Sketch of the operation and of some of the most striking results of quarantine in British ports since the beginning of the present century.

  • Gavin Milroy
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sketch of the operation and of some of the most striking results of quarantine in British ports since the beginning of the present century. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    army. On their arrival there, although the men were still free from sickness, they were not allowed to he landed at once ; and as, unfortunately, the weather became very tem¬ pestuous, the soldiers were obliged to keep below in the between decks, most of the time. “ When the weather mo¬ derated, every assistance was afforded them ; but it proved that, during the few days that the hatches were covered over in consequence of the heavy rains, a complete typhus fever* had been formed ; that the men (who appeared to be well while they had been kept on deck constantly, and the fresh air had been allowed to pass through the ship) were falling down with a malignant disorder, the germs of which, it was evident, had been brought by them from Carthagena, and had exploded into fever in the vitiated air by which they were surrounded in the close and crowded between decks.” There were upwards of one hundred already attacked. Prompt steps were at once taken by Sir J. Fellowes to se¬ parate the healthy from the sick. Four hundred, after due ablutions and change of dresses, were landed and sent to a temporary hospital, a mile from the town ; while one trans¬ port was entirely evacuated, and after being thoroughly cleansed, ventilated, and fumigated, all the sick were re¬ moved into it. Eventually, all the sick were brought ashore. Due precautions were taken to prevent communication between the sick of the troops in the garrison and the inha¬ bitants of the town ; and although a good many deaths had taken place in the hospital, and more than two hundred in all had been attacked with this “ highly contagious dis¬ order”, it at length ceased, without any detriment to the public health, either of the other shipping in the bay, or of the population on shore. * From other statements in the narrative, it is obvious that the disease was genuine yellow fever.
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