Short Account of Malignant Fever in Philadelphia – Chapter XIII (1793), 
Philadelphia County, PA

Contributed to the PAGenWeb Archives by Marjorie B. Winter [marjw@cox.net]

Copyright.  All Rights Reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm
*********************************************************


C H A P.  XIII.  Disorder fatal to the doctors—to the clergy—to drunkards—to 
filles de joie—to maid servants— to the poor—and in close streets.—Less 
destructive to the French—and to the negroes.

	RARELY has it happened, that so large a proportion of the gentlemen of the 
faculty have sunk beneath the labours of their very dangerous profession, as on 
this occasion.  In five or six weeks, exclusive of medical students, no less 
than ten physicians have been swept off, doctors Hutchinson, Morris, Linn, 
Pennington, Dodds, Johnson, Glentworth, Phile, Graham and Green.  Scarcely one 
of the practicing doctors that remained in the city, escaped sickness.  Some 
were three, four, and five times confined.

	To the clergy it has likewise proved very fatal.  Exposed, in the exercise 
of the last duties to the dying, to equal danger with the physicians, it is not 
surprising that so many of them have fallen.  Their names are, the Rev. 
Alexander Murray, of the protestant episcopal church—the Rev. F. A. Fleming and 
the Rev. Laurence Graessl of the Roman catholic—the Rev. John Winkhause, of the 
German reformed—the (Page 61) Rev. James Sproat, of the Presbyterian—the Rev. 
William Dougherty, of the Methodist church—and likewise four noted preachers of 
the Friends society, Daniel Offley, Huson Langstroth, Michael Minier, and 
Charles Williams.  Seven clergymen have been in the greatest danger from this 
disorder, the Rev. R. Blackwell, Rev. Joseph Pilmore,. Rev. William Rogers, Rev. 
Christopher V. Keating, Rev. Frederic Schmidt, the Rev. Joseph Turner, and the 
Rev. Robert Annan; but they have all recovered.

	Among the women, the mortality has not, by any means, been so great, as 
among the men,  nor among the old and infirm as among the middle-aged and 
robust.

	To tipplers and drunkards, and to men who lived high, and were of a 
corpulent habit of body, this disorder was very fatal.  Of these, many were 
seized, and the recoveries were very rare.
To the filles de joie, it has been equally fatal.  The wretched, debilitated 
state of their constitutions, rendered them an easy prey to this dreadful 
disorder, which very soon terminated their miserable career.

	To hired servant maids it has been very destructive.  Numbers of them fled 
away—of those who remained, very many fell, who had behaved with an 
extraordinary degree of fidelity.

	It has been dreadfully destructive among the poor.  it is very probable, 
that at least seven-eighths of the number of the dead, were of that class.  The 
inhabitants of dirty houses have severely expiated their neglect of cleanliness 
and decency, by the numbers of them that have fallen sacrifices.  Whole 
families, in such houses, have sunk into one silent, undistinguishing grave.

	The mortality in confined streets, small allies, and close houses, 
debarred of a free circulation of air, has exceeded, in a great proportion, that 
in the large streets and well-aired houses.  In some of the allies, a third 
(Page 62) or fourth of the whole of the inhabitants are no more.  In 30 houses, 
the whole number in Pewter Platter alley, 32 people died: and in a part of 
Market-Street, containing 170 houses, only 39.  The streets in the suburbs, that 
had the benefit of the country air, especially towards the west part of the 
city, have suffered little.  Of the wide, airy streets, none lost so many people 
as Arch, near Water-street, which may be accounted for, by its proximity to the 
original seat of the disorder.  It is to be particularly remarked, that in 
general, the more remote the streets were from Water street, the less of the 
calamity they experienced.

	From the effects of this disorder, the French newly settled in 
Philadelphia, have been in a very remarkable degree exempt.    To what this may 
be owing, is a subject  deserving particular investigation.  By some it has been 
ascribed to their despising the danger.  But, though this may have had some 
effect, it will not certainly account for it altogether; as it is well known 
that many of the most courageous persons in Philadelphia, have been among its 
victims.  By many of the French, the great fatality of the disorder has been 
attributed to the vast quantities of crude and unwholesome fruits brought to our 
markets, and consumed by all classes of people.

	When the yellow fever prevailed in South Carolina, the negroes, according 
to that accurate observer, Dr. Lining, were wholly free from it.  “There is 
something very singular in the constitution of the negroes,” says he,  “which 
renders them not liable to this fever; for though many of them were as much 
exposed as the nurses to this infection, yet I never knew one instance of this 
fever among them, though they are equally subject with the white people (Page 
63) to the bilious fever” .  The same idea prevailed for a considerable time in 
Philadelphia; but it was erroneous.  They did not escape the disorder; however, 
there were scarcely any of them seized at first, and the number that were 
finally affected, was not great; and, as I am informed by an eminent doctor, it 
yielded to the power of medicine in them more easily than in the whites.  The 
error that prevailed on this subject had a very salutary effect; for, at an 
early period of the disorder, hardly any white nurses could be procured; and, 
had the negroes been equally terrified, the sufferings of the sick, great as 
they actually were, would have been exceedingly aggravated.  At the period 
alluded to, the elders of the African church met, and offered their assistance 
to the mayor, to procure nurses for the sick, and aid in burying the dead.  
Their offers were accepted; and Absalom Jones, Richard Allen, and William Gray, 
undertook the management of these two-several services.  The great demand for 
nurses, afforded an opportunity for imposition, which was eagerly seized by some 
of the vilest of the blacks.  They extorted two, three, four, and even five 
dollars a night for such attendance, as would have been well paid by a single 
dollar.  Some of them were even detected in plundering the houses of the sick.  
But it is unjust to cast a censure on the whole, for this sort of conduct, as 
many people have done.  The services of Jones, Allen, and Gray, and others of 
their colour, have been very great, and demand public gratitude.

	On examining the books of the hospital at Bushhill, it appears, that there 
were nearly twenty blacks received there, of whom about three-fourths died.  
(Page 64)