History of the pestilence, commonly called yellow fever, which almost desolated Philadelphia, in the months of August, September & October, 1798 / By Thomas Condie & Richard Folwell.

  • Condie, Thomas, 1775?-1814
Date:
[1799]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: History of the pestilence, commonly called yellow fever, which almost desolated Philadelphia, in the months of August, September & October, 1798 / By Thomas Condie & Richard Folwell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    (aie ey arid confequently moift ; in the vicinity of the rivers, it is frequently overflowed, and fubjects the inhabitants to fever- and-ague. But, towards the North and North-Weft, the fi- tuation is much higher. ‘The river Delaware, oppofite the city, isabout one mile broad; the tide rifes fix feet perpendicu- lar, and flows at the rate of four miles an hour; its oppofite fhore, in the flate of Jerfey, is level; the foil dry and fandy. The buildings do notat prefent extend over half the ground defignated in the original plan ; as the inhabitants, from ob- vious commercial advantages, have preferred the Delaware front rather than the Schuylkill ; hence, at prefent, the hou- fes extend nearly three miles North and South along the De- laware, and about three-quarters of a mile due Weit toward the Schuylkill. ‘They are chiefly built with bricks, from two to five ftories high; the ftreets are regular, wide and airy, except Water-{treet, which occupies the fpace between the bank upon which Front-ftreet is built, and the river, which was originally defigned for ftores. It is the narrowelt, yet one of the moft populous in the city: the ftreet is only thirty feet wide, and but a little above the fur- face of the tide: the houfes are high, and the greater part of them have no yards, particularly thofe firuated on the Weft or bank fide; an inconvenience which tends much to render the {treet more nauféous. It is much confined, ill-aired, and, in every refpe@, is a difagreeable ttreet. There are fe- veral alleys in the city, which are alfo narrow, confined and filthy. : | The river, for nearly the whole extent of the city, is in- dented with forced wharves, made, asis ufual, of {quare cafe- ments, with logs, and filled with earth, veflels-ballaft, ftones, &c. Where Dock-ftreet is now built, in former years, was a fwamp or canal, with a fmall ftream of water running through it, extending from the river to Third-{treet, which became a general nuifance, and a common refervoir for the filth of a large part of the city. It now forms a handfome, airy, ferpentine ftreet, having an arch underneath, covered with earth, and paved. ‘This concave fewer begins beyond Sixth-{treet, in Potter’s-Field, and is carried under ground below the jail to Walnut-ftreet, and down Walnut {treet to Dock-ftreet, between Second and Third-ftreets, and from thence down Dock-ftreet to the river. At neceflary diftan- ces, there are apertures left to receive the water from the gutters of the adjacent fircets + thefe openings, in the intenfe
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