Facts and observations, relative to the origin, progress and nature of the fever : which prevailed in certain parts of the city and districts of Philadelphia, in the summer and autumn of the present year, (1802) / by William Currie & Isaac Cathrall ; to which is added, a summary of the rise and progress of the disease in Wilmington / communicated by Dr. E. A. Smith & Dr. John Vaughan.

  • Currie, William, 1754-1828.
Date:
1802
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Facts and observations, relative to the origin, progress and nature of the fever : which prevailed in certain parts of the city and districts of Philadelphia, in the summer and autumn of the present year, (1802) / by William Currie & Isaac Cathrall ; to which is added, a summary of the rise and progress of the disease in Wilmington / communicated by Dr. E. A. Smith & Dr. John Vaughan. 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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    Facts and Observations, &c. IMPRESSED with a sense of the great importance that it would be to the citizens of Philadelphia, to ascertain the origin of a disease of which several persons had died in the early part of July, in the vi- cinity of Vine-street wharf, at a time when every other part of the City and Liberties was not only un- usually healthy, but more particularly free from any fever with malignant symptoms ; We agreed to unite our best endeavours to discover the cause of the mortality which had taken place, and had excited the apprehensions of the citizens. For this purpose we inspected and examined the docks, wharves, streets and yards, in that neigh- bourhood, but without discovering any cause to which a disease so violent in its symptoms, so rapid in its progress, and so generally fatal in its termina- tion, could, with any degree of probability be re- ferred. We learned, however, in the course of our researches, that a ship, called the St. Domingo Packet, which had lately arrived from Cape Fran- cois, and had come to at the second wharf above Vine-street, had lost some hands of the yellow fever in the West-Indies, and on her passage home ; and that one of the carpenters who worked on board of a brig called the Esperanza, which laid in the adjoin- ing dock, was one of the first victims to the disease.