Cholera in Jamaica / copy of a letter from C. Macaulay esq., Assistant Secretary to the Board of Health, to F. Peel esq., Under Secretary of State.

Great Britain. General Board of Health.

Date:: 1853

Credit: Cholera in Jamaica / copy of a letter from C. Macaulay esq., Assistant Secretary to the Board of Health, to F. Peel esq., Under Secretary of State. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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$leeward and having daily communication with Falmouth, did not begin to suffer until the 13th, or a month after its appearance there. It was in December that the epidemic acquired its full development in St. James. The gradual progression of the disease in the town of Montego Bay, from the beginning of the month until it reached its acme of power during the third week, will be seen by the daily register of deaths afterwards given, and which was very accurately kept by the highly intelligent secretary of the Local Board of Health, Mr. Lewin, to whom I am indebted for many particulars. During its prevalence in the town, the pestilence broke out with great force in some of the adjacent properties, while others immediately contiguous to them remained exempt for a month or longer afterwards. The first cases, says Mr. Lewin, appeared about the same time, viz., the 6th of December, in various localities in the parish quite apart and considerably remote from each other, sucii as at Fairfield near Montego Bay, and Newman Hall, inter- mediate between tiie bay and Maroon Town. In the latter district, which is much more elevated than the former, the cases were only sporadic and solitary, shovving no tenilency to spread. The severe outbreaks occurred near river courses, and where rank vegetation abounded, especially around dwelhngs. The negro villages on the estates of Catharine's Hall, Irwin, and Latium were n^ost severely visited. On the last-named property, where the disease appeared on the 5th, upwards ot'three fourths of the people died. The attacks were often so rapidly fatal that able-bodied labourers, while employed in the boiling houses, were seized with cramps and spasms, became collapsed at once, and s})eedily expired. Numerous corpses remained unburied for days, and others were laid in such shallow graves that the atmosphere became tainted with the ])utrid effluvia. Upon another estate, where the disease broke out on Christmas Day after heavy rain, no fewer than seventeen deaths took place within four or five hours. Hanover was about two or three weeks later in being \isited by the epidemic than the p.ari.sh of St. James, innnediately eastward of it. The spot where it first appearetl was on the seacoast at Sandy Bay, about twelve miles to wind- ward of Lucea, the principal town. A case (whether imported or not was not known) occurred there on the '-^9tn November ; and this was followed by several others during the next week or two, not only in Sandy Bay, but also at several neighbouring places on the coast, such as Tryall, Mosquito Cove, Flint River, &c. During the latter part of November there was a good deal of diarrhoea and other sickness at Lucea, and the inhabitants were in consequence in great alarm at the dreaded advent of cholera among them. A few isolated cases occurred during the first half of December; but it was not till the last week that the epidemic invasion can be said to have commenced. By the end of the year, the daily mortality was rapidly on the increase. At two or three points on the coast westward of L-ucea, and in the direction of the adjoining paiish of IVestmoreland, sporadic cases took place during the present month ; one at Cousin's Cove on the 18th, one at Green Island on the 11th, and a second there on the 18th, he. The disease seemed also at this time to be extending itself over the high lands in the interior, towards the confines of Hanover with Westmoreland. As the history of the epidemic in the latter parish presents some peculiar features of interest, it will be useful to note all the circumstances that are known. During December, several fatal cases had occurred on the borders of West- moreland and St. James. They were all in persons who had returned from Montego Bay, where, as has been seen, the pestilence then prevailed. In no instance, did the disease spread to others. On the 19th, a man was attacked in a boat at Savanna-la-Mar. The boat had come from Falmouth. He was at- tended by all the resident medical men, and recovered. The other two men in the boat were not affected. At Mount Pleasant, about five miles eastward from Savanna-la-Mar, and also in the Blue Fields district a little further on in the same direction, there was a considerable amount of bowel complaints throughout the entire month, but no case of cholera occurred. At Achindown, inter- mediate between Savanna la Mar and Black River, a solitary case occurred about Christmas. The person had come from Black River. None of the other inmates of the hut sickened, nor did any other case ensue upon the estate. St. Elizabeth. The pestilence continued in force at Black River until the end of the third week in December. The entire mortality amounted to IS'O$