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

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

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C H A P.  XVI.  Desultory facts and reflexions.  A collection of scraps. 

	THE want of a lazaretto, whither persons labouring under contagious 
disorders, might be sent, and of a proper law on the subject, empowering the 
civil authority to interpose with the necessary energy, (Page 71) at the first 
inroad of such a dreadful destroyer, has been the cause of our late sufferings; 
for, humanly speaking, had decisive measures been adopted any time before the 
first of September, while the disorder existed only in one street, and in a few 
houses in that street, there can be little doubt, that it might have been very 
soon extinguished.  But the former sufferings of this place in 1762, were soon 
forgotten— and no steps taken to provide for the removal of such an evil in 
future, after it should invade the city.  It is to be hoped our legislature, as 
well as that of every state in the union, will see the propriety of giving this 
important subject the consideration it so amply deserves, and of making 
provision against like calamities in future.  In Italy, at Spalato, where the 
plague raged fifteen or twenty years ago, if the infected did not reveal their 
situation to the proper authority, they were subjected to capital punishment; 
and the same penalty was denounced against such as did not inform of infected 
persons, when they knew of them.  This is too severe for the paternal mildness 
of our criminal code; but some  penalties ought to be denounced in such cases.  
Indeed, were lazarettos on a proper establishment, it would be an object of 
desire with the sick, to be transported to them.
                                  ~~~~~~~~~~
	It is hardly conceivable that the funeral of entire strangers could afford 
subject of satisfaction.  Yet they have produced that effect.  After being so 
long accustomed to behold the bodies of the dead, drawn to the grave on the 
shafts of a chair, the sight of a corpse carried by men to be interred, afforded 
something like the appearance of former times; and I believe the satisfaction 
excited by that consideration absorbed every thought of the deceased.
                                  ~~~~~~~~~~
	The appearance of most of the grave yards in Philadelphia is extremely 
awful.  They exhibit a strong likeness of ploughed fields and were any thing 
capable (Page 72) of stamping on our breasts indelible impressions of the 
uncertainty of the tenure by which we hold our very precarious existence, a turn 
though one of our burial grounds could not possibly fail to produce that effect.  
But it is to be feared, that with the danger will vanish all recollection of the 
distressing scenes we have passed through.
                                  ~~~~~~~~~~
	It has been denied that a person is twice susceptible of the yellow fever.  
The opinion, as it has a good tendency, to inspire confidence in convalescents, 
and in those who have quite recovered, might perhaps as well be suffered to pass 
uncontroverted, were not truth the object.  Several persons in this city, have 
been twice sick with this disorder.  I know it is usual to call this a relapse.  
But relapse or not, those people whom I mean, have been ill—have recovered 
entirely—and been a second time taken down.  Some of them are now no more, 
witness Mr. Fleming.  Mr. William Young was worse the second time than the 
first.
                                  ~~~~~~~~~~
	One observation, of great importance to the cause of humanity, escaped me 
in the former editions, and ought to be very particularly attended to in every 
such dreadful crisis as we have experienced.  Of the very large number of 
persons who have fallen under this disorder, it is not improbable that a half or 
a third have perished merely for want of necessary care and attention, owing to 
the extraordinary panic.  Almost all the remarkable cases of recovery are to be 
ascribed, under providence, to the fidelity of husbands, wives, children, and 
servants, who braved the danger, and determined to obey the dictates of 
humanity.  There are various instances of persons who may be said to have been 
by these means snatched from the grasp of death having been so far reduced, as 
to have their coffins made.—And for the encouragement of those who may, at any 
other time, or in any other place, have friends or relatives in this disorder, 
let it be (Page 73) remarked, that few of those who discharged their duty to 
their families, have suffered by it.  There are instances of individuals, who 
have nursed and attended on six, eight and ten persons unremittingly, in their 
own houses, without ever taking the infection. Others, before their own illness, 
and after their recovery, nursed and restored their families.  William Young had 
no less than ten in his house sick, and nearly all at one time.  He attended on 
them till he was taken ill; and, during his sickness, gave directions for the 
management of them, as effectually as if he was well.  After his recovery, he 
again attended them himself.  Of his whole family, his wife only died; and it is 
supposed her death was accelerated by her being in an advanced stage of 
pregnancy.  There are cases of single persons having the disorder in large 
families of eight, ten, and twelve, and none catching it from them.  In the 
family of David Clarke, who died of the malignant fever, there were no less than 
twenty-two persons, not one of whom caught the infection, altho’ he had the same 
attention paid him by all his family, as if he had been in any other disorder.  
Not one of the carters employed by the committee in the very dangerous office of 
removing the sick and burying the dead, ever had it.   The nurses at Bushhill 
have all escaped, except two; as have the worthy managers.  Thomas Boyles, the 
tenant, who occupied the building at Bushhill, at the time it was taken as an 
hospital, that is, the 31st of August, lived there until (Page 74) the 29th of 
October, with his wife and six children, none of whom were ever affected with 
the malignant fever.  Let these instances suffice at all future times to prevent 
fear from totally overpowering the understanding, and producing scenes of 
cruelty that make a feeling being blush for his species.
                                  ~~~~~~~~~~
	Among the country people, large quantities of wild pigeons in the spring 
are regarded as certain indications of an unhealthy summer.  Whether or not this 
prognostic has ever been verified before, I cannot tell.  But it is very 
certain, that during the last Spring, the numbers of those birds brought to 
market, were immense.  Never, perhaps, were there so many before
                                  ~~~~~~~~~~
	Several classes of people were highly benefited by the public distress.  
Coffin-makers had full employment, and in general high prices for their work.  
Most of the retail stores being shut up, those that remained open, had an 
uncommon demand; as the whole of the business was divided among a few.  Those 
who had carriages to hire, to transport families to the country, received 
whatever they pleased to require.  The holders of houses at from three, to 
twenty miles from the city, who chose to rent the whole or part of them, had 
high rents.  The two notaries, who protested for the banks, profited highly by 
the absence of the merchants and traders.
                                  ~~~~~~~~~~
	I have learned with great pleasure, that a few landlords, commiserating 
the distresses of their tenants, have come to the very humane resolution of 
remitting the payment of rents due during the prevalence of the disorder.  Were 
they to enter into resolutions generally to do the same, it would reflect honour 
on them.  But there are some, whose hardened hearts know no compassion, and who 
will have “the pound of flesh—the penalty of the bond.”  Indeed, when the 
disorder was at the highest stage, some landlords (Page 75) seized the small 
property of poor roomkeepers, who were totally unable to pay their rent.  A man 
wrote to the committee, informing them that the poverty of his tenants rendered 
it impossible for them to pay him; he therefore begged the committee would, as 
they were appointed to relieve the poor, pay the arrears due him! Another 
person, a wealthy widow, procured recommendations for some poor roomkeepers, her 
tenants; and the committee gave them each a small sum.  As soon as they had 
received it, the seized the money and their clothes!
                                  ~~~~~~~~~~
	A man lost his wife with the disorder.  He had it himself, lost his sight 
totally, and was left penniless, with two infant children.  Yet his landlord, 
before his convalescence was complete, seized his clothes and furniture, and 
turned him out of doors! ! ! 
                                  ~~~~~~~~~~
                “You may as well use question with the wolf,
                 Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb,
                 As seek to soften that (than which what’s harder ?)
                 His flinty heart.’’ ----------------------    Shakespeare.
                                  ~~~~~~~~~
	I hope the reader takes more pleasure in perusing cases reflecting honour 
on human nature, than those of a different description.  An amiable woman in New 
York, feeling for the situation of the numerous orphans in this city, wrote to a 
member of the committee, to choose her one of them as nearly resembling a child 
she had lost, as possible.  She particularly desired one without connections, if 
such could be procured.  She proposes to adopt it, and, with her husband, to 
bestow on it all the tenderness one of her own would have had.  Would it not be 
unjust to withhold her name?  Every reader answers, yes—and I will therefore 
reveal it,—Susan Willet.  Several applications of a similar nature have been 
made by some of our own citizens.
                                  ~~~~~~~~~~
	In the summer of 1791, the yellow fever prevailed in New York, in a part 
of Water Street, and in proportion to the sphere of its action, was as fatal 
there as (Page 76) it has been here.  It began in August, and continued till the 
middle of September, when it totally disappeared, and has never since visited 
that place.  This should ease the fears of many among us, who, always viewing 
the black side of every thing, terrify people with their prognostications, that 
we shall have it again next spring or summer.  All the symptoms were full as 
dangerous and alarming in New York, as in Philadelphia.  Many persons died in 
three days; “stupor, delirium, yellowness, the black vomit, and death, rapidly 
succeeding each other.”  It spread no farther at that time, than the one street, 
although no precautions, as far as I can learn, were taken to prevent its 
extension.  The same species of disorder raged in this city in 1762, with great 
violence.  It disappeared in the month of November and has not from that time 
until this year visited Philadelphia.
                                  ~~~~~~~~~~
	The summer and fall of this year have been unhealthy in many parts of the 
union, as well as in Philadelphia.  At Lynn, in Massachusetts, I have been 
Informed, but have no means of ascertaining the truth or falsehood of the 
report, that a malignant fever, not unlike ours, prevailed in August.  In many 
of the towns of Virginia, intermittent fevers have been much more prevalent and 
mortal than they have been at former periods.  Georgetown and its vicinity, 
which are in general very healthy, lost, in the course of a few weeks in summer, 
an unexampled number of people by the flux, which disorder has raged with great 
violence in many parts of America.  the influenza has generally spread through 
the union, and been very fatal.  It has been twice in Vermont, where likewise 
the putrid sore throat has carried off numbers.  At Harrisburg and Middletown, 
in this state, the flux and a putrid fever have been extremely destructive, and 
swept away I am credibly informed, a fifteenth (Page 77) part of the 
inhabitants.  Delaware state, particularly Kent county, has suffered much from 
fall fevers, which have produced a very great mortality.  At Dover, in the same 
state, a bilious colic raged with great violence, during last summer, and was 
extremely fatal.  At Pauling’s Kill, in Suffex county, New Jersey, a bilious and 
remittent fever has made very great havoc.  And various other places have 
experienced a mortality, very uncommon, and which, but for the calamity of 
Philadelphia absorbing public attention every where, and being the standard of 
comparison, would have created great alarms and uneasiness.
                                  ~~~~~~~~~~
	Of the number of citizens who fled away, it is difficult to form any 
accurate estimate.  In the city, from Vine to South Street, which has been 
surveyed by a man employed by the committee, of 21,000 inhabitants, the number 
of absent people is stated to be 8,600.  But as this business was several weeks 
performing, considerable variations must necessarily have taken place.  The 
emigration was not finished in those streets examined in the early part of his 
progress,—and towards the latter part, the returns had been already 
considerable.  One may be supposed to balance the other, and the removals in the 
liberties to have been equal to those in the city.  We shall therefore probably 
not err much, when we estimate the number who left the city at about 17,000.  
This is not so many as I formerly supposed, having estimated them at 23,000.  
Which of the two is accurate, or whether either of them is so, I leave the 
reader to determine.
                                  ~~~~~~~~~~
	The effect of fear in predisposing the body for the yellow fever and other 
disorders, and increasing their malignance, when taken, is well known.  The 
following exception to the general rule, which may be depended on, is curious 
and interesting.  A young woman, whose fears were of very prevalent, as not only 
to render her unhappy from the commencement of the disorder but even to 
interfere with the happiness (Page 78) of the family with whom she lived, had to 
attend on seven persons, all of whom were in a very dangerous state, and one of 
whom died.  Her attendance was assiduous and unremitted for nearly three weeks.  
Yet she has never been in the slightest degree affected.
                                  ~~~~~~~~~~
	The watches and clocks in this city, during the disorder, were almost 
always wrong.  Hardly any of the watchmakers remained—and few people paid 
attention how time passed.  One night, the watchmen cried ten o’clock when it 
was only nine, and continued the mistake all the succeeding hours.
                                  ~~~~~~~~~~
	The Hope, a vessel from Londonderry, arrived in our river towards the end 
of August.  The passengers had a malignant disorder among them, in consequence 
of which, orders were issued to have them landed at State Island, that they 
might undergo examination.  Nevertheless, several of them came to the city, and 
added to the dangers already existing.  The mayor, on the 3d of September, 
issued a proclamation, calling upon the citizens not only to use their endeavors 
to detect such as had arrived, and to prevent others from coming, without 
procuring the proper certificates; but to make report to one of the magistrates, 
of the names of those by whom they were harboured, that they might be prosecuted 
according to law.  On this subject an obvious reflexion arises, which I will not 
suppress.  Our citizens have generally been in the habit of severely censuring 
the inhabitants of those places in which very strict precautions were taken, to 
prevent the spreading of the disorder that prevailed here; and yet we see that 
our own conduct, in a case nearly similar, has not been very different.  I would 
not wish to be understood as if I meant to justify the whole of the proceedings 
that took place everywhere; far from it; some of them have been to the last 
degree severe, and unnecessarily so; for all the cautions requisite, were 
compatible with a small (Page 79) degree of attention to the comfort and 
convenience of fellow citizens, in good health, travelling for business, for 
pleasure, or the preservation of health, and even of life.—Whereas in many 
places it would appear as if the harshest mode of carrying harsh measures into 
effect, was purposely adopted.  My intention is merely to show, that such as 
indiscriminately vilify those who have resorted to precautions dictated by 
prudence, do not weigh the matter in the scales of impartial justice.
                                  ~~~~~~~~~~
	Governor Moultrie’s proclamation, announcing the existence of the 
malignant fever in the Grenadas, etc.  and ordering a quarantine, is dated the 
7th of June
                                  ~~~~~~~~~~
	Some of the postmasters, in the different states, used the precaution to 
dip Philadelphia letters into vinegar with a pair of tongs, before they handled 
them.  Several of the subscribers for Philadelphia papers, made their servants 
sprinkle them with vinegar, and dry them at the fire, before they would venture 
to touch them.
                                  ~~~~~~~~~~
	Joseph Inskeep attended several sick persons in a family near him.  When 
he was ill himself, he wanted assistance, and sent for some of them to attend 
him— but they ungratefully refused! O Shame ! where is thy blush? 
                                  ~~~~~~~~~~
	Many of our citizens who fled from the city, neglected or forgot to leave 
their servants money enough for their support; so that some of these poor 
creatures had to depend for sustenance on the charity of their neighbours.
                                  ~~~~~~~~~~
	Some of our unemployed tradesmen wished to procure work at the new roads 
now making.  But the (Page 80) people who were employed, agreed, that if they 
were engaged, that they would all abandon their work; so that the overseers were 
obliged to renounce the idea.
                                  ~~~~~~~~~~
	The incautious security of the citizens of Philadelphia, at the first 
stage of the disorder, is highly to be regretted.  Most of those who died of the 
malignant disorder, before the 26th of August, were carried to burial with the 
accustomed parade of attendants which so generally prevails in this city.  The 
chief of the persons who at that time carried the dead to the grave, and several 
of those who attended the funerals, were speedily taken sick, and hurried into 
eternity.
                                  ~~~~~~~~~~
	Sebastian Ale, an old gravedigger, who had long lost the sense of 
smelling, fancied he could not take the disorder, and followed his business 
without apprehension.  A husband and his wife who lay sick together, wished to 
be interred in the same grave.  Their deaths happened within a few days of each 
other.  When the latter of the two was to be buried, Sebastian was employed to 
dig open the other’s grave.  He struck upon and broke the coffin, and in 
stooping down, received into his mouth such an intolerable and deadly stench, 
that he was taken sick immediately, and in a day or two died.
                                  ~~~~~~~~~~
	The scourge of the yellow fever has fallen with extreme severity on some 
families.  There are various instances of five and six, and some of eight, ten, 
and of Godfrey Gebler’s  family no less than eleven were swept off the face of 
the earth.  Dr. Sproat, his wife, son and daughter—Michael Hay, his wife, and 
three children—David Flickwir and five of his family—Samuel Weatherby, wife, and 
four grown children, are no more.  And there are numberless instances of a havoc 
equally great in particular families.  There is one house in this city, from 
which above twenty persons (Page 81) were carried, some to Bushhill, but the 
most of them to the grave.
 
                                  ~~~~~~~~~~
	There is one fact respecting this disorder, which renders it probable, 
that the exercise of the duties of humanity towards the fugitive Philadelphians, 
would not have been attended with the danger universally imagined.  In defiance 
of all the resolutions entered into by the inhabitants of various towns, many of 
our infected citizens evaded their vigilance, and took refuge among them; and in 
very few cases is it known that they communicated the infection.—Three persons 
died of this disorder, in one house near Woodbury, in New Jersey; they had been 
attended during their illness, by the family, none of whom caught the disease.  
Six or seven died at Darby, as many at Germantown, and eight at Haddonfield, 
without communicating it to any of the inhabitants.  A man from Philadelphia, of 
the name of Cornell, died in New York, about two days after his arrival.  The 
place of his death was a boarding house, in which were several boarders, one of 
whom slept in the same bed with him.  Two of the family only were lightly 
affected—but not in such a degree as to require medical aid.  Several other 
infected persons from our city, died there, and no one caught the infection from 
them.  A man died at one of the principal taverns in Baltimore, of the same 
disorder.  Many people had visited and attended him during the whole of his 
illness, without injury.  No person was affected but his doctor, whose 
indisposition was not of long continuance.  A great number of similar instances 
have occurred at Burlington, Bordenton [Ed.  Bordentown], Lamberton, Princeton, 
Brunswic [Brunswick], Woodbridge, Newark, Lancaster, and various other places.

	Since the first edition appeared, I have had information from a number of 
creditable persons, that the idea that the disorder has not been communicated 
out of Philadelphia, is erroneous.  A family, of the name of Hopper, near 
Woodbury, took it from some of our infected citizens and three of them died.  A 
woman (Page 82) in Chester county, who had boarded and lodged some of the sick, 
died of the malignant fever.  Three people, of one family in Trenton took it 
from a sick person from Philadelphia, and died of it.  A negro servant belonging 
to Mr. Morgan, of Pennsauken creek, in New Jersey, took up an infected bed 
floating in the Delaware, which spread the disorder in the family, and Mrs. 
Morgan and her girl both died of it.  It was introduced by his son from 
Philadelphia, into the family of Mr. Cadwallader, at Abington, some of whom died 
with it.  Some others in different places caught the infection, and died.  But 
the cases of this kind have been extremely few, considering the numbers, who 
carried the disorder from hence, and died with it in the country.