A treatise on malignant fever : with an attempt to prove its non-contagious nature / by Stubbins Ffirth.

  • Ffirth, Stubbins, approximately 1775-1820.
Date:
1804
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on malignant fever : with an attempt to prove its non-contagious nature / by Stubbins Ffirth. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    tation on the source of epidemic and pestilential diseases, a work which ought to be in the hands of every American physician, and which will be read with pleasure, satisfac- tion, and improvement, by every friend to science. Thus the disease continued at one time to increase ; at another to diminish, and alternately to elevate the minds of the citizens with the hope of its speedy termination, and then to depress them with fear. Its ravages were greatest in the Northern and Southern Liberties; but the city was by no means exempt from the influence thereof, especially Spruce, Front, Water and Dock-streets, where it prevailed with great mortality. September, for the first sixteen days, was warm, with occasional showers, attended with thunder. The thermometer ranged from 72© to 88°, and the barometer from 29.5 to 29.8 ;' the wind was frequently south-west. From the 16th to the 26th, we had a constant storm, very heavy rains, high winds, with great thunder and light- ning. During this month the disease was various ac- cording to the weather, vicissitudes increasing, and plea- sant weather diminishing it. During the storm the num- ber of deaths were doubled, and at the beginning and ter- mination thereof the new cases increased ; but from the 3d to the 6th, they appeared stationary. Soon after the storm ceased, the number of deaths decreased, and ere long the new cases also. More cases now occurred in Southwark, while the Northern Liberties experienced an exemption in a considerable degree ; but they were also to be met with in every street south of Race. October. The thermometer ranged from 50° to 77°, and the barometer from 29 and 2-10ths, to SO and 1-10th. The early part of the month was diversified with occasi- onal showers, constant south-west winds, and some very pleasant and agreeable weather; the middle was pleasant, occasional showers, refreshing and gentle zephyrs, and towards the close several days of heavy rain occurred. The disease increased whenever vicissitudes of the wea- ther occurred, particularly between the 4th and 16th. The city hospital, which had been shut in the beginning