H673
1854- 
«3C?" ^7	Cc <	■	«a «	L_ <- C 9"	^^■iA		^^^.
	(■ <. 4	cr	<<x	<u «T.		••« <c	" , ^"~-
<■ 1 ^^	* (^ ^		.<!.	d <<" <X	*	€ <l	f: ^--.
*_'■-•!■• <:	""<-<■«	*	l<J	< cr S^		• << <	
	Xv <« 2' *	z	V. «g				
«: «.6.».i «<	"7' <	~ i	*<*"' «.<	<za <r		"C <	
<C«« ^	:;' c		«3	dc< <Z.	<	<i <	
<- «v	«c < <	c^	«.<	—— ^—			o e
«.* «<S «	«C ' <		«K	<r>' <^			^. <^^
•• '<r<t <	C5i <	-	<«	<r <r		CSE	V ^
■ «& « C<C<	c « « c> <	c	< < < I c < < c <r cr C < C <_	«r c <r c C			<:. t <. c:
		c c					
	<c. • <-		c c	c C		C3CX <c>	<r <: <: c
" » •■». c<£ -v	< c		c« <c	Cc <		<rcc	
£_ » «.' <5C5 •	< <.		c < c	<ri <		c<<	c C <r C
v* 'v c<Jr	.«•■ C C" « c c		<3 C c c	< C C' c		<rct	
*■«'' •'^jt	C" c <		< ■ c	c <:		< c	*. <
■ . < <^	c c .		<L I C	<r a		< c	
rf« <■'<"< r<r	< cr		C" C	<r <r		<r c	C t
«L c c cTk-	< C		<r c	C C	<t	C	c c
*E2 c c ' v	c c		< <c <r	c C	c	• c	< c
«.l c <r	cc		« <C«<:	c c	A.C	c	c c
•«r c c	c «r v		<L <:	<r c	c c		c c
d < < "•	c C		<r <r	c <-	<r	c	<■< c
&&< c	c C		«£><	c C	<i.	c <	' <r
lL c c ■ <	<^C		<L c	< C	C	<L <	7C
«C <2 <; c.	t c		<~ ■<:		<. <_		t- c
	C C .		<: c	C-C	<C	c.	cc ■ c
r.............................................................................
       Surgeon General's  Office

•y?^ "To.^ni^.'--
cc	<	v .	t <	I
C c		c		<-
c c		<		<
< c		c		<
<£ <r		c		<
c c		<		<
<: <		c	<	
cc <		t		<:
<f <	^	<		<
<L "<.			c	<
<■	<		<	
<L	<:		c	
<£	<		c	c
<:	' c<		<	
<E	<		c	<
<3	<		c	<
<'	<		c	r
c <:    <l
<  c    ^ 
*x	V f<r	^h
.c<	c <c<C	l«©
c <	c <r	rc-
<	<<^ cc;	•a©
c	< c<	'<f
c	'f tc	«C
c> "Vc <*X S9 cr-c c
DUE TWO WEEKS FROM LAST DATE
RB9 1956

■ <:  c.    ^  <
GPG   10—71341-1
sec
  k "C  c
- •*■  c X
«tx  *C1 
 
J
■/:/■■/
HISTORY

  OF THE
YELLOW FEVER
                  X. ,
      NEW ORLEANS,
           DURING THE   . %
   SUMMER OF 18
A COMPLETE AND AUTHENTIC RECORD
         OF THAT

   FATAL EPIDEMIC.
BY A PHYSICIAN OF NEW ORLEANS.


    PHILADELPHIA AND ST. LOUIS,
PUBLISHED BY C. W. KENWORTHY,
         1864.
>r~
A 4 
 
HISTORY
   OF THE
YELLOW FEVER
                IX
        NEW ORLEANS,
              DURING THE
   SUMMER  tyF 1853.
            WITH SKETCHES OF THE        ^k
       SCENES OF HORROR
         WHICH OCCURRED DURING THE EPIDEMIC :
  DESCRIPTIONS AND BEAUTIFUL ILLUSTRATIONS OF ,
CHARITY HOSPITAL, AND THE  PUBLIC CEMETERIES,
AND ESPECIALLY OF
      POTTER'S FIELD,
   AND THE METHOD OF BURYING THE DEAD IN CYPRESS SWAMP.
TO WHICH IS ADDED THE NAMES OF ALL PERSONS WHO CONTRIBUTED TO THE FUNDS OF THE
        HOWARD ASS0CIATI0N,/^^^J^
 IN ALL PARTS OF THE UNITED STATES, AND THE AMOUNT CONTRIBUTM) BY^ACH PERSQN,
      WITH. THE OFFICIAL REPO
         OF THE DOINGS OF THAT SOCIETY, &C, ,
BY A PHYSICIAN OF NEW ORLEANS,
  WHO WAS PRESENT DURING THE FATAL EPIDEMIC OF 1 853.j
      PHILADELPHIA AND ST. LOUIS,
• PUBLISHED BY C. W. KENWORTHY,
            1854. 
     WCk


       1854

•torus  r/S\-
         Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by


   ' .  '                  I. W. SPENCER,

In  the Clerk's  Office of the District Court, in and for the Eastern  District of
                           Pennsylvania.
Printed t>v JOHN C. ROBB, No. 8 Pear Stre^, Philadelphia.
 +V
.#•' 
»
J
I
4 
CHARITY HOSPITAL, NEW CHILEANS. 
HISTORY
                          OF THE

YELLOW  FEVER  IN  NEW  ORLEANS,

           DURING THE YEAR 1853.
  Pestilence, it has been  justly  observed,  is one of the most awful
scourges to which mankind stand exposed; and though at first sight we
might reasonably suppose that there is nothing in the consumption of the
human frame by loathsome disease that could iufcgrest  the imagination,
the course of the Plague, in various parts of the  world, has been  from
time to time described in the most fervid strains of eloqu&nce.
  Neither War, with  all its pomp, nor  the Earthquake, nor tho Tempest
in its overwhelming fury, has been more distinctly or fearfully portrayed
than the " Pestilence  that walketh ip. Darkness," as it is vividly described
in Holy Writ.
  The gravest historians have vied with  poets in gloomy details of its
horrors, and the passages in which  these  are found described have ever
been read  by all classes of persons with iutense interest.
  It is not the design of the present publication to work up the subject
of yellow fever in New Orleans into an eloquent  or romantic narrative,
but rather to give a pluin and authentic account of tha£ fatal epidemic,
compiled from the most reliable  sources  of information, as  a matter of
history.   The facts themselves are  so full of melancholy  interest, un-
wiought and unvarnished as  we  shall present them, that no art of lan-
guage is needed to enchain the public  attention.  Without more preface
or explanation, therefore, we shall proceed at once to  describe the city
of New Orleans, as it was in the spring of 1853, trace briefly the history
                                                         5 
6                      THE YELLOW  FEVER
of previous attacks of  yellow fever, and then give a full and minute ac-
count of the commencement, progress and effects of the great epidemic of
that memorable year, with such remarks  upon the nature of the disease,
and the best methods of avoiding and curing it, as we  think  will be
esteemed useful by the reader.   A  description  of the public Cemeteries,
and the peculiar methods of burying the  dead in this city, will also, we
believe, be read with interest;  and the record of interments, and the re-
port of the Howard Association, are matters of permanent value, without
which this work would by no means be complete.
            THE CITY OF NEW  ORLEANS.

  The city of New Orleans stands on the right bank of the Mississippi
river, in ascending, about one hundred miles from its mouth.   The river
here makes a remarkable bend to the north-east, so that the city, although
its location is on the right bank, actually occupies the north-western side
of the stream.   The city is generally said to lie upon the east side of the
river, and so it  appears upon the map; yet the stranger in New Orleans,
who holds to this idea, will find that the sun will apparently rise in the
west and set in the east,  causing a degree of confusion in his mind which
is extremely puzzling.   Some persons never get the matter right at  all;
and after long discussions, give up the hope  of  unravelling  the difficulty
in despair.   Owing to currents and eddies  in the river, at  New Orleans
the steamers at  the levee lie  with  the stern up the stream, just contrary
to the position  assumed at  all  other landings, which, to the  mind of a
stranger, not well informed on  these points,  adds to the confusion of his
ideas.  He says to himself, the city is  on the east side of the river, but
the sun rises across the river in the west, and sets behind the town in the
east—and the river itself, judging from the position of the boats, runs up
stream !   The more he reflects about it, the more confused he gets—and
if he chance to  speak to any one, no wiser than himself, it is probable that
the discussion will only  increase the snarl of ideas.
  The city was founded by the French, in 1718, and has been, during
its history, under French, Spanish, and  English government; and bears 
IN NEW ORLEANS.
7
evidence  in its construction and local peculiarities, of the influence of
these various  nations,  as  well as of the native Indian population.  A
more mixed and varied mass of people is not to be  found any where in
the United States, if in the world.
   With its adjacent towns and villages New Orleans occupies a space of
about half a mile wide, extending along the bank of the Mississippi river
for about ten mile3.   The remaining space, from the rear of the city to
Lake Ponchartrain, (from four to five miles,) is a pestiferous swamp,
generally half covered with water, filled with  funereal-looking cypress
trees, and peopled with alligators and hideous reptiles.   A large tract of
this swamp was cleared a few years ago, but it  was not supposed to add
to  the  healthfulness of the  city in consequence  of exposing so large a
surface of vegetable matter,  wet and almost incapable of being drained,
to the direct rays of the  sun.   The  great  misfortune  of the location is,
that at  most seasons the city is several  feet below the common water
mark of the river;  and thus all drainage must be carried back from the
river towards the lake, and the site of the city is so level that water will
not run off unless propelled by  artificial means.   The  water lies at all
times within  about a foot of the  surface of the earth, so that to dig drains
is only  to make a stagnant ditch to hold water and green slime.  If every
particle of the  water in these  ditches should be  pumped out, an  hour's
rain, such as is frequent in New  Orleans, at all seasons, would fill them
again almost to the  brim.
   The American portion of the city is chiefly built of brick,  in good
modern style;  St.  Charles, Camp, Canal, and Carondelet  streets have
very much the aspect of New York.   In the French district, however,
the city has quite a  foreign and peculiar air, with its low wooden dwellings
and tiled roofs; and the fashionable  business thoroughfares  are  said
greatly  to resemble  the streets of Paris.                   >
   The city is particularly celebrated for the size and magnificence of its
principal  hotels ; the " St. Charles," the " Verandah," the " City Hotel,"
and the " St. Louis," having few, if any equals in all respects, out of the
city of New York.   The bar-room of the " St. Louis" rivals the celebrated
Rotunda of the Capitol at Washington, in size and style  of architecture.
   The Theatres  are also  of a superior character;  the public Halls, in
which balls and concerts are given, are all  upon a grand scale; and no-
where in the United States is there more  of life and fashionable display
than in New Orleans during the  business season.  The view of New Or- 
H
THE  YELLOW  FEVER
leans, from the river, is beautiful and imposing—and seen from any high
point it presents a panorama at once magnificent and surprising.
  The population of New Orleans, as we have before remarked, has very
little resemblance to that of any other city in the Union.  It is made up,
as B. M.  Norman, in his description of the city very truly observes, of  a
heterogeneous mixture of almost all nations.   First  and foremost is the
Creole pvjula'.ion.  All who are born here come under this designation,
without r gardto parentage' or color.   Thus  there  are French Creoles,
American Creoles, Indian Creoles, and  Negro Creoles.  Next  ccmes the
emigrants from other States of the Union.  Then the Germans, Irish, and
other emigrants.  Then the nondescript Watermen, or Boatmen, some
ten thousand or more, who have few, if any, parallels in the worhjl.   They
are the children of the Mississippi, as the  Arabs are of the desert, and
like them are accustomed to encounter danger in every shape.   The Flat
Boatmen, especially, are a sort of  amphibious race of beings, whose mode
of living  is much like that of the alligator, but who  often carry under
their rough exterior and uncouth  manners a heart as generous and noble
as beats in any human breast.   The descendants of the Pilgrims are also
here in great numbers.  More than fifty thousand  of the  population are
migratory; they come and go with the change of the seasons.   The state
of morals, notwithstanding all that has been said against it, is much better
than might be expected, when the mixed and unsettled nature of the popu-
lation  is°considered.  New Orleans may, at least, compare favorably with
New York in this respect,  and is constantly improving  As to health, with
the exception of  the epidemics of  1849 and  1853, the city has not been
more unhealthy than any other place of the same size in the Union.  My
own opinion is, that even the fatal epidemics are more to  be attributed to
the habits of the people than to any causes inherent in the climate or loca-
tion of the city, bad as that location is.
   The " Levee " or river landing, is one of the chief and  most distinctive
features  of New Orleans.  During the busy season, the Levee, for an ex-
tent of five miles, is crowded with vessels of all sizes, but  more especially
 ships, from  all  parts of the world, with hundreds of immense floating
 castles*and palaces, called steamboats;  and barges and flat boats without
 number.   No place on this continent can  present a  more busy, bustling
 scene.   The loading and unloading of vessels  and  steamboats; the trans-
 portation, by some  three or fouAhotufcnd drays, of cotton, sugar, tobacco,
 pork,  lard, hams, an<J goods of everydescription, the produce of the Great
 West, and the manufactures  of the East; the huge piles on piles of pro- 
IX NEW ORLEANS.
9
perty of every imaginable  description, heaped up on this  great mart of
trade ;  the dense crowds of people, passenger^, emigrants, traders, boat-
men, stevedore <, and so forth; the shouts of the workmen, the clatter of
thousands of tongues, in all languages ;  the screams of the steam-whistle,
the clann-in"- of steamboat bells ;  and all the varied sights and sounds of
this wonderful place, present to the eye and the mind  of the spectator a
painra..: .  ■ .' busy life, s^eli  a. Babel  alomj  could  equal.   The  Levee
and piers v.'.i-a range alo.12,  ;:c whob length of  Xs city, extending back
an average  of two hundred  feet, are  continually covered with  moving
merchandize, and  people  of  every nation, in every variety of costume,
from morning till  night.   The Levee is from six to ten feet above the com-
mon water mark of the river ; and the city is of course nearly as many feet
below the  high  water level.   This embankment, or levee, extends more
than one bar; Ir.d  and fifty miles from New Orleans up the river.  The
position of New Orleans? as  a vast commercial emporium," is certainly
unrivalled.   As the  depot of the Great West, and the whole Valley
the Mississippi, and the Half-way House of foreign trade, it is aluK  /.
                     .              .   •.                         ->st im-
possible to anticipate its future magnitude.
   The' word  " Creole," so much employed in Louisana, r<-   .
                     .        .     X-            v •       -quires a little
explanation to render its meanmg plain to persons living   . „  ,. .       ,
           .,.    .,  .    T    ,.   r»  -n  1   -  j  ^    0 at a distance who
are not iamihar with it.   I quote Dr. Dowler s dcr-'^.^ of .fc _
   " The word Creole, in Northern latitudes, i^ ^  misapprehende(] sQ
as to imply more or less of negro blood*
   « In  Spanish  America, Criollos or Creoles, were, in the early days of
of  the  colonial  governments, to  native white3  of European estraction;
neither the native -Indians, i>':,r native  negroeS) nor m;xture of tho r
were so  denominated.
   « Towards the close of the  last, and beginning of the presuit centuries,
Drs. Mosely and Williamson, and many .others, used the word Creole, as
applicable, not only to the whites born in the colonies, but to negro na-
tives also.
   "Creole—A native of Spanish America, or  of the West Indies, des-
cended  from  European ancestors."  (Webster's Tic.)
   " Creole—A name given to the descendants of whites born in Mexico,
South America and the West Indies; in whom, the European blood has
been unmixed with that of other races."   (Brande's Encyl.)
  " In Louisiana, every native, be his parentage what it may, is a Creole.
  " Although the word Creole, ia its  usual acceptation, means a white
person, it applies to all races, as  Creole negroes; it even  applies to the 
10
the yellow fever
inferior  animals, and things;  a Creole chicken, egg  or  cow, is  worth
nearly twice as much as one from a distant State."
        YELLOW FEVER PREVIOUS  TO  1853.

  The first year in which yellow fever  appeared  as  an  epidemic in New
Orleans, was 1796.  The number of persons who died is not positively
known.  The population of the city at that time, did not probably exceed
six thousand.
  From 1796 to  1853  it is almost certain that several cases of yellow
fever have occurred every year in New Orleans, often only four or five ;
but no year  has passed  without deaths from this disease in the Charity
Hospital.  So says Dr. Simonds, of New Orleans; and  Dr. Bennet Dow-
ler, in his latest works, assents to the truth of this declaration.
  In 1799, yellow fever prevailed so extensively as  to be noticed in the
annals of the city twenty years afterwards.
  In 1801 it spread again, causing many deaths.  The year 1800 was
marked by a fearful mortality from yellow fever, in Spain and the West
Indies.  In Havana, 9,977 died of this disease.
  In 1604 the population of Spain was reduced one million by the yellow
fever, many thousands leaving that country  for other parts of Europe.
The official reports of deaths from yellow fever amounted to 124,200 for
that year!
  In 1817 New Orleans suffered severely from yellow fever, from August
to December.   A very rigid system of  quarantine had  been established
the  previous year, with no perceptible advantage.   Total  mortality for
five months, 1142 ;  number of deaths from yellow fever, about 800.
  The yellow fever re-appeared in New Orleans in 1818.   Total number
of deaths 1151; number by yellow fever not stated.
  In  1819 the yellow  fever was exceedingly fatal.  Population of the
city 45,968.   The number of  deaths  from yellow fever is variously esti-
mated from 3,000 to 6,000.  This, however, is probably  an  exaggeration. 
IN NEW ORLEANS,
11
The whole mortality  is estimated by Dr. Dowler  at 2,190.  This was  a
serious epidemic for a city of less than fifty thousand inhabitants.
  The fever also prevailed during the year 1820, from July to December.
  The Board of  Health and the Quarantine  establishment were  both
abolished  in  1819, and in  1821 they were re-established, with higher
powers than before, at a cost of over $20,000.
  In August, 1822, the yellow fever broke out again in New  Orleans,
notwithstanding the quarantine, and increased in violence till  the month
of October, during which month alone nearly seven hundred persons died
of the disease.  Rev. Timothy Flint estimates the whole number of deaths
for 1822 at 2000.  Dr. Dowler says the records show only 808.  In the
Charity Hospital alone 239  died in three months.   The year 1823 was
very healthy ; only two cases of fever in the Charity Hospital.
   On the 19th of February, 1825,  the  Legislature  repealed the Quaran-
tine laws, which it had enacted four years before.  The Quarantine had
been tried for three years, and yet two epidemics had occurred.  During
the eight years  which followed, without Quarantine, the yellow fever di-
minished.
   The year 1841 was  a  severe  epidemic year; 1800 persons died.  In
1843 the yellow fever prevailed ; and near 700 persons perished by this
awful malady.  In 1847 it  assumed the  epidemic form, and great  num-
bers died.
   But the year  1853 presents the most awful catalogue of mortality. As
Dr. Dowler  very justly  remarks, the bloodiest  battle-fields of modern
times can  scarcely compare with  the  New Orleans  epidemic of  1853,
which destroyed jive times more than the British army lost on the field  of
Waterloo !  The shades of death have just gathered over at least  eight
thousand victims of yellow fever in New Orleans.  Eight thousand!   A
brief enumeration,—yet what volumes of  wretchedness and agony—what
long annals of bereavement, of widowhood, of orphanage, of solitude, des-
titution  and unutterable grief, are contained in those simple words! 
12                     THE YELLOW  FEVER
                YELLOW EEVER  IN 18J3.

   The business season of 1853 was a remarkably prosperous one in New
 Orleans.  Never, says a late writer on this subject, were the commercial
 affairs of the city in a more satisfactory condition.  The winter had been
 unusually gay and healthy.  Every branch of trade  had  flourished.
 Money was  abundant.  The disposal of  one hundred and thirty millions
 of produce,  which had been landed upon the levee from the teeming Valley
 of the Mississippi, had diffused a  large sum among all classes of trades-
 men  and laborers.  The warehouses were  emptied, and the  wharves
 and piers cleared at an earlier period than usual.   Thus' merchants were
 able to close their accounts, and  finish the season in time to make a trip
 to  the North, to Europe, or the West, leaving their  clerks  and ware-
 housemen in charge  of their stores.  Hence the general flight which
 marked the  approach of the summer of 1853, among all those  who could
 afford to travel.
   Besides these  evidences of  prosperity in New Orleans, property  and
 3tocks had advanced enormously, and  capital which a few  months  before
 had avoided the city, began to  pour into it, seeking safe and profitable
 investments.
   Such  were the circumstances of New Orleans in  the spring of 1853.
 As the summer began slowly to  creep upon a winter  and spring of un-
 usual mildness, hundreds of our  citizens dropped off  daily—hurrying to
 the various  channels of travel northward, westward, seaward.   The spring
 was remarkably  dry.  The  rainy  season, which usually commences in
 May, did not manifest itself till the  last of June.   Then it began to rain
 daily.  The atmosphere was clear, cool, and apparently pure.   There had
 been some sickness during the winter and spring, but it was chiefly of
 remittent fevers, which (formerly quite rare) had greatly increased of
 late in this  locality.   This was ascribed by some to the extensive clearings
^and partial  drainage of the swamps in the rear of the city—leaving a vast
 expanse of moist vegetable matter exposed to  the direct rays of the sun.
   No one feared, or even  thought of yellow fever re-visiting its old arena,
 after so  long an absence.  There had  been no epidemic  since 18-S7.
 Epidemic cases had indeed "occurred in the Charity Hospital every sum-
 mer; but the disease did  not spread, and the  :<ssur<nce  became general
 that this dreadful disease  had abandoned New Orleans at last, as it had
 done Philadelphia and New  York.  Such was  the  feeling with which 
*
IN NEW ORLEANS.
13
thousands of our citizens started on their tours, and which reconciled those
who were compelled to remain to the prospect of spending the summer in
the city.
   The condition of the streets, gutters and  drains, always bad enough in
New Orleans, was not worse, at the commencsment of the epidemic, than
at other times;  but as the spring advanced  the  foul state of the city be-
came the subject of general and bitter complaint.
   The first suspected  case of yellow fever, occurred in the private prac-
tice of Dr. M. M. Dowler, on the 6th of May, and  terminated fatally, by
black vomit, in six days.  Very few persons, however, heard of this case
at the time.
   There i3 no evidence to show that the above case, or any which follow-
ed, was imported into the city, by any  vessel from South  America, the
West Indies, or any other part of the  world.  The disease, beyond all
question, originated in New Orleans, and was generated by causes which
may generate  it here or elsewhere., wherever like  causes  exist.  These
causes will be fully considered in another place.
   The second case of yellow fever occurred on  the  23d  of May.   Dr
Schuppert  was called  on  board the ship " Augusta," which lay at the
foot of Josephine Street, 4th District (Lafayette), to see G------S------,
a sailor, who was  seized with marked  symptoms of the disease, but re-
covered.
   The ship Augusta  was direct from Bremen, and  brought over 280
European emigrants, who enjoyed good health on the voyage, having only
lost two children of diarrhoea.  The vessel was out 52 days, passed on the
south of Cuba, but did not approach nearer  than 35 or 40 miles of that
island.  The emigrants arrived in good health, remained but one day in
New Orleans, and then proceeded up the Mississippi.  So says Dr. E. D.
Fenner in his careful history of the epidemic.
   The ship Augusta was brought up from the mouth of  the river by the
same tow-boat  that brought up the " Camboden Castle," a Briiish ship
direct from  Kingston, Jamaica.  On the passage up the river there was
free communication between the two ships across the tow boat.  It is true
that there  was much yellow fever at Kingston, at the  time the." Cam-
boden Castle" was there, and seven  of the crew died of the disease.  But
the ship was thoroughly cleansed, before  she left Kingston,  and there was
no case of Fever on  her while at  sea,  or after her arrival at New Or-
leans.
   On the 25th of May, another sailor on the ship Augusta was attacked 
14
THE  YELLOW FEVER
with symptoms  similar to the first, though more  violently.  He died on
the 30th,  in  a  state  of delirium.   Soon after death  the body turned
yellow.  There was no bleeding before death.
  On the 27th of May, two more sailors were attacked on  the same ship,
and with the same symptoms.  One of  them recovered,  the  other, Gr.
Woetle, was sent to the  Charity Hospital, and died on the 30th of May.
He did not throw up black vomit before  death.  We quote from  Dr.
Fenner's history, who says he made the post-mortem examination. The body
was yellow ; and the stomach contained about two ounces of black vomit
  The  next case, that of H. Bruntz, aged 21, occurred on the  ship
Augusta, May 30th.   On the 4th day he  was carried to the Charity
Hospital, where  he died on  the evening of the 7th of June,  with  well
marked evidence of yellow fever.
  There were other cases on the ship Augusta.  None of them threw up
black vomit before death; but this fluid was found in the stomach, in all
the cases examined, after death.
  The  next reported case, was that of W. K. a butcher, aged 26, who had
lived in New Orleans one year; resided on Chippewa street, 4th District,
(Lafayette) three squares from the river, and  eleven squares  above  the
ship Augusta.   He had no connection  with the ship  that could be ascer-
tained.  Had well marked  symptoms of yellow fever; but  recovered
under care of Dr. Schuppert.
  The  first case in the Charity Hospital was that of James McGuigan, an
Irishman, aged  26.   He was admitted into the Hospital  on the 27th of
May.   Said he had been sick four days; and was last from  Liverpool.  In
the course of the night he became  delirious, and  on the following morn-
ing, threw up black vomit freely and died about six o'clock.  On exami-
nation  four ounces of black vomit were found  in  the stomach.  No one
doubted that it was a genuine case of Malignant Yellow Fever.
 ' Dr. Fenner states that James McGuigan came over in the ship " North-
ampton," from Liverpool, and had been in the city about two weeks when
he was attacked.  The Northampton brought over  314 emigrants, and
arrived on the 10th of May.  She passed about 50 miles to the north of
Cuba.   There was some  sickness on  board, chiefly bowel complaints, "but
no fever.  During the stay of the ship in  New Orleans there was butane
case  of Fever on board  the  ship, a  boy  who was seized  on the  10th of
June,  but  recovered.  After leaving  New  Orleans,  on  the 14th of
June, the mate  was attacked with yellow fever,  and died on  the 18th.
The Captain was also attacked, but was not very sick. 
IN NEW ORLEANS.
15
   The next two cases occurred in the  practice of Dr. M. M. Dowler, on
" Gojxiby's Basin,"  a filthy pond  situated  in the upper and back part of
the city.  A number of streets in the 4th  District, or Lafayette, are
drained into this basin, and there is a canal leading from it to the Swamp
in the rear.   The quarter is a very filthy one, unpaved, inhabited mostly
by poor people, and having in it a number of soap factories.
   The first case at, Gomby's Basin wa3 that of Johannes Kaien, a German ;
had  lived in the city about twelve months; was  employed in getting
shingles  in  the swamp, where he went  to work very early in the morn-
ing,  and came in late in the evening ; never went to the shipping.  Was
taken sick on the 29th  of May,  and died with black vomit on the 2d
of June.
   Kaien's wife was attacked on the  day after he died, and was buried on
 the eighth day afterwards.
   The next case at the Charity Hospital wa3 that of Johu Allen, a Scotch-
 man, aged 24.  He had resided in the city two years, with the exception
of two months last  summer  spent on  a  trip to Boston.  So  says Dr.
Fenner.  Was admitted  into the Hospital  on the 4th of June, there sick
seven days, and  was discharged  cured on the 12th.  He had undoubted
Bymptoms of yellow  fever.  He had worked on the Levee, near the ship
" Camboden Castle," but had not been on board of her.
   Michael Mahoney, Irish laborer, aged 16, from Liverpool, on the ship
" Saxon," admitted  into the  Charity Hospital June 6th, then sick  three
days; died on the  7th; body turned  yellow; large quantity  of  black
vomit, with sediment like coffee grounds in the stomach; liver yellowish.
The ship Saxon  arrived  at New  Orleans, from Liverpool direct, after  a
long passage; brought Irish emigrants j had no other case of fever  on
board.
   Thomas Hart, a robust young man, entered  the Charity Hospital with
symptoms of yellow fever on the fifth of  June, then  sicx four days ; died
on the eighth.  Had lived in New Orleans eighteen  months ; worked  on
the Levee, in the Fourth District; much exposed to the sun and fatigue;
residence very filthy.  Died in stupor.
   Up to  this period there was but little excitement produced by the cases
of fever which had  occurred.  They were  pronounced yellow fever by
the physicians who attended them, but there was by no means a unanimity
of opinion amongst all who saw them.   The following case, however, put
an end to all controversy.   The skeptics all gave it  up after seeing this.
We quote Dr. Fenner. 
16                      THE  YELLOW FEVER
   Margaret Russell, an Irish girl, aged 22, had lived in New Orleans six
months; entered Charity Hospital June 10th,  (then sick  six  days,^ and
•died on the 11th, after turning yellow, and throwing up large quantities
of unmistakable, old-fashioned coffee grounds, black vomit.  Lived one
square back from the river, not far from the ship Augusta, on Tchoupitoulas
street; never went to  the  ship or the river.   Was  not exposed to infec-
tion or contagion.
   James Murray, an Irish laborer, aged 25,  was seized  with  fever at  a
house very near the last  named case, June  6th, and died on the 10th,
throwing up black  vomit.  Arrived in New Orleans  on ship Rufus Page,
April 15th.   Worked in a tobacco warehouse.   Had been on board some
ship from Liverpool, but no  others.
   The fever now began to make its appearance in other localities.
   Mr. Timmons and his little son, aged twelve years, entered the Charity
Hospital on the 16th and  17th  of June.  The man had been sick about
three days, and the boy six.   They had lived in the  city three years, but
had never spent a summer here.   They resided on Louisa street, near St.
Mary's Market.  The man got well,  but the boy  died.  Timmons had
lost one or two  of his children at home; and on  the 25th of June his
wife and last  child  entered the Hospital, and  both died, thus leaving the
poor fellow bereft of all his family by this fatal disease.
   Mary Sane, an Irish woman, resided  near  the New Basin, entered the
Charity Hospital June 21st,  sick one day ; died on the 24th.   Had been
in the city eight months.
   The New Basin is the terminus of a canal that leads back to Lake Pon-
chartrain.  It is nine squares back from the river,  and three quarters of
a mile below  Race  street, where the first cases occurred.  It is not  known
that there was any sort of connection between the cases.
   We now come to cases of fever in a new locality,-and in quite a different
quarter of the city.  These  cases occurred in Dr. George Browning's
practice.
   On the 21st of  June, Dr. Browning was  called to see a man on Old
Levee street,  near Esplanade, opposite the U. S. Mint.  He was a Ger-
man shoemaker, aged  18;  had lived  in  the  city seven months, and was
sick three days when first  seen by Dr. B.  He  died on the  24th ;  did not
throw up black vomit, but body turned yellow after death.  Had not been
exposed.
   A robust Irishman, in a sailor's boarding  house, in the immediate vi- 
IN NEW  ORLEANS.
17
cinity of the above, was attacked with fever on Saturday 25th, and died
in the Charity Hospital on the  28th, with black vomit.
   Cases  also occurred  at this  time, at Algiers, a town on the opposite
side of the river;  and  from this period onward the epidemic prevailed
severely  in Algiers.
   The fever now broke out in another separate and distinct locality—the
back part of the third District, formerly the third Municipality.
   On the 28th  and 29th of June, says Dr. Fenner, a family of four per-
sons, consisting of Mary  Kelly and her sister Mrs Kelly, Edward Kelly
and his brother, a boy aged 15 years, were all admitted into the Charity
Hospital.  They all died  except the boy.   This  family had been in the
city five months,  and  resided on Mandeville  street, third  District, six
squares from the river.   The disease did not prevail epidemically in this
region until late in July.   No connection could  be traced between these
cases and any of the preceding.
   Ten or twelve other case3 of fever, similar to the above, were reported
to the Medical  Society  on the  2d  of  July. The  late Dr. Reynolds had
eighteen  cases of fever on the steamship Falcon,  lying opposite Jackson
Square.  This  ship arrived from  Aspinwall on the 20th of June—no
sickness  on board  at tbe time.  In a few days  the fever broke out among
the crew.  Some of them  died with black vomit.
   Up to  the 2d of July, as appeared by the weekly reports of the Ceme-
teries, there had been forty-seven deaths from yellow fever.   About the
same number  of  cases had been  admitted  into the Charity Hospital,
many of which recovered.
   The localities of the cases  so far, observes  Dr. Fenner, circumscribe
almost la "ntire outskirts of the city, at the same time dipping pretty far
in;  and  . - /is from these different points that the disease continued to
spread.  It was now only the first of July, and the Epidemic was not declared
until two or three  weeks later.   Nothing like  the gradual spread of an
imported infection or contagion from  one or more points to the region
around can be discovered  in the history of its  commencement.   The dis-
ease was, beyond  all question, generated locally, by causes which will be
considered in another part of this work.
   It was currently reported that the fever was brought in by vessels from
Rio Janeiro.   It appears,  upon caref il inquiry, made by Dr. Fenner, that
nearly all  the vessels  which  arrived here from  Rio, after the first of
April, suffered more or less from yellow fever  afrer leaving that port, but
that none of them  brought any cases to New Orleans. 
18
THE  YELLOW FEVER
  The iron ship " Evangeline," from Liverpool, which  was said to have
brought the yellow fever, did  not arrive till June 10th, after a  number
of less cases had occurred.
  A knowledge of the facts  above detailed was confined to the leading
physicians of the city, and even the existence of the fever,  in an epidemic
form, was still denied by many eminent members of the profession.
  About the middle of June  it was noised abroad  that there was some
sickness among the shipping in the upper part of the city;  but the report
was hushed up, or treated as the mere fancy of some timid  panic-makers,
or idle gossippers.  The general cry was, " hush up;  don't alarm people ;
you will  frighten  them  into  a fever; its  all  humbug; a  slight sickness
among sailors and poor laborers, who are much exposed to the  sun, eat
bad food, drink much whiskey," &c.  And so it  was decided to discredit
tho  existence of the fever.
  But the formidable and insidious malady could not be so  easily set
aside.  All  the while it was gradually and  furtively disseminating its
poison, and sowing the seeds of a rich harvest of death.   The small num-
ber of citizens who took the trouble to examine into the matter, began to
be alarmed; but they were frowned down  as panic-makers, and the di-
sease was still pronounced to be ship fever, which threatened only sailors
and stevedores.  The city was actually without a Board  of Health, al-
though the weekly reports of  the  Cemeteries  were published under the
direction of the Mayor.  But even this was  complained of by some, who
thought it better to suppress the truth than to  cause a panic.   Many per-
sons were thus  ensnared, and  fell victims  to  the epidemic, for want of
correct information.
  In the very first week of July the fever began to spread quite rapidly,
and to create much alarm.  The weather was hot and  sultry, and  much
rain fell; the unpaved streets  were very  muddy, and the nights were
cool.   The stench arising from the foul gutters, and from decaying animal
and vegetable matter in the streets, was exceedingly disagreeable.  " The
late rains," said the  Delta, " have only stirred up the sinks.  Filth, dirt,
decayed cabbage stalks, dead  dogs and cats, and worse, are the frequent
ornaments  of our  thoroughfares.   The  nuisance is  insupportable,  and
something must be done."      \
  On the 2d of July, eighteen deaths from  yellow fever occurred at the>
Charity Hospital.  The physicians in the upper  part of the city were very
busy, while those on  and near Canal street had few or no cases.
  On the 6th of July, Miss Pearsall, a highly  respectable and accom- 
IN NEW ORLEANS.
19
plished young lady, died of yellow fever, on Coliseum Place.   The death
of this young lady, justly observes Dr. Fenner, caused quite a panic, and
hastened the departure of many persons who had intended to leave about
this time.  Mr. Pearsall, the father of the young lady, left a few days
after her death, and died of the yellow fever at Natchez.
  July 9th.  The reports from the Cemeteries show fifty-nine deaths from
yellow fever, and fifteen deaths from  other fevers, for  the week ending
this day.
  July 13th.  The deaths from yellow fever at  the Charity Hospital now
amounted to fifteen or twenty a day.   Most of these cases came from the
region of the Water Works; a few from about the New Basin ; and some
from Algiers.  The disease also  appeared in Girod street, and was evi-
dently approaching the heart of the city.   I saw one case in  St. Joseph
street, at this time, with the most characteristic  symptoms of the true yel-
low fever.
  On the 15th  of July, the Howard  Association  offered  their ser-
vices, by public  announcement in the newspapers, to the poor and afflicted.
This is an association  of thirty gentlemen, organized under a charter from
the Legislature, for the relief of the unfortunate  "during the prevalence of
Epidemics in New Orleans."   An extended notice of the Association and
their doings will be given in another part of this  work.   They were loudly
complained  of for issuing  a public notice of their movements, by many
persons who still persisted in saying that there was no Epidemic and would
be none.
  Four or five cases of yellow fever, at this period originated among the
persons employed in the Charity Hospital.
  The Fever increased  very  rapidly on  the 17th  of July;  the inter-
ments for the previous week amounted to 344, of which 204 were acknow-
ledged to be cases of yellow fever; nearly four  times as many as the week
previous.  Nearly one half these deaths occurred at the Charity Hospital,
where the mortality was very  great, owing, no doubt,  in a great measure
to the fact that the patients entered the Hospital in a very advanced stage
of the disease, yet the disease was very malignant, and did  not readily
yield to medicine in any of its confirmed stages.
  Oq the 18th of July it was acknowledged that the disease had advanced
into the very heart of the city.   Cases occurred at the St.  Charles Hotel,
at the Verandah, and  City Hotels—two servants died of the Fever at the
Orleans Club Room, on St. Charles Street, and cases began to multiply in
my own practice, and in the hands of other physicians of my acquaintance. 
20                       THE YELLOW FEVER
   The flight of the wealthy classes  now began in good earnest.  The
poor and  the unfortunate who were compelled to remain, began to grow
excited at the dismal prospect before  them.   Many, however, still denied
that the disease had assumed an epidemic form, or epidemic activity, and
went about their business heedless of  consequences.
   July 23d.  The interments for the week ending this day, were 617, of
which 429 were reported as yellow fever.
   On the 1st of August, after  repeated calls in the newspapers, for  the
organization  of a  Board of Health, the  City Councils finally acted upon
the matter, and a Board was organized.
   The papers of August  2d, contained the first reports of the Board of
Health.  For the  week ending July 31st, the interments were  884;
yellow fever  692.  The  interments on the  1st  of August  were 142, of
which 123 were from yellow fever.
   The disease now began to rage in the central part of the city, in Canal
Street, and its vicinity with all its horrors.
   Few persons now denied that there  was  an  Epidemic;  as a very
graphic writer has said, it spoke  for itself.
   It was figured up in the reports of the daily interments.  It was pro-
claimed in a thousand  forms of gloom,  sorrow, desolation and death.
Funeral processions crowded every street.   Few vehicles could  be seen
except doators' cabs and coaches, passing to and from the cemeteries, and
hearses, often solitary, taking their way toward those gloomy destinations.
The hum  of trade  was  hushed.   The levee  was a desert.  The streets,
wont to shine with  fashion and beauty, were silent.  The tombs—the home
of the  dead—were  the only places where there was life—where crowds
assembled—where  the incessant  rumbling of  carriages, the trampling of
feet, the murmur of voices, and  all the signs of active, stirring life could
be heard and seen.
   Spread  over  a large  area, and badly built up, New Orleans  did not
however, bring  so  distinctly before the eye and mind of the  observer the
full extent of the ravages of the disease as  other cities would have done
under a like  visitation.   To realize the full  horror and virulence of the
pestilence, you must go into the crowded localities of the laboring classes,
into those miserable shanties which are  the disgrace of the city, where
the poor emigrant class cluster together in filth, sleeping a half dozen in
one room, without  ventilation,  and having  access to  filthy, wet yajds,
which  have never been filled up, and when it rains are converted into
green puddles—fit abodes for frogs, and  sources of poisonous  malaria 
IN NEW ORLEANS.
21
Here you will find scenes of woe, misery, and death which  will haunt
your memory in all  time to come.  Here you will see the dead and the
dying, the sick and the convalescent, in one and the same bed.   Here you
will see the living  babe sucking death  from the yellow breast  of its dead
mother.  Here father,  mother,  and  child  die  in one  another's arms.
Here you will find whole families swept off in a few hours, so that none
are left to mourn or to  procure the rites of burial.  Offensive odors fre-
quently drew  neighbors  to  such  awful spectacles.  Corpses would  thus
proclaim their existence, and enforce the observances due them.
   What a  terrible disease!   Terrible in  its insidious character, in its
treachery, in  the quiet, serpent like  manner in which it gradually winds
its folds around  its victim, beguiles  him by its  deceptive  wiles, cheats
his judgment and senses, and then consigns  him to grim death.  Not like
the plague, with its  red spot, its maddening  fever, its  wild delirium and
stupor—not like  the  cholera, in  violent spasms and prostrating pains, is
the approach of the vomito.
   It assumes  the  guise of the most ordinary disease which flesh is heir
to; a cold, a slight chill, a headache, a slight fever, and, after a while, pains
in the back.  Surely there is nothing in these !  " I won't lay by for them,"
says the misguided victim; the poor laborer can not afford to do so.  In-
stead of going to bed, sending for a nurse and doctor, taking a mustard-
bath and a cathartic, he  remains  at his post until it is  too late.  He has
reached  the  crisis of the disease before he  is  aware of its existence.
The  chances  are thus against him.   The fever mounts up rapidly, and
the poison pervades his whole system.   He tosses and rolls  on his bed
and  raves in  agony.  Thus he continues for thirty-six  hours.  Then the
fever breaks,  gradually it passes  off—joy and hope begin  to  dawn upon
him.   He is   through now.  " Am I  not better,  Doctor ?"   " You are
doing well, but must be very quiet."  Doing well!  How does the Doctor
know ?   Can  he  see into his stomach, and perceive  there collecting the
dark-brown liquid which marks the dissolution that is going on?   The fever
suddenly returns, but now the paroxysm is more brief.   Again the patient
is quiet, but not so hopeful as before.  He is  weak, prostrate, and blood-
less, but he has no fever ; his pulse is regular, sound, and healthy, and his
skin moist.  " He  will get well," says the casual observer.   The doctor
shakes his head  ominously.   After a  while, drops of blood are seen col-
lecting about  his lips.   Blood comes  from his gums—that is  a bad sign,
but such cases frequently occur.   Soon he has a hiccough.   That is worse
than the bleeding at the gums ; then follows the ejection of a dark-brown 
22
THE  YELLOW FEVER.
liquid which  he throws up in large quantities, and this in nine hundred
and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand is the signal that the doctor's func-
tion  is at an  end, and the undertaker's is to commence.   In a few hours
the coffin will receive its tenant, and mother earth her  customary tribute.
  August  7th.   The weekly report published by the Board of Health
on this day, showed the total number of deaths for the past week to be
1188, of which 959 were from yellow fever, and many others of other
type of fevers, as " pernicious,"  "malignant," "congestive," "intermit-
tent," " typhus," " typhoid," &c.
  On the 15th of August, the  epidemic raged  most awfully; public con-
sternation  and distress were indescribable.
  The number of deaths for the week ending August llth, were 152G; of
which 1288 were from yellow fever.
  On the 18th of August, the Mayor of the  city, under the advice of the
Board of Health, ordered rounds of cannon to be fired in various quarters
of the  city at sunset, every day, under the hope  and belief that it might
have some good effect upon the atmosphere,  which was acknowledged by
all to be fearfully impure and stagnant.   Barrels  of tar were also burned
at nightfall all over the city, for the purpose of affecting the  atmosphere,
and  making some favorable change in its condition.
  Rain and hot sunshine were constantly alternating,  almost every day;
the nights were often very cool; the upper stratum of clouds never seemed
to change their position;  " but  hung," as Dr. McFarland  so  strikingly
said  in his report to the Legislature, " like a funeral pall over the city,
as if they  were nailed  to the  sky,  as  long as  the  fever  continued  to
rage."
   A piece of fresh meat attached to  a kite, and elevated a few hundred
feet, came down in twenty or thirty minutes  completely covered with liv-
ing,  moving vermiform animalculae, and  this  circumstance  occurred
throughout the whole epidemic whenever the experiment was made, which
was  almost daily.
   These phenomena demonstrate a horribly polluted  condition of  our
local atmosphere, and show  that that atmosphere was permanently estab-
lished around us throughout the  whole epidemic.
   The firing of cannon, with the hope of disturbing thghatmosphere, had
no perceptible  effect upon the air, but added much to the horrors of the
epidemic, and  was soon discontinued.   As  I  went my evening  rounds
visiting my patients, and heard the booming of the cannon like a death
signal falling suddenly upon the ear, the awful sound sent a thrill of 
IN NEW ORLEANS.
23
terror to my very vitals, and  I  could feel my heart beat quicker and my
brain throb with emotion, despite all my philosophy.  When the cannon
were at some  distance from me, and the report was only heard as a dull
roar, it was extremely depressing; but when I was near the guns, the
sharper sound made  me start as if electrified.  I could not keep out of
my mind  the  idea that Death himself was bombarding  the city, and that
every discharge of his cannon  sent hundreds of poor creatures  to their
graves, as I have no doubt was the case.  I have seen  patients in a state
of hopeful convalescence, so excited by the firing of cannon, as to be thrown
into a sudden relapse attended by high fever and black vomit, ending in
stupor and death within an hour.
   The burning of tar was continued much loDger than the firing of cannon,
but I am not aware that any benefit whatever was derived from the prac-
tice, while the murky flames, looking like  beacon fires lighted over  the
graves of the  departed, added a new horror to the  dismal  scenes of the
epidemic,  and every  body rejoiced when the burning of tar was sus-
pended.
   About  this  period, the  first  or second week in August, Col. Bliss, the
son-in-law of the late General Taylor, died of yellow fever at Pascagoula,
on the Lake Shore.  He had not been in New Orleans for seventeen days
when he  was'attacked.  He  left the city on the 13th of July, and was
attacked on the 30th.  In the chapter on the  cemeteries, will be found a
further notice  of Col. Bliss, and an engraving of his  monument erected to
his memory by his wife.
   August  20th.  The whole number of deaths for  the week ending this
day, were 1534, of which  1365 were believed to be from  yellow fever, or
nearly 200 per day!
  The number of deaths  at  the  Charity Hospital, for  the  week ending
Friday August 19th,  at midnight, was 272, of which 244 were of yellow
fever.  And this in a single Hospital.
  The Board  of Health had  now in  operation four temporary Hospitals,
one in each District, or Municipality of  the city.
  The Mansion de Sante, formerly Dr. Stone's private  Hospital,  also re-
ceived a great number of fever patients.  This institution  is under the
care of the Sisters of Charity, who  keep it  in an  admirable condition.
Dr.  P. C. Boyer,  is  the  resident Physician.  Among the number dis-
charged cured from this Hospital, were fifteen cases of black vomit.  All
the Sisters of  Charity were unacclimated.   Three of them only were at-
tacked with yellow fever ;  none  died. 
24                      THE YELLOW  FEVER

  The Touro infirmary,  on old^Levee street, just  above  St.  Mary's
Market, received during  the  epidemic over 500 patients, 213 died, and
310 were discharged cured.   This infirmary was established about a year
ago, by the munificence of the late  Judah  Touro, a benevolent Hebrew,
who  left large legacies for the benefit  of  New Orleans.  The  resident
physician is Dr. J. Bensadon.
  The Howard Association  established two Convalescent Infirmaries, in
which were received persons just recovered  from the fever, who had been
discharged from the Hospitals and were  yet too weak to enter upon their
ordinary pursuits, a highly important  and truly benevolent provision for
the unfortunate poor, many of whom had no homes and no means of subsist-
ence.   Hundreds were thus saved from the  danger of relapse  and sudden
death.
  The Howard Association also opened three Orphan Asylums, in which
were received 241 little children left totally  destitute by the death of their
parents.  They also hired wet-nurses for  infants, and had under  their
charge, at  one  time, nearly  one hundred  orphan infants at  the breast.
At the close of the epidemic,  many of these infants were adopted by be-
nevolent citizens, and the remaining  orphans  were placed in the estab-
lished orphan asylum, and 8100 were given  with each child to  the  institu-
tion which received them.
  In the Asylum, Hospitals, and Infirmaries  under the direction of the
Howard Association, every possible attention was paid to the food, cloth-
ing,  cleanliness and medical  care  of  the patients, and members of the
Association personally attended these institutions daily.
  At the City Work-House,  and House of Refuge, City Prison,  Parish  .
Jail and Lunatic Asylum there was comparatively little sickness, and very
few deaths, although there were several hundred persons in these  institu-
tions.  In the prisons of  New Orleans  epidemics have never produced
many deaths.
  The physicians  of New Orleans labored night and day  during the
height of the epidemic, to stay the progress  of the pestilence, and devoted
themselves to the benevolent work of relieving the poor, with most praise-
worthy zeal.   When the  Howard   Association commenced  operations,
about forty  physicians enrolled their  names, subject to the call  of the
Association, for attendance upon the indigent sick.  Three  of these  phy-
sicians fell  victims to the epidemic viz : Dr. Jacobson, late of St.  Louis ;
Dr. Friend, late of Alabama, but originally of Petersburg,  Va; and Dr.
Lucien Hensley, late of Frankfort, Ky., all  most worthy, intelligent, and 
 
*
f SCENE.--YELLOW FEVER IN NEW ORLEANS, 1853.
FAMILY SCENE 
IN NEW
 devoted men.  Dr. Friend was  a '
 children.  Many other physicians,
 book of the Howard  Association,
 the Charity Hospital, without om
   August  28th.— Greatest M<jH
 played the highest mortality ai
 pestilence.  The excitement iD
 intense, and the  deepest intere
 people for the relief of the s
 tions were received by the Ho
 of New York, Philadelphia,  I
 large  cities, and towns,  and f
 land.   Every possible effort  w
 assistance  to bury the dead ;
 ble tales which were  reported
 bodies in blankets and sheets,
 sepulchre, leaving them  unbu.
 them by fire, were all pure fie'
 during the epidemic.  The re;
 tion.   When we come to  speal
 burying the dead will be  fully
   The interments for the weel
 of this number one thousand fa
 fever !   The greatest number
 hours, occurred on Monday, A
 ing to two hundred and forty.
 to this date, was upwards of 6,4
   The  yellow fever had long
 Mobile, Baton  Rouge, Natchez,
 towns in Louisiana, and Mississ
 extensively than in New Orlean
 alone, or to the  miasmatic dist
 to the Piney-Woods regions, whit
 disease.  It even appeared on p'
persons who had in no way beetij
   The Howard Association sent
suffering poor in twenty or thirt;
seen by reference to the report ot
work. 
»W FEVER
»s of the fever in Xew Orleans daily
 iit time very rapidly, as will soon
  poor was for a  number of weeks
  ity, in the shape  of hearses and
  y, were not to  be  avoided.
   asant day, though there  was a
   epidemic was, however,  rapidly
   w only about one hundred  per
    after the  awful scenes of the

    ayor of the city as a  day of
    jr generally by  the  few living
    ng  of pious reverence such as

    ly forty-eight deaths from ycl-
    ceduced to twenty-four.
    ciation were now closed, except
    cent patients.
    .st  report of the fever, as  an
    >r the previous week was 133;
    died  at the  Charity Hospital,
    ly come to the city.
 uring  the  Epidemic.

 interments, and of those by yellow
 sicians, from the period when the
/ terminating fatally, up to Octo-
e 
IN NEW ORLEANS.
20
For the week ending
May 28,
June 4,
June 11,
June 18,
June 25,
July 2,
July 9,
July 16,
July 23,
July 30,
Aug. 6,
Aug. 13,
Aug. 20,
Aug. 27,
Sept. 3,
Sept. 10,
Sept. 17,
Sept. 24,
Oct. 1,
Oct. 8,
Total.	Yellow Fever.
140	1
142	1
154	4
147	7
167	9
177	25
188	59
344	204
617	429
723	555
1134	947
1494	1262
1534	1302
1628	1365
955	749
576	421
365	221
263	125
219	85
133	42
7,813
              Total.    .     .    .        11,100
     Cases in which causes of death were not stated in the
        last ten weeks of this table,  .....     450
     Of these six-sevenths for yellow fever,     .     .     .     385
     Total of deaths by the fever since May 28th     .     .   8,198

   The reader will perceive some discrepancies between the above table
 and some of the numbers given in the preceding narrative.  It is difficult
 to get at the precise number  who  died.  The list  of interments, the re-
 ports of the Board of Health, and of physicians, are all more  or less im-
 perfect.  I have endeavored  to give, as near as possible, a full but not
 exaggerated account of the  mortality  by yellow fever.  Some accounts
Imake  the total interments for the above period twelve thousand]\one  hun-
 dred and fifty-one.
   October 13fn.   The Board of Health announced  publicly that " there
 is noio no epidemic in the city, and that absentees and strangers may come
 in with safety."                                           M   •
   This announcement was hailed with joy by thousands, botnin and out
 of the city,  and th^^hout the Union; and from this time people rushed
 in from all quarwfl^ and  deeply affecting  were  many of the re-unions
 which I witnessed between friends who  supposed, from information that 
30
THE  YELLOW FEVER
they had received, that they should meet no more on earth.   A few were
attacked with the disease after their arrival, but not  severely, as the ma-
lignancy of the  fever  was much mitigated.   A perceptible  change had
taken place in the type of the disease, as early as the 17th of September ;
remittent and intermittent cases becoming more numerous.
  It is a very common idea respecting the yellow fever that an epidemic
can only be checked by & frost.  This is an error.   In 1847 the epidemic
ceased long before the appearance of frost;  and  in 1853 the disappear-
ance of the epidemic was announced by the  Board of Health ou  the  13th
of October, while the first frost did not appear till the 25th, and that was
only observed in a few places on the outskirts of the city.
  We have  mentioned that the fever of  1853 spread  over a more exten-
sive region than ever before.   Along the Mississippi river it  extended
from the Balize up to the mouth of the  Arkansas, where  the village of
Napoleon suffered very severely.   On  Red  river, it went as  high  as
Shreeveport; on the Alabama river it went as high as Montgomery, the
capital of the State; on the Tombigbee river as high  as  Demopolis.  It
extended to Pensacola, in Florida;  to Galveston, Houston, Victoria and
other places in Texas.  It prevailed with fearful mortality in  the village
of Thibodauxville, on Bayou Lafourche,  and also in some of the towns of
the Attakappas, in Louisiana.  The  high  and dry bluffs and sandy plains,
and  even the  piney-woods suffered severely,  as well as the regions of
swamps and lakes.
  Amidst all the awful scenes of this epidemic, one  striking feature was
noticed  by all who were present, namely, the universal and uniform kind-
ness and attention which was paid to the sick  and afflicted, by all  who
were not too ill to perforin such  services.   In the  history of such  fatal
diseases, in other cities, and in other periods  of the  world, it has been
justly observed by a late writer, human  nature is generally represented'
in very repulsive and disgusting aspects.  The laws of society and of nature
are outraged.   Fear and selfishness hold rule over the  conduct of  menJ
All the  sanctities of life are  trampled upon.  The affMtigns no longer
control  or influence the minds  and conduct of men.  AlRs confusion,
terror,  panic,  desertion, misery, death, disorder,  vice,  wickedness and
blaspaemdk The graphic  pen  of Defoe  has  presented us with  such
sketches or the  conduct  of the  people  and  thfe authorities  during the
Plague  of London, in 1665—a less virulent and ^HjKive visitation than
the epidemic of  1853,  in New  Orleans—as  mayTR; be  read   XX.
shame and disgust for the selfishness and debasement of ' 
IN NEW  ORLEANS. •
31
Turn from these revolting pictures, and view the conduct of  the  people
of New Orleans, amid the appalling terrors of the pestilence.  Where in
history can you find a more noble display of courage, fortitude, humanity,
and true nobility of soul!  View the people at the very height  of the
epidemic, when Death loomed out, overshadowing the whole, and obscur-
ing all other objects. Grief, sorrow, and  distress for some departed or de-
parting friend, may be discerned in  the faces of that brave  population.
But there is no fear, no weak cowardice, no nervous timidity, no sneaking
or skulking in their expression or action.   All stand to their duties, to
the calls of affection, of friendship, of  humanity.  Business  and family
are  forgotten; stores and dwellings are closed.   The rich spend  their
nights by the humble cot of the sick poor, and  the poor watch at the
downy couch of the rich.   Masters tend unceasingly their sick servants,
and employers peform the most menial duties for their  employees.  The
delicate forms of females flit, spirit-like, in every direction, to andjffro—
visiting their sick  friends, relieving the poor,  smoothing the pillow and
ministering to the  wants of the  sick, and  providing for the numerous
orphans who had frequently to be taken  from the bosoms of dead mo-
thers !
   Not a few  of the ladies of the city, who had  left to spend the summer
at some of the fashionable watering  places on the sea coast, returned as
soon as they  heard of the violence  of the pestilence, to look after  their
unacclimated friends.  Nor was this heroic devotion confined to the ac-
climated.   The fear of contagion produced  but little effect in deterring
the truly charitable from performing the duties of humanity and affection
on this distressing  occasion.   Of course there was some exceptions to
these  remarks.  The weak, the selfish, the base and cowardly  exist every
where; and occasions of great peril are  certain to develope these quali-
ties as well as the noble virtues which  were here so magnanimously ex-
hibited to the world in the summer of 1853.
» 
                        THE YELLOW  FEVEE


    GENERAL  CHARACTER  OE  THE  DISEASE.

  The yellow fever  is a very singular disease, quite unlike all other  di-
seases, and can only be successfully studied at the bedside of the patient.
It is beyond all question a bilious fever, of a high grade, but it exhibits
such varied phases that each case must form the subject of a distinct and
independent investigation apart from all others.   In our narrative of the
epidemic of 1853, we have  given a  general  sketch of the condition of
many patients; and  it is almost impossible, without really writing a long
medical treatise, to give a more complete description of the disease.  A
few of its chief features only will be mentioned.
  Sometimes the subject of the fever will be seized very suddenly, as if
struck on the back of the neck by a heavy  blow from some blunt instru-
ment, and high nervous and  feverish  symptoms  will immediately ensue.
In other cases the disease will manifest, at  first, only the appearance of
a common cold.   In some cases the fever runs high, and  delirium sets in
very early.  In others the pulse is slow and feeble, and the patient sinks
to the grave with no acute  or apparently  dangerous indications.   It is
often thus singularly insidious.  The  patient will have a cool and moist
skmj a calm and regular pulse, quiet respiration, a clear  and intelligent
eye, a lively and vigorous intellect, free from all pain, the bowels will be
regular, the discharge of urine free, and yet, as Dr. McFarlaud has justly
observed in his sketch of the fever, to the experienced eye  " his earthly
destiny is absolutely set and sealed, and his claims to be an inhabitant of
this earth as effectually closed as if the sods of the valley were already
rumbling on his coffin I"
  The most peculiar characteristic marks of the yellow  fever, are the
black discharges from the bowels, the black vomit, the yellow appearance
of the eyes and skin, and the high temperature  of the  body  for some
hours after death, often rising as high  as  113 degrees.  These feature?
are not, however, by  any means all present  in every case, nor in any large
proportion of them.
  The fcfcfek vomit, though considered a highly dangerous symptom, is by
no nieacWertainly fatal.  A very large number of persons who throw up
blark vomit freely, and of the most unmistakable character, recovered in
1853.   Many die in delirium and convulsions.   Bleeding  from the nose,
gums and bowels,  is  exceedingly common and often fatal.   The tendency
to relapse, after convalescence, is also a striking feature of the disease. 
IN NEW ORLEANS.
33
   The common comparison of the black vomit to " coffee grounds " prob-
 ably conveys the best idea of its usual appearance.  Some have compared
 it to broken butterfly's wings, floating in a dark colored fluid.  In malig-
 nant cases it sometimes looks very black, like  India ink,  and at others
 assumes the appearance of decomposed blood.   Large quantities of it are
 sometimes found in the stomach after death.  In many cases the coats of
 the stomach are abraded in patches.   It is beyond all question a sort of
 morbid hemmorhage from the stomach,
   The discharge of black vomit, contrary to what might be  expected, is
 not necessarily attended by debility of mind  or  body.  So  far from this,
 in not a few cases have I observed that the strength of  the patient, his
 clearness of mind, self-possession and  courage, were remarkably  great,
 at  a time, too, when  every other  symptom denoted  approaching death.
 This occurs often in the last stage  of the disease,  and also  in what have
 been called " walking cases," where there  was  little fever, in which  the
 disease often passes suddenly from a mild to a malignant  state.'  Some
 patients, a  few  hours before death,  will even  get  out of bed and walk
 about, declaring they  are perfectly well, and wi-h to dress themselves 1
   I have seen  a  patient in  the Hospital, Walking about from room  to
 room, with  a vessel under his arm to receive the  black vomit, which he
 threw up from time to time.   He continued this practise for several days,
 until within fifteen  minutes of his death, which took place suddenly and
 altogether  unexpectedly to the  poor fellow.  He  always, expressed  the
 most cheerful and confident hope of recovery, notwithstanding this  much
 dreaded symptom.
   A man   came into  my  office  on  a very hot day  in  August, and
 said that his friend had  advised him to consult a physician, though he
 himself did not think there  was any occasion for it. While conversing
 with  me he asked for a basin, and  threw up a large quantity of blsuok
 vomit, full  of the dark coffee-iike sediment.   He died within twenty-four
 hours afterwards.
  Dr. Fenner, of this city, states that he saw a  man  lying quietly in his
 bed, at the Charity Hospital,  reading a book, while  the  dreadful black
 vomit was on him.   After reading a few moments  he  turnediis  head
 aside and ejected from his stomach, with no apparent exertio"a large
mouthful of the peculiar soot-like fluid, and then resumed his story.  On
being carefully  questioned by  the  physician, he  seemed surprised, and
inquired if the doctor thought he was " in any danger ?"
  In many cases, the ejection of the blaok matter from the stomach has
                                 c 
THE YELLOW  FEVER
 been attended by much nausea  and  distress, as  well a^ vomiting; but
 in others no sensation of sickness, pain or  nausea, has been-'-felt.   The
 fluid is  often  gulped, or spouted up,  rather than vomited, without any
 straining or effort on the part of the patient, the  whole being  the result
 of a jerk, or slight convulsive effort, as it would almost seem of the stomach
 alone.  I have had patients speak to me cheerfully, lean their heads over
 the side of the bed, throw up a mouthful, or  a  basin full, of black vomit,
 and continue the conversation as  if nothing had happened.  Sometimes
 the patient would hardly lift his head from the pillow.   The stomach fills
 again very rapidly, and the vomiting is repeated.  The  fluid frequently
 comes up very suddenly, and is pumped, or spouted, as if from an engine,
 to a very considerable distance.  In the Hospital  I have  often seen it
 thrown from one  bed to  another, and all over the clothes of  the atten-
 dants.
   The quantity thrown up is sometimes very  great;  pints, quarts, and
 even gallons, before death ensues, frequently a gallon in forty-eight hours.
 The discharges from  the bowels  are often very  similar in appearance
 to the fluid  thrown off from the stomach.  The black vomit has not,  as
 a  general  thing,  any very disagreeable  odor.   Sometimes, however, it
 is extremely offensive.
   In true yellow fever, the  saffron-colored  appearance of the eyes and
 skin just before or after death, and the rapid decomposition of  the body,
 with increased heat,  are marked features.
   The epidemic  of  1853 affected unacclimated  negroes,  or those  who
 never had  yellow fever before, equally  as generally as it did the white
 population, though not so severely.   This was equally true of the mixed
 races generally, and Indians.   The native French, and Creoles of every
 description, were  likewise affected, though not  so violently as strangers,
 and all classes of foreigners.   Second and even third attacks were not un-
 common ; and some even declare that they have had the yellow fever five
 or six times.  There does not seem  to  be any positive exemption from
 the disease, except that of vital resistance to morbific influences, produced
 by perfection of the organization and high health.
   There  ijL probably, as  Dr. Dowler  has observed in his sketches of this
disease, no violent acute malady less painful  than yellow fever, although
there is none scarcely more repulsive  to the beholder, as seen in  the black.
vomit, in the enormous flow of blood from the mouth, nose, ears, eyes, and
even from  the toes;  the  eyes prominent, glistening, injected, yellow  and
staring; the face  discolored with yellow and dusky red !   The  corpse is 
THE YELLOW FEVER
35
usually sad, sullen and perturbed ; the countenance dark, mottled, yellow,
livid, stained with blood and black vomit, and  swollen; the eyes promi-
nent, blood-shot and  yellow.  The veins of the body  are  often  much
distended, particularly about the head  and neck, and the circulation of
the blood often goes  on for  a  long time after the heart ceases to beat!
The heat  of the body, which before death was below the usual standard,
(say not quite 90) often  rises even half an hour after death to 105, 110,
and even  113 degrees!
   Dr. Dowler  has succeeded in taking nearly five pounds  of blood from
the left jugular vein of a yellow fever corpse !  The blood flowed freely,
jetting forth for five minutes entirely clear of the skin  of the  neck.  It
would be  impossible to bleed  a  living man in this  way half  as much;
hence the  circulation in the veins of the yellow fever corpse was more ac-
tive and continuous than in life !
   Prof. Dickson, of Charleston, S. C, the  eminent physiologist, in com-
menting upon this last fact, says, very emphatically, " I scarcely know
any fact in nature more incomprehensible than this!"
             CAUSES  0E  YELLOW FEVER.

  That the yellow fever of 1853 was not imported into New Orleans, but
generated in that city by local  causes, and individual conditions, seems
to be almost generally admitted by those most competent to judge of the
facts.   This is my own decided opinion.
  The exciting causes of the disease were, as  near as we can ascertain,
the following :  Heat and cold ;  rain and sunshine ; exposure to  atmos-
pheric changes and fatigue ; a foul atmosphere, produced  by decaying
animal and vegetable matter; foul drains and dwellings; rotting beds and
imperfect ventilation; excessive use of fat meat, and highly nutritious and
stimulating food  in a warm climate; want of vegetables and fruits in
the daily food;  bodies depraved and injured by the too free use of drugs,
liquors, dissipation and other bad habits.
  Dr.  Bennet Dowler, in his tableaux of the Yellow Fever of 1853
makes the following observations upon the  causes of the epidemic : 
36
THE YELLOW FEVER
   "How  the  style of buildings in  New Orleans has so long escaped the
grand jury is marvellous.   About ninety in every hundred houses, even
in the richer portion of the city, are constructed in  a manner that must
be condemned in any climate, but in none so  much as  in this city, de-
pressed as it is below the high water mark of the river, almost everywhere,
and in the rear  nearly on the  sea  level.  The lower floor, which rots
about four times in ten years, in a great majority of the houses, especially
the stores, rests on the humid soil, sometimes at a  lower level than the
streets,  no air being admitted underneath !
  " The fresh water,, being largely mixed with decaying animal and vege-
table matter, moistened by rains, and infiltrations from the river, gutters
and swamps, generates perennial crops  of  fungi} blight, mildew, mould,
&c, which abound in, under and around the lower story of these unventi-
lated houses, where, indeed,  crops  of mushrooms would  flourish, were
they not repressed by the  tread  of the tenant. Hence  goods  rust and
spot, delicate colors are discharged ;  health  too  is deteriorated from moist
and insalubrious exhalations during the day, and at  night, as many per-
sons sleep upon these decaying humid floors.
  " Physicians in visiting  the  poor, especially  in depressed  portions of
the city, must  have often found the flooring of houses floating, and some-
times, after  rains, quite covered with water too filthy and offensive for
description—laboratories for generating deadly gases, predisposing to
disease, and rendering recovery from any  kind of sickness tedious, too
often impossible."
  The poorer  classes also slept on beds made of cypress moss, often damp
and imperfectly prepared, a mass of rotting vegetable matter !
  These and like causes have produced  yellow  fever over and over again,
in all tropical climates, and will  continue  to produce it, under  similar
circumstances, as long as diseases of that type are permitted to prevail on
the earth.   That the atmosphere at  New Orleans was peculiarly impure
and stagnant during the epidemic, there  is no doubt; but this alone  was
not enough to  generate the disease in sound and healthy persons  of good
habit3.  That  there may be an infectious or contagious principle generated
by yellow  fever patients, or present where  yellow fever  prevails, I will
not stop to question, although it is not yet proved.  But  I do not think
the disease would spread so generally, or become so fatal if people would
take more pains to avoid the evident causes of the disease above enume-
rated.   Chemically, we know that excess of fat,  oil and sweet substances,
will produce too much of the elements of bile  in the blood; and that 
THE YELLOW  FEVER
37
large quantities of highly nutritious and stimulating food will produce  a
tendency to inflammation and  fever.  Liquor, dissipation and drugs will
also impair the functions of the various organs of the body, particularly
the stomach, liver and bowels.   Now, yellow fever is a disease of a bilious
and inflammatory character, and attacks the stomach, liver and bowels.
   To keep clear of the disease, reason and  science  teach us to  live on
light food in summer, to eat less  meat,  and less fat and syrup, to avoid
ardent spirits, irregularities  of life, exposure to heat, cold  and  fatigue,
and particularly to keep clear of powerful drugs.  If we add to these pre-
cautions a little physical training, such  as frequent bathing, moderate ex-
ercise, and attention to ventilation in our  houses and chambers, we  may
do much to protect ourselves against this fatal disease.
   That the yellow  fever is not positively contagious or  poisonous to all
persons, is shown by the following facts :
   The native French and Creole  population of New  Orleans, who live on
little meat, bread, vegetables, fruits  and light  wines, and  do  not  take
much medicine, seldom fall  victims  to the  yellow  fever.   Some of the
native French  population  are  now  90, 95, and even 115  years  of age.
Until 1853 they were supposed to be entirely exempt from the attacks of
yellow fever.   During the late epidemic, however, many of them took it
and  died.
   Acclimated persons, (so called,) who have learned to conform to the re-
quirements of nature, as to the food which ought to be used in this climate,
are less liable to take the disease  than new comers.
   The natives of northern climates, who come to New Orleans with  north-
ern habits of feeding, are almost  sure to  be seized with the fever when
it prevails as an epidemic.
   The ignorant poor, who know nothing about the laws of life, and  who
come from a land of starvation  to a land of plenty, from a cold climate
to a hot one, and gorge themselves with fat bacon and corn bread, (oily
and  highly nutritious food,) and eat imprudently of fruit,  are the most nu-
merous victims of yellow fever.   The natives  of Ireland and Germany,
newly arrived in the country, are those who  chiefly fill the beds  of the
Charity Hospital, and the long trenches of the dead  in Potter's Field.
   The dissipated, of which class New Orleans has more  than her share,
are also ready victims of yellow fever.
   The fact that there is nothing certainly poisonous to the  human body
in yellow fever, is shown by the fact that much the larger number of per- 
88
IN NEW ORLEANS.
sons of all descriptions, who are exposed to its influence, are in no way
affected by it.
   There are many persons in this city, male and female, who have nursed
hundreds of yellow fever patients, stood over  them, rubbed and bathed
them, and inhaled the atmosphere of sick rooms for months,  and  even
washed  and shrouded  the  dead, without ever having  a day's sickness.
Many nurses in the Charity Hospital, where  two hundred or more died
per week, escaped the fever  without a single symptom.
   Mr. Lovejoy, one of  the carpenters  in Charity Hospital yard, worked
hard all  summer, within a few feet of  the dead house, where  fifteen  or
twenty bodies were  often lying  at once, waiting burial, and did not  take
the disease; and yet the stench, he told me, was sometimes so great as to
nauseate  him.  He is a very healthy, temperate man, of  regular  habits.
Six other carpenters, who assisted him, took the fever and died.  Some
of them made the very coffins in which they were buried.  Mr.  Lovejoy,
speaking of one of them, said he was  a hearty looking man, " but," added
he, "he had very bad soft flesh." .
   I have attended, with other physicians, several post-mortem examina-
tions of the bodies of yellow fever patients, twelve  hours  after  death,  in
the months of July and  August, when the epidemic was at its height, and
the bodies were in a  state  of rapid decomposition, and very offensive.
The dissections  were very thorough and careful; every part of the body
was opened and examined; the contents of the stomach and bowels were
taken out and  inspected, and  the foul exhalations of  the dead-house
were of course inhaled by all  who were present.   Still we escaped infection
or contagion.
   Owen  Lynch, the person employed to bury the dead in Potter's Field,
assisted in digging all the graves, and hauling all the bodies which were
buried in that general receptacle  of  the  unfortunate, all  summer, (over
2000,) and was  not at all affected by his employment.
   Cats, dogs, and fowls have been fed  with black vomit, thrown up by
yellow  fever patients, without any injurious  or indeed  sensible effects;
while the fumes obtained by  the evaporation of the matter have proved
inoffensive to men who  inhaled them.
   Dr. Firth, of Philadelphia, in 1804, fed dogs and cats with the matter
of the black vomit, during days and weeks ; he did more—he inoculated
dogs with the fresh matter, and even subjected himself to the same opera-
tion, applying the fluid to the surface of a cut made on his arm ; secured
it there for two days by means of a sticking plaster, and repeated the ex- 
IN NEW ORLEANS,
39
pcriment about twenty times in various parts of his body.  He inserted
the matter in his eyes; swallowed a large quantity dilated and pure ; but
from these experiments no injurious effects ensued.
   Dr.  McKinnal, a  Surgeon  in  the  British Army  on one  occasion
swallowed  a wine-glass full of  fresh black vomit, and  felt no more effect
from it than if so much water  had been taken into the stomach.  It did
not impair his appetite for his dinner.
   The whole history of epidemic  yellow fever, in  New Orleans, and in-
deed  throughout  the  world,  shows that  although there may  be some
contagious or infectious principle abroad in the atmosphere where it pre-
vails, yet it is not certainly poisonous to  all persons alike.  Some persons
are poisoned easily; some with difficulty; and some not at all.
   In my opinion it  requires certain conditions of  the  system to produce
the yellow fever:—viz :   1st. Bilious or  carbonated condition of blood.
2d. Materials of inflammation in excess, that is excess of nutritious matter.
3d. Impaired functional power  of organs, particularly of the stomach  and
liver.  Under these conditions, the presence of highly impure air, or excess of
carbonic acid gas or  miasma, or the infectious matter of  yellow fever,
(if such there be) will no doubt produce this fearful  disease in climates
and seasons where it has heretofore appeared ;  while, on  the  contrary, a
body whose organs are in a fair  state of perfection, and  not  overloaded
with the elements of bile and  highly nutritious matter, cannot be  easily
affected by the yellow fever.
   " It is impossible," says Dr. McFarlane, of New  Orleans, " that yellow
fever  can suddenly assail  an individual without  his condition  having
undergone  some morbid  changes  of  vast and  vital import."   Again he
says :   " Let visitors to New Orleans live temperate, orderly, and virtuous
lives  and  not convert the entire period of their residence here into one
continued saturnalia, and they  will enjoy an  exemption from disease fully
equal to that of the place from whence they came."
   In no city in the United  States, is there so much irregularity of living,
intemperance in eating and living, so much abuse and exposure of the body
to destructive influences, as in New Orleans.   When  a  -decided change
shall take place in the habits of the  people, then,  and not till then  will
yellow fever cease to prevail here.
   That the condition of the atmosphere  has much  to do with the produc-
tion of yellow fever, is conclusively shown, as Dr. McFarlane justly re-
marked in his report to the Sanatory Committee of the Legislature, by the
fact that when the  Board  of  Health declared the epidemic at an end, 
40
THE YELLOW FEVER
from forty to fifty thousand strangers rushed into New  Orleans  with
almost perfect impunity, although the city was still reeking with the oon-
sequences of the deadly epidemic, and cases  were still daily occurring,
and where nothing either positive or conjectural had occurred to account
for the  subsistence of the disease or the exemption of the strangers, except
atmospheric changes.  " The clouds," adds Dr. McFarlane,  " which had
so long, like a funeral pall, environed and hemmed us in had dispersed ;  a
new and vivifying atmosphere had usurped their place, and  we awoke to
health  and happiness."  What the specific cause  of yellow fever is, (if
such a  cause there be) or what its infectious principle, has not yet been
discovered.
TREATMENT OE THE DISEASE BY PHYSICIANS
                      AND  NURSES.

  As to the treatment of the  yellow fever, by the use of drugs or medi-
cines, I do not think that any very satisfactory information can be given.
At least, no method of treatment was  discovered which could claim the
merit of success sufficient  to commend  it to our consideration.   The
disease was unusually malignant, and  baffled the skill of the most scien-
tific and experienced practitioners.  The use of narcotics, and large doses
of quinine, which had been resorted to in former  years, was  abandoned
very early in  the season, by the most judicious physicians.  Still, the so
called " abortive treatment," by  means of large  doses of quinine,  was
much employed, leaving the patient who recovered in a wretched condi-
tion, deafness, blindness, swelled limbs,  and  hopeless insanity being in
many cases the final result.
  When the  patients were seen soon  after the first symptoms appeared,
castor oi} was very generally administered when constipation existed, with
comparatively good effect; but at a  late stage of the  disease, the oil was
frequently rejected by the stomach, and black vomit, in such cases, gene-
rally set in very speedily, being no  doubt excited by the nauseous  and
acrid nature of the drug. 
IN NEW ORLEANS.
u
  Cupping, bleeding, and the use of calomel and blue pill, were found  to
be equally useless, though much  employed.  In the expenditures of the
Howard Association will be found over $1700 paid for cupping, bleeding,
and leeching.
  All violent, or " heroic" medication, after  the disease was fully deve-
loped, was  found to be  more injurious than beneficial; and more deaths
were no doubt caused by over-anxiety to give medicine than by the want
of medicine.
   Dr. MoFarlanc, in one of his essays on the subject says : " Let the ac-
climated person treat his symptoms of yellow  fever as he would  a common
cold, and he is well in a few hours.   But  call  his disease yellow fever, and
give him sixty grains of Quinine, and who would be  answerable  for his
safety?"  No one, I think, pretends to have discovered any specific for
the fever, or even the best method  of treating it with medicines.
   Good nursing, reliance upon  the defensive and recuperative power of
nature,  and hygienic management, it must be confessed, saved  more  lives
than medicine.  All sensible and judicious physicians within the circle of
my acquaintance, relied more upon such agencies than upon  drugs.  It
was  even the practice  in the Charity Hospital to  give  no medicine to
patients who were brought into that institution after being four days sick
without medical aid ; and a large number of these cases recovered.
   The best method of nursing consisted in  opening the bowels, when
costive by  mild injections of warm water and soap, or some simple fluid;
soaking the feet in hot  water, a mustard foot-bath ; the administration of
hot teas, or hot water, freely when cold  and  chilly;  exciting perspiratior
by means of hot stones  placed around the body while in bed; bathing the
skin, with  hot water or  spirits, and  stimulating the skin with coarse
towels, or with ammoniated washes; giving the patient cold water to drink
when feverish and thirsty; keeping the bed cool, the room well aired, and
the clothing fresh and  clean; removing all causes of  mental excitement,
and keeping the patient as quiet and cheerful as possible; giving little or
no food of  any description, especially when the patient began to  mend and
expressed a strong desire for food,  or if any food was given, it  was of the
simplest and lightest kind.
   This  was the most successful of  all kinds of treatment that I saw or
heard of during the  summer.   Some  tried highly nutritious food, early
in convalescence; but I have yet to be convinced that it succeeded as well
as the more cautious  diet.  Others used  porter, and brandy;  but I saw
more cases of fatal relapse from such management, than  from  the more 
42
THE YELLOW FEVER
abstemious  course  I have  above described.   Cases do  certainly occur
where slight stimulation, with porter or brandy may be useful, but they are
more rare than some people like to imagine.
   The attempt to  control the epidemic by the firing of  cannon and the
burning  of  tar,  we have  alluded  to  in another place.   Dr. Dowler
describes  the effect of these measures  in very graphic  language.  He
says :  " At sunset the epidemic  was regularly, for a time, attacked with
great guns.   But gunpowder failed.  It did worse.  Sleep to the sick is
the turning point for life—the first glimmer along the dark horizon of the
yet dubious morning.  Sleep was broken—the intellect vibrating between
reason and delirium, shattered by the clangor of arms and fever, raved
with redoubled violence, and was sometimes quenched at once by a horrid
convulsion amid the the roar of cannon.  Tar-burning too was tried, but
the epidemic raged  the more.   Terror was supreme."
   A physician who  died of the fever, left an unfinished poem of 200 lines
on the epidemic, in  which occurs the following passage  on the firing of
cannon and the burning of tar:

              The sun sinks down o'er each dcath.crowded street,
              While dread delirious screams the hearing greet;
              Night settles o'er with awe and fear and gloom.
              What means yon glaring blaze, yon cannon's boom ?
              Ha ! victory's tokens for the conqueror Death !
              Who slays his thousands by the/eoer's breath !"

   The Homoeopathic physicians claim to  have treated the disease with
much  success by means  of their peculiar remedies;  but no full  and
accurate  report  of  their  practise has ever   been made up,  and it is
impossible for us to give such an account of it as would prove useful to
those unacquainted with the system, without occupying too much space in
this work. 
 
SICK WARDS,--CHARITY HOSPITAL. 
IN NEW ORLEANS.
45
                  CHARITY  HOSPITAL.

  The city of New Orleans is well supplied with Hospitals both public
and  private.   The  chief  of these institutions is the famous Charity
Hospital in Common street.
  The original edifice stood on the west side of Rampart street, between
Toulouse  and  St.  Peter  streets.  It  was commenced  by Dr. Roxas,
a benevolent Spanish gentleman, in 1784,  and was completed  in 1786, at
an expense of $114,000.   It was called the,new Charity Hospital  of St.
Charles.   He  endowed it  with a perpetual income of $1,500 per annum,
by appropriating the rent  of stores at the corner of St. Peter and  Levee
streets.  In 1S10, the building was consumed by fire, and the manage-
ment of the bequest was given up by the heirs of Dr.  Roxas to the Legis-
lature of Louisiana.  A Council of eight  members was appointed by the
Senate and Governor.  A  most liberal legacy was left to the Hospital fund
by Julian Poydras, of $35,000 ; the State of Pennsylvania made a grant of
$10,000 towards this object;  and the Council of Administration having
sold  some of the  Hospital property to the State for  $125,000, in 1812,
built the present large and commodious Hospital, on Common  Street, at
an expense of about $150,000.
  This edifice is  of immense size, and  presents a very imposing appear-
ance.  A very correct front.view of the building is given  in the engrav-
ing.   It  has two rear wings almost as large as the body of the building,
and numerous other buildings, work  shops, &c, the whole being inclosed
by a substantial brick wall.
  To show the great usefulness of this establishment, it is only necessary
to state that upwards of 5,000 patients are frequently received and treated
in its wards in  a single year; and even when no epidemic prevails, between
700 and 800 persons die within its walls in twelve months.  Less than one
fifth  of these are natives of the United States.
  It may truly be called the home of the homeless and suffering stranger
and the Asylum of the sick and distressed of all countries ; for no distinc-
tion  is ever made, in the reception of patients, on the score of religious
faith or national origin.
  In  the main Hall of the Hospital,  on the lower floor, is a large stone
ToWot fmstened to the wall, bearing the following inscription : 
46
THE YELLOW FEVER
    THE CHARITY HOSPITAL OF NEW ORLEANS
                         was founded in the year 1786, by
            DON  ANDRES ALMONASTER  Y  ROXAS,
                         To whose generous endowment,
   The munificence of the Legislature of this State, and the liberality of the State of Pennsylvania,
             This community is indebted for the means of erecting this edifice,
                            Built in the year 1832,
    His Excellency, A. B. ROMAN, being Governor of the State and President of the Institution;
  To record which, and inscribe hereon the names and contributions of its distinguished benefactors,
                      THIS TABLET HAS BEEN ERECTED.
                           CONTRIBUTORS.
   ETIENNE BORE,             1,000       ANDRES A. ROXAS,         114,000
   ROBERT CAXJNE,             1,000        And an income per year of      1,500
   JULIAN POYDRAS,           35,000       STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA,    10,000
  The Hospital contains beds for about 500 to 600 patients ;  but during
the prevalence of the yellow fever,  numerous cots were introduced, and a
much greater number were received.   The whole number of cases treated
in this hospital in the summer of 1853, was 3,052, of which number 1,765
died.   Nearly 300 died in one week,  during the height of the mortality
in August.
  The whole establishment is kept in excellent condition,  and every pos-
sible attention is paid to the comfort and cleanliness of the sick.   WhiU
the fever raged at its worst,  the discipline of the hospital was in no degree
relaxed.  Few male or female  nurses shrank from duty; the Sisters of
Charity were constant in their attendance, to " shrive the dying and shroud
the dead;" numerous physicians were also  present night and day;  the
coffin makers worked hard ; the dead carts (six of them,)  ran incessantly
to and from Potter's Field;  the  collecting wagons brought in the sick and
dying every hour, and  at the  same time  the, " carriers " removed others
from their beds to the " dead house," to wait their turn for removal to  the
grave!  What a task was here !  How awful to think of, to those who have
never seen such an epidemic; but to myself and many others  it has  lost
half its terrors, and it is almost impossible to excite  a sensation of horror
by reflection upon it.
  At no  boarding  house in New  Orleans can a person,  when seriously
ill,  obtain  such care, medical aid, and good nursing, as he  can at  the
Charity Hospital, even if he has money to pay for such assistance.  But
if he has no money, then the Hospital is  usually the only place where
he can hope for kindness, as a general thing.   Its rooms,  beds and  bed-
ding, are  all scrupulously clean, and  well aired; and although the idea
of lying down upon a cot where a man has just died  of the yellow fever,
might not be so  very agreeable to some persons fortunately situated in
life, the poor creatures who  are  brought here in a half dying state, have 
f
!# 
THE " SISTER OF CHAErTY.'1 
TN NEW ORLEANS.
49
 little disposition to be fastidious in small matters. The ■' wards," or rooms
 contain from ten to fifteen or twenty beds each, as represented in the
 engraving of one of these wards in this work.   The beds are arranged in
 rows, on all sides of the rooms, with narrow  alleys between them, as in
 most other large hospitals.   The engraving well represents the  appear-
 ance of these " wards."
    When a patieut dies, the body is quietly rolled  up in a sheet, pinned
 over the head and feet and  removed from the room by the " carriers,''
 in a box with handles to it like a bier in a church-yard.  It is then taken
 to the dead house for pist-niortem  examination or preparation for burial.
 In cases of epidemics some  disinfecting agent is employed to sprinkle the
 bodies with a view to render them  less.offensive, or dangerous as a source
 of infection.  Sometimes several persons will  die and be removed to the
 dead house, and  a patient lying within  a few feet of the awful scene, with
 all his senses about  him, will take little or no notice of the circumstance.
 The  older and more  feeble the patients, the less  do such  things appear
 to affect them.  It seems as if the  desire for  life  happily  declines with
 the capacity to enjoy it.
   Mr.  Lovejoy, the carpenter  who worked near the  dead-house, and as-
 sisted to make nearly two thousand coffins  duriug  the  epidemic of 1853,
 and some of the young men who drove the dead-wagons to Potter'8 Fie.d,
 and handled the coffins over and over again, open  and reeking with the
 effluvia of yellow fever as they were, even in July and August, were still
 liviug in the winter  of 1^5-1, when  these pages were written, living wit-
 nesses that men, in a healthy state, may be exposed to the oontagious in-
 fluence of  yellow fever,  uudcr the worst of circumstances,  for  many
 months in New Orleans, and yet not be ia the slightest degree affected by
 it   Mr. Lovejoy is a temperate, industrious man, of good habits ;  and one
 at least of the drivers of the hospital wagons is the picture of good health.
 There  is another carpenter in the  Hospital  Yard, Mr. Lum, who has
 worked at making coffins near  the-dead-house for twelve years!
   The Sisters of Charity, who  attend at the Hospital, are of great service
 to the sick, and  no doubt afforded much comfort  to the minds of poor
 Catholics in a dying condition,  to whom  they read prayers  and adminis-
 tered much religious consolation.   As nurses  they  cannot be excelled in
 kindness and careful attention.   We give a sketch,  in one of the engrav-
 ings, of the appearance and  costume of the Sisters of Charity at this Hos-
pital, which is  sufficiently unique  to be interesting.   The sisters have
special charge of the food, the preparation of teas and infusions, and ab.o
                                  D 
50
THE  YELLOW FEVER
the care of the beds, the bed-coverings, clothing of patients, <&c, &c.  We
cannot estimate their devotion to the cause of charity too highly.
      THE  CEMETERIES  OF  NEW ORLEANS.

   The burial grounds  and cemeteries in New Orleans are unlike those of
 any other city of the United  States.  They have anything but an attrac-
 tive appearance to grangers who have been accustomed to visit the beau-
 tiful cemeteries of Mount Auburn, at  Boston;  Greenwood, New York ;
 Laurel Hill, at Philadelphia  ; or the still more beautiful resting places of
 the dead in Europe.
   In consequence of the impossibility of digging graves in the earth with-
 out coming to water at six  inches to  two feet  below the surface of the
 ground,  very few if any bodies are buried in the earth within the  thickly
 settled portion of the  city, either  in tombs or  graves.  All the vaults
 are built above the surface, chiefly of brick.
   There are  three general styles  of constructing tombs.   They  are  as
 follows :
   1. Long ranges of vaults, each one capable of holding a single coffin,
 some five or six vaults  in height, and many hundred feet in length.   These
 vaults are built of brick, and occupy the entire sides  of the cemetery.
 They are also built up  with vaults on both  sides of  the structure in the
 open ground.   The vaults of  these tombs are called " Ovens."  When a
 body is placed in them they are immediately sealed up with masonry, and
 a tablet  is placed in front, on  which the name, time of death, birth-place
 and age  of the deceased  person is inscribed.  Hundreds of them, how-
 ever, have no names at all on them, or only a scrawl, made  with a stick
 or some  rude instrument in the fresh mortar.  The inscription on others
is painted on pine  boards, on  slate, and occasionally graven  on marble./'
We give an  engraving which exhibits  a very perfect representation of
these " Ovens " of the dead.
  2. The family vaults, or tombs, chiefly built of brick, and plastered 
hH    em:
4';X fcj^^lfw i^sHXX" b r


'%#'
0398442213 
oc 
                         IN NEW  OilLE.VsS.                       53

or stuoooed, and containing one or more ' Ovens.''   Some of these are of
iron, some of granite, others of brown sand-stone and marble.  Many of
them, especially in the  French cemeteries, are very handsome and appro-
priate.  A sketch of one of these family tombs will be found in this work,
carefully drawn and engrayed.
   3. The society tombs, of large size, containing many vaults or oven;*,
constructed in various ornamental styles, somewhat similar to that of the
Orleans Battalion of Artillery represented in the engraving.
   The method of burying the dead in graves and  trenches, in Potter',?
Field,  and in Charity  Hospital cemetery, will  be  described in  another
place.
   The cemeteries in the city are all very much crowded with tombs and
monuments, leaving but little space for  walks or shrubbery.   It  is to be
regretted that tlw were ever permitted to be located in the heart of the
city at all.   The new cemeteries are all about four miles from the centre
of the city, on the Metairie ridge.
             The French and Catholic Cemeteries.

   The French and Catholic cemeteries within the limits of the city, are
all highly interesting to a stranger, and present many things which seem
extremely curious and singular to a Protestant American.
   The tombs are all erected above the earth, of brick and stone, as before
described.  Many of them are quite fanciful in form, and much the larger
portion are^decorated with various emblems of the regard of the living
for their departed friends, or at least of their frequent presence and re-
membrance.  The curious French inscriptions and mottoes on the tombs
first attract attention, whether the visitor can read and understand them
or not; next the abundance of crosses, and frail wooden railings, and other
decorations of wood ; then the numerous littli images of Cupids and kneel-
ing Saints in Plaster of Paris,  most of them half washed away by rains,
and with abundance  of broken  arms,  legs and noses; wreaths of black,
blue and pink paper, (glazed paper seems to be the favorite material,) hung 
54                      THE YELLOW  FEVER.

about the tombs; vases, large and small, and glasses full of natural and
artificial flowers, in all stages of perfection, from the freshest natural bo-
quets down to the poor rain washed white-satin rose, spattered with  mud
and  sadly  neglected ; fancy  bugle and bead-work wreaths  and  other
ornaments;  little medals of metal and lithograph; and even large  litho-
graphic pictures of the Saints and the Virgin, in cheap mahogany frames
covered  with  glass,  hung over the tombs.   One hardly knows  what  to
say of such a display of affection, often so tawdry, artificial  and fanciful;
(but still it is better than the utter absence of attention to the resting place
of the dead, which formerly prevailed in some parts of the United States,
and the desolate and forbidding aspect of the  fields  appropriated to this
purpose in many thriving American towns even at the present day.
  We give one of the French inscriptions on a family tomb.
                              IC* REPOSE
                        EVELINE LOPEZ,
                       Nee a la N'lle. Orleans,
                           le 27 Mai 1827,
                       decedee le 28 Mai 1851,
                           Agee it 25 am.

  Another tomb has on it simply, " Famille  Augustin Rousseau."
  In one of the French cemeteries will  be found the old tomb, given  in
the engraving in this work, shewing  how soon, and in what manner the
brick tombs decay and fall to pieces.   The best  of them which have been
constructed  before this period will  hardly last  more than fifty years,  in
consequence of the want of firmness in the ground, and the rapid tendency
to decay, produced by the moist atmosphere.
   I took the trouble to copy the inscription and  motto  on the old tomb
represented in the  engraving, which shows that  it was a married lady,
only sixteen years and six months old, perhaps quite recently  a bride.   I
do not happen to know the family.   I  refer  to the tomb most broken in
 front, showing a view of the interior.
   Inscription on  the old tomb represented in the  engraving . 
 
",x''¥^
 kLX-XXx..
MiiSl
HHMIIII,

ilii           111



        iiiSiiiSiiiiii^
FAMILY TOMB, SHOWING THE INTERIOR OF THE VAULTS.
482�07 
IN NEW ORLEANS.
57
                               t
                                \ OIL
               ALIX CALI.3TE DUSSUAU DE LA CROIX
                              espouse de
                          A. B. Z. NOUCHET,
                        decedee le 7 Octobre 1611,
                         Age de 16 ana 6 mois,
  Motto on the same tomb :
"Passant versez despleurs la Vertu et la Jeunease sont ensevelies dans ce tombeau."
  Thus it will be perceived that the tomb had been standing only forty-
two ydars  when it was in the condition represented.
           The Protestant, or American Cemetery.

   The  Protestant or American Cemetery is  situated in the 2d District,
or Municipality, fronting on St Paul street, and adjoining the yard of the
city Work-house.  In this cemetery a very large proportion  of the Ameri-
can  strangers  who  have died in  New  Orleans within the last twenty
years, have found a resting place, when  they  or  their friends were  able
to pay for an " oven " or a " tomb."
   It belongs to the society of  Christ Church, and is managed with much
cure.  Great efForts have been made to repair  and improve it;  but it is
still, as  compared with burial grounds more favorably situated, in a very
unattractive condition.
   The tombs are all built above the ground, after the usual style of New
Orleans cemeteries, chiefly of brick, with ovens or vaults for single coffin^
or for family use, as described in another part  of this work.  The ceme-
tery has been  much flooded  with  water in rainy seasons, and the water
iioii-cmitly stands in the open ditches and  drains about the grounds, in the
driest weather, covered with green slimy  matter.  Efforts are now being
made to fill up the principal walks  and paths with stable manure, street
m 
58
THE  YELLOW FEVER
 dirt, oyster shells, and other material, so as to place them  above the rise
 of water; but some time ago, before this was done, the undertakers have
 frequently floated about the paths of this cemetery in  a boat to bury the
 dead, as represented in the engraving, which gives a very  good general
 view of the principal street or path in the grounds, as seen from the inte-
 rior.   There are  no bodies buried in the earth in this  cemetery; all the
 burial places are  above the earth, and most of them out of the reach  of
 water.
   In this cemetery is deposited the body of Lieut. Col. W. W.  S. Bliss,
 the son-in-law of the late Gen. Taylor, who died of yellow fever, at Pas-
 cagoula, Miss., on the 5th of August,  1853, aged 38.  Col. Bliss won
 a high reputation by his military services under Gen. Taylor in the Mexi-
 can war, and had the credit of preparing the despatches forwarded by the
 General to the government at Washington, which  weVe so  much admired
 as specimens df that kind of writing.  Col. Bliss was private secretary of
 General Taylor after he became President;  married his daughter Betsy
 Taylor, and was chief heir to the  fortune of  the General,  which was not
 small.   He was a highly educated, talented gentlemen, and  held a very
 enviable position in the world's esteem.   For such a man  to be cut off
 from his budding hopes in life, at  the age of thirty-eight, was melancholy
 in the extreme.  Mrs. Bliss erected a beautiful monument to  his memory,
 a correct sketch of which is given  in the  engraving.
  Gen. Taylor's body, and also that of his wife, is deposited in a cemetery
 at Louisville, Kentucky.  The sarcophagus of Col. Bliss's tomb is so con-
structed that it can be enlarged for  a family tomb, or it can be removed
entire, without opening it, if it should be  desired to change its place of
deposit. ■ It is composed of pure Italian  marble.
  H. R. N. Hill, the well known merchant and steamboat  owner,  also
died of yellow fever, and was buried in the American Cemetery.  He died
on the 17th of September,  1853, aged  57.   His  family reside at Nash-
ville, Tenn., whither it is designed to remove the body.
  The  largest and finest tombs in the  Protestant Cemetery, (public or
society tomb?,) are those  oicned and erected  by slaves.  This is a  fact
which should be taken notice of by Mrs.  Stowe in her next  edition of her
"Key."  The " ovens " contain a  large  number  of slaves ; for any  one
wlro has money enough to pay  for  an oven can be deposited in this ceme-
tery, whether black or white, bond or free.   The cost of  burial in the
" ovens " or  in the vaults of the  society tombs, is about twenty dollars.
This is sometimes paid by the  slave, and very frequently by  the  mist-r.
* 
t 
471 
IN NEW ORLEANS.
61
The slaves have, however, by means of the principle of association, erected
fine monuments and  tombs of  their own, as above named.  They are
owned by the following societies of slaves, viz:   " The First African Bap-
tist Association, of New Orleans;" the '• Colored Widows' Friend's  Bene-
volent Association;" the "John  Wesley Colored Society;"  the " Colored
Home Missionary Benevolent Society;"  and  the "Colored Benevolent
Lutheran Society."   This last Society has a tomb containing upwards of
seventy large  vaults—a very elegant and costly edifice, entirely  above
ground.   These .structures are erected from the savings  of  slaves,  which
often amount to no inconsiderable sum.   At the North, with many people
these "nigger tombs" would be  considered a disgrace to a cemetery,
which would render  it extremely unpopular with the white population.
The relative, position  of the colored people  is often far more comfortable
in the South than it is at  the North, in respect to this point, and many
others of  like, character.
   To show the nature of  the interments  in the Protestant Cemetery,  I
have copied from the "ovens"  a large number of the inscriptions, by
which it will  be  seen that the  occupants of thi-s  cemetery are from all
parts of the United States, and  indeed of Protestant Europe ;  and also
the melancholy fact that much the larger portion of them are young men,
not over 35 years  of age, who have fallen victims  to yellow  fever and
cholera, in this ill-fated city, since 1832.   The following are some  of tho
inscriptions :
   Wm. Blocker Plume, son  of  Col. John J. Plume, of Newark, N. J.,
died of yellow fever, August 13,  1847, aged 26.
   Daniel  Staples, first officer of ship Hartley, native of Wells, Maine,
died of yellow fever, October 14, 1848,  aged 30.
   Geo. P. Walton, of Montpelier, Vt., died April 26, 1841, aged 23.
   Frances Cordelia Buckner, wife of B. P. Buckner, of Louisville Ky.,
died October 30, 1837.  (In pencil:  " B.  P.  Buckner visited this  grave
May 9th,  1853.")
   C»pt. J. D. Jackson, of  Tennessee, died of yellow fever, August 29,.
1847, aged 28.
   James Frizel, of Ireland, died of cholera, December 28,1848, aged 26.
   Albert J. Coffin, of Natchez, Miss., died May 22, 1852.
   David Steele, portrait painter, of Auburn, N. Y., died July 24, 1839,
aged 37.                                                         >
  Julia Banks, of Richmond, Va., died  February 23, 1839, aged 40.
  George  Robinson, of Philadelphia, died  August 21, 1853, aged 32. 
62
THE  YELLOW I'EVER
         " Far away from kindred, chosen friends were near,
         To close the eyes of one whom all held dear."
  Charles F. Gnospelius, of Stockholm, Sweden, died  of  yellow  fever,
August 13, 1853, aged 36.  Erected  by the Philharmonic Society  and
friends of Art.
  Donald Watson,  of East Windsor, Connecticut, died August 30, 1853,
aged 22.
  Joseph M. Martin,  of County  Managhan, Ireland, died  September 2,
1853, aged 42.
  Matteo P. Zaratin, of Italy, died June 13, 1853, aged 43.
  Lewis  H.  Lewis, of Albany, New York, died August 11,1852, aged 18.
  Perry  S. Warfield,  died October 30, 1853, aged 34.  His  own lines,
composed for others, are his fittest epitaph:
         " Is not the grave a peaceful resting place,
           When life's tumultuous checkered scenes are past ?
          Here sorrow ends, and pleasure's giddy chase :
           In death's embrace we calmly sleep at last."
  Robert S. Brenham, of Frankfort,  Kentucky,  died October 7, 1843.
  Capt. Robert Trim, of Camden, Maine, died of yellow fever, October
1, 1843,  aged 27.
  H. T. Oviatt, of Milford, Connecticut, died June 2, 1651, aged 34.
  George McCormick,  of Washington city, D. C, died July 12, 1S48,
aged 46.
  William B. Belden, of Hudson, New  York, died  August  23,  1850,
aged 25.
  Rowland Peel, of Oneida county, New York, killed by  the explosion
of the steamboat Louisiana, November 15,  1849, aged  30. Erected by
his friend, Jacob Peterson.
  Near by the above is this inscription:
  Jacob  Peterson, of  Delaware county, Pennsylvania, died May 27,1850,
aged 33.
  Jacob  S. Miears, of New York, died March 6, 1853,  aged 49.
  Horace F. Davis, of Norwich, Connecticut, died July 28,1851, aged 29.
  William P Dunnington,  of  Baltimore, Maryland, died  February 18,
1850, aged 63.
  William A. Hartnell, native of New York, (36 years a resident of New
Orleans,) died of cholera, at  San Antonio,  Texas, April 29, 1849, aged
65.
  Rev. John Newton Allen, of Shelbyville, Kentucky, died December 30,
1835, aged 28. 
IN NEW ORLEANS,
63
   R. G. Lines, of Utica, New York, operator  in  the  Telegraph  Office,
 New Orleans, drowned in Chef Menteur Pass, March 16, 1848.
   Thomas Johnston, a native of Charlestown, Massachusetts, died August
 21, 1830, aged 21.
   William C. Deafenbach, of Philadelphia, died November 8, 1830.
   Nathaniel Middaugh, native of Brown  county, Ohio, died November
 30, 1830, aged 21.
   James Hosmer, a native of Middlesex county, Massachusetts, died Feb-
 ruary 23, 1831, aged 45.
   Lloyd B. Cooper, of Middletown Connecticut, died September 26,1830,
 aged 20.
   George Backus, of Pomfret, Connecticut, died May 15,  1831, aged 30.
   A. M. Willard, of Boston, Massachusetts, died July 6, 1831, aged 22.
   Lloyd J. Bryan, of Norfolk, Virginia, died March 27, 1843, aged 30.
   James S. Murphy, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, died January 31, 1848,
 aged 30.
   Mrs. Hester Delmean, of Baltimore, Maryland, died October 25, 1832,
 aged 16 years and 6 months.
   John B.  Carter, of Nashville, Tennessee, died December  27, 1847,
 aged 51.
   Edward D. Dpblois, of Boston, Massachusetts, died September 15,1832,
 aged 24.       ^
   John Nicholson, of Philadelphia, (for  40 years a citizen of New Or-
 leans,) died  May 17, 1848, aged 65.
   A. C.  Ainsworth, of Providence, Rhode Island, died May 5, 1851,
 aged 42.  Mrs. A. 0. Ainsworth, died July 22, 1852, aged 32.
   Oapt. George Robbins, of Somersworth, New Hampshire, died May
 30, 1833, aged 67.
   C. S. Holmead, of Washington city, D.  C, died September 2, 1848,
 aged 29.
   Mrs. Aurelia Smith, died on her way from the city of Mexico to Boston,
 November 28, 1847.
   Jethro Folger, of Cincinnati, (a native of Nantucket,  Massachusetts,)
 died May 19, 1833, aged 38.
   Mrs. Ann Parker, wife of John J. Parker,  of Philadelphia, died May
3,  1833, aged 25.
   Lieut. William C. Grissam, of the Natchez  Fenoibles, died March 15,
1833, aged 30.  Erected by his surviving fellow soldiers.
  William Wood, of Frankfort, Kentucky, died March 7, 1833. 
64
THE "YELLOW FEVER
   Jacob Klein, of Norfolk, Virginia, died April 13, 1833.
   William Sharp Maurice, of Norfolk, Virginia, died April 16, 1833.
   B.  F. Wish,  of Charleston,  South Carolina, died February 3, 1849,
 aged 27.  Erected by his wife.
   William  Hower,  Boston,  Massachusetts, died September  18, 1847,
 aged 46.
   William Clay, of Philadelphia, died September 9, 1833;  and Ann, his
 wife, died September 16, 1833.
   Boswell McNeill King, of Savannah, Georgia, died July 31,1847, aged
 15 years.
   Vincent R. Hagan, of Kentucky, died of yellow fever, September 7,
 1847, aged 26.
   Louis A. Labuzan, of Augusta, Georgia, died June 6, 1839, aged 29.
   Lieut. David Henderson, who was killed twelve miles from the city of
 Vera Cruz, in a skirmish with the guerillas, February 19, 1848, aged 24.
   Emily Eliza, wife of Christopher Hackinger, native of Litchfield, Con-
 necticut, died May 25, 1850, aged 28.
   Capt.  Charles H.  Killam, died September 10, 1841, aged 33; of the
 brig Neva, of Boston, the  first vessel  that entered  the  Mississippi river
 direct from Calcutta.
   James Harrington; of St. Louis, died March 9, 1851, aged 23.
   George Stanley, of Boston, died March 31, 1850, aged 32.
   Alexander   Pope, son of  Le Roy Pope, of Huntsville, Alabama, died
 October 22, 1834, aged 31.
   William  H. McConnell, first officer of ship  Russia, died August  20,
 1848, aged 29;  a native of Ireland.
   John Bell,  of  Scotland, died August 30, 1848, aged 23.
   Arthur M.  Henderson, of Huntsville,  Alabama,  died  September  23,
 1848, aged 25.
   Abner Perrin Hearst, of Edgefield,  South  Carolina, died  October  15,
 1848, aged 22.
   John Murray, of Louisville, Kentucky, (born in Washington city,) died
 January 15,1849, aged 41.
   Capt. J.'D. Taylor, of  Baltimore, Maryland, died August 30,1846,
 aged 56.
   Capt. D. Wheaton,  of Vermont, died November 1, 1833, aged  28.
   William Anderson, of Staunton, Virginia, died March 9,1847,  aged 45.
   Rev. James Foster Hull, a native of  Belfast, Ireland, for 18  years
Rector of Christ Church, New Orleans, died June 6, 1833, aged 57. 
SOCIETY MONUMENT,—ORLEANS BATTALLION OF AETILLEEY.
4 
 
IN NEW ORLEANS.
67
  Magdaline Agatha, consort of Rev. J. F. Hull, native of Dublin,  Ire-
land, died December 5, 1844, aged 54.
  The better class of cemeteries are chiefly built like the French Catholic
and the Protestant Cemetery.  Of this class are the Cypress Grove Ceme-
tery, No. 1, (the Firemen's,) the Odd  Fellows' Rest, and the St. Patrick
Cemetery, about four miles from the  city, on the Metairie Ridge, near
Potter's Field, and the Charity Hospital ground.
                         Potter's  Field.

   "Potter's Field " is the general name given to a large tract of land,
say about fifty acres, which lies on the verge of "Cypress Swamp," about
four miles from the city of New Orleans, on what is called the  Metairie
Ridge, and in the immediate vicinity of  the Firemen's, the  Odd Fellows'
and the St. Patrick's Cemetery,  and also of the famous  " Metairie Race
Course."  The gate of "Potters Field" bears  a  sign marked "Cypress
Grove, No. 2," but it is more generally known by the striking title above
given.   One-half the ground is  appropriated for the general burial place
of the poor and unfortunate, who have  no "oven" or tomb provided for
their reception, from the city generally; and the other half is under the
immediate direction of the Charity Hospital.
   The ground is just a rough field, enclosed with a fence, very low and
wet in some parts of it, and in the best part not so much raised as to pre-
vent the water from standing in  pools on the surface of the earth, during
heavy  rains.   At the entrance of the ground is  a  large  pool of water,
full of reeds, and the remnants of a boat were lying there in the winter
of 1854, showing that it was necessary at times to have some other means
of navigating the place than merely walking.   A few large cypress trees
are scattered  over the field, their limbs heavily loaded with funeral moss,
and the rear  of the grounds are entirely bordered with these melancholy
specimens of  vegetable life.
  In the Potter's Field there are few well marked or well protected graves,
and no ovens  or tombs above  ground.   All the bodies buried here, are 
68
THE YELLOW  FEVER
 deposited in the earthy or rather in the water.   The graves are dug about
 two or three feet deep, according to  the state of the  water, and  even in
 the driest seasons generally contain, when  the coffin is lowered into them,
 about a foot or two of water.   In the summer of 1853 about 4,000 bodies
 were buried in.these grounds.   The ground was somewhat dry at times,
 but it rained very frlquently and filled the graves and trenches after they
^ere dug, and  consequently almost all the  bodies were buried in water.
 The coffin will generally float in the grave.   The workmen generally press
 iioown with a shovel, or stand on it while the  grave  is being filled up!
 This story, so  commonly and generally told, of burials in the earth in
 New Orleans, is really and literally true; but when the fact is seen it does
 not appear  so  terrible  as does  the  relation of it.   You generally come
 to water six inches below the surface of the earth, or one foot at least, in
 almost any part of New Orleans.  But the soil is very compact and solid,
 (being of a clayey nature,) and the graves, though half full of water, are
 yet very firm.   It is true, the soil in some places, is quite boggy  and
 shaky, but it is not so in the  larger portion of Potter's Field ; and it is
 not perforated by  water rats or any animals of that description   Alliga-
 tors have formerly been seen in great numbers, in that vicinity, but they
 are now quite rare, at least within a mile or so of the burial ground.
   When but few deaths occur, the bodies are buried in Potter's Field in
 single graves, just as they are in the  country burial grounds all over  the
 United States.   But in  times of epidemics, long trenches or ditches  are
 dug, some two or three thousand feet long, and  the  bodies  are buried in
 them as close as they can be packed.   Owen Lynch, who attended all  the
 burials in this place, in 1853, says that in few if any cases were the bodies
 buried in large holes, or piled one upon another; nor were any buried
 in sheets or blankets ; nor was any attempt made to burn them.  He says
 it required a gang of twelve and fifteen men, in  July and August, to dig
 the graves and  cover the dead in Potter's Field,  and  more in the Charity
 Hospital grounds; but never, except in one instance, were any bodies left
 lying unburied  for many hours, in the hot sun, as was reported.  He says
 the bodies were all in coffins or boxes, and never two in a box, except now
 and then a child with its parent or friend, and the same, (a man and boy
 together,) in the Charity Hospital boxes.
   The engraving gives a very correct  idea of the chief view in the Pot-
 ter's Field.   It is impossible to give the whole field in the sketch, without
 making  all  the objects  too minute.  On the left will be seen the long
 trenches or "winrows,"  as some have called them, where hundreds upon
t 
IN NEW ORLEANS.
69
hundreds of bodies lie with not so much as a stick to mark the place.  In
several instances, friends of the  deceased appear to have  followed  the
coffin and stuck up a rude cross, made of rough  bits of pine  wood, with
some writing, (perhaps in pencil,) to indicate who lies beneath the clay;
but thousands of  graves are entirely nameless.   The single graves are,
great numbers of them, marked with sticks and crones, bearing some rude
inscription;  but there is not a single  stone monument, or other  durable
memorial, in the whole field, which no doubt  contains eight or ten thou-
sand bodies, for a very large portion of it is filled as closely as the bodies
can lie.  One portion of it, filled some few years ago, is quite overgrown
with tall, thick, blackberry bushes, which flourish enormously, enriched
as they are with the bones and ashes of so many thousand human beings
in the soil beneath them, the victims of cholera and yellow fever in former
years, and these bushes bear a rich harvest of fruit which the poor wretches
from the city, who are soon to lie in the  same soil, do not hesitate to
gather and eat with as much relish as if they were grown in a pleasure
garden instead  of an epidemic cemetery.
   Besides the sticks and crosses which mark some of the graves, there are
a few surrounded by neat  wooden railings, painted white, and  others have
a substantial board placed at the head  and foot, with  carefully painted
letters on them.   As a general thing however, the Potter's  Field and the
Charity Hospital Grounds are the last homes of the " nameless dead."
Very rarely are the bodies buried here, followed to the grave by mourn-
ing friends.   The solitary hearse, the corporation carts, or the  hospital
wagons, come out with their load of dead, often half  a dozen coffins or
boxes at a time, during the  epidemic; they are  unloaded in  a pile  and
hurried promiscuously into the earth with the least trouble or ceremony
possible.  No prayer is uttered;  no sigh  is breathed by any  human lips.
Some poet has said:
                 " There is a tear for all who die;
                 A mourner o'er the humblest grave."
But  here, in Potter's Field, New Orleans, this sentiment, which  it is so
pleasant to believe, is proved a falsehood and a mockery.  Hundreds go
to their long home, and no eye  is dimmed in consequence;  no human
being mourns their departure.  Their grave is unmarked by stick or stone;
the very coffin is a  nameless one!  Not so much as a piece  of chalk isi
employed to  write their names upon  the rough, unplaned and unpainted
boxes in which  they lie !                          % 
70
THE YELLOW  FEVER
   Within a few rods of  Potter's Field—not more than fair  rifle-shooting
 distance—is the " Metairie Race Course," and the drinking  saloons, and
 pleasure gardens connected  with  that  famous  resort the  " Half-Way
 House" on the way from New Orleans to the Lake.   To reach this place
 the best route lies over  that  celebrated  theatre  for the  display of " fast
 young men," the renwvned "Shell  Road?"   The old Shell  Road, along
 by the canal, is now abandoned for a free one, called the " Bienville Road,"
 even superior to the old  one for fast driving.  The funerals to all the large
 cemeteries on.the Metairie Ridge, the solitary hearse, the dead carts, the
 hospital wagons, the "fast crabs," and the fashionable turn-out, with the
 gay buck and his ladies,  all now travel the same broad and beautiful road
 daily;  and the " fast men" run races  with death and his numerous " teams,"
 on the way to the cemeteries and Potter's Field.  The hearses  and dead
 carts apparently come in second best, in these daily races,  but the old
 grey-beard, in  whose service  they are, generally overtakes the  young
 bloods, and wins the stakes in the long run.
  In the summer of  1853 the  new " Shell Road" was quite deserted by
 the fashionables ; but more riding or driving was never seen on that popu-
 lar thoroughfare in the same space of time.   It was one constant proces-
 sion  of hearses, carriages, carts and wagons, the  whole  time, every day,
 and even till late in the evening.  So great was the travel that  the road
 was deeply cut  up with ruts, (a most  unusual thing for so hard a road,
 M'Adamized with shells,) and rendered in consequence very uncomfortable
 to travel upon.   So deep  were these ruts, and so difficult to  fill up, that
 even six months afterwards it was unusually rough.
  Standing in Potter's Field, the clink of glasses, as.the bucks take their
liquor at the saloons, may be  distinctly heard ;  and the  shouts  upon the
 " Race Course" often sound as if the entire army of the dead, lying be-
 neath its sods,  had suddenly been roused from their graves and  were
 shouting in triumph at their deliverance from the cold embrace of death !
 The races are often held on Sunday, and the " sounds of  revelry" which
proceed from that quarter have a most startling effect upon  persons ac-
 customed to observe the day in a religious  manner.   Such is life in New
 Orleans; or rather such are  the incongruous combinations of  life and
death in this great Southern metropolis.
0 
{ 
> 
IN NEW ORLEANS.
73
           INCIDENTS  OF THE EPIDEMIC.

                  The  Artist  and his Child.

  On the 5th of August I was called to see a  little  boy, the son of  an
artist, recently arrived in the United States, who was living in an obscure
room, in.one of the most filthy streets of the city, where the fever was
prevailing with fearful malignity.  The artist was a fiiie looking man, with
a splendid  head, a dark  poetical eye, and ambrosial hair.  He seemed
deeply affected  by the condition of his child, and still more so at his want
of means to pay for the necessary  attendance, and to provide more com-
fortable quarters.  He said he was a widower, and this was his only child,
a fine boy about five or six years of age.  The mother died when the  in-
fant was some three months old.
  " The life of  the child," said the artist, " has been one continued tor-
ture :  he was  weaned at three months, and we attempted to bring him up
by  hand.   This failed, and he was reduced to   a perfect skeleton.  One
day when I was kissing him, he sucked my cheek violently.  I said, this
child  wants the breast even  now.  I got a wet-nurse instantly, and  he
seized the breast like a young tiger.   In a few  months he recovered sen-
sibly—but the poor woman who came to suckle him had weaned her own. •
child.   I called on the nursej  before she came, and found she  was in great
poverty, and had a fine baby.'   I said, ' what do you do with this child?'
She said, 'wean it, sir;  we are poor, and  must  do so.'   I  went away.
'Is this just?' thought I,rt3rrisk  the  life of another child  to save my
own V   I went  home, tortured as to what I should do, but a desire to save
the life  of my own child  predominated.  The  nurse came; my boy was
saved ; but the  fine baby of the poor nurse paid the penalty.   I was never
easy.   My boy never can, never will prosper, thought I.  What right had
I to take advantage of the poverty of this poor woman to save my own
child, when I knew she had an  infant of her  own ?  My apprehensions
have been shown to be well founded, for  the  boy never  has prospered.
He is a noble-looking child, sir, but he has always been ill, often danger-
ously so, and  now, with this fearful fever, I have no hopes of  his life!"
  I endeavored to give the fond parent some  encouragement; but on a
careful examination of the child, I saw that he had too much brain for
the strength of his body and the size of his chest, and I felt that the chance
of savin* his  life would  be but feeble.   The   boy was evidently highly 
74
THE  YELLOW  FEVER
   gifted.   The father showed me some  evidences of his talent in drawing,
   which were truly wonderful for  one of his  age.  But no power of man
   could save the frail child of genius.  In  less than forty-eight hours  he
   died, not so much of yellow fever, (though  he had marked symptoms of
   it,) as of  disease of the brain.   Soon  after death,  however, the body
   turned yellow, and left no doubt that  there was yellow fever in the case.
     I soon perceived that the death of the boy had given a shock to the mind
   of the father from which he would never effectually recover.   I  became
   deeply interested in him, and visited him often.  He would not permit the
   body of  his son to be removed from the house, but insisted on painting a
   portrait of him after  he was laid out.   He  had the body washed with a
   preparation of arsenic, and  the mouth filled with antiseptic substances,
   and even after he was laid in  the  coffin, for  nearly four days, continued
   to sketch the beautiful face of his  dear child, painting portrait  after por-
   trait, and destroying them as soon as completed, in  consequence of their
   seeming imperfection.  At first I was inclined to humor this fancy of the
   devoted father; but I soon saw indications of insanity in his conduct, and
   then yellow fever in his face, and finally—death !
     I had the body of the child removed to the cemetery, and the  artist
   father followed his dear son, in less than a week, to his last  resting place
   on earth   They  were evidently  entire strangers  in New  Orleans.  I
• 'learned very little more of their history than I have  related.  His  per-
   sonal effects were few.   Money he had none.  His chief treasures seemed
   to be  his1  son, and a few peculiar pieces of ladies jewetay, a miniature
   of a lady, (probably his wife,)  and  various c^jer little mementoes of affec-
   tion, which, (as I paid the expense of the bwial,)  I took the liberty of re-
   taining in my own possession, being of little value except as remembrances
   of the children of genius, whose last hours I had the satisfaction of .sooth-
   ing with a few words and acts  of kindness.
The  Weak  Mother.
  A lady in affluent circumstances had gone up  the coast to spend the
summer, leaving her young son, a clerk, in the city.   Hearing that he was 
IN NEW ORLEANS.
75
seized with the fever, the fond mother took a boat and  came to the  city
to see him.  She rode up in a carriage from  the  wharf to  the  house in
which her son boarded.   On her way, she encountered several hearses
and funeral processions.  The sight of these melancholy symbols of mor-
tality naturally added to her alarm and nervousness.   Finally the carriage
stopped before  the boarding house  of her son.  There was that dark
vehicle of the dead, with its plumes and the sleepy negroe, drawn up at
the door.
  " Who is dead here ?"  asked the lady, in a  tremulous, choked voice.
  " It is a young man, a clerk in a store," replied a servant at the door.
  " My son!  my son 1"  exclaimed the agonized and half-fainting mother.
But even at that time, with the  instinct of a  mother, remembering  that
she had other children to live for, she ordered the coachman to drive back
to the boat, upon  which she left that evening for  her country residence.
Now a strange result followed.  The son recovered. It was another young
clerk who had died in the same boarding house; the  agonized and fright-
ened mother had omitted to mention her son's name.  But,  alas! the un-
happy lady, who could not bear to look upon the corpse of her dead son,
returned to her country residence  only to die of the  disease, the fear of
which prevailed over her natural affection.  A more revolting case is that
of the unburied daughter.
                    The Unburied Daughter.
   A young girl about sixteen years of age was seized with the fever in a
 house where she lived with her father, mother, and other relatives.  She
 was deserted and  neglected in the early stage of the disease.   At last a
 cab was called to take her to the hospital.  Wrapped up in a blanket, she
 was placed in the  cab, and the driver was ordered to proceed as rapidly
 as he could to the hospital.   But  the cabman loitered on the  way, and
 even stopped at a  cabaret to take a drink.  Thus it was two hours before
 he reached the hospital.  When the cab arrived in front of the clerk's
'office, the usual questions were called out to the patient; v What is your 
76
THE  YE3LL0W FEVER
 name ?  where are you from ?"  There was no reply from the object rolled
 up in the blanket.  The questions were repeated in a louder tone.
   No reply.
   " Roll her out, cabman," called out the clerk.
   The cabman pulled off the blanket, and a stiff, staring corpse fell heavily
 on the seat.  "She is dead!" exclaimed the  clerk;  and, turning to the
 next cab, called out, " Drive up, and let us see what you have got."  With
 pencil in hand, he had re-commenced his eternal queries to a new patient:
 " What's your name, age, country ?"  When the  unfortunate carrier of
 the corpse, having recovered from the alarm naturally excited by the dis-
 covery of the character of his burden, asked the clerk of the  hospital
 what he should do with his load.   " Take her home and make her friends
 bury her," was the curt reply.   The cabman cracked his whip and dashed
 off in the direction of the house  where he had received his load.   He
 found the windows and doors of the house tightly closed, and a tar-barrel
 burning in the yard.   Rapping for some time violently at the door, he at
 last discovered  an upper window shutter slowly moving, and a pale, fright-
 ened countenance peeping through the small open space.
   " What do you want ?" nervously inquired the person from the window—
 as if it were midnight, and he  feared the attack of a robber.
   '• Here is your daughter, dead in my cab, and I want you to take her
 and bury her."
   A deep groan and  noise, followed by a violent slamming of the shut-
 ters, were the only responses to the solicitation of the cabman.   Now the
 latter began to be alarmed.   What  could he do  with a corpse!  They
 would not receive her at the hospital; her parents refused her—and he
 could not afford to bury her.   At last it occurred to him to take her to
 the nearest cemetery.   Away he started as fast as his wearied horse could
 drag the cab.   Arrived at the cemetery, the sexton was asked to receive
 a corpse.
   "Where is the certificate?"
   " I have none."
   " It can't be done."
  ■" Here she is!" and the cabman unrolled the blanket.
   " What! not even coffined—and no certificate !  I'll have yon arrested."
  41 Oh, lordy !" exclaimed the now thoroughly frightened cabman ; and,
jumping into his cab, drove rapidly back to the house of the dead girl's
 parents.  Here he took the corpse out, and laying it on the steps of the
 house, drove  away*   Some charitable citizens, passing by, observed the 
IN NEW ORLEANS.
77
corpse ; and, after vainly trying to arouse the persons within, sent off for
a corporation coffin, in which the  body of the unfortunate girl was in-
closed, and duly buried.  In a week afterward the house, which was bar-
ricaded against the fever, as the  hearts of its inmates were against all
human and natural feeling, was emptied by the grim destroyer, and, as  it
appeared in this case, avenger and punisher!
                    Matrimonial Devotion.

  In  contrast with these instances of human weakness and cowardice,
many noble and inspiring examples  of devotion,  courage, and affection
crowd into our memory.  Never shall we forget a scene described to us
by a friend, who witnessed it.   A poor couple were seized with the fever
about the same time, and lay in the same bed, in a damp, uncomfortable
house or shanty.  A doctor was called, who directed that the man should
be sent to the hospital—adding that the woman was too low and weak to
be removed.  Hearing the direction of the physician, the  poor patients
clung to  one another with all their strength, and declared that they would
not be separated, but would die together.   Force had to be used.   Seve-
ral  strong men  were called, who, by main strength, tore the  unfortunate
husband  from the arms of his wife, who fell back on the bed in  violent
convulsions.  The man was placed in a cab, which was ordered  to take
him to the Charity Hospital.   On his arrival there he was in a dying
condition, and the  next day his body was in the  dead-house.  His poor
wife quickly followed him to that home where they can no more be sepa-
rated, and where their affections may bloom forever, without the blight
of disease or sorrow. 
78
THE  YELLOW FEVER
                       Mon Pauvre Pere.

  On the noon of a very warm day in August, we observed  the corpora-
tion cart drawn up before a small house.  We waited for a  while to see
what load it would bear.  Presently, we saw one of those horrible black
coffins—made  of coarse, unplaned  wood,  smeared  with lamp-black-
brought out of the house, supported by two  men, a young girl, and a boy
about twelve years old.  The coffin was deposited in the cart; the dirty,
coatless boy who  was driving, whipped up  the lazy horse, and off they
started for  Lafayette Cemetery, nearly two  miles off.  In the middle of
the street, under a broiling sun, followed the girl and boy, walking hand
in hand, with every indication of deep sorrow and grief.   Several citizens
stopped them, and endeavored to dissuade them from the long journey,
but the poor orphans made no other reply than the agonizing, heart-rend-
ing exclamation, "Mon pauvre pere ! Mon pauvre pere /"  And thus with
wailing and piteous cries they performed their dreary pilgrimage.   We
confess that this funeral procession impressed us more deeply and sorrow-
fully than the most solemn cortege which wealth, art, or taste ever de-
vised.  These poor children were the last of a large family of French
emigrants  who had recently landed in the city.  On mentioning  their
case, more than a hundred dollars were pressed upon us to give to  them.
But on calling at the house where the coffin  had been received, we found
it closed, and could never gather  any tidings of the  unfortunate orphans.
Probably they followed their parents, and brothers, and sisters.
                     The Exultant Belle.
  The Shell Road, which runs along the banks of the new canal, through
which passes the commerce of the  Lake, in the  rear of the city, is the
fashionable drive of New Orleans.  It is a beautiful road, shaded the
whole distance, and so perfectly level, being macadamized with shells taken
from the bottom of the Lake, that you can hardly perceive the motion of 
IX NEW ORLEANS.
79
your vehicle as it glides over it.  On the right of the road, near the half-
way btation, and separated from it by the canal, are the principal  ceme-
teries of the city.   This road, the resort  of the  gay, the  dissipated, the
pleasure-loving, and of those who delight in horse-flesh and the excitation
of fast  drivinfc, was not  abandoned  during  the  rage of  the  pestilence.
Indeed, there  seemed more parties on the road than usual at this season
of the year, and  they drove  faster and shouted  louder, as if they were
running away from the grim destroyer, and uttering their defiances of him.
And when they arrive at the  elegant hotel  on the Lake, and luxurious
suppers, with  a plentiful flow of generous  liquors, are served up to them,
the echoes along the Lake shore are awakened  by their noisy hilarity,
their joyous exultation, and loud bacchanalian strains.  These are mostly
persons who would drive off the  dark fears which, in moments of quiet,
possess  their minds and enchain their spirits—the gloomy forebodings of
the approach of the pestilence  to their  own habitations  and persons.
Others there were, who sought to relieve the tedium and gloom in which
the city and its people  are sunk, by  a little forced gayety and oblivious
dissipation.  To this class belonged a gay party, composed of several
gentlemen and ladies, who, on a certain Friday evening about the middle
of August, dashed down  the  Shell Road to Callom's, for the purpose of
relieving their spirits of the oppression of the scenes presented in the city,
by  a supper and other festivities.
  The gayest  and  loveliest of the party was  a young married lady, a New
Yorker by birth, whose husband was absent from the city on business.
She was in the full bloom of health and beauty, the cynosure of all eyes,
in a city where a  healthy and pretty woman had become a rara avis.
Her joyous, ringing laughter, her brilliant, clear complexion, and  bright
eyes, her ever bounding spirits and sanguine temperament, seemed to dis-
sipate the prevailing gloom wherever  she moved.   The supper at the Lake
was, of  course, a gay and merry one.  All was forgotten but present en-
joyment, and  every means of merriment  and gayety were employed to
while away the hours.   It was late when  the  carriages were ordered up
to take them back  to the city.   Excited by the generous liquors and food,
the reckless roysterers gave full rein, and plied  with whips their  high-
spirited steeds, until their pace increased to a frightful rapidity, which
rendered all objects along the  road undistinguishable.   Thus, they passed
those gloomy  abodes of hundreds, who a few days before had been as full
of life  and of hope as themselves—where now many a flickering  torch
threw a lurid glare over dark  groups of wailing friends paying  the last 
80
THE  YELLOW  FEVER
sad rites to some departed relative—where the sound of sorrow and lamen-
tation rose plaintively to Heaven, and from  which came that revolting
odor of decaying mortality, that mingled with  and corrupted the sweet
south wind.   But the solemnizing influence of these scenes did not reach
these heartless votaries of pleasure.  They only provoked careless jests,
reckless levity, bold defiance, and  maudlin shouts.  They had read the
Decameron, and were emulating the insensibility and "heroism" of those
imaginary characters, so glowingly painted by the  matchless Boccaccio.
And so they entered the gloomy city—gloomy in a moral sense, for nearly
every window was lighted up, as if there was a  general  illumination  on
some great occasion of festivity.   But, alas! it was the illumination of
the chambers of the sick and the  dead—in which might be discerned the
flitting figures of anxious nurses, or the bowed forms of bereaved relatives
and friends.
   They retire to their various homes, and here let us leave our gay friends
to such quiet and peace  as their consciences and  spirits will allow.
   The husband arrived in New Orleans on the day following that of the
drive to the Lake, which has just been described.  He hastened to meet
his beautiful wife, from  whom he had been separated for some  months.
On arriving at the boarding house where she resided, he was shocked to
find  the establishment nearly deserted.  He asked a servant where all the
people were.  " They are nearly all dead, but Mrs.----, and she has just
been seized  with the fever," was  the reply.  "Great God!" exclaimed
the alarmed husband ; and rushing up stairs,  entered his wife's room.   It
was  too true.  There she was—the bright, blooming, and joyous belle of
the last night's frolic, stretched on her couch  by the rem'orseless enemy of
whose power she had but a few hours before spoken so lightly.  A physi-
cian had just been  called in.   He had examined her case, and prescribed
for her.
   "What chance is there for her?"  feebly gasped  out the miserable
husband.
   " She is naturally a good subject," was the slow and measured reply of
the  learned professor; " but she has been taking the very course to bring
 on the fever, and render it incurable.   She rode to the Lake last evening,
 and indulged in eating  and drinking, and other excitements, which render
 a patient very unmanageable."
   " Horrible ! awful!" exclaimed the  poor husband.   " Oh! why did
 you—" but as he turned and caught a view of  the agonized and sallow 
81
IN NEW ORLEANS.
 countenance of his stricken wife, he could not finish the  reproachful in-
 terrogatory.
   Kindly and tenderly he attended her couch.   Toward  noon, the par-
 oxysm passed off;  her strong  constitution  seemed to  triumph over  the
 disease ;  the fever  had abated, her whole condition was  improved, con-
 sciousness had returned, and her nurse and physician said  she was doing
 well.   Seeing that she was provided with every thing needful, the husband
 stole out to attend to some business which could not be  neglected.  Thus
 he was employed to a late hour in the  afternoon.  After  completing  his
 duties he started homeward.  On his way, he met a friend who, remark-
 ing upon his pale and exhausted appearance, asked him to join him in a
 drink in  one of our hotels.  They walked in and, standing at  the bar,
 were engaged in conversation, chiefly in reference to the supposed conva-
 lescent wife of the gentleman, her promising condition,  and the prospects
 of an easy triumph over the fever, when a boy walked up to the  husband
 and asked :
   "Are you Mr.----!"
   " Yes."
   " Your wife is dead !"
   As if struck by lightning, the poor man fell senseless on the floor.  His
 friend, with the aid of some bystanders, raised him up, and bore him to a
 cab, in which he was carried to the St. Charles Hotel.   Here leaving him,
 sunk in a stupor of grief and  nervous prostration, his friend drove to the
 boarding  house of his wife.
   It was too true.   The proud, blooming, spirited beauty was now a yel-
 low, spotted corpse.  All her charms were gone.   The full, round, glow-
 ing cheeks, the pouting lips, the soft and dimpled chin, the  brilliant eyes,
 the swelling bosom, were fast sinking into that condition that would secure
 a  rich banquet for the grave-worm.
   Quickly follow the preparations for her burial.   Two gentlemen, friends
 of the husband, quietly brought a coffin to her room, and with the aid of
 a black woman, deposited  the corpse in it.  A hearse was procured, in
 which the coffin was placed, and with a single carriage  to accompany it,
 the two gentlemen started for the cemetery, at about ten o'clock at night,
 in the  midst of a violent shower of  rain.  Arriving at the  gate, with the
 help of a negro man, they removed the coffin from the hearse, and placed
it in a vault.   At  that  moment an  individual who knew the gentlemen,
asked whose coffin was that ?  He was informed ;  whereupon he exclaim-
ed—« Great God ! I saw her on the Shell Road yesterday!"  It was then 
82
THE  YELLOW FEVER
suggested that a prayer, or some religious ceremonial, should be read for
the occasion.  Inquiry was made in vain for a prayer book.  With a hor-
rid oath, the stranger exclaimed against the barbarity of burying so pretty
a woman with no more respect than they would a dog or a horse.   The
gentlemen got into their carriage, and rode back to the city.
   Such was the  sudden end and the desolate funeral of her who, but a
few hours before, had rode by that gloomy receptacle of the dead, so ex-
ultant, so confident; so full of life, of hope, and of joy
                     The Tableau Vivant.

  A merryjovial party assembled one day at the splendid rooms of Jacobs,
the  daguerreotypist, in Camp street.  The  epidemic was not then at ita
height, and the fear of it had not become so pervading.  One of the party,
Mr. II----, claimed to be acclimated, and  spoke jokingly, like a veteran,
of " Yellow Jack."   The young man in charge of the establishment, who
was in the full bloom and vigor of life, snapped his fingers, in perfect in-
difference and defiance of the disease.  Indeed, he would rather have it
than not, as he heard it improved a man's beauty, and he thought he could
stand  a good deal of reform in that particular.   Another, and the oldest
and most serious of the party, was  Dr. W.  K. Northall, an editor  of the
New Orleans Delta, and well known in New York as a dramatic critic and
author.   The Doctor regarded  the matter more seriously, and rebuked the
levity of his young friends.  They, in return, taunted him  with  being
scared.   Lying on the sofa while his young friends were amusing  them-
selves in talk, the Doctor fell into a gentle slumber.   It was then proposed
by one of the young men that they should get up a Yellow Fever Tableau,
by treating Doctor N. as a patient.  Accordingly, one got a basin, into
which some ink was poured, to represent black vomit; another took a vial;
a third stood at his head, personating the physician, with his hand on the;
doctor's forehead; and a fourth personated a nurse.  A  daguerreotype
was then taken of the scene, which is now  in the  city.  It is a  striking
and expressive tableau, and would deceive  any one  looking at it  into the 
IN NEW ORLEANS.
83
belief that it was the picture of a real scene.  But the events which closely
followed this incident are much more real, solemn, and impressive.   First,
Mr. K----, the young daguerreotypist, was seized by the fever, and, des-
pite his youth, his vigor, and his sanguine courage, was the first victim of
the party to the dread destroyer.  He was soon followed by another young
man  W. H. H----, a  native of Virginia, who was so confident of  his
acclimation ; a third was also seized, and narrowly escaped death.  And
now the last of the party was the  gentleman who had personated the pa-
tient in the tableau, Dr Northall.   For some time the Doctor escaped  the
disease, though constantly beset  with every form of it, and not a little
alarmed at its violence.   Finally, he yielded to the  persuasions of  his
friends, and  left the city, intending to remain at Hollywood—a lovely
summer resort on Mobile Bay—until he could feel satisfied that he had
escaped the infection.   On arriving at Hollywood, he  felt  for once free,
safe,  and happy, and wrote  as follows to the journal of which he  was  the
associate editor:
   " Sick, melancholy, and depressed when we put our foot upon the deck
of the good steamboat  Oregon, to cross the lake, for Mobile, we scarcely
felt that any breeze, however fresh and free from taint, would serve, in  a
short time, at least, to send the blood coursing through our veins with any
thing like a joyous bounding.  But in this we  were mistaken;  for, despite
the lurking impression  upon us, that  the disease which had spared us so
long  might still lay its  heavy hand upon us, we had not been on board the
boat two hours before—to use the language of Grace—we felt "renewed"
 and " born again."  How much does the disposition and character of  the
.mind depend  upon the  condition of the body!  We are more mere ma-
chines than our pride is willing to admit."
   That letter came by  the mail.   The lightning caught up with it  The
 evening edition of the  same journal announced, by telegraph, the intelli-
gence of the  death, by the  black  vomit, of the  writer of these  hopeful
words!   And so fared  the  tableau vivant.  The sole survivor, the most
delicate and feeble of the party, having barely escaped after a violent ill-
ness, retains the picture as  a mournful memento of the uncertainty of life,
and of the vanity of those who would seek to defy and mock a pestilence
which, like a tornado, levels the proudest and sturdiest, even when it spares
the delicate, the weak,  and  the timid. 
84
THE  YELLOW  FEVER
                The Musicians' Last  Meeting.

   One gloomy Saturday evening in August there met in the music store
 of Mr. Ashbrand, in Camp street, several gentlemen who w§re all leading
 musical characters in  the city, and were also warm and devoted friends,
 whom congenial tastes and old  national attachments frequently brought
 together.   These gentlemen were, Mr. Hyer, a member of the Philhar-
 monic Society; Mr. Adolphe Zunn, formerly director of the orchestra of
 the St. Charle3 Theatre; and Mr. Theodore La Hache, a musical compo-
 ser of considerable celebrity.  After interchanging the usual civilities, it
 was proposed that Mr. Hyer should sing Keller's " Blind Man," while Mr.
 Zunn accompanied on the piano.  This song was executed in very beauti-
 ful  style by Mr. H.  It closes with these words—
                    " And in the grave there is rest;"
 Mr. Zunn, repeating the  words  as he gave the last thrum to the piano,
 added:   " Yes, two hundred and eighty eight have this day found that
 rest."
  It was then proposed by Mr. Ashbrand that Mr.  Hyer should sing the
 " Last Rose of Summer."   " With all my heart," replied Mr. H.   " Would
 that the last rose of summer had faded  and gone, and with it the last case
 of fever!"
  At this moment they were joined  by  two other musical friends, in the
 stout  and healthy persons of Mr. Yonspelius, a member of the  Philhar-
monio Society, and Professor de  Martellini, an  accomplished musical
scholar and performer, late of Baltimore.  The  party now included the
very choicest musical spirits and most accomplished  artists of a very musi-
 cal  city.   They were  all young men, under thirty, in  the full vigor of
 health, and were models of temperance, regularity, and propriety of life
 and habits.  A lively  conversation on their favorite art now arose, and
 was kept up with the usual spirit and vivacity of devotees : Professor Mar-
tellini at last suggested that Mr. Yonspelius should  sing the  " Elf-king,"
by Shubert, which  was done in  beautiful style.  At the conclusion, Mr.
La  Hache, taking up the words of the song, remarked :   " Yes, the Elf-
king is among us!"
  " Ay, ay," added Professor Martellini:
               "' The father doubled the speed of his steed,
                But when he arrived at his castle.door,
                       The child was no more.' 
                          IN NEW ORLEANS,                       85

" But," continued the Professor, " next Monday, I will get out of the reach
of the Elf-king, mounted on a steed that travels faster than the horse."
  " Come, come, Martellini," remarked  Mr. Ashbrand, a young  man of
about  twenty-five, " away with these  gloomy ideas.   Let us  cheer  our
spirits and defy the pestilence with some sweet strains of divine music.
Give us your variations on ' Woodman, spare that tree.'"
  The  Professor cheerfully complied,  and  performed his composition
most  exquisitely.   At the close  of it, Ashbrand, turning to La Hache,
remarked—
  " Martellini has promised to write out his variations  next week, and I
shall send them to Firth, Pond & Co., for publication."
  Dwelling upon the words of the song, and ever recurring to the pre-
vailing topic, one of the company remarked—
  " This is an  appropriate song in these times, when so many stately trees
are so rapidly hewn down, and  when so few are spared."
  " Yes," said  Yonspelius, himself a very large  and athletic  young man;
" but it would require a very sharp axe and stalwart arm to level such a
heavy  trunk as the  Professor there."
  " Oh, no," replied Ashbrand, a small and delicate man ; "it is said the
yellow fever is  severer upon large men.   The taller they are the greater
and more  sudden the fall.  Hence, if we should both be seized with it,
I should certainly stand the best chance, being but half the size of Mar-
tellini."
  But this continued recurrence to the  gloomy subject having rendered
the friends somewhat moody and  silent, they concluded to break  up and
return to their  several homes.  It was their  last  meeting.   In ten days
thereafter, Mr.  La Hache was the only one left of the party.  Thus music
lost, in this brief period, four of its most gifted and devoted votaries.
  A startling incident marked the dying moments of one of these gentle-
men.   We refer to  Mr. Yonspelius.  For some  time before death came
to his relief he was in a raving delirium;  in whiah his ruling  passion
displayed itself, in several attempts to sing  his  favorite songs.   Being a
very robust and powerful man, he tore himself from his nurses and from
the  ligatures with  which it was  found necessary to restrain  him; and
rushing into the middle of the room, he assumed the  attitude suited to
the character;  and, in  a full and  powerful voice, sang the beautiful solo
of Edgardo, in Lucia di Lammeruioor, when in the  grave-yard  he  thus
apostrophises his beloved :
                 " Tu che a Dio, 0 bell' alma inamorata!"                  I 
96
THE  YELLOW FEVER
Before he had completed the air, the black vomit gathered  in his throat,
and ejecting a large  quantity of it, he fell upon the floor, and died in a
few minutes.
                   The Little Coffin Bearers.

  On my way back to  my  office, one  evening in  August, after a very
fatiguing and distressing day's attendance upon the sick and dying, I met
near the corner of Royal and St. Anne  streets, a little girl  and boy, mere
children^ not more than ten or twelve years of age, each  with a small
coffin on their heads, which  they carried  as  we frequently see negroes
carry heavy loads, so nicely poised as  hardly to need a hand to  steady
them.  The coffins were very rough, just  daubed over with lamp-black;
the clothing of the children was dirty and ragged, the feet were bare, and
their whole condition indicated  extreme destitution and  suffering.  Sur-
prised at this spectacle, I stopped the boy and asked him why he carried
the coffin.  His story was a  brief one—the common  story of the  day—
two o^ his  little brothers had died of  the yellow  fever, his father  and
mother were both sick with it, and having no one to help  them,  the little
children had been sent off to Jibe undertakers to buy two coffins, and were
going home to put their little brothers into  them, and prepare them for
the corporation dead carts!   Too poor to hire the  attendance of  an un-
dertaker, or even a wagon to take the coffins  home, they were  bearing
them along the streets themselves, melancholy emblems of the condition
of the unfortunate family at home.   So young and so terribly afflicted !
It was enough to make one's heart bleed to look at them—and as the little
girl, with  the ugly  black coffin upon  her head,  raised  her great  black,
sunken, wondering eyes to mine, I could scarcely restrain  my tears ;  and
I can assure  the  reader, that no  scene during the whole  epidemic  im-
pressed  me so deeply, or will live so  long in my memory as that of the
little Coffin Bearers  in Royal street. 
 
* 
IN NEW ORLEANS.
89
                      Families Swept Off.

   It would be vain to attempt to enumerate the instances of whole fami-
 lies  swept off by the epidemic.  The  advocates of contagion  will find
 strong arguments to sustain  their view of the disease, of its communica-
 bility by contact, in examples of  the most melancholy character, where,
 in the course of  a few days,  a large tenement, which but a short time be-
 fore had been full of vivacity and gayety, was converted into a Golgotha
 or cemetery, with every member of the family dying or dead.  Frequently,
 even in families  of means, three or four corpses would be exposed in one
 room.   There would be the mother and the father lying on one bed, and
 the infant between  them or at their feet.   In one room the undertaker
 might be seen screwing down the coffin, while the heavy breathing of
 another member of the family, in his or her dying agonies could be heard
 from an adjoining room, and the raving of a third in the delirium of fever
 from another apartment.  The burial of mother and infant in the same
 coffin was a very ordinary incident.  The newspapers, though but few of
 the victims obtained even the small space allotted to obituary notices, con-
 tained melancholy records of this destruction of whole families.
   In the Picayune of August 23, we find the  following recorded, among
 the deaths by yellow fever:
  " Josephine Wolff, the 2d inst., aged 69  years.
  " Solomon Wolff, her husband,  9th inst., aged 68 years.
  " Hana Wolff, daughter, 9th inst., aged 22 years.
  " Sara Wolff,  daughter, 11th inst., aged 24 years.
  " Montez Wolff, grandchild, 1 3th inst., aged 9 years."
 Thus was a whole family, and a  happy one, cut down  in the course  of
 nine days!
  The  Delta of the  4th September has the  following:
  " On the 13th August, Sarah E., second daughter of John B. and Sarah
 Groves.
  " On  the 18th August, Ellen, youngest daughter of John B. and Sarah
 Groves.
  " On  the 23d August, Frances B., eldest daughter of John B. and Sarah
Groves.
  " On  the 28th  August, Mary T., third daughter of John B. and Sarah'
Groves. 
90
THE YELLOW  FEVER
   "On the 1st inst., of the prevailing epidemic, John B. Groves, mer-
 chant of this city, formerly of Columbia, Tennessee."
   Four beautiful, blooming daughters rapidly follow one another, and are
 borne to the grave by a fond, devoted parent—a gentleman of high stand-
 ing and wealth, and  an  old  merchant of this  city.  Finally  the  father
 completes the sorrowful record, and joins his beloved children in the man-
 sions of the blessed.
   A most affecting incident was  that of a young merchant, who, having
 succeeded in business, married a young and beautiful girl, and established
 himself in a pleasant cottage in the suburbs to  pass his honeymoon.   The
 new married couple took but one servant,  an Irish girl.  We need not
 say how cheerful and happy they were in their pleasant little villa—with
 its patch of shrubbery and young magnolias in  front, and cool, airy rooms,
 and gallery in which they could walk of afternoons, and chat so pleasantly
 and enjoy the evening air.  For some weeks nothing disturbed their hap-
 piness.  Biddy, the servant, was a good,  faithful, hard-working girl, and
the young couple had little to do but to enjoy  one another's society.  They
had lived some years in the city, believed they were acclimated, and be-
sides were too happy to be disturbed by the  gloomy stories which  began
to appear in the newspapers about the ravages of the yellow fever.   At
last came their  first care.   Biddy had a  fever.  There  was no tea  and
toast—no one to sweep the rooms, or cook the little breakfast and dinner.
Alas! Biddy grew worse  and worse, and even the doctor could do her no
good, and she died in a few day3.   Another girl was hired  in place of
Biddy.  She shared  the same fate, dying in a few  days.   Another  was
obtained, and she too followed her predecessors.  Frightened by this ter-
rible mortality, the young husband determined to fly the fatal house.  He
therefore hurried with his bride to Mobile.  She  was seized with the
fever, and died in that city.  The afflicted husband  returned to the city,
 with a view of disposing of his property,  and proceeding to some distant
 country, where he would be  out of view of a place so suggestive of sor-
row.  On his arrival in New Orleans, he was  seized with the  fever,  and
died.  A friend, the  only one who attended his corpse to the grave, went
up to the former happy residence of  his departed friend  and  his lovely
bride.   There he found the scene of so much pure happiness a few weeks
 ago, now one of gloomy  desolation and  solitude.  There was but  one
living creature in the house.  It was a solitary parrot, swinging mourn-
 fully in  its cage, and bemoaning its desolate fate.  Alas!  poor Poll! 
IN NEW ORLEANS.
91
                     Marriage  and Death.

  When the fever was at its height, and the whole city was sunk in grief
and mourning, a smiling happy couple appeared one morning before the
Rev. Mr. De La Croix, of the Catholic Church, and requested him to pro-
claim the banns of their marriage  the next day.  The reverend priest
was surprised that any person should desire to get married at such a time
of general misery and  distress; and  urged the couple that they should
postpone it until the epidemic was over.  But they declined doing so, and
the priest, indignant at what he considered ill-timed levity, turned away,
and positively refused to officiate in their behalf, stating that he was too
busy attending the sick and administering the last consolations to the dying.
The  impatient pair next proceeded  to the Rev. J. J. Mullen, Rector of'St.
Patrick's, who exhibited a like surprise at the urgency of the parties, and
at first refused to sanction such a marriage, but at  last  yielded  to  their
importunities.  After due publication of the banns they were married, and
retired to their new home to spend the honeymoon.
  In a few days, the bridal chamber presented a solemn and affecting
spectacle.  The dead  body of  the husband lay on a couch, and the bride
writhed in the agony of a violent fever on the bed;  she quickly followed
him, and their honeymoon was passed in another world.
                   The Nervous Literateurs.

   Two literary gentlemen, who were connected with the press of the city,
nnd who had been educated as  physicians, were  in the habit, whenever
they met, of joking one another about theiu appearance; their alarm for
the fever, and their chance of getting and escaping it.
   One day they met in one of our hotels, when the following conversation
took place:
   Dr. N----.  " Why W----, you look very bad—your skin is yellow,
your eyes bloodshot." 
92                      THE  YELLOW FEVER
  Dr. W----.  " Oh, you are joking.  None of that on so serious a sub-
ject."  (Looking very nervous and alarmed.)
  Dr. N----.  " I never was more serious in my life."
 ' Dr. W----.  " I was just about to say the same of you—you have  a
very pale, nervous, alarmed look.   Let me see your tongue—very bad—
you would make a very bad case—black vomit in thirty-six hours."
  Dr. N----.  (Looking nervous and frightened—in an irritable manner,
replied)—" Black vomit—you look as if you had it  already, for with all
your efforts to keep it in, it is ooziDg  out at the corners of your mouth."
(Dr.  W----chewed tobacco.)
  Dr. W----.  (Spitting out the quid  and looking highly excited.)  "What
do you mean, N----!  Do you desire to kill me ?"
  Dr. N----.  " What do you mean ?   Have you not already threatened
and endangered my life by your absurd joking?"
  From this the two friends got to using the words " murderer," " assassin,"
&c,  until some friends were compelled to interfere to restore their usual
pleasant relations; which was, however, finally completed over a bowl of
punch.
  The next day this little occurrence was noted by one of the daily papers.
The  writer little thought that in a  few days thereafter he would be called
on to chronicle the death of both gentlemen, who, at last, yielding to their
apprehensions fled the  city, but bore with them  the infection  which de-
veloped itself some days after they had left, and snatched from a circle of
devoted friends and relatives two most estimable gentlemen, who had al-
ready acquired enviable positions in the world of letters.
                    The Good Clergyman.

  As a general rule, the clergy of this city remained true and faithful
during the scourge.   On this  score, the Protestant ministers  have been
severely censured for their derelictions heretofore; but it must be ad-
mitted that they fairly redeemed their characters during the present epi- 
IN NEW  ORLEANS.
93
demic.   It is true their labors were not so severe as those of the Catholics;
but still there was enough for all to do—and they courageously performed
their tasks, not only in ministering in their proper sphere, but also in act-
ing as nurses and physicians.   Though it may appear  invidious to seleot
particular individuals from a class in which, as far as we could learn, there
were no delinquents, yet the case of the Rev. Mr. Whitall, of the Bethel
in this city, a Protestant Episcopal clergyman, whose province is to preaoh
to the seamen of our city, and to labor for the  improvement and reform
of that class of our population,  is so remarkable, that  we can not refrain
from referring to it.  The  labors of Mr. Whitall in  aiding the sick, in
hunting up the poor and procuring proper  comforts and attendance  for
them;  in nursing and  taking care of the orphans of the plague, were al-
most incredible.  We  regret that the compass of our  article forbids our
following him even through one day of his labors.   A single instance may
illustrate the  practical character of his  benevolence.  Walking on the
levee in pursuit of  objects of charity, one day at noon, he was  attracted
to a  number of laborers collected around some object.  Elbowing his way
through the crowd, Mr. Whitall found a poor laborer lying on the ground
in a  violent fever,  exposed  to  the sun, and. suffering  very much.   The
crowd, though pitying his condition, appeared to be either too much fright-
ened to render him any aid, or  ignorant of how they  could  relieve him.
But the experienced Samaritan did not long consider his duty on such an
occasion.  Seizing  one of the wheelbarrows used in carrying bales of cot-
ton from the wharves to the ships, he rolled it up alongside the sick man,
and laying him gently in it, wheeled his poor patient to the  nearest hos-
pital, and there secured him proper attendance.   The  good clergyman
received his reward in the consciousness of a noble action, and in the
heartfelt gratitude  of the poor laborer, who recovered, and is now pursu-
ing his duties on the levee. 
94                       THE YELLOW FEVER
             Night Burials on the Mississippi.

  During the height of the epidemic great numbers of persons attempted
to escape from the city, on  boats  going up the Mississippi, which were
often over-crowded with passengers, many of  them in advanced stages of
the  disease, vainly hoping to reach their friends in the upper country ere
death should ensue.  The boats usually leave  late in the evening, and fre-
quently at midnight they were compelled to make a landing to bury the
dead "on the banks of the river, often half a dozen bodies at a time.  The
scene exhibited  at these night burials was fearfully wild  and exciting.
The bodies were taken on shore in such boxes as could be found to serve
the  purpose of coffins, and were hastily  deposited in the earth by the deck
hands, with rarely any stick, stone, or other monument to mark their
resting place, or any inscription to indicate the names of the unfortunate
persons who occupied these lonely graves.  The utmost terror pervaded
all hearts.  The bravest men  quailed before the awful dangers which sur-
rounded  them;  and  as  the light of the  blazing  torches fell upon their
haggard faces, it seemed  only to reveal to the spectator a crowd of death-
stricken people waiting their  turn for a place in the cold bosom of the
earth.   As soon as passengers died, it was the custom  on many boats to
clear their  berths and state rooms of the beds and bedding, and  throw
them into the river.  The floating mattresses were frequently picked up
by settlers  along the river, and were the means, it was supposed, of card-
ing the seeds of infection  to  many an isolated plantation which  might
otherwise have escaped the  disease.   This however, is a disputed point, it
being doubted by many whether the fever is thus transmissable.   I wit-
nessed several of these midnight burials, and must confess that I was im-
pressed with a sickening  sense of horror, such ^s no other incident of the
epidemic excited in my mind.  On one occasion, a gentleman from the north,
who stood near me on the guards  of the steamer, while the bodies were
being buried, declared  that  if he  felt conscious that  he  was seriously
affected by the fever, he  would rather take a plunge into  the dark, deep,
eddying river, and end his existence at  once, rather  than wait  for such a
death and such srburial,  the idea  of it was so  appalling.   I had a similar
feeling myself, accustomed  as I was to the horrors of the epidemic;  and
I would not have ventured upon the boats at all, (which I considered mere
floating charnel  houses,)  if  calls of  affection, as strong as the love of life
itself, had not compelled me to do so. 
 
NIGHT BURIAL ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 
IN NEW ORLEANS.
97
                       The Dead  Mother.

   One of the most remarkable instances of the intense affection which
sometimes exists between  mother and son, was exhibited in the case of
George L----, of New York, and his widowed mother.  Both of them
were seized with the symptoms of yellow fever, and each tried to conceal
the fact from the other.  The young man was taken first:  the mother was
taken soon after, and was  the first to die.  I saw the son a few hours  be-
fore his death, when he was evidently in  the last stages of the disease, and
heard the description of his mother's  death, in the most  passionate lan-
guage, from his own lips.   He had no idea that he was likely to die, and
I did not think it best to alarm him.
   " Oh! Doctor!"  he exclaimed, rising  in his bed,  while he ejected  the
black vomit freely and easily at  intervals of  a few minutes, " Oh! Doc-
tor ! it seems so strange to me that my mother died!   I did not even know
that she was sick till  a few hours before her death.   I had  been ill my-
self for several days; but as soon as I saw that my mother was  affected
with symptoms of the fever, I pretended that I was well, and endeavored
to induce her to lie down  and permit  me to act as nurse.   She  refused,
and denied that she was seriously ill.  I laid  down upon the bed, and  fell
asleep.  My mother was sitting up in the  easy chair.  It was  then near
midnight.  About half-past two I awoke from mere anxiety, and looking
up discovered  my mother still sitting in her chair—^but oh, how changed !
The horrible evidences of yellow fever were stamped upon every lineament
of her face !   She looked as if she saw  the grave and pondered upon its
hideous contents.  I sprang from the bed, and placed my mother upon it.
She was fearfully ill, and too  feeble to resist.   All that night and the next
day I tended her and nursed  her, with the fever still burning in my veins,
and often, I have no doubt, with fierce delirium in my brain;  but there
was no alternative.  Nurse after  nurse disappointed us, and to let my dear
mother die for want of attention—she who had done so much  for me in
days and years that had past—it was  impossible#  The next night—last
night—as you know, Doctor,  she died.   She  had her senses to the last,
and knew she should die.   She called to me,  and said so gently, ' I  am
dying;' is it not horrible, this fatal  fever.  I put hot water to her feet
with my hands, hotter than the  hottest  water itself, almost broiling! as
they are now!  But it was of no service—she died.   I could not believe
it, her death was so easy.   I put a glass  to her lips, but there was no stain
                                G 
99 <
THE  YELLOW FEVER
on its polished surface, and then I was compelled to believe it.   From that
Hour, Doctor, I have been steeped, as it were, in horror.   I do not think
I am very sick, Doctor, but the mental agony I feel  is awful.   I never
thought my mother could die!   I never thought such an event possible.
And she is gone!  Oh!  I could not believe she was dead.  I listened if
she breathed—I rubbed her arms and hands, and looked into her bright
eyes—so bright, even after death—and the body warm,  yes hot—hot for
a long time 1  Doctor, do you really think she was dead ?   Have you never
known yellow fever patients to fall into a trance, and thus be buried alive?
I think I have heard such stories of  the plague—hav'nt you, Doctor?"
  I tried to satisfy him that his suspicions, which seemed to give him much
pain, must be groundless; but no reasoning afforded  any peace  or con-
solation to bis mind.
  " Oh, Doctor," he continued, " I know I have a stronger constitution
than my poor mother, and may recover from this  disease; but oh!  I am
sick  and weary of the world, and do not care to recover, now that my
mother is  gone.   She was almost my only friend, or near relation, for
whom I felt any regard, and I do not  care to live.  Oh ! Doctor, no words
can tell my deep regard for my poor mother.   Last night, when Pstretched
myself upon her coffin for the last time, anfl lay long  and mute, musing
on every action of her hard, devoted  life, I prayed to God that I might
not survive her!"
  That prayer  was heard and answered.  I left the young man almost
frantic with excitement and fever, and in four hours afterwards I saw his
coffin placed on a hearse and heard the wheels roll off, over the pavement.
towards the tomb  of his much-loved  mother!
              Ludicrous Side of the Epidemic.

  As there is but one step  from the sublime to the ridiculous, so there ,
will always be  a ludicrous  side to the most melancholy and distressing
events of life,  in the very height of the epidemic, there were not want-
ing people who spoke lightly of the whole affair, and turned the exaggera- 
IN NEW ORLEANS.
99
ted reports which were in circulation into  ridicule.  There certainly was
a great deal of monstrous exaggeration in some of the reports which were
sent abroad by telegraph, and otherwise; the reality was bad enough with-
out such additions as were made.
   But as an off-set to these  exaggerations, you would  hear men  gravely
telling people the fever was so bad at the St. Charles Hotel, that  as soon
as  a man  arrived and  registered  his name they immediately took  his
measure for a coffin, and asked him to note down in which cemetery he
desired to be interred!
   Also, that as soon as a man arrived on one of the steamboats, the officers
of the Board of Health immediately took his name and entered it in their
books as deceased, to save all trouble in calling upon him again 1
   One day, going by a store in Chartres street, where  they sell canaries
and pet animals, I saw a crowd of young men laughing and shouting,  and
on stepping into the store found that they were assembled about a monkey
which was evidently in great distress. I was informed that the keeper of
the store had fed the monkey with some putrid pork, which had been elevated
in the air upon a kite, until it was covered with animalculae.  Some thought
the mor.key was mocking sickness, and his motions excited much merri-
ment.   To my practised eye, having seen  so much of the epidemic, the
scene was anything but ludicrous; I perceived at once that the poor ani-
mal was really sick, and indeed it was not long before all were convinced
of the fact, as he soon began to  throw  up the  most unmistakable black
vomit, and finally  died, while the  fun  of the bystanders was suddenly*
changed to fear  and shuddering! 
Missing Pages
   100-101 
Missing Pages
   100-101 
102
THE  YELLOW FEVER
             THE HOWARD  ASSOCIATION.

                           OFFICERS.
V. BOOLLEMET, President.     D. I. RICARDO, Secretary.      G. KURSHEEDT, Treasurer.

                  FINANCE  COMMITTEE.
"». W. SHAW,               H. W. PALFREY,               J. 0. HARRIS.

                     ACTIVE MEMBERS.
          V. BOULLEMET,                   C. W. WHITALL,
          G. W. SHAW,                     J- M. VANDEGRIFF,
          C. H. NOBLES,                     H. H. DENTZELL.
          O. KURSHEEDT,                   J. J- BROWN K,
          D. I. RICARDO,                    H. W. PALFRKY,
          W.L.GILES,                      W. L. ROBINSON,
          L. 0. DILLARD,                    W. C. IIAMM.K,
          K. C. NIMM0,                     J. 0. HARRIS,
          J.E.CALDWELL,                  E. F. SCHMIDT,      ^
          J. BENSAD0N,                    D. F. DONOVAN.
          J. WILLIS,                       R, L- ROBERTSON,
          D. BIER,                        W. W. VAUGHT,
          J. LIVINGSTON,                   R.;». LUSK,
          P. CONNIFF,    \                 A. M0YNAN,
                           B. O'CONNELL.

  The Howard Association of New Orleans was organized by a num-
ber of noble-hearted young men during the epidemic of 1837, for  the
purpose of relieving the sick  and  destitute by  some systematic effort.
The Society was highly successful in its labors, and immediately won the
confidence of the community both at home and abroad.  The number of
members was at first about one hundred and fifty; but in 1842 a charter
was obtained from the  Legislature of Louisiana limiting the number of
members to thirty, with power to  add to their  number temporary assist-
ants during  the prevalence of  epidemics, if necessary.  The charter  is a
perpetual one.   No member of the Association receives any pay for  his
services;  it is entirely  a voluntary and charitable  body.
   When no epidemic prevails, the members of course attend to their ordinary
business pursuits; but so much business has grown up under the operations
of the Association that it is necessary to employ some persons  to attend
to the calls  of the public at all times.  The  organization is such that ii
one hour after meeting, if an epidemic  is  found to exist, the entire city
oan be supplied with  physicians, hospitals, nurses, apothecaries, and all
the means of relieving the sick and poor, which it is possible for money
and human  skill and kindness to afford. 
       VIOTOB  BOTJLIiEMET.
Fruident of the Unnrd Auodation, Ntm OrUtmt. 
I.rfi 
V
                          IN NEW  ORLEANS                    103

  It is a remarkable fact that since the year 1837, the Howard Association
has not lost a single member from yellow fever, although they hive often
been employed night and day attending the sick and dying, in ev\j-y kind
of weather, and in the most filthy localities and hovels, where this Iread
disease existed in its most fatal forms.                            *y,
  The members of the Association have generally been young and active
men.   Virgil Boullemet, the President of the Association, is a  natite df
New Organs,  and was born in 1820, and  is therefore only about tjflbr-
four years of  age.  His father was a native of France.  Mr. Boul^Rt
was one of the original founders of  the Howard  Association, being then
only about seventeen years of age.  During the epidemic of 1853, he was
elected a member of the Board of Health, and chairman of its most im-
portant committees.
  The portAk of Mr. Boullemet, which we insert in this work, is copied
from  a steelihgraving published in the  New Orleans Directory for 1854,
and is a faithful likeness of this distinguished philanthropist.
  "We cordially unite with the general, expression of praise which has been
bestowed upon the members of the Howard Association for their faithful
and self-sacrificing labors  in the cause of humanity;  and we  rejoice to
say, that while  their fame has extended throughout the country and the
world, it is at home, where they are best known, and most closely observed,
that their character and services are most highly esteemed and admired.
  D.  I. Ricardo, Esq., the Secretary of the Association, deserves  par-
ticular and honorable mention, for  the uniform courtesy and  kindness
which he has extended to  all who have called upon him for information
in relation to the Society,  and  when  we consider the number of such visits
which he receives, and the multiplicity of vexatious demands  which are
made upon his.time and attention, it is no slight  testimonial in his favor
to say that he fills this arduous office to the entire satisfaction of the pub-
lic.  We feel under special obligations to Mr. Ricardo for the  aid which
he  afforded us in the preparation of  this little work. 
104
THE YELLOW FEVER

REPORT
INWARD   ASSOCIATION.
EPIDEMIC OF 1853.
                                        New Orleans, Jan. 1 1854.
  The following exhibits the transaction of this Association during the
late epidemiq. of Y^Jlow Fever in this  city,  as reported by the Executive
officers, who were  specially appointed to prepare  the  same; and which
having been adopted was ordered to be published.
MATIVE8 OF—
   Ireland, '
   England, *
   Scotland,
   Wales,
   Germany,
 .. Switzerland,
  ' Italy and Tyrol,
   'Spain,
   Portugal,
   France,
   SaToy,
   Corsiea,
   Greek Isles,
   Jerusalem,
   Sweden,
   Norway,
   Denmark,
   Belgium,
   Holland,
   Poland, '
   Mexico,
   West Indies,
  " St. Domingo,
CASES OJa-fiTELLOW FEVER.^^
      tia and New Brunswick,

Ufited States,..>_
ifMtnown,^  *1"

   Total,
5.845
 198
  56

2,890
  35
  80
 • 39
   2
 436
   6
   1
   6
   1
'  28
t 19
  14
   8
   5
  11
  14

   2
  21
   0
   1
 716
 635

11,088
Males,
Females,
Adults.      •
Under 16 year^of age,
Died,
Discharged, cured,
5,203
5.885
9,415
1,073
2,042
8,146
CONTRIBUTIONS.

      A.
I
io.to
Armstrong, Ccorge, Wheeling, Vn.,
Archer, James, Jefferson county, Miss.,'4    ,
 through Richard Beck,              100.00
Athinsou. J. C. Memphis, Tenn., through
 James Robb & Co.,                 50.00
Allison, New Orleans,                100.00
Alter, Charles E., New Orleans.          50.00
Albany, N. Y., citizens of, through D. H.
 Carey,                        1,545.25
Augusta, Ga., citizens of, through Hon. A.
 D. Crossman, Mayor,
Alexandria, Va., citizens of, through the
 same,
Albany, N. Y., citizens of, through D. W.
 C. Rice,
Allen, R. P., White Sulphur Springs, Va.,
 thjpugh W. E. Starke,
Alamo, Lodge of F. & A. M., San Antonio,
 Texas, through A. Lockwood,       *
500.00

S35.25

  5.00

100.00

 50.00 
? X> isC^f.
(>.
a>
yr<
<~<  1
/       <_X 

3s>  5» v

.»  -
:*>  -
»  >
> •> X>




>»»3  >   >

      •   > >  >



>»Tfc>   > >:
>  >>
>  >>

 ">5X>
X» J>'X>^"  2 _
■.-> j> x*>
> j> ^> ^_
Z> O  2>


_  >>  ^>

-> >i>  >3
:> . > /i>

           :>  >



> »:>>  2>^> '2

 .* » >»  T^ j» .*.
 ... x»  >x> :>
  e  3x






   >   s»t»-s^
    e~>  "~»>~» >
>    •>  "^»»>
>    >  2ȣ^"

    ^>   »  >J>
>    ^>  » 1>>

>   J>  £>  >» '"
    >   i>  >>>
>    >   X»  »'
>   ~>   5>.  >~>^
>   .;>   j>  > a
   >   >> ■ i >
  »   >^> v> > >  "~i
  >  >J> J>  >   _
   >  TT»30 ~> >
)   >>  »• O 5

< >  >».» . > >

7> ^  >».^  >>

> >  3>


> ) »Xifc
X>  >  >
Z9 > >
       »>  ^   > >
     ^ • JO >  z»   > >

~> J>    »> >    ^
.» J»	^>
»..	>
»	>
» .	>
»	>
»-	> >
^»	
• >>	o
»	>
x> -	o
>>	w 3
i- sa	»■'
 

i*>X„. ^
   >3  >>>> _
   >>  >>->>o
J3fc>   •>"■> .> :>

 ">>  Tx> X  >
 _>>  £> >  J>

	j>	> yi»>r>
	J»	~> -»»;5
	>	> :>»^
>	T>	> S*>»>
>	>	> :'*J^>
><	J>	3 64»»r>
>,	>	~> »■ ->S^
	_>	■> 'J* -^
	^>	> .* *>
»	J>	->>4^!S>
^	_">	>.-»j9S>
5)		
~>	I>	>,» !>

>_> 3	.:> J	> - J>
r>> .	> J	> '-!>
s>>	>	-» > >x>
O >J	J> >	> > Jf>

■ > >  ;>
> >  > J>
>  )  >  >
» :> ->	>	:>	:.*?>
^"> >	>	>	J~9>
-J> )	>	>	/*£»
z> J>	>	j	_3*>
3 >>	:>	>	'■■*&
>^>>	>	>	>»
> z> >	:>	>	~\t&>
-> >	;>	>	*>
">  ->  >
v> J» >	• 3>
^> >r>	"> s>
> > 3-	.>■ 2>
> >■ >..	> T>
> > >.	i >J>
'i ■... >	>) 5>
> »>	> 2>
:> > r >	* y>
3 >	> »
> ->	j_>>
^ * -^	■ ■»


 
BeHhKsB^hw',«.,*»'*'1v!•,'•*• ■.'••''  ."'■".X'  ''XX .-.!»'.''••''•'■ .' •
mtnM)0(wP,<i •."' i   . * »    s i" ' '■ » '     )■ i\ ',' ' ' ',' > •!•' > > \'*r •► *
HB^Px..': • •  • ■ -'- •• ;■■;%:'•?■■ ^-wuw^
$#Kx.,:x.x xxv- •;   -^vvv^V.^•-x;•^;^^^X:^V>•.
S^f:fe-^-v..o-;■;■•;.:::■.;  ;;':v^§^::x^^i:{^x.'-
      ■'xv;;;x  ;:■;;■::•.• ::::^K#!,"';:':;;
       V xxx. < ■.•.'..-,■  .■.^■:"MfflHBH«wj<\"»«xx.vx- i

:';x^S
Xv.'jvVx
s^XVxy;
mm