Davidson-Williamson-Statewide County TN Archives News.....Epidemic March 5, 1816
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Paula Snyder paulas1218@aol.com April 15, 2007, 12:31 am

The Nashville Whig March 5, 1816
From 

The Nashville Whig

Nashville, Tennessee

Vol. IV, Number 184

March 5, 1816



THE EPIDEMIC

Which raged here, and which proved so fatal to this place, has entirely abated 

in town and the cheering blessing health resumed its accustomed place amongst 

our citizens: But we have yet to lament that in some parts of the country the 

fatal disease continues to rage – though not with the same violence.



TO THE PUBLIC

	An ardent desire to arrest, by every means in my power, the mortality 

of the prevailing Epidemic, is all the apology I shall offer for the 

appearance of this hastily drawn up sketch of its causes, symptoms and method 

of cure.

	The remote and predisposing causes of this disease may in some degree 

elude our investigation; but I am of opinion that the unusual quantity of rain 

which fell during the last year, and the frequent and violent changes in the 

temperature of the air, in the early part of the winter, have been at least 

very active agents in the business.

	The Epidemic, Catarrh, or Influenza, which made its appearance about 

the 1st of January, found in our systems, from the above named or other 

causes, a general and highly inviting predisposition to inflammatory attacks 

of, and great determinations to the lungs and liver; and acting on this 

predisposition as a more generally diffused exciting cause than ever before 

occurred under similar circumstances in this country, has produced amongst us 

a most violent Epidemic Pleurisy. The patient is generally seized with an 

ague, fit or chilness (sp.), accompanied with, or soon followed by pain in the 

side or breast; difficulty of breathing; great thirst and internal heat; a 

white parched tongue; small corded and frequent pulse, from 110 to 150 in the 

minute.  In a few cases the pulse is full and hard, and in some small and 

soft; a distressing cough through the whole course of the disease – the 

patient sleeps none, nor is it procured by opiates. – These are the general 

features of the disease; but the symptoms are exceedingly variant. When it 

proves fatal, it is from the second to the ninth day generally – apparently 

from suffocation, or mortification in the lungs. From the violence of the 

symptoms, the parts affect, the persons who appear most liable to attacks, and 

the rapid course of the disease, I formed at once the opinion, that it was a 

disease of the highest grade of inflamatory (sp.) action. But on the other 

hand, the small, and sometimes soft pulse, the pale and exhausted appearance 

of many of the patients, and the openly avowed and confident opinions of 

physicians (high in my own and the public’s estimation) that it was of 

decreased or Typhus action, or some degree stayed my hand, and made me faulter 

(sp.) in my course.

	These embarrassing circumstances caused me to venture to draw blood 

with a timid and sparing hand; and even to omit it in some cases altogether, 

and place my whole reliance on blistering, purging, sweating, &c. I soon 

discovered that such a course was by no means a match for so violent and rapid 

a disease; and ventured, in conformity to my first impressions, to use the 

lancet freely.

	I can now say, from experience, that early and free blood-letting is 

the only cure for this disease, in its most violent forms. By a different 

course, the lives of many, I acknowledge may be saved, but they are not cured. 

They have generally a dangerous long illness; and a tedious convalescence – 

harassed by a cough, stitches in the side or breast, and almost insurmountable 

debility. – While those cured by blood-letting are well in a few days, and 

regain their former strength and health with astonishing rapidity.

	When the patient is seized as above stated, with a pain in the side or 

breast, I bleed him until he becomes faint, or a pain in the side or breast, I 

bleed him until he becomes faint, or a mitigation of the symptoms is produced. 

I repeat it in eight or ten hours if pain continues or returns; and so on 

until it is entirely removed – laying at the same time a blistering plaster on 

the part pained; keeping the bowels open with calomel and salts, and using the 

bath if the skin is dry. The principle object, however, of this communication 

is to urge the necessity of early and free blood-letting, without regard to 

the age of the sufferer, and letting the relief procured, and not the number 

of ounces, be the criterion of the proper quantity.

	Public prejudices are unfortunately strong against this anchor of 

hope; and those prejudices have been increased and strengthened by premature 

and ill digested opinion of physicians.

	I will not dwell on the dreadful devastations those errors are daily 

making in our county – the subject is a delicate and heart rending one, I will 

close these observations by calling your attention to the unusual fatality of 

this disease; and hoe that this circumstance will at least raise a doubt that 

a proper course has not generally pursued and a belief that your condition 

cannot be made worse by a different one. Make trial of that which I have 

pointed out; and I am willing that my professional reputation rest upon the 

issue. 

	FELIX ROBERTSON

	Nashville, March 4, 1816



Two thirds of those attacked have the pain in the right side.

It is important that the orifice made in the vein be large, and the blood 

drawn off in as short time as possible.





Additional Comments:
The Influenza epidemic of the winter of 1816 killed many family members in 

Middle Tennessee. This article might be of interest to anyone who had an 

ancestor who died in January or February of 1816

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