotel, near the stock-landing, where 
the man Bonaman, from Indianola, had died on the 26th. 
In the mean time, the fright of the people of Texas had been so great 
that many of them had fled in all directions, and in this manner the 
disease was carried to New Iberia, on the Teche. On the 12th of August, 
Doctor George W. Shields died at 220 Common street, having just come 
from New Iberia. Several other cases occurred soon after in this house. 
By this time cases multiplied so rapidly in town that it was impossible 
to trace them out. It became epidemic in the city about September 1st, 
reached its maximum on the 25th, and thence gradually declined until 
about the middle of November, when it entirely disappeared. The num- 
ber of deaths was over three thousand ; the number of cases in the city 
variously estimated ; probably over forty thousand were sick. 
As in previous epidemics, the disease was carried to all the towns on 
the Mississippi and Red Rivers, to Jackson, Mississippi, Mobile, Ala- 
bama, and other places. In all of these there was the most positive 
proof of its introduction by the or by passengers on the rail- 
ways. 
There has been no epidemic of any consequence since 1867. In 1870 QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
57 
it prevailed more or less in the filthy localities near the French market, 
and in 1871 in the vicinity of the Magazine market. 
The first case in 1870 was a man by the name of Dinslow, who was an 
officer on the steamer Agnes, which arrived from Honduras on the 16th 
of May. He was taken sick on the 26th, and died on the 2d of June. 
There were no other cases in the vicinity of where he died during the 
year. The next case was a woman named Dumfen, who died on the 
19th of August at 285 Old Levee street. The same day a case was re- 
ported of a Swede, about a block from this last house. The next case 
was a German girl named Lena Richs, from this same vicinity, who died 
at Charity Hospital, of black vomit, on the 24th. On the 26th a man 
by the name of Craig, from corner of Old Levee and Toulouse streets, 
died at Charity Hospital. This man had left Havana on the 17th of 
August, stopped in Mobile on the 20th, and arrived in New Orleans on 
the 21st, and was sent to hospital sick on the 22d. After this a number 
of Italians were sick in this neighborhood, and the disease continued to 
spread in the vicinity of the French market. 
The next cases occurred in the first district of the city, 'the first one 
being an Italian from the French market, where the disease was then 
prevailing. He died September 6th at 186 Dryades street. The next day 
two cases were reported of Italians at 481 Rampart street. From these 
two foci of infection, viz., the vicinity of the French market and the 
locality last mentioned, the disease spread over radii of several squares, 
but at no time comprehended the whole city. Undoubtedly the vigilant 
measures of disinfection inaugurated by the board of health had much 
to do with its circumscription within such narrow limits. .The epidemic 
continued until early in December, causing five hundred and eighty- 
seven deaths. (Report of New Orleans Board of Health for 1871.) 
In 1871 the first case was a flat-boat man named Charles Collingwood, 
who died on the 4th of August at Charity Hospital. This was a dissi- 
pated, houseless vagrant, who had been in the habit of sleeping about 
the wharves, and who for four nights had slept on the bark Mary Pratt, 
which had recently arrived from Cienfuegos with sugar, and was then 
discharging her cargo. All of her crew had been discharged, and only 
one man slept on board, and the stevedores who were discharging her 
were acclimated. The vessel was immediately sent to the quarantine- 
ground, where she was disinfected and fumigated, and on August 13 
she returned to the city and laid up at the foot of Terpsichore street. 
" August 23 George M. Mourse was employed as steward, and began 
work on the Mary Pratt, cleaning up her cabin, reported to be in a very 
filthy state; but was taken sick with yellow fever on the 29th, and died 
at the Hdtel-Dieu September 5. The vessel was again taken in charge 
by the sanitary inspector of the first district, thoroughly fumigated for a 
number of days, and no unacclimated persons allowed on board." 
The next case traced to this vessel was John Hock, a sailor living at 
433 Tchoupitoulas street, less than two blocks from where lay the Mary 
Pratt. This man had been in the habit of walking down on the levee 
every evening, and unquestionably contracted the contagion from the 
infected ship, although the board of health very singularly state, "No 
exposure to any infected place could be ascertained." He died on the 
5th of September. 
Before this time-August 15-John M. Rawlins, a custom-house in- 
spector, was attacked, and died on the 20th, at 118 Washington street. 
This man had been sent August 11 to the mouth of the river to take 
charge of the brig Hope, just arrived from Havana without any sickness 
on board. This vessel was detained at the quarantine-station two days. 58 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
During this time her hatches were opened, a portion of her cargo re- 
moved, and the ship fumigated. Rawlins, although cautioned of the 
danger, slept during this time .in a hammock on deck in the immediate 
vicinity of the open hatches. Two days afterward he was taken sick. 
On the Seventh of September Mr. E. W. Pierce, a member of the board 
of health, was taken sick, and died on the 13th. He lived at 136 Fourth 
street, distant about a hundred yards from the residence of the last case, 
across a block of buildings, with a cottage intervening between the two 
houses, and with the prevailing winds blowing from the direction of 
Rawlins' house toward that of Pierce. It was subsequently ascertained 
that two children were sick with the fever in the intervening cottage. 
From this time cases rapidly increased in this locality, and " by the 14th 
of October there had been twenty-seven unmistakable cases within a 
circle of a radius of one hundred and fifty feet, taking the house of Mr. 
Rawlins as a center." Cases continued to occur, chiefly in this vicinity, 
until the last of October-the total being onfe hundred and fourteen, of 
which fifty-five died. (Reports of the New Orleans Board of Health 
for 1871 and 1872.) 
Before closing this subject it may be proper to mention that in 1870 
yellow fever prevailed at New Iberia and various other places along the 
Teche, which was clearly traceable to infection from a number of re- 
turned confederates who had been brought back from South America. 
It is proper to state that one great cause assigned by those who 
believe the disease to be epidemic in New Orleans has been the constant 
excavations made in the soil of the city and neighborhood for public 
works. The more important of these have been as follows : 
From 1794 to 1797 the great canal Carondelet, connecting the waters 
of Lake Pontchartrain with the city, was dug. 
In 1817 the commencing of the paving of the streets was undertaken 
-a work which was continued from 1824 to 1832, during which years 
a large portion of the soil of the city was upturned and exposed to the 
sun. 
From 1832 to 1835 the canal of the Bank was dug. It was said from 
six to seven thousand laborers on this work lost their lives from mala- 
rious fevers. 
In 1836 the work of dredging out the canal Carondelet and of drain- 
ing and ditching the swamp in its neighborhood. 
From 1835 to 1839 the forest growth on the swamp in the vicinity of 
the city was cut down and removed. 
From 1845 to 1850 the section of swamp between the two canals was 
ditched and drained, and other canals dug. (Fenner's Southern Medi- 
cal Reports, vol. 2, p. 134.) 
The following account of the epidemics of Natchez and its vicinity is 
condensed from Monette's essay on the subject and the writings of Per- 
lee, Cartwright, and others, in the various medical journals. They may 
properly be added to this report as showing the importance of guarding 
those interior towns which have communication with New Orleans, 
whenever yellow fever is prevalent in that city. The history of Natchez 
in reference to yellow fever does not differ materially from that of all 
the other places located on the Red and Mississippi Rivers, and I have 
selected it as a specimen, because, thanks to the industry of Monette 
and Cartwright, the history of the epidemic there is very complete. 
Prior to the year 1817, the commerce of the Mississippi had been en- 
tirely carried on in flat-boats and barges.* In that year steamboats were 
first used, and intercourse between the different towns on the river 
became, in consequence, much easier. Yellow fever, as we have seen, QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
59 
prevailed in New Orleans as early as the 30th of June; but, with the 
exception of sporadic cases, in previous years, had never been in Natchez. 
Early in September the steamer Washington arrived from New Orleans, 
having several persons sick on board with yellow fever. Some of these 
were landed. Besides this, a number of young men who went on board 
to see the steamer, then a great curiosity, took the disease and died. 
From these two starting points the disease spread with unexampled 
malignity over the city, and by the 28th of September was declared 
epidemic. The circumstances favorable to its propagation were stag- 
nant pools throughout the city and great filth, and above all the ex- 
posure of a large quantity of fresh earth in excavating, so as to correct 
the grade of some of the streets. Many of the inhabitants fled to the 
surrounding country; but the disease continued to prevail until one 
hundred and thirty-four had died, up to the 9th of November, when 
frost occurred and put an end to it. 
In 1819, as we have seen, the fever broke out in New Orleans, about 
the middle of August. By this time steamboats had become so common 
as to excite no unusual attention, and it is, consequently, not surprising 
that we cannot trace the introduction of the disease in Natchez to yany 
particular boat; nevertheless it appeared there about the 1st of Septem- 
ber, became epidemic by the 14 th, and continued to prevail until De- 
cember, when, of a total population of only five hundred and sixty-eight, 
one hundred and eighty had fallen victims to it. This year, as in 1817, 
it was very wet; but the thermometer did not indicate a higher grade 
of temperature than usual. 
In 1823 yellow fever became epidemic in New Orleans early in 
August, having prevailed more or less for a month previous. It made 
its appearance in Natchez about the 10th of August, and was con- 
sidered epidemic by the 20th. Large numbers of the inhabitants fled 
to the country. For a month the disease prevailed with violence, 
when the equinoctial gales occurring arrested its course for a week or 
two, when it broke out again and raged until frost. The population of 
the city was about one thousand, not counting the runaways, and over 
three hundred died. The weather was very sultry, with frequent show- 
ers. Numbers of cases occurred in small places in the vicinity of 
Coonville, to which refugees had fled. The local causes were alleged 
by Dr. Cartwright to be the deposition of carcasses of animals on the 
outskirts of the city, and to some spoiled bacon and fish at a certain 
storehouse in the city, and he ascribed the entire origin of the disease 
to these nuisances. (Cartwright, Medical Recorder, vol. 9, p. 5.) 
On this point Monette remarks : 
These, however, we think were only contingent circumstances, which have often oc- 
curred to the same extent in previous years, and other epidemics have since prevailed, 
when all these circumstances did not exist; indeed, when those which have been con- 
sidered most essential were entirely wanting. 
In 1825 the first cases were near the steamboat landing, " under the 
hill." The persons were those whose occupations would lead them to 
have frequent access to passing boats. This was about the 20th of 
August, when the fever had been for several weeks in New Orleans. 
It was confined for two weeks to the town " under the hill," when cases 
began to appear in the upper town, clearly traceable to sick persons who 
had been brought from below to their residences. On the 29th of Au- 
gust the board of health pronounced an epidemic condition of the city, 
when, as usual, all those who could get away ran away. Many of these 
went to Washington, a small town six miles distant, in a clean and ele- 
vated locality, carrying their bedding and goods with them. Some of 60 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
these were infected, and there were over eight deaths among them, 
when citizens of Washington began to sicken, and an epidemic prevailed 
there until sixty died. Monette says: 
The first citizens of Washington were my patients, and their infection could be traced 
clearly to opening and handling those bales of blankets and other goods brought from 
New Orleans and Natchez. The disease was imported into Washington as surely as it 
was into Coonville in 1823. (Monette, op. cit., p. 68.) 
In Natchez, the epidemic continued until a frost, the 1st of November, 
and caused about one hundred and fifty deaths. 
As usual, the epidemic was ascribed to putrid bacon, excavations, local 
filth, &c.; but Monette says : 
These causes had no agency whatever in producing the epidemic, and we have shown 
already that such causes are harmless as generators of yellow-fever miasm. We assert, 
without fear of successful refutation, that whenever these circumstances have syn- 
chronized with a yellow-fever epidemic they were only incidental circumstances, and 
not in any manner essential to its existence. (Op. cit., p. 69.) 
In 1829 there was a mild epidemic, causing about ninety deaths. It 
broke out about the 1st of September, some weeks subsequent to its 
appearance in New Orleans, and prevailed until about the middle of 
November. It was ascribed to the same cause as the others. There 
was constant communication with New Orleans by steamboat. 
The disease did not appear again in Natchez until 1837, when it broke 
out about the 8th of September, subsequent, as usual, to its appearance 
in New Orleans. Cases had been landed "in a moribund state from 
steamboats, direct from New Orleans." It prevailed until November 25, 
and caused two hundred and eighty deaths. The cause of this epidemic 
was unquestionable. By an act of the legislature, the Natchez hospital, 
which had been closed for several years, was re-opened for the reception 
of indigent sick. " It was in full operation when the yellow fever broke 
out in New Orleans, and scarcely a day passed without the reception of 
one or more patients from ascending boats, after the 1st of June; and 
after the 1st of August, nearly all of these were yellow-fever cases." 
" As a general remark, there has never been yellow fever in Natchez, un- 
less when the hospital was open for the reception of indigent boatmen 
and others from the river." 
In 1839 the yellow fever, as we have already mentioned, broke out in 
New Orleans as early as June, and was decidedly epidemic by the mid- 
dle of August. During the earlier part of this season, Natchez was un- 
usually healthy. The weather was dry and sultry. For a month 
after the appearance of the disease in New Orleans, there were 
daily arrivals of steamers from that place, and large shipments to 
Natchez of cotton and woolen goods, &c., for the use 
of the planters. There had also been several arrivals of parties of 
foreign emigrants, who lived crowded together in filthy, ill-venti- 
lated houses. Moreover, during all this period there were quite a 
number of persons sick with the yellow fever, transferred from passing 
boats to the Natchez hospital; there were twenty deaths from this 
source alone up to the 20th of September. Some of the Natchez people 
had also visited New Orleans, and been taken sick on their return. 
About the middle of September the disease began to spread near the 
steamboat-landing, and soon after at the two hotels, both of which 
were crowded with refugees from New Orleans. It soon became epi- 
demic, and by the middle of November, when it ceased, had killed two 
hundred and thirty-five persons. This year the authorities of the village 
of Washington established a quarantine' against Natchez, ai.d not a 
case occurred in their town. Natchez this year was unusually cleanly. 61 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
The city authorities, from the frequent statements made that the sole cause 
of the fever was the filthy condition of the city, had caused the whole 
town to be thoroughly cleansed and limed. 
In 1841 yellow fever again prevailed at New Orleans, but the inhab- 
itants of Natchez, warned by the fearful epidemic of preceding years, 
closed their hospital, and refused to permit any boats to land, and this 
year, for the only time in their history, they entirely escaped. 
Vicksburgh, one hundred miles further up the river, placed "no restric- 
tions on commerce," and suffered severely. ' Grand Gulf, Louisiana, 
which had frequently suffered before this year, followed the example of 
Natchez in prohibiting all intercourse with New Orleans, and escaped 
with but two cases. 
The quarantine thus established at Natchez was kept up rigidly every 
season that there was any disease in New Orleans, and, as a conse- 
quence, the city continued free from yellow fever until 1853. In that 
dreadful year of pestilence, however, a number of persons arrived from 
New Orleans, and were taken sick before the quarantine was established 
for the season. (Graham: Yellow Fever, its Causes and Consequences, 
p. 14.) From these cases the fever became epidemic in Natchez about 
the middle of August. It was singular that the little town of Vidalia, 
Louisiana, directly across the river, became infected this year for the 
first time. Monette calls attention to the remarkable exemption of this 
town when Natchez was so frequently visited, and shows conclusively 
that it was due to the fact that the Steamboats from New Orleans never 
landed there, but always made their landings at Natchez. Both towns 
were situated in precisely similar topographical conditions, with the 
same climate. One was frequently, nay, daily, visited by steamers from 
an infected port; the other, never. Result: the former had frequent 
epidemics, the latter none. This year, however, 1853, a sick woman was 
transferred from the Natchez quarantine to Vidalia, and soon after a 
family, with several sick, crossed from Natchez. In a very short time 
the disease became epidemic in the village. 
The first case in Natchez in 1853 was on the 17th of July, in the per- 
son of a Mr. Pearsall, who died at the hotel shortly after his arrival 
from New Orleans. It was followed by several others in the same house. 
The next cases were of persons who fled from New Orleans. (Dr. Davis 
in Barton's Report, Epidemic of 1853.) I have said that the disease was 
absent from Natchez until the year 1853. Since writing the above I 
have come across an account of an epidemic in 1848, about which the 
physicians differed much, some calling it dengue, and others yellow 
fever. It was certainly very mild in its character; commenced about 
the middle of June the district under the hill, and lasted until No- 
vember. There was so much dispute on the subject that it hardly 
seems worth while to refer more definitely to it. This, though a very 
imperfect sketch, completes what I have thought proper to record of 
the visitations of yellow fever to New Orleans and along the Mississippi 
Valley. The disease has frequently appeared in the places along the 
Gulf coast between New Orleans and Mobile, but except at Biloxi in 
1702, never, without it was first epidemic, in either New Orleans or Mo- 
bile. An examination of the chronology of the yellow fever by Drake 
(op. cit., pp. 190, 191) will show the truth of this statement. 
Galveston and other places in Texas.-Galveston is built on the west 
side of Galveston Island, the town now extending from its original lo- 
cation on the west bay, across the island, to the Gulf shore. The island 
is composed of shingle, and so saturated with water that it is found at 
a depth of but a few inches from the surface. A large portion of the 
5 62 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
city is but a foot or two above the surface of the Gulf, and the highest 
elevation not more than four or five feet. The streets are wide, and, 
except in the business portion of the town, the houses usually separated 
from each other by a considerable space. Originally, along what is now 
Market and Mechanic streets (the second and third streets from the 
Gulf) existed a long morass, which was overflowed by the tide. In 
course of time this was filled in by the dirt and offal of the city, and 
now constitutes the most densely-populated portion of the town. Here, 
many of the houses are old-; the inhabitants poor and dirty; the privies and 
cess-pools uncleaned; and everything exists favorable to a development 
of yellow fever. It is in this locality that nearly every epidemic of yellow 
fever has first made its appearance; or, if not commencing here, has 
prevailed with greater violence tiian in other portions of the city. In 
the rear of the city is Hitchcock's Bayou, a morass like the one before 
spoken of, extending into the heart of the city, and washed by the tide, 
which, when it is out, leaves great masses of putrefying materials exposed 
to the action of the sun. There are now many houses built in the vicin- 
ity of this bayou. 
The mean temperature of Galveston is about as follows: In the hot- 
test seasons, the mercury seldom rises above 90°; the mean temperature 
for the year being about 74°. Heavy rains usually occur in April, May, 
and June, while the latter part of the year is dry, and subject to north 
and northwest winds, which often cause sudden falls of temperature, 
producing great discomfort. (Heard, Medical Topography of Texas.) 
Until the epidemic of 1867, the sanitary condition of Galveston was 
very bad; especially at the close of the war (when large numbers of 
negroes rushed there from all over the State, and lived crowded to- 
gether in filthy houses, and reeking with dirt) its condition was as bad 
as could be. Latterly, however, under its present efficient mayor and 
health-officer, great attention has been paid to inspecting and removing 
nuisances, and now it will compare favorably with most any southern city. 
The first visit of yellow fever to Galveston was in 1839. At this time 
the city had been settled but a few years, and the inhabitants were 
mostly located on a street called the Strand, running along the west- 
side of the bay, and in immediate contiguity to the wharves for ship- 
ping. The population was about one thousand. Toward the last of 
September a steamer arrived from New Orleans, having a case of yellow 
fever on board, who died of black vomit four days afterward. The same 
day or the day following her arrival, the cook of a vessel anchored a 
few yards from the steamer took sick, and died on the 2d of October 
with black vomit. About the same time a Mr. Tichenor, living on the 
corner of Strand and Twenty-second streets, was taken sick, and the 
day following a Mr. Lang. Two other cases occurred between the 27th 
and 30th, and the disease soon became epidemic, lasting until the 7th of 
November, during which time there were two hundred and fifty deaths. 
Such is substantially the account given by Dr. Ashbell Smith (although 
he makes no mention of the arrival of any steamer before the occurrence 
of the first case.) (Account of Yellow Fever in Galveston, Texas, in 
1839, pp. 7, 8.) But the Hon. Hamilton Stuart, of Galveston, informed me 
that the universal opinion at the time was that the New Orleans 
steamer introduced the disease, but he differs in his dates from Dr. 
Smith, placing the first cases as early as the 20th of September; the lat- 
ter placing the arrival of the steamer on the 27th, the day before the 
three first cases occurred. Unless, therefore, we allow for a shorter pe- 
riod of incubation than has been generally regarded in this disease, the 
question of importation must remain a matter of doubt; but it is not QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
63 
improbable that the universal sentiment of the population at the time 
was the correct one, and that the apparent discrepancy grows out of some 
error in dates. 
The yellow fever ''prevailed this year, for the first time, in Houston, 
and was supposed to have been imported from New Orleans. (Dr. William 
McCraven on Yellow Fever in Houston, New Orleans Journal of Medicine, 
vol. 5, pp. 231, 232.) 
In 1842 a few cases of fever occurred. The season had been unusually 
rainy, with a high range of temperature, yet the disease showed no dis- 
position to become epidemic. I have not been able to learn any facts in 
, regard to the origin of the few cases that did occur. 
In the latter part of June, 1844, the United States steamer Poinsett, 
en route from Vera Cruz to Pensacola, touched at Galveston for supplies. 
She had on board a number of persons belonging to the unfortunate 
Santa Fe expedition, who had recently been released from a long im- 
prisonment in Mexico. Two of these were landed at Galveston sick, and 
on the 5th of July one of them died on the Strand, at a sailor's boarding- 
house, as was supposed, of bilious remittent. A comrade of his, who 
lived with a boot and shoe dealer, persuaded the latter to go with him and 
lay out the deceased. In a few days the shoemaker sickened and died, 
and other cases succeeded in the house of the latter and in the surround- 
ing neighborhood. Meanwhile the other sick man, from the Poinsett, 
had been taken to another boarding-house, and this, likewise, became a 
focus for the spread of the disease, several cases having been taken in 
that house and the neighborhood. Still the disease was not recognized 
to be yellow fever until about the 10th of July, when a man by the name 
of Street, who lived directly opposite to the boarding-house where the 
first case occurred, was taken sick. He was seen by a physician from 
Florida, who had extensive experience with yellow fever, and he pro- 
nounced it to be that disease, and that evening Street died of black 
vomit. The Washington Hotel, in the immediate vicinity, now became 
infected, and many cases occurred there. It next spread from the 
Strand among the shipping along the wharves, where it was especially 
fatal. By the 20th of July it had become generally epidemic all over 
town, and raged with great violence for about six weeks, when it ceased 
suddenly, simply for want of material to feed upon. It was noticed, how- 
ever, that any unacclimated person who came into the infected district 
between the period of the cessation of the epidemic and the access of frost 
took the disease. Mr. A. Ball, of Galveston, from whom I derived much 
valuable information as to these visits of yellow fever, furnished me with 
some curious instances of the recurrence of the disease, in isolated cases, 
long after the epidemic had ceased. Some weeks after the last death 
occurred in the city, the wife of Mr. Gail Borden, who lived some distance 
from the infected district, and who had not been near it during the pre- 
valence of the epidemic, came up to town to do some shopping. She 
remained all day in town visiting various stores, and at night returned 
to her house, where, in a few days, she was taken sick, and died of black 
vomit. About four weeks after this, there having been no cases in the 
city in the mean time, a Mexican woman, who lived some miles down 
the island, came up to market, and she likewise went home and died of 
yellow fever; and some six weeks later, just before the access of frost, 
another lady, who had been absent from the city throughout the whole 
epidemic, returned to the city, and very shortly died. The population 
of the city, at this time, was about four thousand, and the number of 
deaths not far from four hundred. The earlier part of this season had 
been wet and hot, but, during the prevalence of the fever, a peculiar 64 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
balminess of the air was noticed, with fine breezes from the Gulf, and cool, 
clear nights. 
From Galveston the disease was carried to Houston; the first case 
occurring on the 10th of July, in a person who had just arrived from 
that place. Other cases came from there in July, and in the latter 
part of the month cases began to multiply in Houston, and by August 
1.5th it was epidemic, and prevailed until some time in September. (Mc- 
Craven, op. cit., p. 232.) 
In 1817 the disease re-appeared, but not until very late; the first case 
being a man living on Hitchcock's Bayou, back of the town, who, it was 
asserted, had been employed in unloading vessels from New Orleans. 
The fever was declared epidemic, October 11, and ceased about Novem- 
ber 25. The population was four thousand seven hundred and fifty- 
eight, and the number of deaths about two hundred. There was much 
dispute about the origin of this epidemic, and the question is still an un- 
decided one. The Mexican war was then prevailing, and there was an 
unusual amount of commerce on the Gulf, especially from Vera Cruz, 
where the vomito had raged all summer. The Galveston Civilian of 
October 4, 1847, says: "We have had arrivals every week during the 
summer of, vessels from infected ports, with diseased persons on board 
in some cases." 
The city was now free from visits of yellow fever for six years. On 
the 12th of August, 1853, the steamer Mexico arrived from New Orleans, 
with three of her crew sick with yellow fever. They were sent to the 
hospital, and all died. Within a few days five cases occurred among 
the patients sick with other diseases in the hospital, and an epidemic 
followed, which carried off five hundred and thirty-five persons out of a 
population of eight thousand. The last death was on the 28th of No- 
vember. 
In 1854, it again appeared; the first case being on the 8th of August, 
on a vessel in the harbor. By the 12th four cases had been brought 
to hospital from among the sailors and laborers on the docks, and the 
disease soon became epidemic, there being four hundred and four deaths 
up to its cessation on the 5th of November. 
In 1858, the disease prevailed in New Orleans, and in the early part 
of August, a milliner in Tremont street, near Market, received some 
trunks of goods from that city. These were opened and handled by a 
young English woman employed in the store, who was taken sick, and 
died in a few days, with well marked symptoms of yellow fever. Very 
soon after a man, who lived directly opposite on the same street, took 
the fever and died, and within a week, a young man by the name of 
Hanna, living a few houses farther down on the same block (and who, 
it was said, had visited the English girl when sick), died of black vomit. 
The fever became generally epidemic by the 28th of August, and raged 
until some time in November, causing three hundred and seventy-three 
deaths out of a population of about ten thousand. 
The next year, 1859, it re-appeared, was declared epidemic on the 17th 
of September, and lasted until November 30. There were one hundred 
and eighty-two deaths, the population being about the same as last 
year. 
In the early part of the recent war the blockade was very strict at 
Galveston, and, as a result, her commerce was almost entirely cut off, 
the blockade-runners seeking Sabine and other smaller places in prefer- 
ence. As a consequence, there was no yellow fever at Galveston for 
several years; but in 1862 it was introduced by means of a blockade- 
runner at Sabine, and was thence carried to Houston, where an epidemic 65 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
of a mild character resulted. (Heard on Epidemic Diseases of Texas, 
p. 14.) It was also introduced this year into Matagorda, where, out of 
a population of five hundred, there were two hundred and fifty cases 
and one hundred and twenty deaths. (Harris, United States Sanitary 
Commission Memoirs, p. 240.) 
In 1864 blockade-running was carried on to a considerable extent at Gal- 
veston, as many as five vessels from Havana being in port at one time. 
Dr. Hanna, of Galveston, told me that the disease was introduced this 
year by a schooner from Tampico, which ran the blockade at San Luis 
Pass and came up the back bay, were she was visited by a young boy, 
who soon after died of yellow fever, this being the first case ; but I have 
not been able to learn the name of this schooner or the date of her arri- 
val, and am more inclined to consider the .general impression the correct 
one, that the Havana blockade-runners brought the disease. It became 
epidemic by the 1st of September, and there were two hundred and 
fifty-two deaths out of a population of five thousand five hundred. The 
interesting fact in reference to this epidemic was the total immunity of 
the troops in the forts around the city, in consequence of a quarantine 
established by them. There were then four forts in the vicinity of the 
town, each garrisoned by a large force of confederate troops. As soon 
as the fever became epidemic in Galveston, the officers in command of 
these forts declared a rigid quarantine against the city, and totally cut 
off all communication. Flags were placed on staffs at a quarter of a 
mile distance from the fort, beyond which no person was allowed to go. 
Every day the teamsters, mail-carriers, &c., who brought supplies and 
letters from the city, came out as far as the flag, where they deposited 
their burdens and then left; after they were well out of sight, a detail of 
acclimated persons from the fort went out and brought in the supplies 
and mails, being forbidden to hold any intercourse with any one. This 
was kept up until the close of the epidemic, and not a single case 
occurred in any of the forts. Per contra, at this time there was a con- 
federate regiment, the Second Texas, stationed at various points in the 
city. The colonel of the regiment was advised to remove them, but did 
not do so until several cases had occurred among his men. They were 
then sent down the island for several miles, but the command suffered 
very severely. 
There was no yellow fever in Galveston after this until 1867. In the 
Spring and early summer of that year there was no quarantine, and 
steamers were almost daily arriving from both New Orleans and Indian- 
ola, as well as very many sailing-vessels. Yellow fever, as has been 
shown, commenced to prevail about the 1st of June in the latter place. 
The meteorological conditions at this time are thus given by Dr. S. M. 
Welsh (Galveston Medical Journal, February, 1868) : 
The month of May was temperate, showery, pleasant, and remarkably exempt from 
all febrile diseases, nor was there anything to be observed in the type of disease to fore- 
shadow yellow fever. June, however, was a month of uninterrupted hot weather, the 
thermometer ranging daily from 85' to 90', with a breezeless, close, and stifling atmos- 
phere. Toward the close of the month, from the 20th of June to the 5th of July, a 
period of two weeks, there were heavy falls of rain daily, literally flooding the streets, 
and accompanied with unusual electrical phenomena. In the intervals the sun shone 
brightly and with intense heat. It should be remarked that our municipal authorities 
had shown, for several weeks previous to the epidemic, unusual activity in cleaning 
the city. Everything seemed to have been done which prudence and foresight could 
suggest to ward off the scourge. 
On the 26th of June, the first case of yellow fever occurred in Galves- 
ton, in the person of a young German, named George H. Moeller, who 
had just arrived from Indianola, and who died on the 4th of July, in a 66 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
boarding-house in the lower part of the city. There was, however, a 
case of a man by the name of Elliot, from New Orleans, reported on the 
22d of June, at the city hospital; but there seems to be some doubt as 
to his case, as Assistant Surgeon Samuel Adams, in his report (Circular 
No. 1, 1868, Surgeon-General's Office, p. 83), makes no mention of him, and 
Dr. S. M. Welsh (Galveston Medical Journal, February, 1868) speaks rather 
doubtfully about it. On the 30th of June, a man who had been sick 
with syphilis in the city hospital, since the 17th, and who had tenanted a 
bed next to the supposed case of Elliot, took sick, with well-marked 
yellow fever. On July 1, a seaman, from a vessel in the harbor, was 
admitted to the city hospital, and two more Julyx 5. Soon after two 
cases were found in the boarding-house where Moeller died. After this 
cases occurred in various parts of the city, " without apparent connec- 
tion with each other ;" and by the end of July it was unquestionably epi- 
demic. The disease appeared among the troops about the same time as 
in the city ; the first case being a private soldier, who was taken July 1, 
and which was rapidly followed by others. The disease raged with 
great violence in August and September. Early in October the num- 
ber of deaths commenced to lessen, probably from lack of material, and 
in November there were but few cases. The population of this city was 
estimated at fifteen thousand, and of these, eleven hundred and fifty 
died of yellow fever. The mean average strength of the command of 
troops was one hundred and fifty-five, and there were one hundred and 
ninety-nine cases, and ninety-seven deaths; among them, many officers 
of great distinction and promise; viz: General Griffin, Colonels Abert 
and Swartwout, Drs. Taylor, Adams, and Rowe, and others. Dr. Welsh 
estimates the total number of cases in the city at about eight thousand. 
It was not very long, after the disease became epidemic in Galveston, 
before it appeared in Houston. In the second week in August, the ,first 
case occurred, being imported directly from Galveston. By the 20th of 
August it had become generally epidemic. The first case among the troops 
(at that time encamped a mile from the city) was in the person of one 
Hale, a teamster, who was obliged to leave camp every day and visit the 
city to bring out drinking-water for the camp. This was on the 7th of 
September. On the 12th, Colonel J. D. O'Connell, commanding the 
post, who was boarding at the Hutchins House, in the city, was taken 
sick, and died on the 16th, and cases rapidly succeeded in the camp. 
During the whole epidemic there were seventy-one cases and twenty-five 
deaths (out of a mean average strength of seventy-two.) The city was 
unusually filthy and muddy in consequence of the long continued rains 
of May and June. The range of the thermometer was unusually high 
during July, August, and September. Dr. F. Hasenburg, in his official 
report to the Surgeon-General, remarks : 
That the first cases of yellow fever observed in Houston occurred in persons who 
contracted the disease in Galveston is proved beyond doubt. (Report on Yellow Fever 
and Cholera, pp. 93-95.) 
It is to be regretted that the doctor contented himself with this bare 
statement without giving his proofs. 
In August, a man by the name of Vorhees went from Galveston to 
Hempstead, along the line of railroad, fifty miles from Houston, where 
he died of yellow fever. Other cases soon succeeded, and one hundred 
and fifty-one deaths occurred between August 9 and November 26. 
On the 8th of August, Captain J. A. Devine, Bureau of Refugees, 
Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, came from Galveston to Brenham, 
took sick, and died on the 13th. Within two weeks there were two 
other cases, and between the 11th of August and 31st of October there QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
67 
were two hundred and forty-six cases and one hundred and twenty 
deaths. There were no cases among the garrison stationed there, 
though encamped in the centre of the town, which Dr. Warren, the 
post-surgeon, ascribed to his having administered every day a table-spoonful 
of white mustard-seed to each of the men. 
At Navasota, on the line of the Texas Central Railroad, the proofs of 
importation were equally positive. The first case occurred on the 12th 
of August in the person of a man who had been in Galveston but a 
few days before. This man died on the 15th, and the next cases were 
among some friends who had visited the corpse, two of whom died on the 
24th. Out of a population of about fifteen hundred, nearly -every one 
bad the disease between this time and the 1st of December, and there 
were one hundred and fifty deaths. (Report of Dr. A. R. Kilpatrick in 
Heard's Report on Epidemic Diseases of Texas, p. 33.) 
Ten miles from Navasoto is Millican. On the 15th of October, an 
ostler belonging to one of the hotels there, took sick, having been in 
Navasota a day or two before. Next, the proprietor of the hotel and 
his wife died with black vomit, and a panic succeeding, nearly the 
whole population absconded. In all there were fifteen cases and four 
deaths. (Report of Dr. N. A. East, Heard, op. cit.) 
At Chapel Hill, on the Washington County Railroad, a young lady, 
on the 6th of August, received a box of dress-goods from Houston, 
which she handled freely, and spent some time in examining. About 
the same time a young man received a box of books from Galveston. 
Both of these contracted the fever, and were the first cases. It soon 
became epidemic, causing one hundred and twenty deaths before the 
1st of December. (Report of Dr. B. C. Meredith, Heard, op. cit.) 
On the 4th of September it appeared at Alley town, on the Colorado 
River, the first cases being employes on the railroad, who passed daily 
between that place and Houston. It soon became epidemic. At La 
Grange it was especially malignant, the first cases occurring about the 
last of August in the persons of refugees from Galveston and Houston, 
and soon spreading to others who had communication with them, pre- 
vailing with great severity until about the 1st of November, there being 
about eight hundred cases and two hundred deaths out of a total popu- 
lation of not more than fifteen hundred. (Reports of Drs. Hicks and 
McCown, Heard, op. cit.) 
The towns of Columbus, Washington, and Richmond, though favor- 
ably situated for the introduction of the disease, established a rigid 
quarantine, and each of them escaped entirely. Dr. Heard says, (op. 
cit., p. 38.) 
So far as I have been able to learn, the origin of yellow fever was, during the past 
season, in every instance, ciearly traceable to infection. 
The meteorological conditions in all the above named places pre- 
sented a great similarity. Heavy rains until the last day of July; a very 
high temperature, much above the average; and winds, varying from 
north to north-east, constituted the most salient features. Nearly all 
these towns are dirty, and no attempt is made by the authorities at 
keeping them clean. In several of them malaria) fever of an unusually 
severe type had prevailed previous to the outbreak of fever. 
The first case of yellow fever in Indianola was in September, 1852. 
In that month a Mr. Jackson arrived by steamer from New Orleans and 
stopped at Sloan's' Hotel, where he had a well-marked attack of yellow 
fever, but recovered. The inmates of the house at the time were Mr. 
Sloan and his wife, five children, a German servant-woman, and a negro 68 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
boy. On the eighth and ninth days after Mr. Jackson's arrival the whole 
family were taken sick, with the exception of one of the' children. The 
German girl went to her home and in due season the members of her 
family had the disease. The negro boy (who belonged to a General 
Woodward) was taken home by him, and communicated the disease to 
all of the general's family within the next twenty days. So far as the 
imperfect records at my disposal show, there were no local causes' oper- 
ating to produce or increase the severity of this epidemic. The town is 
built on a sandy strip of land, almost entirely surrounded by salt- 
bayous, with Matagorda Bay on its eastern 'front. Though but very 
slightly elevated above the Gulf, there are no known unfavorable 
hygienic conditions, and the place had always been free from malarial 
disease. (Dr. F. E. Hughes in Indianola Bulletin, December 1G, 1870.) 
In 1853 it again appeared. There was frequent communication with 
New Orleans by a regular line of steamers, and the first cases were two 
men, Sheppard and Stanley, who were employed in receiving goods from 
the steamers, and consequently spent nearly all of their time on or in 
the vicinity of the boats. The disease spread from these cases through- 
out the season, and a considerable epidemic resulted. 
In 1858 it again appeared, the first case being an arrival from New 
Orleans by steamer. "As at Galveston, this disease never appeared 
before its being epidemic in New Orleans, and imported from there." 
(Dr. J. M. Reuss, Heard's Report on Epidemic Diseases of Texas, p. 15.) 
In 1862 (exact date not known) the steamer General Rusk ran the 
blockade and landed at Lavacca, on Matagorda Bay, from Havana. She 
had one sailor sick with yellow fever on her arrival. A number of 
soldiers visited the ship and contracted the disease, and by them it 
was carried to the camp at Green Lake, and.subsequently to Indianola. 
In 1867 occurred the most severe epidemic ever known in the history 
of the town, and as this was the starting-point from which the disease 
spread through the whole State, and even to sundry points in Louisiana, 
a detailed account of it will be advisable. Dr. J. M. Reuss thus refers 
to certain local conditions that no doubt influenced the course of the 
epidemic: 
In the rear of the town are flats, which are also parts of the town and subject to 
overflow. These flats, as well as the bayous in the rear, were overflowed before the 
occurrence of yellow fever, by fresh water, in consequence of continued rains, the 
water running in from the surrounding prairies. This brackish water, as well as the 
clearing and filling up of streets in May and early part of June, also the making of a 
road by the military to their camp, and throwing up a bank and digging ditches on 
both sides of this road, by which very offensive emanations from the ground spread by 
the prevailing south winds over the city, made, no doubt, the atmosphere a very good 
vehicle for the propagation of epidemic disease, and it required but the germ of yellow- 
fever miasm to inaugurate a fearful epidemic. 
For many of the subjoined facts lam indebted to Dr. F. E. Hughes, 
the mayor of the city, and for others to the official reports of Acting 
Assistant Surgeon Samuel Santoire, United States Army. On the 20th 
of May the schooner Marguerita arrived from Vera Cruz, which port 
she left on the 11th. She had a large number of passengers, persons 
who had left the South at the close of the war to found, a colony in Mexico, 
and were now returning, the colony having proved a complete failure. 
She had no sickness on board during her passage, or on her arrival, but 
yellow fever was epidemic in Vera Cruz at the time. Shortly after 
her arrival, the bedding, blankets, and other effects of the passengers 
were landed and taken to the Magnolia Hotel, whence, after being kept 
a few days, they were transferred to an auction-store to be sold. A QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AJJD GULF COASTS. 
69 
drayman by the name of Hunter was employed to take the things from 
the hotel to the auction-rooms, and in packing the blankets on the dray 
he was assisted by a boy named Henry Cook, who, after the dray was 
loaded, got on the pile of blankets and rode to the auction-rooms. 
Within a few days they were both taken sick, and both died on the 24th 
of June with black vomit. In the meantime the deputy-collector of 
customs, Mr. Prouty, who had boarded the vessel on her arrival, sickened 
on the 10th of June. There seems to have been some doubt about 
this being a case of yellow fever, and the length of time between his 
visit to the schooner and the date of his> sickness is to great to 
warrant the ascribing the latter event to the former. About the next 
cases, however, there is no such doubt. Two men from the country, 
named James Duke and William Andrews, who were in Indianola for 
the purpose of shipping cattle, seeing the blankets advertised for sale, 
went into the auction-rooms and handled them very freely, but noticing 
some stains on them, they thought them dirty, and did not purchase. 
They left town that evening and returned home, where the following 
week both sickened, and one died with black vomit, as did also a negro 
woman who nursed them. Other cases soon occurred in the town of 
persons who had handled or bought the blankets, and by the last of 
June it had become decidedly epidemic. " In less than a week the 
whole business part of the town was struck down as by lightning, there 
being no less than 'one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and 
fifty cases taken during that time out of a population of less than a 
thousand." (Reuss.) It next attacked the troops stationed there, the 
first cases being of soldiers" detailed on special service in town, and 
thence spreading to the camp about a mile distant. By the 15th of 
July the disease had increased in violence, and there were many 
deaths, and the troops were then removed to Green Lake, twenty-two 
miles from Indianola. After moving two soldiers took the fever and 
they both died, after which there were no more cases. There were twenty- 
four cases and fourteen deaths in the command out of a mean average 
strength of fifty. The epidemic seemed to have ceased shortly after the 1st 
of August for want of material. The total number of deaths was about sev- 
enty-five among the citizens. 
The seeds of the disease were carried in various directions by persons 
who left Indianola soon after the outbreak. As before remarked, it was 
carried to Galveston by a young German named George H. Moeller, who had 
been traveling in Western Texas, and who passed through Indianola 
on the 26th of June, and died in Galveston with black vomit on the 3d of 
July. 
To New Orleans by two cases, one, John Boerram, a stock-trader, who 
arrived at the Texas Hotel, near the stock-landing, from Indianola, on 
the 21st of June, and died on the 26th; and the other, Lieutenant Orville 
Dewey, United states Army, who died at the Saint Charles Hotel on the 
30th of June. It is a curious fact that Lieutenant Dewey occupied the same 
room at the Magnolia Hotel, in Indianola, in which the bedding brought from 
the Marguerita had been stored. 
To New Iberia, Louisiana, it was carried by two men from Indianola, 
as I will show in detail in describing the epidemic in that locality. It ap- 
peared at Port Lavacca, twelve miles up the bay from Indianola, on the 3d 
of July, became epidemic about August 1, and lasted until some time in Oc- 
tober. 
At Victoria, thirty-eight miles from Indianola, it appeared about 
August 1, the first cases being infected persons from Indianola. It be- 
came epidemic about the 20th of August, and raged fearfully, there 70 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
being not less than two thousand cases, and a mortality of two hundred. 
(Heard, op. cit., p. 32.) It also extended to Goliad, a country-village 
twenty-eight miles from Victoria, and prevailed epidemically. Early in 
August it was carried to Corpus Christi, and became epidemic there, and was 
thence taken, by means of an ambulance loaded with passengers, to Rio 
Grande City, where nearly one hundred and fifty deaths occurred in a total 
population of about seven hundred and fifty. 
Brownsville, Texas.-Fort Brown was established by our army of oc- 
cupation in 1848, and the city of Brownsville grew up around it. By 
1853, when the yellow fever first occurred, the population was about 
three thousand five hundred. The first case of fever was on the 23d of 
September, in the person of a citizen, but previous to this a number of 
cases of a malignant fever had occurred on the steamer Comanche, at 
the mouth of the Rio Grande, and several persons were known to have 
come to Brownsville from this boat. The fever gradually extended to 
Brownsville during the last week in September, and in the first part of 
October appeared in the garrison. It was very malignant in November, 
and was so prevalent that nearly every person suffered an attack. The 
last case was on the 23d of December. During the same time the disease 
was epidemic in Matamoras, on the Mexican side of the river. The 
number of cases in garrison was two hundred and forty-five, and the deaths, 
fifty. The number of deaths was much increased by the intemperate habits 
of the soldiers. (Report of Surgeon S. P. Moore,'United States Army, 
Army Medical Statistics, 1839-'55, pp. 353-357.) 
In August, 1858, the schooner Johnson arrived at Brazos Santiago, 
Texas, from New Orleans, having had one death from yellow fever on 
the passage. Soon after her arrival two of her crew were taken sick, 
and both died with black vomit. Some cases next appeared among 
residents at Brazos, next at Point Isabel, and at the mouth of the Rio 
Grande, and on the 20th of August the steamboat Mentoria arrived at 
Brownsville from the above-mentioned places, having a case of fever on 
board. On the 22d of August, a Mexican living near the steamboat 
landing was taken sick, after which there were several cases in this 
vicinity, and by the 1st of September it became generally epidemic in 
town. It broke out in the garrison of Fort Brown early in September. 
The epidemic reached its acme in the first week' in October, after which 
it declined, and entirely ceased early in November. Among the troops 
there were ninety-two cases and forty-one deaths. (Report of Assistant Sur- 
geon A. F. Watson, United States Army, Army Medical Statistics, 1855-'6O, 
pp. 182-184.) 
In 1867, as soon as it became known that yellow fever was prevalent 
on the coast, the military authorities established a rigid quarantine at 
Brazos Santiago, and the Mexicans at Bagdad, on their side of the river. 
The roads leading to Corpus Christi were also placed under military 
espionage. The town of Brownsville remained healthy until October 
7, when a great hurricane almost destroyed both it and Matamoras, 
after which it began to be very unhealthy, and on the 12th of October 
a German died of black vomit. Other cases succeeded, and the epidemic 
continued with considerable severity until January 10, when it suddenly 
subsided immediately after a frost, having caused" about two hundred 
and fifty deaths. The garrison immediately adjoining the town ivas placed 
in strict quarantine, and no cases occurred there. The first cases were 
two Mexicans, who were sick between the 10th and 15th of September. 
There were several other cases that month, and the first death occurred 
(as before stated) on the 7th of October, in a low boarding-house, oc- 
cupied by Germans, and, at the time, containing some imperialist QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
71 
soldiers, just arrived from Mexico. There were three deaths in the 
house before the 12th of October, all of Austrians, and during the next 
ninety days many others. There was some sickness in Matamoras, but 
not until after its appearance in Brownsville. (Report of Assistant Sur- 
geon E. Cowles, United States Army, Circular No. 1, Surgeon-General's 
Office, 1868, pp. 101-104.) There is no room for doubt that the disease 
was brought to Brownsville by the Austrian refugees, many of whom had 
come from Vera Cruz and Tampico, and other towns on the coast of 
Mexico. 
Sabine, 1863.-In the latter part of July, 1863, the blockade-runner 
Victoria arrived at Sabine from Havana. She had no sickness during the 
passage, but came up to her dock and commenced unloading her cargo, 
without any examination of the ship by the health authorities. A few 
days after her arrival a man and a boy, by the name of Hartley, who lived 
on the shore about two hundred yards from the dock, and who had been 
employed on the steamer since her arrival, were taken sick and died. 
Soon after this a stranger in town, who lived at the dock where 
the steamer lay, was taken ill and died with similar symptoms. Other 
cases followed in the house of the man Hartley, and in two weeks 
seven of his family were down with the disease. At this time there 
was a large force of confederate troops encamped in the vicinity, in an- 
ticipation of an attack from our forces. Some of these men coming 
into town were taken, and, being nursed in various houses through the 
place, spread the disease in every direction. (At all events, the dis- 
ease extended through the place until a large number of deaths oc- 
curred.) Up to this time the disease was not supposed to be yellow 
fever, but, the epidemic becoming so widely spread and so fatal, its 
true character was recognized. I have not been able to obtain any fig- 
ures as to this epidemic, but it raged fearfully until about October 1, 
when it ceased simply for want of material, the troops having been 
moved away during its progress. 
The sanitary condition of the town was especially bad. Probably 
Sabine will carry away the palm for being the filthiest hole in the 
United States. Used chiefly as a cattle-port for shipping the beeves of 
Eastern Texas to New Orleans, the street bordering on the river and in 
the vicinity of the wharf was almost ankle-deep in cow-manure, and 
never cleaned, while the houses in the vicinity are old, rickety, and 
the yards filled with pools of stagnant water, filthy sinks, and every- 
thing that could contaminate the air. Nevertheless, this condition of 
affairs had existed for years, and yellow fever had never made its ap- 
pearance there before; it has existed ever since, without a second out- 
break. To aid to the above, this year, a man living on the shore, not 
far from the wharf, had constructed a levee in front of his house three 
or four feet high, composed of oysters which he had dredged up, and 
these dying gave out a most unwholesome effluvia, which no doubt 
intensified the local causes for the epidemic. 
From Sabine the disease was carried to Beaumont, thirty miles above, 
and thence by rail to Houston, where it raged with great violence, as 
regards the number of cases, though the mortality was small. (Infor- 
mation furnished by Mr. Gibney, Sabine Pass.) 
A review of the foregoing pages will show that the yellow fever, 
while not following any definite law in its visitations, has yet been 
more generally prevalent in some years than in others. We find certain 
periods in which the disease has been of frequent occurrence in many 
places; certain others, in which it has been absent for a long series of 
years. Thus, from 1699 to 1765 there were occasional epidemics in 72 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston, and one at Pensacola; after 
which it disappeared entirely from the country until 1791, when a great 
series of epidemics took place, the disease extending to a great number 
of small towns in the vicinity of, or in constant communication with, 
the larger cities. 
These continued almost yearly until 1807, when, with the exception of 
New Orleans, the cities and ports of the United States were again ex- 
empt until 1817. A third series of epidemics now occurred, lasting 
until 1822; after which there was no general prevalence of the 
fever until 1839, when the whole southern country suffered severely, yet 
there was no appearance of the disease north of Charleston, except a 
slight outbreak at Portland, Maine. From 1853 to 1856 commenced 
another series of epidemics, beginning at New Orleans, and along the 
Texas coast in 1853, and culminating at Norfolk, Virginia, in 1855, and 
at Fort Hamilton, New York Harbor, in 1856. The last of these periods 
was 1867, when again the whole Mississippi Valley and Gulf coast 
suffered, as well as a large portion of the State of Texas. Now, it is 
noteworthy in connection with this grouping together of epidemics, that 
these widely-extended outbreaks are much less frequent of late than they 
were formerly. From 1839 to 1853 the country was comparatively ex- 
empt from the disease ; and again from 1856 to 1867, if we except the 
years 1858 and 1862, when there were epidemics at New Orleans, Charles- 
ton, and Wilmington, North Carolina, and since 1867 the South has 
suffered from no general epidemic. It is also to be remarked, that in 
each one of these extensive epidemics the evidence is positive somewhere 
that the disease has been imported. Though the evidence might be 
defective in one place, yet it was not in another, and, moreover, in these 
periods the disease is known to have prevailed with violence, either in 
the West Indies, the coast of Mexico, or Brazil, or else there were 
specific causes (to be alluded to hereafter) which led to its introduction 
into the United States. Moreover, it will be seen that the prevalence of 
the disease in towns away from the coast has always been coincident oi' 
immediately subsequent to its appearance in the sea-ports having most 
general communication with the section of country where the disease 
prevailed. I am aware that a reported epidemic at Gallipolis, Ohio, in 
the last decade of the eighteenth century, is often quoted as an in- 
stance of a perfectly-isolated epidemic; but after carefully reading Mr. 
Ellicott's account, and the arguments based upon it, I am inclined to 
consider the evidence defective as to this disease being yellow fever at 
all, and the same may be said of the reported epidemic at Woodville, 
Mississippi, in 1844. Certainly, the report of Drs. De Valetti and 
Logan (New Orleans Medical Journal, vol. 1, p. 237) is not satisfactory 
on this point; and Dr. Faget, of New Orleans, after examining the sub- 
ject, came to the conclusion that this outbreak was of a malignant form 
of paludal fever. 
Another point to be noticed is, that New York and Philadelphia have 
been free from the disease since 1822 (except in the latter city, in con- 
sequence of importation by the bark Mandarin in 1853), in which 
year (1822) both cities established a rigorous system of quarantine, 
which has been kept up ever since; while previous to this time they 
were the most frequently visited of all the American cities. 
The influence of the commercial prosperity of the country in produc- 
ing epidemics of yellow fever has been ingeniously argued by Carpenter, 
Hume, Faget, and others. They have shown in the most conclusive 
manner that from the earliest period in our history, epidemics of yellow 
fever have occurred in a direct ratio to the amount of commercial inter- 73 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
course between our principal ports and the West Indies. Very soon 
after the settlement of the colonies, the importance of the commerce 
with the West India Islands attracted the attention of the colonial 
merchants, and an active trade in lumber, horses, fish, &c., was carried 
on. This excited the jealousy of the mother country, and a long series 
of acts were passed by the Imperial Parliament, commencing about the 
middle of the seventeenth century and ending about 1760. These, 
known as the "commercial monopoly," had for their object to divert the 
trade of the colonies from the French, Spanish, and Dutch Islands, and 
to turn it towards those islands owned by Great Britain. Still, in spite 
of these enactments, the trade flourished for many years; but after the 
first quarter of the eighteenth century it began to languish, and by 
1765 had nearly ceased altogether. As I remarked, in writing of the 
epidemics of Charleston, with the cessation of this trade yellow fever 
disappeared from the country. The war of the Revolution followed, 
when of course, we had no trade. But after the close of the war came 
a great demand for West India products, and a general revival of trade 
took place, which attained great proportions between 1790 and 1805, and 
it is precisely in these years that we find yellow fever most frequent in 
all our commercial ports. Hume shows (Charleston Medical Journal, 
vol. 15, pp. 22, 23,) that in the earlier history of the West India trade 
with Charleston, it was carried on entirely with small schooners owned 
in either Charleston or the West Indies, and always manned by accli- 
mated crews; and that, consequently, the appearance of the disease was 
comparatively rare; but that with the revival of trade, after the Revo- 
lution, and especially after the passage of the navigation acts of 1789 
and 1792, the New York and New England merchants saw a wide field 
for enterprise, and vast numbers of northern vessels engaged in the 
traffic manned and commanded by unacclimated New Englanders, and 
which rarely came into port without bringing one or more cases of yel- 
low fever. During the ante-revolutionary period the Gulf ports were 
not in possession of the United States and carried on but little trade, 
and (excepting its appearance at Mobile in 1702 and 1765, and at Pen- 
sacola in the latter year) yellow fever was unknown among them. 
After 1791 a considerable trade with the Spanish West Indies sprung up 
in New Orleans, and yellow fever arrived there for the first time in 1796. 
Norfolk, Virginia, which had a large West India trade, had the fever 
almost yearly, and Portland, Boston, and Baltimore derived theirs from 
the same source. In 1807 all these places became again suddenly ex- 
empt. Why? Because in that year the embargo was laid on all trade 
with the islands. This continued in force until 1811, and then the war 
with England followed, lasting until 1815, so that the West India trade 
was not re-established before 1817. The fever appeared in 1809, and 1811, 
in New Orleans, a fact easily accounted for, if we remember that her 
trade was almost entirely with the Spanish West Indies, and the em- 
bargo, in so far as it related to those islands, was suspended in 1809. 
With the renewal of commerce, after the war, came also yellow fever: 
at New Orleans, Charleston, Philadelphia, and other places in 1817, at 
Baltimore in 1818, throughout almost the whole coast in 1819, 1820, and 
1821. In 1822 New York and Philadelphia perfected their system of 
quarantine, and they have remained free from fever ever since, except 
at Philadelphia, in 1853, when there was a small ■ epidemic, owing en- 
tirely to carelessness in permitting the bark Mandarin, from an infected 
port, to come up to the city. It has been repeatedly brought to the 
quarantine-stations in those cities, and has spread from the stations to 
the surrounding country on several occasions, as witness the memorable 74 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
epidemic in 1856 at Fort Hamilton; but the cities themselves have 
escaped. Now, to come down to our late civil war. In 1862 the southern 
ports were blockaded; but Wilmington was the principal resort of the 
blockade-runners by reason of its convenience to Nassau. Consequently 
we have in 1862 one of the most destructive epidemics ever known in 
Wilmington. During the first two years of the war the trade of Gal- 
veston was entirely destroyed; but in 1864 blockade-runners began to 
enter that port, and in that year the city experienced a great epidemic. 
Sabine Pass is a place absolutely without any commerce whatever except 
of a local trading character, but when the war broke out, from its insig- 
nificance, being but slightly blockaded, it became a favorite resort for 
blockade-runners, and before many months the whole of Eastern Texas 
experienced an epidemic. New Orleans being very early captured by 
the National Army, her trade was not interrupted, but the military 
authorities established an absolute quarantine, and for the first time in 
its history the city was thoroughly policed and cleansed, and there was 
no fever there during the whole war except in 1863-'64, on the fleet, 
an occurrence of which I have given an explanation in another place. 
Charleston had the fever but once during the war, and then it was 
brought in by a vessel running the blockade. The close of the war 
witnessed not only the revival of trade throughout the South and the 
thronging of all the southern cities with unacclimated adventurers, but, 
also, in 1867, the most wide-spread epidemic known in the history of the 
country. 
As regards the introduction of the disease by blockade-runners, they 
were of all vessels (with one exception, to be noted presently) the ones 
most likely to become infected, or to originate the disease. In the first 
place, their ports of departure, Nassau or Havana, were almost 
always infected; the vessels themselves were small, never cleansed, 
most horribly filthy, and during the passage, from the very necessities 
of their traffic, ran at so high a rate of speed that firemen had been 
known to die of the excessive heat. As a result, heat and moisture 
were always present in their holds, the two most efficient factors in pu- 
trefactive decomposition, and the third, vegetable or animal debris, was 
abundantly strewn everywhere throughout the ship. Consequently, 
they needed only infection from the shore to become veritable pest- 
houses, and they carried yellow fever with them into every port they 
went. Faget (op. cit.) calls attention to the remarkable fact that 
the yellow fever has been for so many years a disease from the western 
side of the globe, and is entirely unknown in the Indian seas. To be 
sure, it was many years known as the " Mai de Siam," but it is not re- 
corded that the disease existed there on the departure of the Oriflamme, 
and the fact that she stopped at Brazil on the passage renders it prob- 
able that she received the infection from that source. However that 
may have been two hundred years ago, the fact is unquestionable that 
for the past hundred years yellow fever is localized in the countries 
bordering on western, and is unknown in eastern seas, if we except, per- 
haps, the recent great pestilence at Mauritius, and it is a matter of 
great doubt whether the fearful mortality of that epidemic was occasioned 
by yellow fever or not. Now, the fact of its prevalence almost exclu- 
sively in the West Indies opens another and very interesting phase of 
the influence of trade on these visitations. 
When the slave trade was first established it was carried on under 
direction of the Government purchasing the negroes, and was surrounded 
by few of the horrors which have made it so infamous in latter times. 
Carried on under Government inspection, the vessels were larger and QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
75 
well ventilated, the food served was sufficient, some care was given to 
the unfortunate victims, and the whole trade partook rather of the 
nature of transport service. Moreover, these vessels once employed in 
the trade were never withdrawn from it, but after landing a cargo were 
properly purified and dispatched after another. In time, however, the 
traffic passed into the hands of private parties, who, actuated solely by 
the desire for gain, employed small vessels, into which the poor negroes 
were crowded and packed in the hold worse than any cattle, were insuf- 
ficiently fed and watered, obliged to perform the offices of nature where 
they lay, and the vessels themselves, being never properly disinfected, 
furnished altogether a combination of foci the most favorable for the 
development of the germinal principle of the disease. Moreover, very 
often these slavers, having completed the voyage from Africa, took a 
cargo from the West Indies to Europe. In this way the fever originated 
at Passage in 1823, and on board the Virginia, at New Orleans, in 1864. 
Now, the appearance of the yellow fever in the West Indies, and the 
prosperous epoch of the slave-trade, are almost synchronous; and it 
was during its continuance that the most destructive epidemics have 
occurred in the West Indies. With the suppression of this West India 
traffic, through the combined activity of English and American cruisers, 
the slave-trade to Brazil enormously increased, and it is then, in 1849, 
that for the first time in a century and a half yellow fever makes its 
appearance in Bio Janerio and the South American Coast. Of course, 
it is not intended to offer this as the sole cause and origin of yellow 
fever-the facts elsewhere narrated forbid such a supposition-but merely 
to present it as one, and perhaps not the least. (Faget, Quatrieme lettre, 
pp. 9, 10; Audouard, Annales maritimes, vol. 1, p. 289.) 
This last cause is a thing of the past, and need only occupy attention 
for a moment as a part of the history of the disease in former years; 
but the operations of legitimate commerce with the West Indies are 
increasing every year with the increased prosperity of the country. The 
past shows that the dangers resulting therefrom are not imaginary. 
It is not at all necessary to prove that the disease is always an im- 
ported one to render- precautions against its introduction either advis- 
able or necessary. The most earnest advocates of quarantine are 
willing to grant that certain, nay, many epidemics have occurred in 
which evidence is defective to prove the fact of importation; yet be- 
cause the actual vessel that brought the disease was not found, nor the 
connection traced between some such vessel and the first cases, it by no 
means follows that it did not exist. Every person who has investigated 
the earlier cases of an epidemic in any of the southern ports knows 
how very difficult it is to get at any definite facts relative to the ante- 
cedents of the sick persons. Their own condition is such that they can 
give no connected account of themselves, often not being seen until they 
are brought to the hospital in a moribund state, and those by whom they 
are surrounded are frequently ignorant people, in the lower walks of 
life, who imagine some ulterior motive in the inquiries made by the 
health-inspector, and either refuse to give any information at all, or 
else falsify the facts. Hence it follows that the testimony in favor of 
the local origin of an epidemic is generally of a purely negative charac- 
ter. The fact of importation not being proved, therefore it did not 
exist, and, as there is usually a convenient cow-yard, privy, burial-place, or 
wharf in the neighborhood which is redolent with filth and unwholesome 
effluvia, or uncleaned gutters, or crowded houses, or extensive excava- 
tions for building purposes, which have their share in rendering the 
locality unhealthy, these are considered sufficient to account for all the 76 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
phenomena, and investigation ceases just where it should have com- 
menced. Nevertheless, granting for the present that in some epidemics 
the fact of importation is not proved, yet in very many more the tes- 
timony is so strong that it must carry conviction to every unprejudiced 
mind that yellew fever has been brought into the country in the vast 
majority of cases in which it has appeared here epidemically, and 
that it has frequently been kept out by proper precautionary measures. 
I shall endeavor to show, before concluding this report, that the quar- 
antine has failed to be always effective in the United States, not from 
any defect in the principle involved, but from insufficiency in most of the 
present laws and a want of their proper adminstration. 
EPIDEMICS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 
The question of the possibility of carrying the infection of yellow 
fever by means of ships, and its introduction into localities where it 
has no congenial home, is strongly illustrated by many of the visitations 
of the disease to other countries than our own. 
A full account of such foreign epidemics would fill too large a space, 
and they are already so familiar to all students of the subject that only 
a brief allusion to them will be necessary; consequently I shall not en- 
deavor any complete description of them, but only of a few, the history 
of which have been carefully investigated by others, and afford addi- 
tional evidence of the portability of the disease. 
Ascension Island.-Ascension is a lonely island, situated many miles 
from any other land; is in the South Atlantic Ocean, in latitude 7Q 56' 
south longitude 14° 25' west. On the 27th of March, 1823, the British 
sloop of war Bann left Sierra Leone, coast of Africa (where yellow fever 
had been epidemic for some months,) for Saint Thomas, but the fever 
breaking out among the crew she was compelled to put into Ascension 
and land her sick. She arrived on the 27th of April, and by the 2d of 
May had buried thirty-two men, at which date Her British Majesty's 
ship Driver arrived at Ascension. 
All intercourse between the garrison and the sick-tents of the Bann was forbidden, 
and as much as possible between the men of the Bann and those of the Driver. In a 
fews days an admiralty clerk, belonging to the Driver (sent on board the Bann to as- 
sist at a survey) and Captain Sawmarez, and his servant (sent to join the Bann), were 
all seized with fever. About the same time the fever made its appearance among the 
garrison ashore, in the family of a soldier's wife who had been washing for one of the 
Bann. It first seized a boy, and then the woman herself, and in a few days four men 
belonging to the garrison were attacked. Of the crew of the Bann, consisting of about 
one hundred and thirty, not so many as ten escaped fever, and thirty-eight died, and 
on the island of Ascension, of the garrison, consisting of thirty-six souls, five only es- 
caped fever, and seventeen died, and of about eight from the Driver, exposed to the con- 
tagion, four were seized and died. (Report of Assistant Surgeon Sinclair, Her Majesty's 
steamer Bann. quoted by Ferguson, London Medical Gazette, vol. 24, p. 840; Burnett's 
Official Report of Fever on Her Majesty's steamer Bann, pp. 3-26.) 
This was the first visit of yellow fever to the island, and it did not 
appear again until 1837, when it was carried by the brig of war Forres- 
ter from Sierra Leone. The commanding officer of the brig died on the 
passage, and his wearing-apparel and other effects were sold in the gar- 
rison. Soon after the yellow fever broke out in the command, and two 
officers and a number of men died. (Ferguson, op. cit., pp. 840-842.) 
The local circumstances which we have found so uniformly present in 
other epidemics were not wanting, for a large mud-pit had been filled 
up during the season in the vicinity of the garrison, and this had been 
rendered unusually filthy by remarkably heavy rains. 77 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
Spain and other parts of Europe.-It seems to have made its first appear- 
ance in Europe in 1741, when it was said to have been introduced into 
Malaga by means of a trunk of goods. In 1764 it prevailed at Cadiz ; 
some sailors from a vessel recently from America being the first attacked; 
next, some persons who lodged in the same house with them, and afterward 
those in neighboring houses. In 1800 it was again introduced into Cadiz and 
Seville, by several vessels from Havana, and, after causing great mortality 
in the city, spread over a large portion of Spain, being communicated 
by inhabitants fleeing from the first-named city. In 1804 it prevailed 
at Leghorn, under circumstances that seem to leave no doubt that it 
was introduced by the Spanish ship Anna Maria, which arrived at Leg- 
horn on the 18th of August from Havana. She had fever on board 
during her passage, and endeavored to enter at Cadiz, but was pre- 
vented by the authorities, who, nevertheless, it is stated, gave the ves- 
sel a clean bill of health, with which she entered at Leghorn. Shortly 
after two of her crew died at an inn on shore, and ere long twelve 
lodgers at the inn had died of yellow fever. Meanwhile some bread 
had been carried on the vessel in sacks, which remained on board 
several days, and on being returned to the bakery were used as 
beds by the workmen, a number of whom took the fever and died. 
There were a number of other deaths of persons, whose connection was 
directly traced to the ship, being employed thereon as calkers, unload- 
ing cargo, &c. Some of cargo was transported to a warehouse on 
shore, and the men who carried it died, and many cases occurred in the 
vicinity of the warehouse. In 1819 it again appeared at Cadiz, imme- 
diately after the arrival of several vessels from Havana, that had fever 
on board. But the most dreadful visitation of the disease ever known 
took place in the city of Barcelona in 1821.. The disease made its ap- 
pearance in Barcelonette, the port of Barcelona, immediately after the 
arrival of a large convoy of vessels from Havana, ten of which had 
yellow fever on board. The physicians of the health board seem both to 
have mistaken the nature of the disease and to have neglected all precautions 
against its spreading, and cases multiplied with great rapidity, extending from 
the port to the town, until, in four months, no less than seventeen thousand 
persons had died of the epidemic. From Barcelona the disease spread to many 
other towns, as far as Marseilles. 
The French Academy sent a deputation of physicians to investigate the 
epidemic, and this is the conclusion to which they arrived : 
La premiere apparition de la fievre jaune a Barce!one a coincide avec 1'arrivee de 
batimens qui venaient de lieux ou regne habituellement une pareille maladie. Il pa- 
rait meme que les premiers malades appartenaient a deux ou trois de ces batimens. 
Quelques circonstances, dependant des localites ou de 1'etat de 1'atmosphere, ont pu fa- 
voriser 1'invasion de la maladie, mais elles n'ont pu la faire naitre ; et s'il restait quel- 
que doute a cet egard, les tristes evenemens de la Tortose suffiraient pour les dissiper. 
Il est done pour nous, sinon d'une evidence absolue, du moins d'une probabilitetres forte 
que la fievre jaune a ete importee d'Amerique a Barcelone, commeelle 1'a ete en Espagne 
dans la majeure parte des epidemics anterieures. (.Bally, Francois, Pariset, Histoire 
medicale de la fievre jaune, p. 640.) 
In reference to this same epidemic, Audouard remarks: 
La fievre jaune a ete apportee, de la Havane a Barcelone, par les batimens le Grand- 
Turc et le Saint-Joseph, et par plusieurs autres probablement. Elie s'y est developpee 
d'une maniere insensible des 1'origine. tant dans le port qu'a Barcelonette, d'ou elle est 
parvenue dans la ville. * * * Vainement, on chercherait dans les miasmes du port 
les causes de tant de desastres. (Audouard, La fievre jaune a Barcelone, p. 325.) 
Rio Janeiro.-The great epidemic at this city in the winter of 1849-'5O 
presents some very interesting features, bearing both upon the origin of 78 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
the disease by importation and the development of it by certain local 
conditions; and, also, by reason of the very wide difference of opinion 
which existed on the part of intelligent physicians, who studied the 
subject impartially, as to the cause of the outbreak. Before giving an 
account of its introduction, a few words will be necessary on the location, 
and certain climatic conditions which may have influenced the course of the 
disease. 
The city is situated in latitude 22° 56' south, longitude 43° 9' west, at 
the head of a fine bay. It is surrounded by mountains, although the 
ground upon which the city is built is low ; the soil is partially sand and 
partially clay. The average temperature during the summer is from 75° to 
85°, and in winter from 55° to 75°. 
For some years previous to 1849 it had been noticed that there was 
an unusual amount of humidity in the atmosphere; it had also been 
noticed that the amount of electricity was very much less, thunder- 
storms being less frequent than usual. It had also been noticed that 
the ordinary miasmatic fevers of the country had been undergoing a 
change of type, the intermittent becoming remittent, and the remittent 
continued; and the latter sometimes evincing decided malignancy. The 
hygienic condition of the city had been for a number of years very bad. 
Great quantities of mud were permitted to remain in the streets; the 
city offal was either collected in heaps at every corner, or else spread out 
over a large surface to dry before removal; the drainage and sewerage 
were by open gutters, which constantly emitted a most offensive smell; 
and the portion of the city near the shipping, where the disease first ap- 
peared, was crowded with sailors' boarding-houses, which were crammed 
with occupants, ill-ventilated, filthy, and the inmates dissipated and de- 
graded. 
In October, 1849, yellow fever broke out in Bahia, the second com- 
mercial city of the empire. How it got there is still a matter of dispute. 
By some it was ascribed to the arrival of an African slaver, and by 
others to importation from New Orleans by an American vessel. Doc- 
tors Rossi and Vidal (Annals of Medical Society of Montevideo, 1854) 
say: 
It was looked upon as proven that the fever had been imported by the American brig 
Bresil, which arrived at Bahia the 30th of September of the same year, from New Orleans, 
and had touched at Havana during the prevalence of yellow fever. 
However this may be, it is certain that it was epidemic in Bahia when 
the American bark Navarre left that port on the 20th of November, 
arriving at Rio Janeiro on the 3d of December. The vessel was pro- 
nounced clean and her crew healthy; she was not detained at quarantine, 
but came up to town, where the crew were paid off and discharged. 
Quite a number of them took lodgings at the house of one Franck, on 
Miseracordia street, in the low and filthy locality before spoken of. 
From this house, on the 28th of December, there was removed to hos- 
pital a Swede named Anderson, who had been a sailor on the Navarre. 
He died two days after his admission to hospital, and six after the in- 
ception of the disease. The same day a Finn named Euquist, who 
lodged in a house about forty feet behind Franck's, and who was fre- 
quently in his house, was taken sick, and died on the 29th, both with 
undoubted signs of yellow fever. On the 4th of January a seaman named 
Wilson, belonging to the American bark Hercules, was admitted to 
hospital. He had been staying at Franck's house. This case recovered. 
The next case was on the 5th of January, and was a sailor of the Na- 
varre, -named Baker, who had likewise been in Franck's house. He died 
a few hours after admission. On the 7th of January three more cases, QUARANTINE on the southern and gulf coasts. 
79 
and on the 8th another, also from this same boarding-house. This same 
day five cases were discovered in the house of one Wood, directly oppo- 
site to Franck's, and within a few days four cases occurred at the boarding- 
house of Hourde, next door to Wood's. All these houses were much 
frequented by shippers and sailors, and by the middle of January cases 
began to appear in hospital from the Russian and Swedish ships 
in the harbor; and all of the earliest cases had been frequently at 
the houses above named. The disease now began to extend, at 
first slowly, but soon much more rapidly, until all the shipping 
in the harbor and all the streets in the city became infected. No class 
of the population escaped; but it was most fatal among the sailors, 
next ' among those who had recently arrived in the city; while among 
the permanent residents, although they very generally took the disease, 
the mortality was very small. It is remarkable that a number of masters 
of vessels direct from Europe made statements to the effect that the 
fever broke out on their vessels as soon as they arrived off the coast of 
Brazil. During the progress of the epidemic Wiere was a number of 
cases occurred on different vessels in the harbor, which were anchored a 
long distance from each other and had held no communication with the 
shore. No less than ninety-five vessels in the harbor sent sick to the 
hospital during the epidemic, and the highest and cleanest parts of the 
city suffered as much as the filthiest. Nevertheless, it was noticed that 
a number of inhabitants fled to Petropolis, a watering-place thirty miles 
from and three thousand feet above Rio. Over a dozen of these died in 
a crowded hotel in that place, and yet in not a single instance did they 
spread the disease. The epidemic terminated in September, 1850, hav- 
ing killed from four thousand to thirteen thousand, according to estimates 
of different persons. (Dr. R. Lallement, " Observations on the Severe 
Epidemic of Yellow Fever at Rio Janeiro in 1859, Rio, 1851." Dr. Cro- 
ker Pennell, " A Short Report on Yellow Fever, as it appeared in Brazil 
during the Summer of 1849-'5O, Rio, July 1, 1850." Dr. Paula Candido, 
"Report on Yellow Fever at Rio Janeiro;" "Report of the Sanitary Com- 
mission of New Orleans on Epidemic of 1853.") 
' The following opposing conclusions were arrived at by physicians of 
high standing, who carefully investigated all the facts. Their articles may 
be found in the "Annals of the Medical Society of Montevideo for 1854." 
Dr. Souza, of the Brazilian navy, says: 
1. Yellow fever always arises from local causes. 
2. It possesses no germ of contagion, nor of reproduction. 
3. It cannot, therefore, be transmissible. 
4. It is always identical in the various'climates in which it springs up, whether it be 
sporadic, endemic, or epidemic. • 
5. The only sanitary measures to be employed against the disease are strictly hy- 
gienic. 
6. A sanitary system opposed to the introduction of imaginary virus should be 
abandoned as useless and frequently pernicious. 
Per contra, these are the opinions of Drs. Rossi and Vidal, from the same 
journal of annals: 
1. That yellow fever never originates from local causes. 
2. That it does possess a germ of contagion and of reproduction. 
3. That it is consequently transmissible 
4. That it is always identical in every climate. 
5. The same sanitary measures should be adopted which are commonly opposed to 
pestilential diseases. . 
6. A sanitary system, having for its object the prevention of transmission of an in- 
fectious disease, ought to be regarded as the most sacred of duties; while it can never 
be or become dangerous. (Transactions of Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Mary- 
land, 1856, pp. 68 and 74.) 80 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
From that date yellow fever appears to have taken up its residence in 
Rio, prevailing every year with more or less severity. 
In 1851 the steamer New World, en route from New York to San 
Francisco, touched at Rio. After leaving that port, the fever broke out 
on board, and she finally put in at Callao, having lost most of her crew 
by yellow fever. A similar incident happened to the steamer Quito, 
which arrived at Callao in January, 1852. From this time a new disease 
made its appearance on the coast, which the natives called " pellusa," 
but which was subsequently ascertained to be genuine yellow fever. 
(New York Medical Record, January 15, 1872, p. 519). During the 
prevalence of the fever on the coast, a soldier, who had deserted, started 
for his home in the mountains of Peru, but was taken sick at the vil- 
lage of Pisco, (it was said after spending some time in examining and 
looking after the effects of a man who had died of the fever.) He was 
conveyed six leagues in an open litter to his home in Charcas. At every 
town and village the people crowded around the litter from motives of 
curiosity, and the result ,was the breaking out of the disease in all the 
hill-country of Peru. It spread from the villages to Cuzco, the ancient 
capital of the Incas, where, out of a total population of forty thousand, it was 
reported there were twenty thousand deaths. 
Port du Passage.-This is a small fishing-village of about twelve hun- 
dred inhabitants, not far from Bayonne. Its location is a healthy one; 
the streets are clean; ventilation abundant; the occupation of the inhab- 
itants conducive to health; and affords no local causes for the spread or 
origin of pestilence. In 1823 the population of the town was nearly 
doubled by reason of some French army operations. On the 2d of 
August of that year the brig Donostiarra arrived at the port, and 
anchored off the town. This vessel had formerly been a slaver, 
and had not been repaired since her last voyage as such. She 
left Havana about the 1st of June, and, when ten days out, lost a sailor 
by sudden death. After a voyage of thirty-six days, she reached Co- 
rogne, on tire west coast of Spain, where she underwent a quarantine of 
ten days. On her arrival at Port du Passage she was admitted to 
pratique without detention, as she had no sickness on board, and had. 
already been subject to a quarantine at Corogne. On the 15th of Au- 
gust the custom-house officer placed on board fell sick, and died on the 
17th. On the 30th, a carpenter at work on the ship was taken, and 
died on the 22d. From this time until the 1st of September a number 
of other persons at work in the hold of the ship were taken, as well as 
some watermen who were in the habit of visiting her. It was worthy 
of remark that although hundreds of persons had visited the vessel 
(for her arrival was a matter of great consequence to the people of the 
little port, being the only one that year) between the 2d and 15 th of August, 
yet it was not until the cargo was discharged, and the hold empty, 
that anybody was taken ill. During the first week in September, cases 
began to occur on shore, in the houses adjoining the wharf where the 
vessel was moored. On the Gth of September, the authorities, having 
no doubt that the disease was traceable to the vessel, caused her to be 
moved to a distance of several miles from town, but, notwithstanding 
this, the epidemic continued to increase. About the middle of Septem- 
ber, Audouard, a surgeon of the French army, was sent to the place, 
and lie immediately ordered the dispersion of the sick in the country, 
which was done on the 25th, and from this time the epidemic ceased. 
There can be no doubt that this was genuine yellow fever. Audouard 
had examined the disease closely at Barcelona, in 1821, and so pro- 
nounced it: " Tous les individus, presenterent les memes symptomes; QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
81 
ils vomirent des matieres noires, et devinrent jaunis avant de mourir.' 
(Faget, Memoires sur la fievre jaune, deuxieme lettre, pp. 3-5.) 
In a similar manner, the disease was introduced into St. Nazaire, Franbe, 
in 1861. On the 25th of July, 1861, the ship Annie Marie arrived at St, 
Nazaire, France. She left Havana on the 13th, there being an epidemic 
of yellow fever prevailing in that place. She had nine cases of fever and 
two deaths on the passage, and had seven men sfck on her arrival, but 
convalescent. Ten days having elapsed since the occurrence of the last 
case, the ship was not quarantined, but came up to the docks, where 
her crew were discharged, and a gang of seventeen stevedores hired to 
discharge the vessel, which was loaded with sugar. Out of this party 
thirteen took the fever, and several died. The crew of a neighboring 
vessel, Le Chaston, came on board the Annie Marie while she was dis- 
charging. This vessel soon after left for Indret, on the Loire, and ar- 
rived there on the 1st of August with one of her crew of five men sick 
with fever, who died. Shortly after three others of her crew died. In 
the mean time another vessel in dock near the Annie Marie left for 
L'Orient, and arrived there August 10. On the 14th the disease broke 
out at L'Orient, and there were a number of deaths. At St. Nazaire 
the disease was likewise communicated to other vessels, and also to per- 
sons on shore. One of the workmen employed in discharging the ship 
went some miles into the country to the village of Montoir, where he 
resided. Here the physician who attended him was attacked with 
the fever, and died; and a physician at Indret likewise contracted the 
disease after attending some of those who were sick with it. The total 
number of cases was forty-four, of which twenty-six died. 
Quebec, 1864.-In August, 1864, the ship Montgomery arrived at 
Quebec, from Nassau, New Providence. The captain stated that he had 
lost his wife and two of his crew from yellow fever on the passage. 
After her arrival a young man named McClusky, who lived but a few 
steps from the dock where the Montgomery lay, went on board of her, 
and was soon after taken sick with undoubted yellow fever. Other cases 
afterward presented themselves, but there was no epidemic. 
This case is interesting from the existence of the disease in very high 
latitudes, showing the necessity for stringent quarantine regulations, 
not only in southern ports, but also wherever vessels may arrive from 
infected ports. Commenting on this case, Professor La Rue, of Quebec, 
says: 
I am perfectly convinced that we have had yellow fever at Quebec; perfectly con- 
vinced that the case of which Dr. Wherry speaks (the case of McClusky) is really dead 
of this disease ; and I have every reason to think that if the Montgomery, instead of 
arriving at Quebec in August, when the nights commence to get cool, had arrived at 
our port during the excessive heat of the month of June and the first part of July-I 
say, I have every reason to think-that Quebec would have had to suffer a most fatal 
epidemic. (Faget, Considerations gencraies, pp. 13, 14.) 
Nor is this the oidy case of the appearance of the disease in very high 
latitudes, as witness the following : 
Swansea, Wales.-The bark Hecla sailed from Cuba for Wales, July 
26, 1865, and arrived at Swansea on the 2d of September. On the pas- 
sage she lost three of her men with yellow fever, and landed three sick 
on her arrival, one of whom, named Saunders, died the next day. The 
authorities were much alarmed, and Saunders was buried within four 
hours after his death ; his house and neighboring ones disinfected and 
fumigated ; • and orders issued to stop the further discharge of her cargo, 
from the Hecla. About thirty tons of copper-ore had, however, been 
landed. . The ship was then thoroughly disinfected and fumigated with 
chlorine, and after this discharged her cargo, a work which was com- 82 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
pleted by the 21st of September; after which she was removed to 
another dock. On the 28ch of September she left this dock and pro- 
ceeded to sea. On the 23d of September a death from yellow fever was 
reported in town,* and close inquiry resulted in the discovery that there 
had been quite a number of cases since the lath. There were in all 
twenty-two cases, of which twenty were of persons in immediate com- 
munication with the ship, or living in the immediate vicinity. A ship 
lying close to the Hecla los't two of her crew. It should be remarked 
that the season was unusually hot. In all, fifteen died, and after the 
removal of the Hecla not a single fresh case occurred. (La Roche, Yel- 
low Fever in 1870, pp. 33-35.) 
It can hardly be supposed that, in spite of its low alluvial position, 
there would have been any yellow fever at Swansea had it not been for 
the arrival of the Hecla. 
Buenos Ayreq.-The mortality occasioned by the yellow fever in this 
city in 1871 attracted the attention of the whole civilized world. Rarely, 
if ever, had such destruction been caused by any pestilence. The city 
is not one that has ordinarily been visited by epidemics; in fact, pre- 
vious to its first appearance at Rio Janeiro, in 1849, it was unknown to 
the south of that city. In 1858 it became epidemic in Buenos Ayres. 
Toward the latter end of March, the royal mail-steamer Camila arrived 
there from Rio. On the voyage she had three deaths from yellow fever. 
Soon after her arrival, cases of yellow fever began to occur on shore, in 
the streets running parallel to the river, and after prevailing for six 
weeks disappeared suddenly, under the influence of a strong southwest 
wind from the " pampas." The first cases on shore were clearly tracea- 
ble to the steamer. The number of deaths was between six hundred 
and seven hundred. 
In 1871 occurred the greatest epidemic known in the history of the 
world, except perhaps the Barcelona visitation of 1821. • 
During the few years previous, there had been numerous arrivals of 
emigrants from Europe. The weather was extremely sultry, the mer- 
cury ranging between 96° and 104° Fahrenheit. During the latter part 
of 1870 there had been a great drought, and the river had considerably 
contracted within its banks, exposing large quantities of alluvium, to 
be acted upon by the sun. On the first week in January, according to 
the local papers, a passenger in detention at the lazaretto escaped from 
the quarantine and rode into town, and joined his family, where he had 
the fever. He recovered, but a number of his family died ; then those 
in the next house; and from thence it spread through the whole locality 
known as the district of San Telmo, which was inhabited chiefly by 
Italians, very much crowded, and the dirtiest in the city. About this 
time a vessel from Genoa arrived at Buenos Ayres, having touched at 
Barcelona on her passage. During the voyage she had fourteen deaths 
from yellow fever, and on her arrival the captain evaded quarantine by 
concealing both the facts of his touching at Barcelona, or having had 
any fever on board, and, proceeding to the city, landed her passengers, 
"many of whom were doubtless infected." During January the disease 
increased but slowly, there not being more than an average of twenty 
deaths per day up to the middle of February; but by the end of that 
month it had spread to adjoining districts, and the deaths were from 
forty to fifty per day. In March the increase was terrific, and by the 
close of the month the deaths were three hundred and fifty per day. 
The epidemic followed in its course the route taken by a great flood 
the year before, the houses devastated by which, after remaining empty 
for a long time, had recently been re-occupied without being cleaned, QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
83 
and were, as well as the streets, in a filthy condition, with the yards and 
streets contaminated by heaps .of rotting clothing and other refuse de- 
posited there by the flood. In March there were heavy rains, and on 
the 10th of April the epidemic reached its climax, when there were five 
hundred and forty deaths, after which it rapidly declined, probably 
from want of material. The number of deaths was variously estimated 
from thirteen thousand four hundred to twenty-six thousand; probably 
a mean between the two would be nearer correct. (Dr. J. H. Scrivener 
on Yellow Fever, in Buenos Ayres Medical Times and Gazette, Febru- 
ary 17, 1872.) 
These brief accounts, selected from a very large number which have 
occured in the present century, will suffice to show that yellow fever is 
not confined in its visitations by any considerations of latitude or longi- 
tude ; that, while it has its natural home in that portion of the Western 
World where tropical heat prevails throughout the year, it may, and 
has repeatedly, been carried thence to extreme northern and southern 
latitudes; and that it has never prevailed in such latitudes except when 
accompanied by the most direct proof of its importation. Whether at 
Swansea, Wales, or Quebec, on the one hand, or Buenos Ayres or Bar- 
celona on the other, the story is always the same-of the arrival of an 
infected vessel a short time previous to the appearance of the pestilence, 
and careful investigation uniformily connects the earliest cases on shore 
with some vessel from a port where yellow fever was prevailing. 
In spite, however, of the vast number of facts of this description 
which are to be found in the history of yellow fever from the earliest 
times, the opinions of students of the disease have varied much as to 
the possibility of its importation. 
Probably no question can be found in the literature of medicine which 
has given rise to such a long series of controversies, argued with such 
earnestness on both sides, and finding among the advocates of either 
view some of the ablest and most learned minds of the day. 
Prior to the last decade of the eighteenth century, there does not 
seem to have been any question in regard to the contagiousness of the 
disease. The subtile distinctions which have been made by later writers 
between infection and contagion do not seem to have disturbed the 
mind of the profession of that period. It made use of the two words 
as synonymous, meaning simply the communication of a disease from 
one person to another, either by direct contact or by means of fomites, 
through the agency of ships, clothing, bedding, &c. Lining, as I have 
already mentioned, in his letter to Dr. Whytt, of Edinburgh, speaks in 
no doubtful terms of the " introduction'" of the disease to Charleston 
in all the epidemics previous to 1753. Dr. John Redman has no hesita- 
tion in ascribing the yellow fever at Philadelphia, in 1762, to importa- 
tion from Havana. One of the earliest accounts of the yellow fever 
which we possess was written by M. Desportes, who was sent, in 1732, 
to San Domingo, by the King of France, to investigate the subject. 
He called the disease " a pestilential one, and had no doubt of its con- 
tagious nature." (Pascalis, op. cit., p. 5.) In the North American 
Medical and Surgical Journal for October, 1827, will be found an intro- 
ductory lecture, delivered at the Pennsylvania hospital by Dr. Thomas 
Bond, in 1766, in which he refers to two out of three epidemics which 
he had observed as having been imported; to the third he ascribes a 
local origin; and it seems to be the first allusion on record to anything 
affirming the local origin of the disease. All of the earliest historians 
of the West Indies speak of it as being carried from one island to 
another. Dr. Thomas Dancer says (Medical Repository, vol. 7, p. 247) 84 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
that most of the practitioners in the West Indies concurred with Dr. 
Chisholm in his views as regards the contagiousness of the disease. 
In fact, it was not until the great series of epidemics which began in 
1791 that any doubt was expressed by medical writers on the subject. 
From 1793 to 1798 Drs. Nathaniel Potter and John B. Davidge, of 
Baltimore, Jean Deveze and Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia, and 
others, enunciated the idea that the disease was of local origin in the 
United States. The official report of the College of Physicians of Phil- 
adelphia on the epidemic of 1793 was dissented from by Rush, Hutch- 
inson, and others, and their views, which ascribed the disease to putrid 
exhalations from the streets and docks, and to decaying cotfee and other 
articles on the wharves and in store-houses, soon gained ground, and 
found an official utterance in 1798, when Rush, Physick, and others, 
who had become incorporated as the Academy of Medicine of Philadel- 
phia, made a report to the board of managers of the hospitals on " The 
origin, progress, and nature of the pestilence of that year," and repeated 
their former opinion that the first cases " appeared to originate from 
the putrid exhalations of alleys, gutters, and docks, and from the stag- 
nating water in the neighborhood of the city." Nevertheless, even they 
qualified their opinion by the further statement: "We derive the late 
rapid increase of the fever from the foul air of several ships lately 
arrived in the port, and from some damaged coffee which arrived in a 
brig from Jamaica on the 29th of July." In a letter to Governer 
Mifflin, of Pennsylvania, dated December 3, 1798, this same body 
remarks: , 
We are the more confirmed in the opinion we have delivered that the yellow fever 
is a native disease of our country by discovering that the same opinion is held by most 
of the physicians and citizens of our sister States. 
And they conclude their letter by deprecating in the most solemn 
manner the continuance of a belief in the supposed importation of the 
fever. 
As before, these views were strongly opposed by the College of Phy- 
sicians, who insisted that the disease was exotic, and that there was 
nothing in the condition of the streets, alleys, or docks to warrant the 
assumption of the local or domestic origin of the disease; but, on the 
contrary, the disease could be unequivocally traced to the vessel that 
introduced it. 
The controversy, thus begun, soon extended beyond the limits of the 
bodies in which it originated. The volumes of the Medical Repository 
and other journals, from 1800 to 1820, are filled with able articles advo- 
cating one side or the other of the question. On the side of the impor- 
tationists were to be found Currie, of Philadelphia, the Hosacks, Bay- 
ley, Townsend, Francis, Seagrove, and many more; while the domes- 
tic origin of the disease was maintained with equal energy and ability 
by Jackson, Millev, Nlitchill, Seaman, Pascalis, Brown, Wheaton, &c. 
Abroad the physicians who had seen the disease generally believed that 
it was of foreign derivation. Dr. Robert Jackson says that " the Spanish 
physicians seem, all of them, to believe in contagion as the cause of this 
disease." (Yellow Fever on Coast of Spain since 1800, p. 16.) Bally, Fran- 
cois, and Pariset, (as well as Audouard,) who made official reports to the 
French government on the epidemics at Barcelona and Passage, had no 
doubt that is was imported into those towns; but on the whole, in our 
own country, the doctrines of a domestic origin for the fever found most 
advocates. The southern physicians, as a rule, adopted these views, and 
after 1822 the controversy seems to have died out, until it was revived 
by the publication of Strobel's work in 1839. This was very soon fol- QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
85 
lowed by the brochures of Monette, of Natchez, and Carpenter, of New 
Orleans; and before many years by an able series of articles by Wil- 
liam Hume, in the Charleston Medical Journal, all of which, taken in 
connection with undisputed facts in relation to the epidemics of 1838 
and 1839, and subsequent years, once more attracted attention to the 
doctrine that yellow fever was an imported disease. The history of the 
series of epidemics during the years 1853-'56 so strongly pointed to 
foreign importation as the source of the pestilence that this opinion 
once more rose in importance, and has, I think, continued to increase in 
prevalence since, being confirmed by the history of the late war, and 
of the great epidemic of 18G7. During this period, however, the ex- 
haustive work of La Roche supported the endemic origin of the dis- 
ease. His views, however, seem to have been greatly modified since 
that time, if we may judge from his article on "Yellow fever in 1870 at 
the Philadelphia lazaretto." At present, so far as my observations and 
conversations with southern physicians enable me to judge, they may be 
divided into several sects or parties on this subject, viz. : 
1. Those who retain the views, held in the early part of this century, 
as to the endemic origin of the disease. 
2. Those who believe that it can be imported, but also that it occa- 
sionally originates in the southern towns. 
3. Those who believe that it is always imported, and that sporadic 
cases are to be accounted for, either by the hibernation of germs from 
a previous season, or else by the supposition that these cases may not 
be yellow fever at all, but cases of malignant paludal or bilious fever. 
Very soon after commencing the visits of inspection called for by the 
joint resolution, I foresaw the advisability of obtaining, in some 
definite form, the opinions of the profession at the South on this sub- 
ject and that of the quarantine. I accordingly caused circulars to be 
printed, which were addressed to several physicians in each of the 
towns I visited, inviting them to give their .views as to the portability 
of yellow fever, and the value of quarantine restrictions. This was done 
more as a matter of justice to these gentlemen than for my own infor- 
mation ; for, as I had conversed with most of them, or had read their 
ideas in the medical journals, it was not necessary that they should 
address me for the latter purpose. To my regret, however, very few of 
those whom I addressed took any notice of my communication. If, 
therefore, I do them any unintentional injustice in my summary of their 
views, they are debarred the right to complain, as they were given am- 
ple opportunity to place themselves on the record had they so desired. 
I think that a majority, especially of the yOunger physicians, believe 
decidedly in the transmissibility of the yellow-fever poison; but they 
hesitate openly to express their views, partly because by so doing 
they would find themselves in opposition to men who may be said to 
lead the profession at the South, and who, with the people at large, are 
considered to speak almost with infallibilityand partly because the 
acknowledgment of the importation of the disease carries with it 
necessarily a belief in the value of quarantine, which, when no epidemic 
threatens, is an unpopular idea with the mercantile community. 1 am 
led to this opinion from an incident which happened in New Orleans. 
The mayor invited a number of leading men to meet me to discuss the 
question. The distinguished Professor Warren Stone was in the chair, 
and made an eloquent address in favor of the domestic origin of yellow 
fever, and denouncing all quarantine measures whatever. But one gen- 
tleman ventured to differ from him, and he was not a physician; but 
after the adjournment of the meeting, several assured me privately that 86 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
they did not at all agree with Dr. Stone in his views, and would take 
occasion to express themselves in writing to me on the subject, but this 
they never did. 
Thus far I have endeavored ' merely, in the words of the joint resolu- 
tion of Congress, "to ascertain all facts having reference to the outbreaks 
of the disease " in the southern ports and towns; and to present what 
proofs may exist of its importation, in so far as they may bear upon the 
question of the benefits to be derived from quarantine measures. But 
there is another aspect in which the subject must be viewed. " The 
question of the mode of existence of contagious matter," says Dr. Burdon 
Sanderson, " lies at the foundation of all scientific inquiry as to the 
means of obviating or counteracting contagion." Here we leave the 
domain of ascertained facts, and enter upon that of mere hypothesis. 
The subject is one full of difficulty, and I cannot hope to do more than, 
by availing myself of the investigations of those who have made the 
question of contagion a special study, to offer such a view of the origin 
of the disease as will harmonize best with the most recent ideas on the 
intimate pathology of contagion. 
If, up to the present time, the search after these means has appeared unsuccessful, 
and the results obtained by their application have been unsatisfactory, the explana- 
tion of the fact is to be found, not in any want of knowledge of the properties of the 
agents employed, but in the ignorance which prevails as to the physical characters of 
the substances which it is our object to destroy or render innocuous. (Twelfth Annual 
Report of Medical Officer of Privy Council, p. 229.) 
If we look through the writings of the earlier authors on yellow fever, 
and, indeed, some of later date, we shall find that they regarded the 
disease as a malignant type of bilious remittent; and due to the same 
pestiferous miasm. Certain epidemics which prevailed in New England 
and Virginia in the early part of our history, being accompanied by a 
jaundiced skin and the vomiting of altered bile, were so closely assimi- 
lated in their phenomena, with the true West India fever that the 
differential diagnosis between the two diseases was not clearly made 
out, and the subtile distinctions between them overlooked in the prom- 
inence of certain symptoms which they had in common. And yet a 
glance at the habits and habitats of the diseases would have shown 
how little it is possible for them to have a common origin. Yellow fever 
is essentially a disease of large cities and sea-port towns. It never orig- 
inates in the country, even in the most swampy and malarious districts; 
and when carried there by refugees from any town where it prevails, it 
fails to spread. 
The rice-swamps of Georgia and the alluvial districts of Alabama 
and Louisiana are saturated with malaria in its most concentrated form. 
Pernicious and congestive fevers, high grades of bilious remittent or 
intermittent, are the common lot of those whose business takes them to 
such localities, yet yellow fever is unknown from this source; but, on 
the contrary, it is found that very soon aftei- the outbreak of an epi- 
demic in New Orleans or Mobile, the remittents and intermittents par- 
take more and more of the type of the imported disease, until at last 
the more potent poison overwhelms the feebler one, and malarial dis- 
eases disappear entirely for a time. Moreover, the attack of yellow 
fever is generally protective Against a second one, which, as is well 
known, is not true of any form of malarial disease. Yellow fever finds 
its subjects chiefly among the unacclimated, while remittent fever at- 
tacks equally those who have lived their whole lives at the South. The 
colored people are peculiarly susceptible to the influences of marsh-poi- 
son, while, though yellow fever frequently prevails among them, it is QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
87 
by no means so fatal as among whites. Yellow fever has prevailed as 
an epidemic at places (such as Pensacola) where the surrounding coun- 
try is a high, dry sand-barren, without any malarial influences to pro- 
duce disease. In fact, it requires but a close • examination of the his- 
tory and clinical phenomena of the yellow fever to show that it is a 
disease sui generis, and not dependent on marsh-poison, or allied to any 
of the forms of paludal disease that are so common in the southern 
country, away from the cities. 
What the peculiar nature of the yellow-fever poison may be, we have 
thus far failed to ascertain; yet it may be permitted to generalize a 
little on the subject, and endeavor to see whether recent researches into 
the pathology of contagion will serve to elucidate the question. The 
fundamental deduction arrived at by recent observers is, that every 
kind of contagion .consists of extremely minute particles K of organic 
character, capable of growth and multiplication to an indefinite extent; 
and that the contagious fevers are due to the intrqduction of such par- 
ticles into the blood. They differ materially as to the nature and origin 
of such particles. Hallier, of Jena, considers the organic forms found 
in contagious fluids to consist of fungi, composed of single cells, which 
reproduce themselves with extreme rapidity, and are capable of being 
developed into higher organisms than themselves. These are called by 
him "micrococci," and by Bechamp " microzymes." Beale, on the con- 
trary, regards the contagious particles as the result of retrogression of 
a normal germinal principle, or bioplasm, from which all the tissues of 
the bodies are developed. All the complex tissues and organs of man 
are dependent on the changes which take place in a transparent, color- 
less, living matter, called "bioplasm." This germinal matter has the 
faculty of dividing into other bioplastic masses, each mass going to ful- 
fil some special purpose in the economy, and not being capable of any 
other. These bioplasms are analogous to certain forms of low organ- 
ism found in nature, called " amoebae," and like them they have certain 
remarkable powers of locomotion. 
After a time some of these bioplasms cease to multiply, though they 
still live and take up food. The living matter of which they are com- 
posed undergoes change, and is converted into tissue. There are, how- 
ever, some masses of germinal matter in the adult which continue 
growing and multiplying through life, as they did in the embryo; 
among these are the white corpuscles of the blood. Under certain cir- 
cumstances these masses of bioplasm may become degraded and inca- 
pable of performing their higher functions, while still possessing the 
power of reproduction and multiplication to an enormous extent. 
Actively living, degraded bioplasm of this kind may retain its vitality 
for a long time, although entirely removed from the body. Beale con- 
sequently defines a disease-germ to be " a particle of living matter de- 
rived from direct descent from the living matter of man's organism." 
With the abstract truth or falsity of these two theories of disease 
we are not at present interested. They both agree in ascribing the ori- 
gins of contagious disorders to organic living particles, and whether 
these are called microzymes, bacteria, or bioplasts; whether they are of 
fungoid growth, obtaining entrance to the body as parasites; or whether 
germinal masses, " derived from normal cells, and due to a series of 
changes in existing matter under new circumstances," is of little conse- 
quence to the inquiry before us. Without, therefore, entering further 
into this discussion, it will be proper to inquire into the relations that 
these contagious particles may bear to the subject of the spread of yel- 
low fever. Assuming for a moment the fact of their existence they may 88 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
escape from the organism in which they have been developed in 
various ways. As Cohnheim has demonstrated that bodies as large as 
the white corpuscles of the blood may migrate through the walls of the 
capillaries in inflammation, it requires no credulity to believe that these 
particles, which are infinitely smaller, may also thus escape into the 
surrounding tissues; especially when the surface capillaries are con- 
gested during an attack of fever. Once outside the vessels, it is an easy 
matter for them, aided by their amoeboid movement, to make their exit 
from the body. Beaching the surface, they may be expelled with the 
expired air, pass away with the discharges from the body, or be thrown off 
with the epithelial scales from the cuticle. Perhaps they may be elimi- 
nated from the blood by the action of secreting and epithelial cells with- 
out the vessels. In whatever way they escape from the body, their vi- 
tality is so great that they will live and multiply for many days when 
so removed. In a partially desiccated condition they may float in the 
air; they may impregnate water and food, attach themselves to cloth- 
ing, bedding, or other articles around a sick-room, and, existing thus 
under so many and such different conditions, have unlimited facilities 
for gaining access to the bodies of other persons favorably situated for 
their reception. Sanderson and Chauveau, in their experiments on the 
cattle-plague, have shown that the amount of contagious material ne- 
cessary to produce disease in another individual is extremely small. "A 
mere trace of serum is sufficient to propagate the cattle-plague." This 
is further manifested in the very small amount of morbid matter re- 
quired to infect a person in the care of a dissection-wound. Conse- 
quently, assuming that such morbid particles are given off from a per- 
son sick with yellow fever, it is easy to conceive how extensive may be 
the morbific influence arising from a single patient. In times of epidemic 
prevalence, the air will become filled with these floating particles of 
contagium. In consequence, where a ship leaves an infected port, and 
her hatches are battened down after her cargo is stowed, she carries 
within her hold, hermetically sealed, a portion of the air of the infected 
town, heavily charged with these floating particles. Many of these sink 
to the bottom and impregnate the bilge-water, or become incorporated 
with the filth which exists on the sides and bottom of the vessel. Indi- 
viduals who leave an infected port carry with them in their clothes 
millions of these little particles, which grow and multiply in whatever 
position they are placed, and may even acquire increased virulence after 
their exit from the body in which they were developed. 
It has been objected to this theory that if these particles of contagium 
are so numerous and exist so universally in an infected town, how is it 
that anybody escapes an attack ? Perhaps, in the present condition of 
our knowledge, it is hard to give a satisfactory answer to this question, 
yet it is no more than occurs in life under other circumstances. In battle 
but a very small number are killed or wounded in comparison with the 
number of shots fired. The air seems filled with missiles, but yet com- 
paratively few are hit. Many conditions may be required in the organ- 
ism beyond the simple reception of the germ to enable it to develop 
disease. Of the seed scattered over a field but a small proportion finds 
a congenial soil in which to germinate; the rest perishes. 
The fact that of a number of persons equally exposed to the influence of contagium 
some will contract the disease while the majority will escape, may be accounted for by 
supposing either that, in the latter case, the particles do not really penetrate the vas- 
cular wall at all, or that they are in some way destroyed as soon as they traverse the 
wall of the capillary and come in contact with the blood. (Beale on Disease-Germs, 
p. 84.) QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
89 
There may also be certain circumstances connected with locality or 
population which will favorably influence the reproduction of contagion. 
Peculiar meteorological conditions, defective drainage, poisonous gases, 
lotting vegetable debris, can no more originate yellow fever than they 
can small-pox, but they may so vitiate the vital capacity for resisting 
disease as to render the organism peculiarly receptive to the influence of 
a morbid poison. 
The vital and all-essential fact in the etiology and geography of yellow fever is that 
which relates to the implantation of the epidemic germs, or the fomites, in a locality where 
temperature, humidity, and personal conditions favor their pestilential propagation." 
(Harris, United States Sanitary Commission Memoirs, p. 242.) 
Among such personal conditions may also be considered the influence 
of fear; the psychical depression caused by dread of an epidemic operat- 
ing probably more powerfully than any other predisposing cause in afford- 
ing a congenial resting-place for the germs of the disease. It should also 
be borne in mind that, of the total population of any southern city, but 
a small portion is really susceptible, the balance being composed of ac- 
climated persons. The number of cases is apt to be in direct proportion 
to the number of unacclimated residents. 
While it has been uniformly found that a temperature below 32° 
Fahrenheit has stopped the prograss of an epidemic, it is probable that 
the commonly-accepted belief that the poison of the fever is thus killed 
is not altogether true. The vast majority of the germs unquestionably 
perish, but some may continue to exist under a lower condition of vital- 
ity, and passing the winter in a hvbernating state become revivified by 
the renewed warmth of the following spring, or under certain circum 
stances they may slumber for a much longer period, until roused into 
action by circumstances favorable to their development. It is found, 
however, that most commonly in such cases these particles have lost a 
portion of their contagious vitality, and are no longer capable of origi- 
nating other germs that can propagate the disease. Hence the cases 
which occur under these circumstances are sporadic, and the disease 
does not assume an epidemic character. This is not always the case, 
for occasionally outbreaks of the most severe type have occurred when 
it was probable that a long time had elapsed since the original germs 
of infection had been received. In this way we may account plausibly 
for the appearances of the disease on ships at sea, which have always 
been seized upon as favorite examples by those who advocate its spon- 
taneous development. 
The germinal principles of contagious diseases differ remarkably in 
their power. Some are vigorously infectious, others very feebly so. It 
is equally probable that, under different circumstances, the same con- 
tagion may possess much more virulent properties than at others. The 
germs may retain their vitality for a longer period, or develop a greater 
capacity for reproduction, and hence, in one year, we have a wide-spread 
epidemic, in another the germ of the disease may be introduced, but the 
only result be a few sporadic cases. 
A phenomenon which has been frequently observed during the pro- 
gress of an epidemic is its intermission or sudden cessation immediately 
after a violent gale. This is accounted for by the dispersion of the 
contagious particles beyond the city limits and the renewal of the 
atmosphere; a view which is confirmed by the fact that generally, after 
an intermission of a week or two, the disease breaks out again with in- 
creased virulence, only sufficient time being requisite for the fresh air 
to become charged with germinal atoms; and further, by the observa- 
tion that in the most sultry seasons, when the air is comparatively mo- 90 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
tionless, the fever has confined itself sometimes to certain sections for 
several weeks, and afterward, under the influence of a gentle breeze, has 
appeared in several detached localities at once. 
THE QUESTION OF QUARANTINE. 
The joint resolution calls for an opinion "whether any system of 
quarantine is likely to be effective in preventing invasions of yellow 
fever." I believe that this question may be unqualifiedly answered in 
the affirmative, and that the war on quarantine has been partly the 
result of ignorance of the facts, or illogical views of the origin of the 
disease, and partly because the love of gain, outweighing the natural 
feelings of humanity, has distorted the unavoidable * inconveniencies, 
attendant on any quarantine system, into a barbarous cruelty, which 
has come down to us from the Middle Ages, and has no part in the en- 
lightened civilization of the nineteenth century. It is, I think, possible 
to show that the cruelties and barbarities of quarantine need have no 
existence under a properly-organized system; that its restrictions on 
commerce have been greatly magnified by those who are interested in 
the West India traffic; and that the general trade of any city, so far 
from being inj ured, would be benefited by a quarantine which 
would be absolutely protective, such as, it is believed, it would be pos- 
sible to institute. 
A strong argument in favor of a. quarantine may be found in the vary- 
ing aspects of public opinion at the South. " A la longue, rien ne 
resiste a 1'autorite des faits, et le simple bon sens du vulgaire 1'emporte 
souvent sur les hesitations et les sophismes de 1'interet et du savoir." 
It is found that during periods of health the sentiment of the southern 
people is strongly opposed to quarantine; but should thetje be a danger 
of the approach of the disease, it is astonishing what unanimity there 
is on the subject. The press makes fervent appeals to the boards of 
health to increase the efficiency of quarantine ; leading men, both in and 
out of the profession, use all their influence to urge its establishment; 
and should the disease unfortunately break out, the authorities are de- 
nounced in the severest manner for their neglect. The medical profes- 
sion may prove, to their own satisfaction, that the disease is of local 
origin, but the community does not believe it, and in times of pestilence 
they see what dreadful losses accrue to them from the prevalence of the disease, 
and all are quarantinists. 
The objections raised against quarantine measures may be either 
professional, personal, or commercial, and may be summed up as fol- 
lows : 
1. It is urged that inasmuch as yellow fever is a disease of domestic 
origin in the United States, and due entirely to local causes, or else to 
the prevalence of what is called an " epidemic atmosphere," a quarantine can 
by no possibility be of any value in warding off an epidemic. 
This objection is best answered by inviting attention again to the 
facts as set forth in the histories already narrated of the epidemics of ' 
yellow fever. These accounts show that in the majority of epidemics 
of which we have any detailed history, its outbreak has been preceded 
by the arrival of one or more vessels from a port known to be infected ; 
that the first cases are generally either persons who came to port in 
such vessels or who are known to have been on board of them, and 
that those next taken sick have had communication with the first; or 
if th6 proof be not so direct as this, it is found'that the vicinity of the 
whar\es and docks, and the streets and alleys bordering the harbor, are QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
91 
the localities first infected. The earliest cases are in sailor boarding- 
houses, or warehouses where foreign goods are stored, and these cases 
are in the persons of sailors, stevedores, or workmen about such wharves 
or warehouses. The filthy condition of such places, always insisted 
upon as sufficient of itself to produce the disease, does not afford a sat- 
isfactory explanation of its existence, because such localities are always 
the most neglected in a city, and the population such as defy all consid- 
erations of personal cleanliness or local hygiene. They are in no worse 
condition in years of sickness than in those of health, and on the 
assumption that overcrowded tenements or accumulations of putre- 
factive debris will produce an epidemic, it should prevail in such local- 
ities every year, which is not found to be true. 
Let it be particularly noted that the conditions productive of fatal disease are in all. 
cases subject to little or no variation, and therefore, where the causes are perennial, 
there ought to be no respite from the ravages of deadly maladies. The facts, unfor- 
tunately for the theories, are perverse ; instead of a confirmation they supply a refuta- 
tion, to my mind irresistible. (Pratt on Origin of Fevers, Medical Press and Circular, 
March 6, 1872, p. 206.) 
It has already been remarked that the absence of direct evidence of 
the foreign importation of the disease is no proof that it might not 
have existed, and been overlooked in the difficulty of tracing the pre- 
vious history of the first victims, who are frequently strangers without 
friends that are acquainted with their movements before the attack. 
It is, in fact, a matter for surprise that we have been able to trace the 
disease to foreign importation in such a large number of instances rather 
than that the evidence should be defective in a few. 
It is further shown that when the disease leaves the sea-board it has 
generally followed the great routes of travel or trade. Natchez was 
not visited by yellow fever before steamboats commenced their trips on 
the Mississippi River in 1819 ; after that year the town was ravaged by 
the disease whenever it prevailed in New. Orleans, and never at any 
other time. Vidalia, Louisiana, never suffered previous to 1853, in 
which year, for the first time, steamboats stopped there. Sabine and 
Matagorda, in Texas, having only a coastwise Commerce, were always 
exempt until the severity of the blockade at Galveston and the posses- 
sion of New Orleans by our forces made them convenient resorts for 
blockade-runners. Houston and the interior towns in Texas have only 
been visited by the disease subsequent to its appearance on the coast. 
Many similar instances could be cited. . 
Moreover, the direct facts in favor of quarantine are equally cogent. 
New York established a rigid quarantine in 1822, and although the dis- 
ease has been brought almost yearly to the port, it has since that time 
only twice appeared within the quarantine lines, viz., at Fort Hamilton 
in 1856 and Governor's Island in 1856 and 1870; both instances being 
plainly traced to an evasion of the quarantine law. Philadelphia pre- 
sents a similar record, having been exempt from yellow fever for fifty 
years, except in 1853, when the bark Mandarin was improperly allowed 
to pass the quarantine. 
In 1798, when almost every sea-port town at the North was visited, 
the authorities of Baltimore established a quarantine, and forbade all 
intercourse with the infected city of Philadelphia, and alone, of all the 
great commercial cities of the North, escaped, though repeatedly rav- 
aged by epidemics in previous years. From 1810 to 1853 the authori- 
ties of Natchez quarantined all steamers arriving from New Orleans, 
during an epidemic season, and in those years they had no fever. In 
1853, when they relaxed their quarantine, the disease again made its 
appearance. In 1862, when the city of Galveston was crowded with 92 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
the sick and dying, there was not a case among the ten thousand troops 
in the neighboring forts, all communication between the soldiers and 
the inhabitants of the town being forbidden by military orders. In 
1867 the disease appeared at every town in Texas, along the railroads 
diverging from Houston, except Columbus, Washington, and Rich- 
mond. These three places established a quarantine against Houston 
and Galveston, and they escaped entirely. In 1868 and 1869 the military 
authorities exercised a supervision over the quarantine along the Texas 
coast, and there was no appearance of the disease, although it was 
epidemic at Vera Cruz, Havana, and Key West, and several vessels ar- 
rived at the various quarantine stations with cases of fever on board. 
These, and many other facts which might be adduced, go far to show 
that the favorite theory of an " epidemic constitution of the atmos- 
phere," bidding defiance to all restrictive measures for preventing the 
entrance of the disease, has no foundation in fact, except as dependent 
on infection by means of fomites, and an acceptance of the hypothesis 
of the invariable spread of the disease as a result of the multiplication 
of its germinal principle, (this principle being generally, if not always, 
an importation in ships, cargoes, or personal property,} will afford the 
strongest possible argument why a properly-constituted system of 
quarantine can be of efficacy, and that the southern towns can only be 
rendered free from visitations of yellow fever by such means. Yet it 
is not to be considered that the value of quarantine depends on the 
acceptance of any hypothesis of contagion; the actual historical facts 
are amply sufficient to prove the great service it has been in the past, 
and to warrant further investigations into the subject, with the view of 
making it more efficient in the future. It can, moreover, be urged with 
propriety, that even if it is granted- that some epidemics are not to be 
explained except by assuming the domestic origin of the disease, yet 
even then the facts prove that a large number of others are certainly 
due to importation, and therefore by preventing such importation, we 
can materially reduce the number of epidemics, even if we fail in en- 
tirely keeping off the disease, which is certainly " a consummation de- 
voutly to be wished." 
2. Another objection is, "All epidemic diseases are present in the 
country, and disorder the health of a people before they are manifested 
in their peculiar and recognized forms." 
This may be true of influenza, and possibly of some of the exanthema- 
tous diseases, but it is certainly not the general rule as regards yellow 
fever. Malarial fevers have often been very common in the spring and 
early summer, preceding an epidemic of yellow fever, (as was the case 
at Rio Janeiro in 1849;) but this coincidence can always be accounted 
for by local or meteorological causes, and only those who regard the 
latter as a paludal disease, or a more aggravated form of bilious remit- 
tent would trace any connection between the two. Any one who re- 
gards yellow fever as due to a specific poison, must reject the idea of 
such an influence of that poison on the general health as could exhibit 
itself in an increase of other diseases not allied to it in pathological or 
etiological phenomena. Typhoid fever was prevalent at Key West in 
1862 before the appearance of the vomito ; but it may be presumed this 
was owing to the presence of an unusually large number of troops, and 
the great increase in the civil population of the town, from causes re- 
sulting from the war. The yellow fever being positively traced to im- 
portation by the bark Adventure in the latter part of June, it is simply 
absurd to suppose any connection between the prevalence of the two 
diseases. QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
93 
3. That the experience of the past proves quarantines to be worth- 
less as safeguards against yellow fever. The instances already cited 
of its value at New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, on the coast of 
Texas, and elsewhere, are a sufficient refutation of this assertion; but 
as the opponents of quarantine point to particular instances in which it 
has proved ineffective, it will be proper to examine some of these cases, 
and ascertain with what justice the charge has been brought. One of 
these instances may be found in the fact that the legislature of Louisi- 
ana established a quarantine in 1821, which was continued until 1825, 
during which time the city of New Orleans suffered from two severe epi- 
demics, viz., in 1822 and 1824. What are the facts as regards these 
years ? The board of health established a quarantine on the river below 
New Orleans, but none on Lake Pontchartrain, and, . in consequence, in 
August, 1822, two sloops (crowded with persons fleeing from the fever 
which raged at Pensacola) passed through the lake, and entering the 
Bayou Saint John, without any inspection, landed their passengers at 
the basin of the canal Carondelet, in the center of the city. A family 
by the name of Lynch that arrived on one of these sloops were the 
first victims, and from their residence on Bienville street the fever ex- 
tended throughout the city. Moreover, the health-officer, Dr. Forsythe, 
reported the quarantine law so defective that there was no restriction 
placed on intercourse between persons from' New Orleans and those de- 
tained on infected ships at quarantine; and that vessels were permitted 
to leave the station and proceed to the city without any proper fumiga- 
tion. Such are the facts of the epidemic of 1822, and it would be diffi- 
cult to select an instance which more directly proves the value of a 
proper quarantine, instead of militating against it; for, can any one 
suppose that if the board of health had used efficient measures in 
guarding all the avenues of approach to the city there would have been 
any importation of the disease from Pensacola ? As regards 1824, there 
is equally positive proof of the utter 'inefficiency of the health authori- 
ties. The disease was introduced by a steam-tug, which had towed the 
infected schooner Emigrant to the quarantine station. There had been 
free communication between the tow-boat and the schooner on the pas- 
sage up the river. Sick men on board the latter were visited by hands 
employed on the former; yet the schboner alone was detained in quar- 
antine, and the tug proceeded to the city, sending, in a few days, several 
cases from among her hands to the Charity Flospital with yellow fever. 
Commenting on these facts, Carpenter remarks : 
In 1821 a mockery in the shape of a quarantine was established, which, in consequence 
of its total inefficiency, had no effect in preventing the introduction of the disease. It 
had, moreover, a most pernicious effect in prejudicing many well-intentioned persons 
against the establishment of such an institution by leading them to regard it as a 
useless restriction upon trade. The fact is well known that the inadequacy of that 
institution was solely attributable to the imperfection of the law, and not to the fallacy 
of the principle upon which quarantine is based. (Op. cit., p. 4J.) 
Of the quarantine in 18G7, at New Orleans (which has been repeat- 
edly pointed to as an illustration of the worthlessness of such institu- 
tions), Dr. Francis Barnes reports: 
The Florence Peters' history illustrates the viciousness of the system of quarantine 
in operation here, which does not deserve the name, being a sham, a delusion, a make-believe, 
in place of one which would be efficacious if properly carried out. * * * The quar- 
antine here is notoriously a failure in sending any protection to the city, while that of 
New York is a success. (Circular No. 1, Surgeon-General's Office, 1808, p. 120.) 
Assistant Surgeon Samuel . Adams, United States Army, writing of 
the epidemic at Galveston, Texas, in the same year, says : 
k The entrance of the disease was entirely the result of gross negligence on the part of 94 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
the city authorities in failing to take any measures to establish a quarantine for the 
protection of the city. (Ibid., p. 83.) 
A further point in regard to this same epidemic may be mentioned. 
Of the towns situated on Matagorda Bay, Texas, only one (Matagorda) 
established a quarantine in 1867. This place escaped entirely, while 
Indianola, Lavacca, &c., suffered severely. 
The prevalence of the fever in the vicinity of the South street wharf, 
in Philadelphia, in 1853, affords testimony of the same character; being 
unquestionably due, not to the worthlessness of the principles upon 
which quarantines are established, but to the neglect of the authorities 
at the lazaretto, in permitting the bark Mandarin to come to her dock 
without proper detention and fumigation. And it may be remarked 
that this will be found true of every instance where quarantines have been 
denounced as incompetent to keep out yellow fever ; the fault has always 
been either in a defective law or in a maladministration of its provisions ; 
and it may be positively asserted that in our own country, at least, every 
absolute quarantine conducted with rigid impartiality has proved suc- 
cessful. The first quarantine convention held at Philadelphia, in 1857, 
composed of some of the ablest hygienists in the United States, came 
to the following conclusion, after mature deliberation : 
Efficient sanitary measures,-including quarantine, will in most cases prevent the 
introduction of these (importable) diseases. * * The present quarantine regulations 
in operation in most of our States are inefficient, and often prejudical to the interests 
of the community.-(Proceedings, p. 40.) 
4. " That quarantine, instead of guarding against and preventing dis- 
ease, fosters and concentrates it, and places it under conditions the most 
favorable that can be devised for its general extension." 
This objection, made by the General Board of Health of Great Britain 
(Report on Quarantine, 1849, p. 61), can only, like the last, apply to a 
defective administration of a lazaretto. It is hardly to be conceived 
how it could be true, were ordinary common sense exercised in the man- 
agement of either infected vessels or persons. Yet, if the account given 
by the board of the quarantine arrangements at Hull, England, be a 
fair sample of those in general operation in the United Kingdom, it is 
not to be wondered at that they arrived at the opinion they express. 
They state that this quarantine was in Whitebooth Roads, eight miles 
from Hull, a locality so stormy as only to be accessible by steamers ; 
that sick and well persons were confined together on board of the de- 
tained vessels; and that the quarantine hulk at the roads had no med- 
ical officer attached to her. Further, Mr. Robert Hardey, medical super- 
intendent of quarantine at Hull, states that he considered it doubtful 
whether he had any authority to visit sick persons detained in quaran- 
tine ; and, although he had been in his official position for seven years, 
he has " no recollection of receiving either printed or written instruc- 
tions from the authorities of the customs appertaining to the duties of 
his office, and does not consider that at present his duties are defined 
with sufficient clearness." 
At another station at Stangate Creek, the surgeon reported <£ that his 
orders were positive and strict not to go on board any vessel in which 
there was a case of cholera ; that he could not, therefore, on any consid- 
eration, go on board such vessel." (Report, pp. 130-138.) 
It is no wonder the poor unfortunates, subjected to such inhumanity 
as this, should denounce quarantine as a relic of barbarism, worthy of 
the Middle Ages ; but th a. a board of men could only see in such a state 
of affairs an argument against the principles upon which quarantines 
are founded is creditable neither to their honesty nor intelligence. QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
95 
There is no reason whatever why a rationally conducted quarantine 
station should " foster or concentrate disease." Let all persons be 
removed from an infected ship ; the sick to a commodious hospital, the 
well to a separate building, only to be detained so long as may be re- 
quisite for their proper fumigation and disinfection; let all the inhabi- 
tants and officials at a quarantine station be acclimated persons, and 
there need be no cause to fear the extension of the disease. The records 
of all the well-managed quarantine hospitals in the United States con- 
tain ample proof of the truth of this statement. But if even for the vsake 
of argument we assume the possibility of the occurrence, yet I hold that 
, it would be no valid objection to the institution of quarantine. If it 
comes to a choice between the infection of a lazaretto, containing at 
most but a hundred or two persons, or the spreading of contagious dis- 
ease broadcast through a large town, few will be found to question 
which is the preferable of two evils. On a par with the foregoing, and 
of as little importance as a valid argument, is the complaint of the in- 
conveniences to which passengers are subjected by detention at quaran- 
tine. No doubt it is extremely unpleasant after a long voyage, and 
when almost in sight of home, to be refused admission to pratique ; but, 
in the first place, were a uniform system of quarantine in operation 
throughout the United States, the certainty of such delay would be well 
understood, and persons would refrain from coming from infected ports 
during the fever season except in cases of necessity ; and, in the second 
place, it is unreasonable that a large city should jeopardize the lives of 
thousands of its inhabitants to avoid inconveniencing the few passen- 
gers who may arrive from foreign ports. Moreover, leading quarantin- 
ists now are of opinion that it is unnecessary to the efficiency of a 
quarantine that healthy persons should be detained any longer than 
may be necessary to render it certain that they have not within them 
the seeds of disease, and to destroy all germs of contagion which might 
have infected their clothing or baggage. The point d'appui of the quar- 
antine of the future is to be the disinfection of the ship and her cargo, 
and the care of the sick, and the well will be subjected to detention only 
so long as to insure their safety and avoid the possibility of their infecting 
the place of their destination. 
5. It is further alleged that the difficulty of obtaining accurate in- 
formation as to the health of the ports of departure is an insuperable 
obstacle in the way of an efficient quarantine. This may be granted 
under the present system, controlled entirely by State or municipal 
authority ; but it would not be true of a quarantine managed by the 
General Government, which could instruct its foreign consuls in all ports 
where yellow fever prevails endemically to forward frequent reports of 
the condition of the places where they are resident. The lines of telegraph 
now are so widely extended that there would be few totvns of any con- 
sequence from which a daily report could not be received. Some ports, 
as Havana and Vera Cruz, maybe assumed to be always infected; while 
others may always be considered as healthy, unless positive evidence to the 
contrary is received. Every health-officer should be required to obtain all 
the information possible as to the ports from which vessels are likely to 
arrive, and, aided by the reports obtained from consuls, there is no reason 
why the most exact knowledge should not be had relative to the health of the 
whole yellow-fever zone. 
6. The last and most important objection to be noticed is, that quar- 
antine places unnecessary restrictions on commercial enterprises by in- 
terference with the transit of goods by the detention of ships, by the 
losses of perishable articles, such as fruits, and by the additional ex- 96 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
pense attendant on increased freightage and insurance charges from 
delay. - These charges seem very plausible, and require to be examined 
with some care to expose their fallacy. It is not to be denied that under 
the present unequal system much inconvenience results to those engaged 
in foreign trade; but it is believed that many of the present restric- 
tions can be so modified, by a wise law, as to meet the acceptance even 
of those engaged in the West India traffic. In a subsequent portion 
of this report, occasion will be taken to notice the abuses and defects 
of the present want of system in the southern quarantines, and to sug- 
gest proper remedies ; at present, I desire merely to show that the charge 
above mentioned cannot be fairly sustained as a reason why quaran- 
tines should be abandoned altogether. The mistake in this case grows 
out of the assumption that the only persons whose interests are to 
be considered are those who are, directly or indirectly, engaged in com- 
merce with West Indian or Mexican ports. But this is not a fair view 
of the question. Commerce," remarks the distinguished chairman of 
the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce, " is as much the life of the 
city merchant as of the ship-owner." The only vessels that need be 
subjected to delay at quarantine are those coming from West Indian or 
Mexican ports, and not even all those, but only such as arrive from 
places where yellow fever is actually prevailing. The business done by 
these vessels constitutes but a very small portion of the trade of any of 
the southern towns. Let there be an epidemic in New Orleans, Charles- 
ton, or Galveston, and all their immense traffic with the interior is im- 
mediately cut off or greatly diminished. Country merchants will not 
visit the cities to buy goods during the progress of an epidemic, not only 
on account of the personal danger to themselves, but also because the 
goods they buy may be infected, and thus the disease be introduced into 
the country towns. This actually happened at Washington, Louisiana, 
in 1826, at Opelousas in 1828, and at Galveston in 1858. Moreover, 
New York, and all other places at the North, enforce quarantine against 
the southern sea-ports as soon as yellow fever appears at any of them; 
and thus the presence of the disease in the latter operates as a restric- 
tion on the great trade between the two sections of the country; a mat- 
ter of far greater importance to the South than the temporary inter- 
ruption to her West India commerce, which would be caused by an 
absolute quarantine, conducted on rational principles. Even if such a 
system had the effect of entirely extinguishing the West India commerce, 
it would still be a pecuniary gain to the South in the increased trade 
which would come to her ports from other directions, as a result of the 
feeling of security accruing from the certainty that these places would be 
kept healthy. 
Should the restrictions on the commerce with the West Indies by quarantine 
amount to a suspension of the whole trade, for six months each year, the evils to the 
city will be less than it now suffers from the annual apprehension of the fever, and the 
pecuniary loss of a hundred years by the quarantine establishment cannot equal the 
ruin and desolation of a single season of the pestilence. * * * Js the health of the 
city to be placed in competition with a few cargoes of sugar and molasses, introduced 
without care or caution, so as to afford a luxury to our people at the least possible ex- 
pense of money and at the greatest cost of human life ? (Hume, Report to City Coun- 
cil of Charleston, Charleston Medical Journal, vol. 9, pp. 150-151.) 
The editor of this journal further remarks: 
We would recommend a more stringent quarantine system, which would exclude all 
vessels from infected ports from our harbor. The petty traffic, during the summer, 
with the tropical ports usually infected with yellow fever, should not be allowed to 
continue, as millions of dollars are lost to the city when fever is introduced, and hun- 
dreds of lives are wantonly sacrificed. We trust that in future the city authorities QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
97 
will look to the interest of the many, and enforce the quarantine law now in existence, 
or enact others which may prove efficient. (Ibid., vol. 11. p. 850.) 
It is admitted that much inconvenience would result to the mercantile community 
from the strict enforcement of the aforesaid measures, (of quarantine,) but it is believed 
that the loss of property in the aggregate would be much greater if our citizens shall 
be compelled annually to flee from the pestilence than would result from a system of 
strict quarantine, duly observed and rigidly enforced. (Dr. A. F. Vache, Letter to 
Committee of House of Assembly of New York, November 5, 1845.) 
Vexatious and inconvenient as quarantines may be, yet even under 
the worst circumstances, their restraints fall upon a very small por- 
tion of any community, and those the ones best able to bear them. An 
epidemic of yellow fever affects all classes and conditions. It brings 
desolation into every household, paralyzes trade, stops immigration, and 
causes an enormous waste of money and the material resources which 
go to make up the prosperity of any city. Especially in its present con- 
dition the South needs men, yet those who would add to its material 
prosperity will not go where they cannot have a permanent residence 
for themselves and their families, but are obliged to leave every summer 
to escape the pestilence. It may safely be asserted that the southern 
cities would soon double their population were it not for the dread which 
universally exists of these epidemics of yellow fever. Replace this feel- 
ing by one of security, such as will be given by a well-regulated quar- 
antine, and the unequaled advantages which the southern sea-port 
towns offer for commercial enterprises of every kind will attract the 
capital and labor which more than anything else they require. The 
public mind is not disposed to theorize on such questions. " It demands 
protection against the importation of infectious disease, and will not 
sanction the abolition of quarantine inspections." The moral effect of 
an efficient quarantine on the community at large outweighs in its im- 
portance all the inconveniences resulting from the restrictions placed on 
a portion of the southern trade; and when to this is added, as it justly 
may be, its absolute protective influence, the objections made to its con- 
tinuance will not for a moment stand the ordeal of investigation. The 
whole argument may be summed up in the following words of wisdom 
from the pen of Professor John T. Metcalfe: z 
To abandon quarantine is to put a price on human life and barter it for trade. (Es- 
says of the United States Sanitary Commission, p. 272.) 
It being then conceded that if the Southern and Gulf ports are to be 
protected from periodical visits of yellow fever, an effective quarantine 
must be maintained, the question next arises whether those now in 
operation at the South are sufficient to accomplish the desired end. To 
this there can, unfortunately, be but one answer. They neither com- 
mend themselves to the medical profession nor to the community at 
large. While agreeing in their main features, they lack that uniformity 
which is especially desirable to secure efficiency. A brief abstract of 
the laws now in operation in the various States will present their defi- 
ciency in this regard more forcibly than any description. 
In Virginia it is left entirely optional with the authorities of any town 
whether they will establish a quarantine or not, but even if they decide 
to do so, the consent of the county court must first be obtained before 
they can use any land without the limits of their town. They (the town- 
council) are authorized to prescribe all rules and regulations for the 
management of such quarantine. The health-officer is appointed by 
the town-council, and has authority to direct what vessels are to be 
quarantined, and may cause all persons arriving in such vessels, or 
handling cargoes, to be removed to a hospital, at his own discretion. 98 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
All expenses incurred by the quarantine are to be paid by the master 
or owner of the vessel, or by the person on whose behalf such expense is 
incurred. 
Penalties for violations of quarantine range from five to five hundred 
dollars fine, and may be collected before any justice of the peace. Per- 
sons coming into town by land, if infected with dangerous disease, may 
be detained by the health-officer, and restrained from traveling, unless it 
is to return to the State from which he came. Pilots are directed to con- 
duct all vessels to quarantine that they find have infectious disease on 
board, for which they are allowed an extra fee of $7; and if, in conse- 
quence of his having gone on board of a vessel having contagious dis- 
ease among her crew or passengers, any pilot is detained in quarantine, 
he is allowed $3 per day for each day's detention. Both of these extra 
fees are to be paid by the master or owner of the vessel. 
With these exceptions, no provision is made for the collection of fees, 
leaving it to be presumed that the amount of such fees is optional with 
the town-council or the health officer. (Code of Virginia, 1860, pp. 447, 
448, 483.) 
The law of the State of North Carolina provides only for a quaran- 
tine at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. It is presumed if any other 
port in the State desires a quarantine, that the municipal authorities 
will take such action as they see fit. The health-officer (designated in 
the law as "medical quarantine officer") is appointed by the governor, 
and is authorized "to prescribe such regulations as may be necessary 
for the protection of the inhabitants from contagious diseases." lie is 
required to make out a monthly report of all receipts and disbursements, 
and to pay over all moneys received to the treasurer of the State. The * 
State furnishes the boat for the use of the health-officer, and establishes 
the quarantine hospital; but all persons employed at the station are 
designated by the health-officer. Vessels subject to visit and inspec- 
tion are required to pay a fee of $5, and every sick person taken to hos- 
pital S3 a day, the vessel being held responsible for all such expenses. 
The medical officer alone has authority to declare what ports are in- 
fectech 
Pilots are required to bring vessels to the quarantine anchorage, and 
any pilot violating the law forfeits his commission. 
Masters of vessels and other persons refusing to obey the quarantine 
regulations forfeit and pay a fine of $200 for every day they so refuse, 
and all persons violating any regulation prescribed by the health-officer 
forfeit $200 for each offense. All penalties and forfeitures so incurred 
"may be recovered before any jurisdiction having cognizance of the 
sum due, and applied, one-half to the informer, the other half to the pay- 
ment of the expenses of the quarantine establishment." 
The health-officer is authorized to issue his warrant to any sheriff or 
other officer, commanding him to arrest any person violating the quar- 
antine. The compensation of the health-officer is fixed at $600 a year, 
and of the boat's crew at $20 a month. (Laws of North Carolina, 1868, 
pp. 46-48.) 
By the law of the State of Florida the mayor and aidermen of every 
incorporated town in the State, upon or adjacent to any bay, river, or 
harbor, or in the absence of such incorporation, the justices of the peace 
of any justices district, are constituted a board of health, who are 
authorized to take such measures as they may deem necessary for the 
prevention of the spread of contagious diseases, the expenses to be a 
charge on such incorporated town, or, in the absence of any incorpora- 
tion, upon the county, (except as subsequently provided for in the act.) QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
99 
Such board of health is authorized to appoint "port-inspectors," 
whose duty it shall be to board all vessels approaching the port from 
the high seas, and ascertain the condition of health on such vessels, 
and, if they consider them infected, are authorized to order them into 
quarantine. Pilots may be appointed port-inspectors. The board of health 
is required to appoint a port-physician, who may be required to examine 
into the condition of any vessel ordered into quarantine. 
No vessel in quarantine is permitted to approach the port or town 
unless the master thereof has a certificate from such physician to the 
effect that no danger to the public health is likely to occur thereby; and 
if disease break out on any vessel while in port, the board of health is 
authorized to remove her to the quarantine-station. 
The location of the quarantine-station, and all rules and regulations 
for its governance, and the number and character of the employes, are 
fixed by the board of health. Sheriffs and constables are required to 
aid the board in enforcing these rules. 
Violators of the law are liable to a fine not exceeding $300. 
The governor of the State is authorized to issue his proclamation 
declaring what ports or localities are infected. 
Masters, pursers, and owners of ships refusing to obey the orders of 
a port-physician or port inspector may be fined not to exceed $1,000, or 
imprisoned until such fine and the costs be paid; and any vessel may 
be attached or may be sold for satisfaction of such fine and costs. 
The mayor and aidermen of the town prescribe the compensation of 
the port-physician and port-inspector; the former is paid out of the 
treasury of the town, and the latter by the master or owner of the ship 
' placed in quarantine. There is no section fixing the amount of the fees 
to be collected. Unless the vessel has contagious disease on board, 
quarantine is limited to twenty days. Whenever practicable, the duties 
of port-physician and port-inspector shall be performed by one person. 
(Laws of Florida, 1869, pp. 15, 23, 26.) 
The law of the State of South Carolina is based upon that of New 
York, and is very complete in its details. It provides a quarantine for 
the ports of Charleston, Georgetown, and Hilton Head. 
The health-officers of each of these ports are appointed by the gov- 
ernor, and hold office for two years, unless sooner removed. The one 
at Charleston receives a salary of $1,500 per annum, and those at the 
other places $1,200, payable quarterly out of the treasury of the State. 
In addition, each health-officer is entitled to $15 per month for boat- 
hire and incidental expenses. The law piescribes what vessels shall be 
quarantined, as follows: 
1. All vessels coming from infected ports, or having any case of con- 
tagious or pestilential disease on board during the voyage and arriving 
between May 1 and November 1, are quarantined for at least thirty 
days after arrival and twenty days after their cargo has been discharged, 
and undergo such further detention as may be considered necessary by 
the health-officer. 
2. All vessels from any place in Asia, Africa, or the Mediterranean, 
or from the West Indies, Bermuda, or Western Islands, or from any 
place in America, in the ordinary passage from which they pass south 
of Hilton Head, and all vessels having had any sickness on board dur- 
ing their voyage arriving between the same dates, shall be subject to 
visitation by the health-officer, but shall not be detained unless they 
have had contagious or infectious disease on board during the passage, 
in which case they shall undergo such quarantine as the health-officer 
may prescribe. Vessels navigated by steam are not to be detained 100 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
longer than may be considered necessary by the health-officer. The 
health-officers and city officials have power to remove any vessels from 
the wharves to the q.uarantine-grounds, and may send thither all goods, 
stores, or persons arriving by 'such vessels, and such vessels or persons 
are not permitted to return to port without the written permission of 
the health-officer of said port. Vessels arriving at quarantine may put 
to sea again, provided they do so before breaking bulk. The duties of 
pilots, in connection with the arrival of vessels, are carefully defined. 
They are to inform themselves of the probable condition of the vessels 
they hail, and whether they are subject to quarantine or examination 
by the health-officer; and if they find that they are so, they are to bring 
such vessels to anchor within the buoys marking the quarantine anchor- 
age, and to be careful to see that no violations of the quarantine act are 
committed while the vessel or vessels are under their charge. They are 
further required to subject themselves to such detention for fumigation 
and purification as may be considered necessary by the health-officer. 
Health-officers are required to reside at or near the quarantine-ground, 
and must visit every vessel subject to examination immediately on ar- 
rival, between sunrise and sunset; to inquire into the health of all per- 
sons on board, and the condition of the cargo; inspect the bill of health, 
manifest, and log-book; examine on oath any or all .persons on board, 
so as to enable them to judge as to the disposition to be made of the 
vessel. Whenever any vessel is placed in quarantine, the health-officer 
is required to report all the facts to the mayor. Health-officers have 
entire control over affairs at their stations, and may cause vessels to be 
anchored at such places as they may think the safest for the public 
health; may cause persons or cargo to be removed from any vessel, 
and said vessel to be disinfected or purified in such manner as he 
shall direct; and may destroy any bedding, clothing, or cargo as 
they may judge necessary to be so destroyed to prevent infection, pro- 
vided that in. the case of the destruction of cargo, the concurrence of 
the mayor of the city shall first be had. They are also authorized to 
administer oaths and take affidavits in all examinations prescribed by 
law. Boats are forbidden to pass through the range of vessels lying at 
quarantine, and lighters forbidden to unload such vessels without per- 
mission of the health-officer. All expenses incurred at the quarantine- 
stations shall be paid by the master, owner, or consignee of .such vessel, 
and all such expenses shall be a lien on the vessel, and the health-officer 
may detain such vessel at the quarantine-station until such expenses 
are paid. To oppose or obstruct the health-officer in the performance 
of his duties is a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not less than 
$100 nor more than $500, or by imprisonment in the penitentiary from 
three to six months. Masters of vessels who refuse or neglect to obey 
the provisions of the quarantine law or give false information relative 
to their vessel, or the health of the places from which they departed, or 
any other person violating any of the provisions of the act, are guilty 
of a misdemeanor, and may be punished by a fine not exceeding $2,000, 
or by imprisonment not exceeding twelve months, or both. Persons 
who are aggrieved by any decision or order of the health-officer may 
appeal to a board composed of the governor, attorney-general, and 
comptroller-general, who shall have power to reverse or modify such 
order or decision of the health-officer. The governor may, from time to 
time, declare by proclamation what ports are to be considered infected 
within the meaning of the act. There is no provision made by this law 
for the collection of fees for visiting vessels or fixing the amount of such 
fees. (Act approved September 26, 1868.) QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
101 
The quarantine law of Georgia provides that the corporate authori- 
ties of any town may prescribe all rules and regulations for the preserva- 
tion of the public health. In the establishment of quarantine grounds 
the jurisdiction of the corporation of Savannah shall be held to extend 
to all vessels entering at any port or inlet from Ossabaw Sound to Ty- 
bee. All persons coming into the State from an infected port, or other- 
wise violating the quarantine regulations, .may be indicted in any county 
when found, and, on conviction, may be fined not exceeding $500, or 
imprisoned at the discretion of the court. Any justice may issue his 
warrant to any sheriff or constable, commanding him to arrest persons 
guilty of a violation of the law. Health-officers are appointed by the 
corporate authorities of the town, and have power to remove any vessel 
to quarantine, or detain them there as long as they may deem necessary. 
He is authorized to examine all persons on board, under oath, and any 
person refusing to answer may be fined $100. Persons coming into any 
town by land from an infected place, or suffering from any infectious 
disease, may be compelled to perform such quarantine as the health- 
officer may consider necessary. Pilots are required to make themselves 
acquainted with the condition of vessels they board, and of the ports 
from which such vessels came ; and, when subject to quarantine inspection, 
to conduct them to the proper anchorage. When a vessel is detained in 
quarantine no person is permitted to land therefrom, under a penalty of fine 
and imprisonment. When any vessel is admitted to pratique, the health- 
officer must give the master thereof a certificate, stating that the vessel has 
performed quarantine. 
The governor of the state may, at his discretion, issue his proclama- 
tion, declaring what ports are infected. All fines collected under the 
provisions of the law are to be paid into the county treasury, and to be ex- 
pended in carrying out quarantine and sanitary regulations. The health-offi- 
cer is authorized to collect a fee of $2 for inspecting each vessel. (Revised 
Code of Georgia, pp. 254-258.) 
In Alabama, any town may establish a quarantine, but if located 
without the limits of said town, the consent of the county commission- 
ers must first be obtained. All needful regulations for its management 
are prescribed by the corporate authorities of the town, and persons 
violating such regulations, after five days' public notice shall have been 
given of their establishment, shah be fined not less than $50. Health- 
officers are appointed by the authorities of the town, and have power 
to remove all infected or foul vessels to the quarantine anchorage, 
there to undergo such detention as may be considered necessary for the 
public health. Any master, seaman, or passenger on board such ves- 
sel refusing to answer all questions put to him under oath, relative to 
the condition or health of the ship or port from which she came, may 
be fined not less than a $100. Masters of vessels refusing to deliver 
their log-books, manifests or bills of health to the health-officer for his 
information, or to repair with their vessels to the designated anchorage, 
must be fined not less than $200. Any justice may, on complaint of a 
health-officer, issue his warrant to any sheriff, constable, or marshal 
commanding the arrest of any person charged with violation of the law. 
Persons coming into town by land from an infected place, may be de- 
tained in quarantine, and, on escape therefrom, are subject to a fine of 
$100. All expenses are to be paid by the vessel or person in whose 
behalf such expenses were incurred ; and all fines are to be paid into the 
treasury of the town where the quarantine is established. (Revised Code of 
Alabama, pp. 230-232.) 
t The legislature of Mississippi has passed no general quarantine law, but 102 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
has simply enacted that the board of police of any town, or the municipal au- 
thorities, shall have power to pass such ordinances as they may see fit, to pre- 
vent the introduction of infectious or contagious diseases. 
The State of Louisiana directs that a quarantine be established on the 
Mississippi River, not less than seventy miles below the city of New 
Orleans, and subordinate stations at the Rigolets (entrance to Lake 
Pontchartrain), and on the Atchafalaya River. These stations are to be 
under the control of a board of health, to be composed of nine competent 
citizens of the State, three of whom are to be selected by the city council 
of New Orleans and six to be appointed by the governor of the State, and 
all to be selected with reference to their known zea] in favor of a quaran- 
tine system, and to hold office for one year. This board is to meet once a 
month, from November till June, and once a week, between June and 
November. This board appoints the resident physicians at the Rigolets 
and on the Atchafalaya, and all nurses, boatmen, and other employes at 
every station. They have the power to fix the number of days' quaran- 
tine for vessels provided it be not less than ten; to determine how such 
quarantine shall be performed; to make all legal arrangements necessary to 
carry out a proper system; and to issue warrants to any constable, sheriff, or 
marshal, commanding him to airest any person charged with violation of the 
quarantine law. 
The resident physician at the station on the Mississippi River is ap- 
pointed by the governor of the State, and receives a salary of* $5,000 a 
year, and is entitled to one assistant at a salary of $2,000 a year. He 
is required to visit every vessel approaching New Orleans by way of the 
Mississippi River, and is entitled to charge fees as follows: On vessels 
of one thousand tons burden, $30; ships less than one thousand tons 
burden, $20; barks, $15; brigs, $10; schooners, $7.50; steamboats, 
$5 ; provided that the fee for steamships coming from any port in 
Alabama, Florida, or Texas, shall be $10; and for all other steamships, 
$20. The health-officer has power to detain vessels, with their crews, 
passengers, and cargoes, whenever they come from an infected port, or 
where such vessels have any case of contagious disease on board; and 
may keep them at quarantine for such time as he may consider necessary, 
provided it be not less than ten days. He can compel the captain of any 
vessel so detained to land the sick at the quarantine ground, and may 
cause such vessels to be cleansed and fumigated. All expenses, including 
$5 for every person so landed, shall be borne by the master, owner, or con- 
signee of the vessel. The board of health may, from time to time, delegate 
such other powers to the resident physician as may be necessary for the per- 
formance of his duties. 
The governor is required to issue his proclamation on the advice of 
the board of health, declaring what ports are to be considered as in- 
fected, after which all vessels arriving at any of the quarantine sta- 
tions from such ports are to be subject to all regulations prescribed by 
the board of health. Masters of vessels refusing to obey any of the 
quarantine regulations may be fined not exceeding $2,000, or be im- 
prisoned for twelve months, or both. All persons who neglect or refuse 
to obey the orders of the board of health may be punished by fine and 
imprisonment, at the discretion of the court. Resident physicians must 
report to the attorney-general all violations of the statute, and it shall 
be the duty of this official to prosecute the offenders. During the sum- 
mer tow-boats are to be subject to the same inspections as vessels com- 
ing from sea. Any person going on board a vessel detained at quaran- 
tine, without permission from the health-officer is subject to a fine of 
$50. When a vessel is admitted to pratique, the health-officer must QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
103 
give the master of such vessel a certificate, which, shall be delivered to 
the harbor-master at New Orleans on her arrival. 
Vessels out ten days from infected ports having clean bills of health, 
and having had no sickness on board during the voyage, will only be 
detained at the quarantine-station long enough to undergo fumigation. 
The health-officer shall also have power to grant permits to accli- 
mated persons to proceed to the city without detention. 
In cases of emergency the board of health shall have power to issue 
a proclamation of quarantine, and to enforce the same, without reference 
to the governor of the State. (Acts approved March 15, 1855, and 
March 18, 1858.) 
In Texas the governor is authorized to issue his proclamation de- 
claring quarantine, whenever in his judgment it shall be necessary; and 
for such length of time as he may deem essential to prevent the intro- 
duction of any infectious or contagious disease. As soon as practicable 
after such proclamation is issued the corporate authorities of every 
town and city on the coast shall establish a quarantine-station, and 
appoint a competent physician as health-officer, and furnish him with 
everything necessary for the proper discharge of his duties. 
Health-officers are required to make a rigid examination of every 
vessel coming from an infected port, whether she has a clean bill of 
health or not. They are authorized to take the affidavits of the master 
as to the health of himself and crew; may detain the vessel at quaran- 
tine for the length of time designated in the proclamation of the gover- 
nor, and may use force when required in order to discharge their duties. 
When there are no town or city authorities, the governor shall appoint 
the health-officer and prescrible regulations for quarantine. 
Any vessel arriving at a quarantine-station without a clean bill of 
health shall be taken possession of by the health-officer, and the master 
thereof shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction 
thereof shall be fined, not less than $500 nor more than $5,000 ; 
and said vessel shall be held by the health-officer until such fine and 
costs are paid or such vessel replevied ; provided that the payment of 
the fine and . corfts shall not operate as a release of the vessel from 
undergoing the usual detention at quarantine. Every master of a 
vessel that passes, or attempts to pass, the quarantine-station without 
permission from the health-officer is deemed guilty of a felony, and, on 
conviction thereof, may be imprisoned in the penitentiary not less than 
one year nor more than five years, or fined not less than $500 nor 
more than $10,000. Persons belonging to a vessel, when placed in 
quarantine, who shall go ashore without permission of the health-officer 
shall be fined not less than $50 nor more than $500. 
Any person who lands, or permits to be landed, any goods, wares, or 
merchandise, from such vessel, without the written permission of the 
health-officer, shall be fined not less than $50 nor more than $1,000 for 
each article of merchandise so landed. The health-officer shall collect 
fees as follows: for each vessel of one hundred tons or under, $5 ; for 
every vessel of over one hundred tons, $5 ; and also a further fee of 
cents for each ton. These fees are to be reported to the corporate 
authorities of the town where quarantine is established, and all fees 
and fines collected shall be used to defray the expenses of quarantine. 
On the cessation of the quarantine in each year the town or city author- 
ities shall make a statement of receipts and expenditures to the comp- 
troller of the State, and, should the expenditures amount to a greater 
sum than the receipts, they shall draw from the treasury of the State, 
upon an order from the comptroller, a sum sufficient to meet the deli- 104 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
ciency; and should the receipts exceed the expenditures, the excess shall 
be appropriated to the maintenance of marine hospitals in their respect- 
ive towns or cities. Any town or city may establish such additional 
regulations for quarantine as' the authorities thereof may judge advis- 
able. (General Laws of Texas, 1870, pp. 3, 5, 75-77.) 
Besides these general laws, the municipal authorities of most of the 
southern cities and towns have passed ordinances defining rules and 
regulations for the management of their respective quarantines, and 
these differ from each other to the same extent that the general laws do. 
It needs but a glance at the foregoing abstracts to be convinced how 
impossible it is to maintain an effective system of quarantine based on 
such heterogeneous enactments. In some cases the health-officer is ap- 
pointed by the governor, in others by the municipal authorities; in 
some, the administration of sanitary measures is confided to a board of 
health, in others to the municipal councils, and in others to the health- 
officer alone. Sometimes the fees collected are to be paid into the 
State treasury, at others into the city; and sometimes no provision at 
at all is made for their imposition. The amount of fees and penalties im- 
posed for violation of law differs in every State to such an extent as to 
produce confusion. The authority of the health-officer in some cases 
is almost absolute, in others he is nearly powerless. In no case is pro- 
per provision made for the disinfection and fumigation of vessels and 
cargoes; the mode of doing so being left entirely to the discretion of the 
health-officer. In more than one instance the duty of inspecting vessels 
is confided to pilots, a class of men whose education does not permit 
them to be competent judges of the nature of sickness on a ship or of 
her sanitary condition. Unquestionably, the best of all these laws is that 
of South Carolina ; yet this is defective in many particulars, as, for in- 
stance, in not defining and classifying cargoes so as to declare which may 
be fomites for the transmission of the disease and which are harmless. 
Beyond one or two vague expressions relative to " competency," there 
does not seem in any of these laws any requirements insisted on defin- 
ing the qualifications required in the health-officer ; and with the excep- 
tion of New Orleans, the salaries paid are such as to render it impossible 
that physicians of experience in hygienic laws can be obtained, unless 
they are permitted to devote a portion of their time to other pursuits, 
which in itself would be a fatal bar to their efficiency. 
The want of uniformity in regard to the duration of the quarantine 
will also be noticed. In some cases it is dependent on the proclamation of 
the governor, at others on the will of the board of health or the visiting 
physician. Unless issued after the receipt of accurate information as 
to the condition of all the West Indian and Mexican ports, which is not 
the case, the proclamation of the governor is an absurdity. For instance, 
the governor of Louisiana issues his proclamation, specifying certain 
ports which he declares infected, on and after the first of July, utterly 
irrespective of what their actual condition of health may be; and all 
vessels arriving from any of those ports are obliged to undergo a cer- 
tain number of days' detention, without regard to their condition or the 
health of their crews and passengers. If a ship should have left Ha- 
vana on the 30th of June, she comes from a healthy port and is not quar- 
antined ; but if her departure takes place the next day, she is detained 
for ten days. 
A second objection to the present system of quarantine at the South 
is in its administration. Defects and abuses exist fatal to efficiency, 
which can only be removed by the adoption of an entirely different or- 
ganization. QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
105 
The first relates to the character of the health-officers. While some 
of these, notably at the larger ports, are men of character and experi- 
ence, most owe their appointments to political influence, personal popu- 
larity, or, especially unimportant places, to the fact that, owing to the 
paucity or salary, no one else could be found to accept the place. I 
could not learn that provision is ever* made for the examination of 
health-officers as to their qualification for such an important trust; nor 
are inspections ever made of their stations, except perhaps at the im- 
portant commercial centers. 
A second defect grows out of the neglect of the authorities to provide 
suitable quarantine accommodations. The station «on the Mississippi 
River, below New Orleans, is an exception, but it is the only one with 
which I am acquainted. A complete quarantine-station should consist of 
a hospital for the sick, a commodious house for the temporary deten- 
tion of the well, a residence for the health-officer, and storehouses for 
the care, fumigation, and disinfection of cargoes. 
Some stations, as at Galveston, have none of these; others have a 
building which may be used for a hospital; but generally there is no 
provision made for the storage of cargoes or the residence of the health- 
officer. In consequence of this last omission this official 'resides in the 
town for which the quarantine is established, and only visits his sta- 
tion when called on to inspect a vessel. Apart from the constant com- 
munication thus kept up between the station and the town, which may 
in itself be the means of introducing disease, it is manifest that effi- 
ciency must be sacrificed when the health-officer resides miles away 
from the scene of his duties, and must consequently intrust a large 
share of his responsibility to subordinates. , 
A third defect is found in the manner in which the health-officer per- 
forms the duties. There is a great deal in the various laws about in- 
spection of log-books, manifests, and bills of health; mustering of 
passengers and crew; examinations of masters and others under oath; 
but practically all these requirements are seldom enforced. What 
actually takes place is for the health-officer to come on board as soon as 
the vessel heaves to off the quarantine-ground, hurry to the captain or 
purser's office, and, if she come from a non-infected port,, simply inquire 
if all are well on board, receive his fee, and depart as soon as possible. 
If from an infected port, he directs the master to .bring his ship to an- 
chor, and does not concern himself further about her unless she have 
sickness on board. During his brief stay on board, the steward of the 
ship is generally engaged in loading the health-officer's boat with fruit, 
ice, or other delicacies, which are received as a matter of course, and, 
indeed, any omission in this particular has been known to subject cer- 
tain lines to great inconveniences. Lest this mav be thought an exag- 
geration, I may mention that the health-officer of one of the southern 
ports told me some years ago that he saved all his salary, as he was 
entirely supported by the great variety of articles he received in this 
way. As at present administered, the visits of inspection are simply a 
farce, the only object being to collect the fee and receive the douceurs, 
which are perquisites of the health-officer. 
The present system of collecting fees is a serious abuse, which goes 
a great way to dissatisfy the mercantile interests with quarantine. 
At some of the southern ports, especially those on the coast of Texas, 
the fees are placed so high as to yield a considerable revenue, and a 
large portion of them is collected from vessels in the coastwise trade, 
that should not justly be brought within the jurisdiction of the quaran- 
tine law at all. Thus, at Galveston, Texas, there is a large trade in 106 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
lumber from Sabine and Calcasieu, which is carried on with small schoon- 
ers, ranging from twelve to forty-five tons burden. Each of these little 
vessels, coming from ports less than a hundred miles distant, is required 
to pay $5 quarantine tax on her arrival at Galveston. She unloads, and 
taking in a cargo of groceries or " store goods," or, quite as often, only 
in ballast, returns to Sabine, where she is again mulcted of $5. Many 
of these vessels make one or two trips a week, and, their average net 
profit not exceeding $40 per round trip, they are thus required to pay 
about one-fourth of this amount as a tax to the State. Further, I was 
informed by an intelligent citizen of Sabine that these boats are hardly 
ever inspected by the health-officer. His boat is sent out, with the 
" permission to pass " duly made out and signed, and, coming alongside 
the inward-bound craft, the boatman passes up the certificate, the money 
is handed over, and not a question asked. 
The steamers of the Morgan line run from New Orleans to Galveston, 
thence to Indianola, then return to Galveston, and thence back to their 
.port of departure. Other steamers of the same line run to Brazos 
Santiago, via' Rockport or Aransas Pass. At each of the Texas ports 
they have been required to pay" fees, amounting to $20 for each vessel, 
and, on returning to New Orleans or Berwick's Bay, $10 more. I was 
informed by Mr. A. C. Hutchinson, agent for the line in New Orleans, 
that it paid over $9,000 quarantine fees in 1871. No examination of the 
ship or muster of the crew is ever made. This one line has, as is well 
known, paid fees more than sufficient to support the quarantine along 
the whole Texas coast. Early this year the agents of this line sued the 
health-officer at Galveston for the recovery of this tax, and, pending a 
decision, applied to Justice Joseph P. Bradley, of the United States 
Supreme Court, for an injunction restraining the health-officer from col- 
lecting any more fees. Justice Bradley, in granting the injunction, 
remarks: 
In this case we think that the charge which by act of the legislature is author- 
ized to be exacted from all vessels coming to the quarantine-ground, namely, $5 
for the first one hundred tons, and 14 cents for each additional ton, is a " duty of 
tonnage " within the meaning of the Constitution ; and that it is also an unconstitu- 
tional tax upon the commerce of the port. The States have a right to establish quaran- 
tine regulations for the preservation of the public health; but they have no right to 
place toll-gatherers at the gateways of commerce, and lay indiscriminate exactions 
upon all vessels that enter thereby. 
We think, therefore, that the tax-duty or fee which is complained of is unauthorized 
and void, and while the complainant might, by successive actions at law, recover the 
amount exacted, this court, as a court of equity, in order to prevent a multiplicity of 
suits, has a right to entertain a bill for an injunction. We therefore grant the injunc- 
tion as prayed, with liberty to the complainant to enter a final decree for a perpetual 
injunction, if he elects to accept the answer without replying thereto, unless the de- 
fendant desires the usual time for final hearing. 
Since the rendering of the above decision no fees have been collected 
at any of the Texas ports. While on this subject, it may be remarked 
that it is very questionable whether the present system of supporting 
quarantines by fees collected from vessels is not altogether unadvisable. 
•At most ports the whole expense of maintaining a quarantine is paid by 
a few ship-owners, who derive no benefit therefrom, but are rather em- 
barrassed by an inquisition which is solely for the protection of the com- 
munity at large. Where a vessel at quarantine requires fumigation and 
cleaning, or where hospital accommodation has to be provided for the 
sick, it is but proper that the extra expense attendant on such measures 
should be borne by the owners of the infected ships, who would thus be 
rendered directly responsible that their vessels were not the agents for 
the introduction of disease. With this exception, a direct tax on the QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
107 
community at large that reap the benefit of immunity from pestilence would 
seem more just. Not only the unacclimated but every class benefits by 
freedom from epidemics, and there is no reason why all should not bear a 
share of the expense of the maintenance. 
Still another defect in the present administration is found in the man- 
ner in which vessels are compelled to undergo quarantine. The custom 
at most of all the stations is to detain vessels coming from an infected 
port for a certain number of days (usually ten) from the date of their 
departure from such port, or (if she should have had any sickness on 
board during the passage or on arrival) for ten days from the disap- 
pearance of the last case. Now, the period of incubation of yellow fever 
being variously stated from two to forty-three days, (Gazette Medicale 
de Paris, September 28, 1872, p. 477,) it is manifest that either this period 
must be too long or too short, and that any detention founded on what 
is yet a matter of mere speculation must be empirical. It is, moreover, 
objectionable as leading to unnecessary restrictions on commerce by 
delaying the days of sailing of regular lines, and by subjecting merchants 
and shippers to vexatious expense, exciting a strong prejudice against 
quarantine. Further than this, it is of not the slightest use to detain a 
vessel at a quarantine station, even for six months, if her cargo be not 
broken out. It is in the hold of the ship that the morbid poison is car- 
ried, and the air at the bottom of the hold is certain to be most impreg- 
nated with it. It is impossible to disinfect this cavity by merely raising 
the hatches and making fumigations without the removal of the cargo, 
and yet if disinfection is practiced at all (which is very seldom) this is 
the mode adopted. Secondly, no discrimination is made between dif- 
ferent kinds of cargo. All hygienists know that some articles are more 
apt to retain the infection of a contagious disease than others: these are 
cotton and woolen goods, hides, rags, coal, ifcc. Others may become 
dangerous by undergoing putrefactive decomposition after shipment, as 
sugar, coffee, and fruits; while many others are under all circumstances 
harmless. No distinction is made at the majority of stations between 
these cargoes; they are alike detained, and, for want of proper accom- 
modation on shore, are kept in the hold of the vessel-an entirely useless 
procedure. 
Thirdly, the manner in which passengers are treated is not in ac- 
cordance with the most enlightened views on the subject of the origin 
of epidemic diseases. Sick and healthy persons are detained together on 
ship-board, or at the station on shore, if there be any building for the 
purpose-a course which is extremely likely to increase the amount of 
sickness, and thus develop new germs for the propagation of the disease ; 
so that the quarantine-station soon becomes a " pest embankment," which 
may infect other vessels passing it or temporarily detained in the vi- 
cinity. 
The rational management of a vessel required to undergo quarantine 
should be as follows: 
First, her passengers and crew should be removed from on board, the 
sick to an hospital for treatment, and the healthy to a separate building. 
The latter should be required to change their clothes, and to submit to 
such cleansing of their persons and other disinfection as the health- 
officer may judge advisable; their clothing and personal baggage should 
be thoroughly disinfected by means of the most approved modern ap- 
pliances, and then those who are acclimated should be permitted to 
pass the quarantine, while others may be detained in a quarantine of 
observation; no longer, however, than is necessary to prove that they 
are free from the' morbific elements of the fever. Secondly, the cargo 108 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
should be broken out and assorted, and, if of a character to transport 
infection, should be placed in warehouses in the vicinity of the quar- 
antine grounds, whence it should not be removed until the occurrence 
of frost, while, if harmless, after due fumigation, it might be transported 
direct to its destination. Cargoes of fruit, sugar, coffee, canned articles, 
provisions, &c., should be thoroughly inspected, and whatever portion 
found to be tainted or spoiled immediately destroyed; but there should 
be no detention of articles of a perishable nature beyond the period 
necessary for such inspection. Dr. Elisha Harris, of New York, sug- 
gests that samples of cargoes might be specially disinfected by arti- 
ficial cold, and then safely offered for sale. Probably the use of super- 
heated steam or of Wells's apparatus for the use of steam and carbolic 
acid spray could also be made serviceable with all cargoes that are not 
of a character to be injured thereby. Thirdly, the cargo being removed, 
the vessel should be properly ventilated, fumigated, and disinfected; 
not in the hasty and imperfect manner usually adopted, but so com- 
pletely as to render it impossible that any part of her hold, forecastle, 
steerage, or cabin shall remain in a foul condition. The baggage, cloth- 
ing, and bedding of any person who has died on board should be de- 
stroyed by fire; the ship constantly ventilated by means of wind-sails; 
the bilge-water pumped out two or three times a day, and water from 
outside pumped in, and every portion of her cavities subjected to disin- 
fection and fumigation. This need not take more than . two or three 
days, after which it is useless to detain the vessel, and she should be 
permitted to proceed to her destination. It is true that cases have been 
known where the fever has broken out on ships, after the most complete 
disinfection, (notably on the United States frigate Susquehanna some 
years ago,) and it is not claimed that this course will procure absolute 
security, but that it wilt be all that is necessary in the majority of 
instances, and that no length of detention, after proper breaking out and 
disinfection, adds anything to the security. On the subject under discussion, 
Harris remarks: 
The accumulation of a large amount of infected materials without complete venti- 
lation, or the close aggregation of a large number of infected vessels with their cargoes 
in the absence of other ventilation than that attainable by the usual means on ship- 
board, would, during any of the summer months, constitute a pest embankment, danger- 
ous to all persons and vessels coming in near proximity thereto. Therefore, we must con- 
clude that a safe anchorage, completely removed from the track of other vessels and the 
ordinary paths of commercial intercourse, with ample provisions and appliances for 
securing the storage and complete ventilation of cargoes, &c., constitute most essential 
requisites for a quarantine establishment. 
The lighterage of cargoes directly from infected vessels to the city or elsewhere should 
be prohibited, and in its stead a commodious warehouse system should be provided 
near the anchorage on the most isolated portion of the quarantine grounds. To those 
warehouses all cargoes should be transferred from infected vessels immediately after 
arriving. (Reply to Quarantine Commissioners of New York, January 28, 1858, Assem- 
bly Document No. 69 of 1858, p. 27.) 
The last inquiry made by the joint resolution is, "What, system will 
least interfere with the interests of commerce of said ports ?" Having 
already given my opinion that quarantine can be made an effective pro- 
tection against the invasions of yellow fever, and that under a wise 
administration of its provision it need not interfere to any great extent 
with the commercial prosperity of the southern ports, and having shown in 
the preceding pages that the quarantines under the present State and 
municipal regulations are not to be depended upon to accomplish the de- 
sired end, it follows that some other system must be looked to to secure 
immunity from epidemics. On this point the opinions of those with 
whom I had an opportunity of conversing was nearly unanimous that QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
109 
only under the direction and control of the General Government can 
any reasonable degree of protection be afforded, conjoined with such 
competency of administration as will afford the largest liberty to the 
interests of trade, consistent with public safety. 
The board of health of the city of Pensacola state that:- 
This board does earnestly solicit that Congress may take such further action upon 
the subject as shall place the whole matter of quarantine under the exclusive jurisdic- 
tion and control of the authorities of the United States. 
Dr. Jerome Cochran, health-officer of the city of Mobile, writes 
I am thoroughly satisfied that a quarantine under the control of the General Gov- 
ernment would be far more efficient than any other plan that can be adopted. We need 
a complete sanitary cordon all along the Atlantic coast, and especially all along the 
coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and this will be very difficult under the action of the 
various State and municipal governments. The fever-poison follows the lines of com- 
mercial intercourse, and the power which regulates commerce should be extended also 
to the regulation of quarantine. (Letter, September 28, 1872.) 
Professor J. T. Gilmore, of Mobile, writes :- 
Believing that the yellow fever can be imported, I, of course, am an advocate of 
efficient quarantine, and I am satisfied that this cannot be done except by the Federal 
Government. Local and private interests always so vitiate the efficiency of a local 
quarantine that it is rendered useless. (Letter, September 10, 1872.) 
Mr. J. H. Oglesby, president of the New Orleans Chamber of Com- 
merce, is of opinion that: 
The laws imposing quarantine from foreign infected ports ought to be uniform 
throughout the United States. In giving expression to this opinion it is not necessary 
to discuss the extent of power legally to be exercised by the Federal Government. It 
is sufficient to know that the power to regulate commerce enables Congress to impose 
a uniform tax on all commodities imported, and so prevent one city from intercepting 
the commerce of another by an offer of more favorable duties on such imports. The 
effects of the quarantine system, as adopted by the several States, enables one city to 
cut off all communication with another, except under certain conditions fatal to the 
trade. Congress should, therefore, organize an appropriate bureau of public health. 
With the chief of this department should be reposed the power to make, at his discre- 
tion, proclamation of the existence of infectious or epidemic diseases at any foreign 
port, and thereupon to declare such foreign port interdicted (except on conditions de- 
fined by law) with all ports within the jurisdiction of the United States, and to make 
such interdiction at his discretion. The health authorities at all such American ports 
should be appointed or approved by the bureau of public health. The salaries of all 
such officers and employes so appointed, with all other expenses properly attending 
the enforcement of the law, should be paid out of the Federal Treasury, and in no other 
manner. * * * The Federal Government can better preserve the general health 
and protect the general commerce than can be done by the competitions or even combina- 
tions of rival cities. (Letter, July 20, 1872.) 
Many assurances of a similar character were given to me in conver- 
sation with persons, both professional and otherwise, in every city visited. 
It is true that some made the objection that it would be adding to a 
supposed tendency to centralization on the part of the General Govern- 
ment ; but even these acknowledged that, apart from this political con- 
sideration, the quarantine would be more efficiently and, at the same 
time, leniently conducted under national auspices than at present. 
There is much truth in the remark of Mr. Oglesby, just quoted, that 
only by the General Government can those defects in administration be 
obviated which grow out of the commercial rivalry of different cities, 
which has often been a serious obstacle in the way of united effort to 
prevent the introduction of disease. Only under a common authority 
can a uniform code of regulations be established, which, as already 
shown, lies at the foundation of all efficiency. 
A uniform system of quarantine, operating alike in all our sea-ports, we are persuaded 
is not only desirable, but is highly essential if we would remove many of the existing 110 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COAST'. 
embarrassments to commerce. This prevailing and abused inequality in the laws of 
quarantine to which our commerce is made subservient operates both oppressively and 
unjustly; for while those of some States are unnecessarily rigid when enacted, others 
again are so deficient in wise and prpper regulations, or so defective in their enforce- 
ment, as to be rendered almost a nullity. (Wilson Jewell, Proceedings First Quaran- 
tine Convention, p. 8.) 
At many ports that have but little commerce there is at present either 
no quarantine or only a nominal one, because the revenues from fees 
are not sufficient to defray the expenses of its management. This would 
be obviated under a general system by the transfer of the surplus accru- 
ing at the larger cities to pay such deficiency. Many of these unim- 
portant ports, especially those situated near the Mexican frontier, carry 
on a trade in small vessels which, being seldom cleansed or repaired, 
become more dangerous as transports of the germinal principle of the 
disease than the regular traders to the larger sea-ports. One of these 
craft introduced the fever into Indianola, Texas, in 1867, whence, as we 
have seen, it extended over a large portion of the southern country. 
The facilities for illicit traffic are very great in such places, and the class 
of vessels so employed are of all others the most difficult to keep under 
a lax quarantine. 
It would obviate, to a great extent, the necessity for detaining vessels 
on their arrival if precautionary measures were adopted at their port of 
departure, and during the voyage, to insure their being kept in good 
sanitary condition. Arrangements should be made by international 
treaty with all friendly powers to insure that the giving of bills of 
health should not be, as it is now, a mere matter of form, by requiring 
that all vessels shall be refused clearance until the masters thereof pre- 
sent a certificate from the American consul or commercial agent that 
they have been inspected by a competent physician and pronounced 
clean, and that the passengers and crew are in good health on the day 
of embarkation. In addition, all masters of merchant-vessels coming 
from ports within the so-called yellow-fever zone should be required to 
keep on board a supply of the simpler disinfectants, and to use them 
frequently about their vessel during the voyage, and to inform them- 
selves as to the proper hygienic measures to adopt in the event of the 
appearance of the disease among the passengers or crew, and especially 
of the importance of the isolation of the sick as a precaution against 
its spread. These and similar means would do much to diminish the 
number of ihfected ships; but they are of such a character as only to 
be practicably'enforced by the National Government. 
The importance of obtaining accurate information of the condition of 
health in the West Indies and Mexico during the yellow-fever season 
has already been alluded to. Beyond a few chance inquiries made to 
masters of vessels, the southern health-officers take no pains to gain in- 
formation on this point; but if they did, it is unlikely that, as merely the 
officials of a State or municipality, their request, if made to foreign 
authorities, would meet with the attention the importance of the subject 
would demand. This information, however, could always be obtained 
from our consuls abroad, through the State Department, were the Gov- 
ernment to assume the care of the public health. The accuracy of the 
bulletins furnished by the Signal Bureau of the War Department has 
been found of the greatest service to commerce; a similar system, giving 
information each week of the health of every port having commercial 
transactions with the United States would be of vast importance, and 
equally beneficial both in its effect on commercial interests and public 
health. 
It would no longer be necessary to assume every port to be infected, QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
111 
and to declare them so by proclamation, and in consequence to subject 
many vessels to uncalled-for detention; but, on the contrary, health- 
officers would be enabled to act on positive information furnished them 
from their official superiors, and would be required to detain but a very 
small proportion of the vessels arriving even from tropical ports. Thus 
one great objection to quarantine as a restriction on commerce would be 
nullified. 
If the meteorological phenomena upon which storms depend and their 
effect upon commerce are deemed of sufficient importance to merit the 
attention of a government, how much more so are the phases of a dis- 
ease which renders a large, portion of the coast of the United States 
uninhabitable during several months, which in its periodical visitations 
sacrifices thousands of valuable lives, paralyzes trade, diminishes immi- 
gration, and retards the progress of some of the most important cities 
on the continent ? 
A further argument for a national quarantine may be based on the 
decision of Justice Bradley in the case of Charles Morgan vs. George 
W. Peete, before referred to. This decision, if confirmed, will have the 
practical effect of preventing the collection of fees for quarantine visita- 
tion, and will render the Southern States, especially in their present 
impoverished condition, averse to maintain any quarantine at all when 
the expenses have to be paid from State or city treasuries ; and it 
will certainly result in abandonment of quarantine by the smaller towns, 
where it is of the greatest consequence. The National Government, 
moreover, is directly interested in the maintenance of an efficient quar- 
antine from the numbers of persons in her employ whose duties require 
their residence in ports liable to outbreaks of yellow fever. 
At present the troops stationed in southern cities are moved into the 
country every summer at great expense, while the officers of customs, 
of the courts, &c., are continually exposed to epidemic disease, and often 
the most important duties of their respective offices seriously embar- 
rassed by their sickness or death. The possible abandonment of even 
the imperfect quarantines now in operation becomes, therefore, a matter 
calling for serious consideration by Congress, that a system may be de- 
vised which will be both effective and permanent. 
The necessity for a vigilant quarantine at the mouth of the Rio 
Grande, in Texas, furnishes an additional reason why action should be 
taken by the General Government. This debouchure is under the juris- 
diction of two nationalities. The quarantine by the State of Texas at 
this point does no good, because any vessel detained at Clarkesville, 
Texas, can enter at Bagdad, Mexico, and her passengers, cargo, 
&c., be transported to Matamoras, whence there is no obstacle to 
their crossing the river to Brownsville, Texas. Yellow fever has 
been twice introduced into Brownsville by way of Matamoras or the 
river, and both times from the want of an efficient quarantine. The 
local and State authorities at Matamoras are extremely averse to a 
quarantine. This probably grows partially from the unfriendly feeling 
existing between the two nationalities on this frontier. It is probable 
that the Mexican government would cordially co-operate with ours in an 
international quarantine, which would insure the health of the region of 
country bordering on the Rio Grande, while they might object to take 
any measures looking to such an end without such international action. 
Should this not be done it would be necessary to quarantine all persons 
coining from Mexico to any port on the Texas coast, which has been 
tried and found impracticable. 
While, however, the assumption of quarantine by the National Gov- 112 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
ernment would be a step in advance, by affording an opportunity for 
the abolition of the defective systems now in operation at the South, 
yet even this will not insure security from epidemics, unless the admin- 
istration of affairs is intrusted to the proper department of the service. 
The creation of a new bureau, to be filled by office-seekers, and of 
political places for the reward of political partisans, would be but 
transferring the objectionable features of the present system to the 
wider arena of national politics, and would soon result as unsatisfacto- 
rily. Experience shows that safety lies only in an absolute system, and 
the past offers examples conclusive enough to an unprejudiced mind 
that 'in the administration of the War Department alone will be found 
that freedom from political influences and authoritative management 
which will demand absolute obedience to law, conjoined with the 
largest liberty to the individual consistent with public safety. The 
Medical Department of the Army numbers among its officers many who 
have, by the nature of their service, been obliged to make sanitary 
science a special study, and the possession of this corps of well-trained 
hygienists would enable the Government to assume, with the least diffi- 
culty, the direction of quarantine affairs and at an expense which would 
be' trifling as compared with any civil regime. The admirable service 
rendered by the Signal Bureau in its weather-reports affords presump- 
tive evidence of the fidelity with which duties of this character would 
be managed by the Medical Department. Nor will it be deemed irrele- 
vant to point to the uniform efficiency and fidelity with which the War 
Department has conducted all public trusts confided to its charge. Skilled 
hygienists cannot be obtained from civil life at the salaries the Govern- 
ment would be willing to pay. It would not be at all necessary that 
every quarantine station should be in charge of a medical officer; but 
the general management of affairs should be confided to the Surgeon- 
General's Bureau, and be under his supervision, aided by such inspectors 
as he might consider necessary, who should be detailed from the officers 
of the medical corps. 
This system was adopted after the close of the war in the southern 
departments, and proved not only eminently successful but entirely sat- 
isfactory to the people of the South. 
The last of the five propositions laid down at the commencement of 
this report refers to the necessity of local hygienic measures in arresting 
the spread of an epidemic. It is germane to the subject to consider 
briefly some of these local causes which influence the propagation of 
yellow fever, not only because they are unquestionably of great impor- 
tance, but also for the reason that a large proportion of the students of 
yellow fever have found in them a sufficient foundation upon which to 
build a theory of the domestic origin of the disease, which, not many years 
ago, was held as orthodox by the majority of physicians all over the world. 
While more enlightened views of the etiology of contagious disease 
have done much to render this hypothesis obsolete, yet they should not 
lead to undervaluation of the importance of cleanliness, disinfection, 
isolation, and collateral measures, which can never supplant quarantine 
but may efficaciously supplement it. 
The local causes influencing epidemics of yellow fevei' may be divided 
into personal, meteorological, terrene, and intramural. 
1. By personal conditions are meant the presence of large numbers of 
unacclimated persons in any town subject to visitations of yellow fever. 
The history of the disease in the United States proves that this on 
more than one occasion has exercised a most important influence on the 
progress of an epidemic. QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
113 
When Florida was ceded to the United States in 1821, large numbers 
of adventurers flocked from all parts of the country to seek their for- 
tunes in the new acquisition. Most of them came without the means 
of rendering themselves comfortable in their new home, and on arrival at 
Saint Augustine and Pensacola, they took possession of the houses left 
vacant by the Spaniards, where they lived crowded together in unclean, 
badly-ventilated rooms. Their habits were of the most reckless char- 
acter, passing the days in drinking, gambling, and cock-fighting; they 
would not even take the time necessary for the decent cleansing of their 
persons and their houses. 
Consequently, when the yellow fever was introduced in 1821 into Saint 
Augustine, and in 1822 into Pensacola, it found the very food most ap- 
propriate Tor its rapid development, and most fatal epidemics followed. 
Unquestionably, an important factor in the wide spread of the great 
epidemics in 1867, was the immense numbers of discharged soldiers of 
the Army who had remained at the South after being mustered out of 
service. It was estimated that there were not less than fifty thousand 
unacclimated persons in New Orleans alone, most of whom belonged 
to the class just mentioned. Besides this, the negroes at the close of 
the war flocked into all the large cities in vast numbers, and although, in 
genera], not susceptible to the poison of the fever, yet, by overcrowding, 
the cities, and that in the filthiest and most unhealthy localities, they 
exercised a great influence on the spread of the epidemic which followed. 
At least one outbreak in Charleston owed its fatality to the arrival of 
an unusually large number of immigrants a short time before; and just 
previous to the great visitation of fever to Buenos Ayres, there had 
been an extensive immigration from Europe, and the town was crowded 
with unacclimated foreigners. At Galveston, in 1839, the fever, after' 
raging with great severity for six weeks, suddenly ceased, not because 
the infection wa§ dead, but because there was no more material upon 
which it could feed. Every unacclimated person had either run away 
from town or had suffered an attack. This was proved by the fact that 
as soon as the refugees began to return the disease broke out again 
among the newly arrived, and there were a number of deaths. Doubt- 
less, too, the very erratic course often taken by the disease in the prog- 
ress of an epidemic may be accounted for in this manner; the leaving 
of certain houses, streets, and districts comparatively unscathed, and its 
prevalence, with great mortality, in a neighboring locality; the sudden 
cessation of the epidemic in one district, and its equally sudden devel- 
opment in another; or the selection of certain victims in the wards of 
a hospital into which the disease is brought, leaving others unharmed. 
2. The meteorological conditions determining the origin or progress of 
an epidemic are not yet satisfactorily determined, yet enough is known 
to render it certain that they exercise a great influence. We never find 
yellow fever prevailing in the winter season in any part of the United 
States, nor, indeed, very often before June. We always find that on 
the appearance of frost, or the reduction of the thermometer to 32° 
Fahrenheit, the epidemic ceases. Hence we may put it down as a pos- 
itive law that heat is one of the essential elements in its development; 
and a reference to the preceding sketch of the epidemics in this country 
will show that the severity of the epidemic has been often in direct pro- 
portion to the heat of the season. To this we may add the moisture 
in the atmosphere. Heavy rains in May, June, and July, have almost al- 
ways preceded the great epidemics. But, even apart from these rains, 
the position of most of the southern cities is such, surrounded by 
swamps and intersected by bayous, that there is an immense evapora- 114 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
tion from large surfaces of stagnant water all the time, rendering the 
air excessively humid. There was an exception to this rule in the sea- 
son of 1839, which was extraordinarily dry. "The whole region be- 
tween 30° and 36° was literally parched with drought. Before the last 
of August the surface of the earth, to the depth of several feet had 
become entirely deprived of all ordinary moisture; vegetation began 
to droop; creeks and small water-courses became entirely dry, or lower 
than they had been for many years; the cotton-plant began to shed its 
leaves, many forest-trees likewise began to shed their leaves." (Monette, 
op. cit., p. 82.) And yet this exception is rather apparent than real; for this 
drying-up of the creeks and pools, while it diminished the amount of 
humidity, intensified other elements favoring yellow-fever developYnent, 
viz., the exposure of large surfaces of decomposed vegetable matter to 
the influence of the sun and air, heretofore rendered innoxious by being 
in solution in water, or so covered from the sun that no decomposition 
would take place. That the " general atmospheric predisposition " of 
which some authors write, has any foundation in fact, I am inclined to 
doubt; for if it did, there should be no reason why the disease should be 
confined to the towns, and those living in the country on plantations 
so generally escape. Nor do I think a sufficient number of experi- 
ments have been made to warrant the assertion made to me by a south- 
ern physician, that he was satisfied the absence of ozone in the atmos- 
phere was the "fans origo"1 of all yellow-fever epidemics. Certainly, a 
large number of experiments, conducted under my direction during sev- 
eral years in Galveston and New Orleans, led to entirely negative re- 
sults ; the ozone was as often absent in healthy as in sickly seasons, and 
during 1867, on some days of great mortality, the atmosphere was sur- 
charged with it, and, on others equally fatal, it was entirely absent. 
But, apart from these theoretical considerations, there can be no doubt 
that very soon after the commencement of an epidemic, especially if the 
weather be calm and sultry, the whole atmosphere of a town will be- 
come so infected as to render it poisonous to any unacclimated person 
that passes through it. Very soon in the history of all our epidemics, 
it becomes unnecessary to look for any special infection to trace the 
progress of the disease, for we find cases springing up in every direction, 
without any connection either with each other or with the sick. To 
what can these be due, if not to the general atmospheric infection ? It 
is chiefly in this manner that the holds of ships coming from infected 
ports so frequently prove sources of disease; when their hatches are 
battened down, they shut inside a portion of the air of the infected 
town, which is carried along to the port of destination, and, on arrival, 
passes out, carrying with it destructive germs, which produce their effect 
on any unacclimated person that may become exposed to their noxious 
influence. 
3. Terrene, and intramural causes.-The topography of almost all the 
southern towns most subject to yellow fever shows a striking simi- 
larity. Charleston is built on low ground, at the confluence of two 
rivers, with swamps around and in rear of it, and estuaries extend- 
ing from these rivers in every direction, often with large tracts of 
low ground which are covered with the tide at high water, expos- 
ing to the sun at low tide an extensive surface covered with ani- 
mal and vegetable remains. Savannah (until the adoption of the 
regulation forbidding the wet culture of rice within the city limits) 
was surrounded by rice-swamps almost to the doors of the houses. 
Mobile, on land scarcely raised above the level of the Gulf, and 
with the Choctaw Swamp, embracing many acres of stagnant water, QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
115 
as a receptacle for all the filth and offal of the city ; New Orleans, sur- 
rounded by swamps surcharged with the most deadly malaria, pene- 
trated in various directions by bayous and canals, the city built on 
ground so low that levees are required to keep the waters of the river 
and lake from inundating the streets; and Galveston, its business por- 
tion built over an old swamp or shallow bayou, and with Hitchcock's 
Bayou in the rear of the city, and extending one arm almost into its 
heart. And the resemblance is still stronger when we consider the 
sanitary condition of these cities. Take up any report of the board of 
health of Charleston, New Orleans, or Mobile, for the last twenty years, 
and one may find the same dreary record of neglected hygienic laws, 
and in many cases a want of exercise of the simplest common sense in 
the prevention of the disease. In Charleston, as land became more 
valuable, vacant lots were filled in so as to become available for build- 
ing purposes, and often large surfaces washed by the tide, and harmless 
in their former condition, became vehicles for the propagation of pesti- 
lence by the improvements to which they were subjected. To accom- 
plish this filling in, the refuse material from all over the city has been 
used from time to time. The city offal, the contents of the tidal drains, 
the earth obtained from excavations made elsewhere for building, 
shavings, sawdust, oyster-shells, anything that produced bulk, were 
dumped on the lots, forming a vast mass of putrefying material, some- 
times of several acres in extent, and well calculated to breed a pesti- 
lence anywhere. In New Orleans, the first epidemic was coincident 
with the digging of the canal Carondelet, by which vast excavations 
were made in the soil of the swamp, and an immense amount of decay- 
ing vegetable matter exposed for four years to the sun. In fact, the 
people of this city seem to have had a perfect mania for excavating the 
soil in every direction. There is scarcely a year in their history but 
what canals have been dug, or pavements laid, or ditching carried on 
for drainage purposes, or some similar work, by which the original soil 
has been overturned. In Charleston, in 1871, the tidal drains, which 
extend beneath the principal streets of the city, were cleaned out in 
the heat of summer, in direct violation of every law of common sense, 
and the contents used to fill up some vacant lots on the outskirts of the 
city. In Mobile, in former years, the vicinity of the docks was so foul from 
the decaying shavings, oyster-shells, dead animals, and marine organic 
remains, that a medical committee stated that the smell was so foul they 
could not remain to inspect it. 
It is only within a few years that the southern cities have become 
awake to the danger of intramural cemeteries. Both New Orleans and 
Charleston have numerous burial-places within the city limits, in which 
interments still are permitted. In New Orleans there are no burials 
beneath the ground, but tombs are constructed above the surface, in 
which the dead are deposited and the tomb,then walled up. This mode 
of sepulture, necessitated by the saturation of the ground with water, 
cannot but be prejudicial to the health of the community, from the im- 
mense amount of animal matter undergoing decomposition that is thus 
always present. In Charleston, although the interments are made in 
the usual manner, yet all the older church-yards are crowded to excess, 
and a visit to any one of them will satisfy any inquiring person of their 
banefulness. • 
Still another condition, more or less of influence on the progress of 
epidemic diseases, is the defective nature of sewerage in most of the 
southern towns. This is a misfortune growing out of the flatness of 
their situation, there not being fall enough to carry away the wastage 116 
QUARANTINE ON THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
of the city by natural drainage. In all these cities, the boards of health 
made constant complaint of the habit of emptying slops and the waste 
and scrapings of the kitchens into the street gutters, where they are but 
imperfectly removed by the scavengers and soon become offensive to the 
smell and the source of pestiferous exhalations. In fact, in all of these 
places, though much better than they were many years ago, the city 
police is bad, and the condition of many of the streets bordering on the 
docks, and the habitations of the poorer classes, such as to invite a pes- 
tilence at any time. The people live crowded together, their houses are 
dirty, the alley-ways, back yards, and privies unclean and offensive, and as a 
result these localities are often the first to be visited by an epidemic, and 
suffer the most severely. 
Now, in considering all these points mentioned as sufficient to account 
for the prevalence of yellow fever without the presence of an imported 
germ, is where I am constrained to think the distinguished gentlemen 
who advocate the local origin of the disease are in error. I am very 
reluctant to write anything which would seem presumptuous, in placing 
my opinion, with my limited experience, in comparison with the great 
learning and wide experience of these gentlemen of whom the South is 
justly proud ; but it seems that thus far the weight of evidence is with 
those who believe that the disease is uniformly exotic. The local causes 
above alluded to exist every year, yet the fever appears as an epidemic 
only occasionally, and even then, in every instance where due patience 
has been exercised, has been traced to importation from an infected 
port. As said before, it by no means follows, because no importation 
can be directly or positively ascertained, that none existed; and to 
assert the local origin of an epidemic, simply on the negative testimony 
of the absence of positive proofs of its foreign origin, is very weak ground 
upon which to stand. One positive fact outweighs all the testimony of 
a purely negative character that can be accumulated, and in regard to 
such facts, we have not merely one, but hundreds connected almost with 
every epidemic in the history of the country, showing beyond a doubt 
that the first cases are coincident almost always with the arrival of one 
or more ships from infected ports; that very often these first cases can 
be traced directly to such infected vessel, to her cargo, or to sick per- 
sons who have been landed from her; that the next cases are generally 
in houses adjoining or in the neighborhood of the first, or in the persons 
of those who have spent some time with the first; and that the disease 
only becomes generally epidemic when a sufficient number of cases has 
occurred to infect the atmosphere of the locality. We see also that, 
when the disease prevails at New Orleans, it invariably, after some 
weeks, breaks out in those towns having steamboat communication with 
the city, and that those towns having no steamboat communication (as 
Vidalia, opposite Natchez) always escape; and that those who establish 
a local quarantine, and refuse to prevent the landing of steamboats during 
its prevalence in New Orleans, also escape. We know that the great 
offal mound at Augusta, Georgia, about which so much has been written, 
existed for five years without causing any disease, until persons sick 
with the fever arrived in that town from Charleston in 1839, and then 
immediately an epidemic followed, and the dirt-heap was made respon- 
sible for it. But while thus rejecting the idea that any of the causes 
above mentioned can originate an it would be a sad mistake 
to undervalue their agency in propagating the disease by preparing a 
richly-manured soil for the reception of the foreign seed. While it is 
unquestionably true that yellow fever has prevailed epidemically in high, 
dry, and clean localities, as at Pensacola, Florida, and Spring Hill, near 117 
QUARANTINE OU THE SOUTHERN AND GULF COASTS. 
Mobile, Alabama, yet the vast amount of information collected by La 
Roche, and other historians of the disease, shows most conclusively that 
the disease chooses for its favorite habitats those towns and portions of 
towns which are badly policed; where the inhabitants live in neglect of 
all hygienic laws, or where overturning of the soil or defective drainage 
gives rise to offensive malarial emanations. The moral of this is evident; 
that while, perhaps, it may be difficult to prevent the importation of the 
yellow fever germ, much may be done by local boards of health to pre- 
vent the spread of the disease by improving the system of drainage; by 
rigid inspections of all localities inhabited by the class above mentioned ; 
by a through police of streets, alleys, back yards, &c. ; by the introduc- 
tion of the earth-closet system in place of the present pernicious style of 
privy, which allows its contents to permeate the surrounding soil and 
neighboring cess-pools, and thus rendering them saturated with human 
excreta; and finally, by a careful disinfection of all dirty localities, not 
only those in which fever exists, but wherever there might be reason to 
apprehend its spread by reason of the habits of the persons living there. 
This branch of the subject does not strictly come within the scope of 
inquiry upon which I am required to report, but it is too intimately con- 
nected with the history of yellow fever to be passed by without this 
brief notice. With many it is regarded as of more importance than 
quarantine. 
In concluding this report, I hope it will not be considered improper 
for me to refer to the kindness and courtesy evinced by every person 
with whom I was brought in contact during my tour of inspection on 
the southern coast. 
As a representative of the General Government, executing an impor- 
tant mission, every assistance was given to me, both by the authorities 
and the medical profession, in the prosecution of my inquiries, and this 
without regard to the personal views of any as to the value of the under- 
taking. 
Had it been possible to have extended the inquiry over a greater 
space of time, this report could have been more complete. As it is, it is 
hoped that it may be considered as but preliminary to a more elaborate 
examination of the subject on the part of Congress, which will lead to 
important practical benefits, not only to the southern and Gulf ports, 
but to the whole country. 
I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
HARVEY E. BROWN, 
Assistant Surgeon, United States Army. 
The Hon. the Secretary of War, 
Through Surgeon- General., United States Army.