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

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

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CHAP.  VIII.   Repeated addresses of the committee on the purification of 
houses.  —Assistant committee undertake to inspect infected houses personally.  
Extinction of the disorder.  Governor's proclamation.  Address of the clergy.  A 
new and happy state of affairs.

	THE committee exerted its cares for the welfare of the citizens in every 
case in which its interference was at all proper or necessary.  The declension 
of the disorder induced many persons to return to the city at an earlier period, 
than prudence dictated.  On the 26th of October, therefore, the committee 
addressed their fellow citizens, congratulating them on the very flattering 
change that had taken place, which afforded a chearing prospect of being soon 
freed from the disorder entirely.  They, however, recommended to those who were 
absent, not to return till the intervention of cold weather, or rain  should 
render such a step justifiable and proper, by totally extinguishing the disease.
 
	The 29th, they published another address, earnestly exhorting those whose 
houses had been closed, to have them well aired and purified; to throw lime into 
the privies, etc.

	The 4th of November, they again addressed the public, announcing that it 
was unsafe for those who had resided in the country, to return to town with too 
much precipitation, especially into houses not properly prepared.  They added, 
that though, the disorder had considerably abated, and though there was reason 
to hope it would shortly disappear, yet they could not say it was totally 
eradicated; as there was reason to fear it still lurked in different parts of 
the city.  They reiterated their representations on the subject of cleansing 
houses.

	(Page 40) The 14th, they once more addressed their fellow Citizens, 
informing them of the restoration to our long afflicted city, of as great a 
degree of health as usually prevails at the same season; of no new cases of the 
malignant fever having occurred for many days; of their having reason to hope 
that in a few days not a vestige of it would remain in the city or suburbs; of 
applications for admission into the hospital having ceased; of the expectation 
of the physicians at the hospital, that no more than three or four would die out 
of ninety-one persons remaining there; of the number of convalescents increasing 
daily.  They at the same time most earnestly recommended that houses in which 
the disorder had been, should be purified; and that the clothing or bedding of 
the sick, more especially of those who had died of the disorder, should be 
washed, baked, buried, or destroyed.  They added, that the absent citizens of 
Philadelphia, as well as those strangers who had business in the city, might 
safely come to it, without fear of the disorder.

	Notwithstanding all these cautions, many persons returned from the 
country, without paying any attention to the cleansing of their houses, thereby 
sporting not only with their own lives, but with the safety of their fellow 
citizens.  The neglect of some people, in this way, has been so flagrant, as to 
merit the severest punishment.  This dangerous nuisance attracted the notice of 
the committee; and after  a conference with the assistant committee, they, on 
the 15th of November, in conjunction with them, resolved, that it was highly 
expedient to have all houses and stores in the city and liberties, wherein the 
malignant fever had prevailed, purified and cleansed as speedily and completely 
as possible; to have all those well aired, which had been closed for any length 
of time; to have lime thrown into the privies; to call in, when the district 
would be too large for the members to enforce compliance with those revolves, 
such assistants as might be necessary; and when any person, whose house required 
to be cleansed, and who was able to defray the expense thereof, should refuse or 
neglect to comply (Page 41) with the requisition of the members appointed to 
carry those resolves into effect, to report him to the next grand jury for the 
city and county, as supporting a nuisance dangerous to the public welfare.  The 
assistant committee undertook to exert themselves to have these salutary plans 
put into execution; they have gone through the city and liberties for the 
purpose; and in most cases have found a readiness in the inhabitants to comply 
with a requisition of such importance .  

	This was the last act of the committee that requires notice.  Their 
business has since gone on in a regular, uniform train, every day like the past.  
They are now settling their accounts, and are preparing to surrender up their 
trust, into the hands of a town meeting of their fellow citizens, the 
constituents by whom they were called into the unprecedented office they have 
filled.  To them they will give an account of their stewardship, in a time of 
distress, the like of which heaven avert from the people of America forever.  
Doubtless, a candid construction will be put upon their conduct, and it will be 
believed, that they have acted in every case that came under their cognizance, 
according to the best of their abilities.

	On the 14th, governor Mifflin published a proclamation, announcing, that 
as it had pleased Almighty God to put an end to the grievous calamity which 
recently afflicted the city of Philadelphia, it was the duty of all who were 
truly sensible of the divine mercy, to employ the earliest moments of returning 
health, in devout expressions of penitence, submission, and gratitude.  He 
therefore appointed Thursday, the (Page 42) 12th of December , as a day of 
general humiliation; thanksgiving, and prayer, and earnestly exhorted and 
intreated his fellow citizens to abstain, on that day, from all worldly 
avocations, and to unite in confessing, with contrite hearts, their manifold 
sins and transgressions — in acknowledging, with thankful adoration, the mercy 
and goodness of the Supreme Ruler of the universe, more especially manifested in 
our late deliverance; and in praying, with solemn zeal, that the same mighty, 
power would be graciously pleased to instill into our minds the just principles 
of our duty to him and to our fellow creatures; to regulate and guide all our 
actions by his Holy Spirit, to avert from all mankind the evils of war, 
pestilence, and famine; and to bless and protect us in the enjoyment of civil 
and religious liberty.

	The 18th, the clergy of the city published an elegant and pathetic 
address, recommending that the day appointed by the governor, should be set 
apart and kept holy to the Lord, not merely as a day of thanksgiving, for that, 
in all appearance, it had pleased him, of his infinite mercy, to stay the rage 
of the malignant disorder, (when we had well nigh said, hath God forgot to be 
gracious ?)—but also as a day of solemn humiliation and prayer, joined with the 
confession of our manifold sins, and of our neglect and abuse of his former 
mercies; together with sincere resolutions of future amendment and obedience to 
his holy will and laws; without which our prayers, praises, and thanksgivings 
will be in vain.

	The 26th the assistant committee passed several very judicious and 
salutary resolves, requiring their members in their several districts through 
the city and liberties, immediately to inspect the condition of all taverns, 
boarding houses, and other buildings (Page 43) in which the late contagious 
disorder is known to have been; to notify the owners or tenants, to have them 
purified and cleansed; to report the names of such as should refuse compliance, 
and also make report of every house shut up, in which any person is known to 
have lately sickened or died.  They cautioned the vendue masters not to sell, 
and the public not to buy any clothes or bedding belonging to persons lately 
deceased, until they know that the same has been sufficiently purified and 
aired.

~~~~~~~~~~
	I have not judged it necessary to enter into a minute detail of the 
business of the committee from day to day.  It would afford little gratification 
to the reader.  It would be, for several weeks, little more than a melancholy 
history of fifteen, twenty, or thirty, applications daily, for coffins and carts 
to bury the dead, who had none to perform that last office for them—or as many 
applications for the removal of the sick to Bushhill.  There was little variety.  
The present day was as dreary as the past—and the prospect of the approaching 
one was equally gloomy.  This was the state of things for a long time.  But at 
length brighter prospects dawned.  The disorder decreased in violence.  The 
number of the sick diminished.  New cases became rare.  The spirits of the 
citizens revived—and the tide of migration was once more turned.  A visible 
alteration has taken place in the state of affairs in the city.  Our friends 
return in crowds.  Every hour, long-absent and welcome faces appear—and in many 
instances, those of persons, whom public same has buried for weeks past.  The 
stores, so long closed, are nearly all opened again.  Many of the country 
merchants, bolder than others, are daily venturing in to their old place of 
supply.  Market-street is as full of waggons as usual.  The customhouse, for 
weeks nearly deserted by our mercantile people, is thronged with citizens 
entering their vessels and goods.  The streets, too long the abode of gloom and 
despair, have assumed the bustle suited to the season.  Our wharves are filled 
with vessels, loading and unloading their respective cargoes.   And, in sine [in 
time] as (Page 44) every thing, in the early stage of the disorder, seemed 
calculated to add to the general consternation; so now, on the contrary, every 
circumstance has a tendency to revive the courage and hopes of our citizens.  
But we have to lament, that the same spirit of exaggeration and lying, that 
prevailed at a former period, and was the grand cause of the harsh measures 
adopted by our sister states, has not ceased to operate; for at the present 
moment, when the danger is entirely done away, the credulous, of our own 
citizens still absent, and of the country people, are still alarmed with 
frightful rumours, of the disorder raging with as much violence as ever; of 
numbers carried off, a few hours after  their return; and of new cases daily 
occurring.  To what design to attribute these shameful tales, I know not.  Were 
I to regard them in a spirit of resentment, I should be inclined to charge them 
to some secret, interested views of their authors, intent, if possible, to 
effect the entire destruction of our pity.  But I will not allow myself to 
consider them in this point of light—and will even suppose they arise from a 
proneness to terrific narration, natural to some men.  But they should consider, 
that we are in the situation of the frogs in the fable—-while those tales, which 
make the hair of the country people stand on end, are sport to the fabricators, 
they are death to us.  And I here assert, and defy contradiction, that of the 
whole number of our fugitive citizens, who have already returned, amounting to 
some thousands, not above two persons are dead—and these owe their fate to the 
most shameful neglect of airing and cleansing their houses, notwithstanding the 
various cautions published by the committee.  If people will venture into houses 
in which infected air has been pent up for weeks together, without any 
purification, we cannot be surprized at the consequences, however fatal they 
maybe.  But let not the catastrophe of a few incautious persons operate to bring 
discredit on a city containing above fifty thousand people. (Page 45)