Facts and observations relative to the nature and origin of the pestilential fever, which prevailed in this city, in 1793, 1797, and 1798 / By the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.

  • College of Physicians of Philadelphia.
Date:
1799
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Facts and observations relative to the nature and origin of the pestilential fever, which prevailed in this city, in 1793, 1797, and 1798 / By the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    carried off more than a hundred failors, new comers, and emigrants. In its progrefs it has been, and Hill is, as quick and fatal as the plague; it often finilhes its courfe in forty-eight hours; but if the fick get pall the fifth day, they gene- rally recover.” All the letters I have had from my medical friends agree, that this fever is highly contagious, and that new comers are moll fubjedl to receive it; particularly fuch as are young, or are ad- dicted to drinking fpirituous liquors. Next to thefe are the nurfes and attendants on the fick, who breathe the air in their chambers, or handle their bodies or bed-clothes. But fuch as avoid infedted houfes, or keep at a diftance from people convalefcents are no way fubjedl to the yellow fever. It appears, alfo, that people of colour, and negroes, are in a manner totally exempted from this difeafe, except fuch as are employed as houfe fervants, and fare the fame as white people. The Creole white inhabitants, and others who have long refided in the iflands, are, it feems, feldom attacked with this diforder, unlefs under the circumftances above-mentioned. But why the yellow fever fhould attack fome, and not others, can only be accounted for in this way: that in order to receive or refill contagion, men’s bodies and minds mull be in a particular Hate; and that field negroes fhould not be liable to it is to me inexplicable. They, however, have their epidemics, from which white people are exempted.