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

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

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CHAP.  VI   Magnanimous offer.  Wretched state of Bushhill.  Order introduced 
there.

	AT the meeting on Sept. 15th, a circumstance occurred, to which the most 
glowing pencil could hardly do justice.  Stephen Girard, a wealthy merchant, a 
native of France, and one of the members of the committee, touched with the 
wretched situation of the sufferers at Bushhill, voluntarily and unexpectedly 
offered himself as a manager, to superintend that hospital.  The surprise and 
satisfaction, excited by this extraordinary effort of humanity, can be better 
conceived than expressed.  Peter Helm, a native of Pennsylvania, also a member, 
actuated by the like benevolent motives, offered his services in the same 
department.  Their offers were accepted; and the same afternoon they entered on 
the execution of their dangerous and praise-worthy office  

	To storm a just estimate of the value of the offer of these men, it is 
necessary to take into full consideration the general consternation, which at 
that period pervaded every quarter of the city, and which made attendance on the 
sick be regarded as little less than a certain sacrifice.  Uninfluenced by any 
reflexions of this kind, without any possible inducement but the purest motives 
of humanity, they came forward and offered themselves as the forlorn hope of the 
committee.  I trust that the gratitude of their fellow-citizens will remain as 
long as the memory of their beneficent conduct, which I hope will not die with 
the present generation.  

	On the 16th, the managers of Bushhill, after  personal inspection of the 
state of affairs there, made report of its situation, which was truly 
deplorable.  It exhibited as wretched a picture of human misery as ever existed.  
A profligate, abandoned set of nurses and attendants (hardly any of good 
character could at that time be procured,) rioted on the provisions and comforts 
prepared for the sick, who (Page 32) (unless at the hours when the doctors 
attended) were left almost entirely destitute of every assistance.  The sick, 
the dying, and the dead were indiscriminately mingled together.  The ordure and 
other evacuations of the sick were allowed to remain in the most offensive state 
imaginable.  Not the smallest appearance of order or regularity existed.  It 
was, in fact, a great human slaughter-house, where numerous victims were 
immolated at the altar of riot and intemperance.  No wonder, then, that a 
general dread of the place prevailed through the city, and that a removal to it 
was considered as the seal of death.  In consequence, there were various 
instances of sick persons locking their rooms, and resisting every attempt to 
carry them away.  At length, the poor were so much afraid of being sent to 
Bushhill, that they would not acknowledge their illness, until it was no longer 
possible to conceal it.  for it is to be observed, that the fear of the 
contagion was so prevalent, that as soon as any one was taken ill, an alarm was 
spread among the neighbours, and every effort was used to have the sick person 
hurried off to Bushhill, to avoid spreading the disorder.  The cases of poor 
people forced in this way to that hospital, though labouringly under only common 
colds, and common fall fevers, were numerous and afflicting.  There were not 
wanting instances of persons, only slightly ill, being sent to Bushhill, by 
their panic-struck neighbours, and embracing the first opportunity of running 
back to Philadelphia.

	The regulations adopted at Bushhill, were as follow[s]

	One of the rooms in the mansion house (which contains fourteen, besides 
three large entries) was allotted to the matron, and an assistant under her – 
eleven rooms and two entries to the sick.  Those who were in a very low state 
were in one room – and one was appointed for the dying.  The men and women were 
kept in distinct rooms, and attended by nurses of their own sexes.  Every sick 
person was furnished with a bedstead, clean sheet, pillow, two or three 
blankets, (Page 33) porringer, plate, spoon, and clean linen, when necessary.  
In the mansion house were one hundred and forty bedsteads.  The new frame house, 
built by the committee, when it was found that the old buildings were inadequate 
to contain the patients commodiously, is sixty feet front, and eighteen feet 
deep, with three rooms on the ground floor; one of which was for the head nurses 
of that house, the two others for the sick.  Each of these two last contained 
seventeen bedsteads.  The loft, designed for the convalescents, was calculated 
to contain forty.

	The barn is a large, commodious stone building, divided into three 
apartments; one occupied by the resident doctors and apothecary; one, which 
contained forty bedsteads, by the men convalescents—and the other by the women 
convalescents, which contained fifty-seven.

	At some distance from the west of the hospital, was erected a frame 
building to store the coffins, and deposite the dead until they were sent to a 
place of interment.

	Besides the nurses employed in the house, there were two cooks, four  
labourers, and three washerwomen, constantly employed for the use of the 
hospital.

	The sick were visited twice a day by two physicians, Dr. Deveze and Dr. 
Benjamin Duffield , whose prescriptions were executed by three resident 
physicians and the apothecary.

	One of the resident doctors was charged with the distribution of the 
victuals for the sick.  At eleven o’clock, he gave them broth with rice, bread, 
boiled (Page 34) beef, veal, mutton, and chicken, with cream of rice to those 
whose stomachs would not bear stronger nourishment.  Their second meal was at 
six o'clock, when they had broth, rice, boiled prunes, with cream of rice.  The 
sick drank at their meals porter, or claret and water.  Their constant drink 
between meals was centaury tea, and boiled lemonade.

	These regulations, the order and regularity introduced, and the care and 
tenderness with which the patients, were treated, soon established the character 
of the hospital; and in the course of a week or two, numbers of sick people, who 
had not at home proper persons to nurse them, applied to be sent to Bushhill.  
Indeed, in the end, so many people, who were afflicted with other disorders, 
procured admittance there, that it became necessary to pass a resolve, that 
before an order of admission should be granted, a certificate must be produced 
from a physician, that the patient laboured under the malignant fever; for had 
all the applicants been received, this hospital, provided for an extraordinary 
occasion, would have been filled with patients whose cases entitled them to a 
reception in the Pennsylvania hospital.

	The number of persons received into Bushhill, from the 16th of September 
to this time, is about one thousand; of whom nearly five hundred are dead; there 
are now (Nov.  30,) in the house, about twenty sick, and fifty convalescents.  
Of the latter class, there have been dismissed about four  hundred and thirty.

	The reason why so large a proportion died of those received, is, that in a 
variety of cases, the early fears of that hospital had got such firm possession 
of the minds of some, and others were so much actuated by a foolish pride, that 
they would never consent to be removed till they were past recovery.  And in 
consequence of this, there were many instances of persons dying in the cart on 
the road to the hospital.  I speak within bounds, when I say that at least a 
third of the whole number of those received, did not survive heir entrance into 
the hospital two days.  Were it not for the operation of these two motives, the 
number of ( Page 35 ) the dead in the city and in the hospital would have been 
much lessened; for many a man, whose nice feelings made him spurn at the idea of 
a removal to the hospital, perished in the city for want of that comfortable 
assistance he would have had at Bushhill .

	Before I conclude this chapter, let me add, that the perseverance of the 
managers of that hospital has been equally meritorious with their original 
beneficence.  During the whole calamity to this time, they have attended 
uninterruptedly, for six, seven, or eight hours a day, renouncing almost every 
care of private affairs.  They have had a laborious tour of duty to perform.  
Stephen Girard, whose office was in the interior part of the hospital, has had 
to encourage and comfort the sick—to hand them necessaries and medicines—to wipe 
the sweat off their brows—-and to perform many disgusting offices of kindness 
for them, which nothing could render tolerable, but the exalted motives that 
impelled him to this heroic conduct.  Peter Helm, his worthy coadjutor, 
displayed, in his department, equal exertions, to promote the common good.