The cholera epidemic of 1873 in the United States.

  • Billings, John S. (John Shaw), 1838-1913.
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The cholera epidemic of 1873 in the United States. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    As early as August, 1871, cholera began to be exported from Ham- burg, and in September infected vessels arrived'at Amsterdam iu Hol- land, at Hull, Sunderland, and Hartlepool iu England, and at Cardiff in Wales. On the 6th of November of that year the steamship Franklyn put into Halifax, Nova Scotia, in distress. She had cleared from Stettin, October 10, touching at Copenhagen on the 12th and at Christiansand on the 15th. On the 23d, eight days after leaving the last-named port, the first death from cholera occurred, and before her arrival at Halifax . there were twenty-eight deaths on board, two other fatal cases occur- ring while the ship was in harbor. The disease was carried on shore by two men who were employed in coaling and watering the vessel. Both were taken sick on the 13th of November, and one died after twelve hours' illness, while the other carried the disease to his family at Chezzetcook, a fishing-village on the southeast coast of Nova Scotia, about twenty-two miles from Halifax. Four members of this family contracted the disease, and two of them died j but the disease did not spread either in Halifax or vicinity. After coaling, the steamer proceeded on her voyage to New York, where she arrived November 12tb, having lost eleven more of her passengers, making forty-one deaths in all during the voyage. Seventy- two cases were removed from her to quarantine-hospital, among which number there occurred twelve more deaths, making a total of fifty-three deaths out of her 611 steerage-passengers. All the passengers were detained in quarantine about three weeks, or until the early part of December, and no diffusion of the disease is known to have followed. According to that indefatigable investigator, Dr. Peters, the disease continued to be carried from Hamburg, and during the year 1872 it was sent thence to London, Havre, Liverpool, New York, and various other places, probably also to New Orleans.* Arrivals of vessels at both New York and New Orleans from a num- ber of notoriously infected ports, including eleven arrivals at the for- mer port from Taganrog and Cronstadt, were constant and numerous during the entire year ; and one case of « cholera asphyxia was offi- r ^IfF°r, £ fr°m the New York migrant depot at Castle w \ 6 State Emigrant and Eefuge Hospital on Ward's Island, besides four cases of cholera sporadica treated iu the Temporary Hospital at Castle Garden. Cholera is also reported to have prevailed during that year on the island of Cuba, and the neighboring island of fvomW^ L!ZmmfT m £he C0USular correspondence of 1872-73 Sdefethen?l? ?Zth Americr ports' which examination was Knuest of th^i 7/ fu8 gaper by the State Department at the request ot the honorable the Secretary of the Treasurv shows also KXT JJ Jamaica in the aVmn of ST^Undlr dtte Sinlt bESK S cousnl at Kingston reports the arrival of a cooly- Xal ?nBa^uP°? 7?lcU vessel sixty deatlis had occurred ou the £ ardVai! ^ admitted to be cholera, occurred after ^OrlLn^M^o^ the disease within striking distance of Januarys Morf S£S™ at tbafc cifcy durillS tho mouth of s ex,sfced at almost every European port of embarka- 1873.n B'/johTc.SSTD 'of Net* «» United States in «*ers, m. u., ot Now York City, chap. IV of Dr MoClellan's .vport.