Tableau of the yellow fever of 1853 : with topographical, chronological, and historical sketches of the epidemics of New Orleans since their origin in 1796, illustrative of the quarantine question / by Bennet Dowler.

  • Bennet Dowler
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Tableau of the yellow fever of 1853 : with topographical, chronological, and historical sketches of the epidemics of New Orleans since their origin in 1796, illustrative of the quarantine question / by Bennet Dowler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    hensive than sunstroke seems required to designate the fatal congestion, or whatever may be the immediate cause of death, in these cases. * * * Mean temperatures and amount of rain are given in a tabular form from over ninety stations. The normal curve [or mean] at New York and Northward is a rise of 4° to 4.5° from the mean for June to that of July, and a fall of 3° to that of August. At Philadelphia and Southward it is somewhat less, decreasing to the Gulf coast, where the curvature disappears. It was not until June that the yellow fever showed itself even in the sporadic form'to any considerable degree—the week ending on the 30th of the month gave as the average of maxima 92° in New Orleans. Now, Mr. Blodget's tables will show that on and about the day aforesaid that the maxima temperatures were as follows at the places indicated where yellow fever did not show itself: Alexandria, Virginia, 95°; Knoxville, Tennessee, 94.4°; Oberlin, Ohio, 95°, 17th, 97; Balti- more, 92.3°, 22d, 96.2° ; Camden, South Carolina, 97.6°; Sparta, Georgia, 97°; Eutaw, Alabama, 101°, (the day before 104°;) Lebanon, Tennessee, 95.90 ; New Harmony, Indiana, 28th, 97.5° ; Bloomfield, New York, 21st, 99.5; Philadelphia, 95°. 20th, 96° ; Sparta, Georgia, 97° ; Brooklyn, Michigan, 21st, 97° ; Poultney, Iowa, 20th, 97°. On the other hand many Southern towns were compartively cool—those which escaped as well as those which suffered from yellow fever. Jacksonville, Florida, on the last day of June, 84° ; Pensacola, 85°. Again, compare the 15th of August—Smithsonian Institution, 91° (the 14th, 94° ;) Alexandria, Virginia, 92.3°; Savannah, Georgia, 77°; Jacksonville, Florida, 87°; Culloden, Georgia, 82.40; Austin, Texas, 82°. This period including the preceding two weeks and the week succeed- ing was the hottest part of the season in New Orleans, the maximum ranging from 93° to 94°, being much greater than that which attended the invasion of the epi- demic. The week ending the 28th of July, gave an average of 87°, although the mortality at that time from yellow fever fell but little short of 1,400 during the month. If we compare the summer heat (June, July and August) of the yellow fever zone with Northern latitudes, where yellow fever did not appear, it will be found that even the mean temperatures of the entire hot season correspond very nearly in many instances : the mean of New Harmony, Indiana, for June, 79 3°, nearly the same as Pensacola, which is 80°; Baltimore 77.7°; Savannah 79°; Lebanon, Ky., 79.5°; Camden, S. C, 79.3°; Danville, Ky„ 79.3°; Mount Vernon, Ohio, 78.9°, agreeing within an inconsiderable fraction with Cedar Keys, Talahassee, Pensacola and Jacksonville, (78.9°) in Florida, and Eutaw, Ala., Austin, Texas, and other places. The quantity of rain which fell in New Orleans in July, August and Septem- ber, amounted to 16.81 inches, nearly two-thirds of which fell in July, which is usually the most rainy month in New Orleans—nearly one-third fell in the next month, leaving but the fraction of an inch for the latter, which, with th« month of October, is the driest season of the year. On comparing July and August, the two great epidemic months in New Or- leans in 1853, it will be seen that there was nothing peculiar-nothing that can ac- count for the epidemic in regard to the quantity of rain, which was in some places greater or less than in regions free from the fever, and sometimes similar. In these two months there fell 16.81 inches of rain at New Orleans; at West Point, N. Y, 18 28- at Richmond, Mass, 14.235; at Montreal 10.191; at Philadelphia 9.37; at Rain.