The plague of 1871 / compiled by T.E. Ash.

Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The plague of 1871 / compiled by T.E. Ash. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/32 (page 6)
    weak constitution's were seized with vomiting, when the wind blew from the south. Even the streets newly paved, in the outlets, gave forth a dreadful stench after every shower of rain, f«r they had all been laid down with, ‘vasura/ or stuff from the sca¬ vengers’ carts. In fact, the whole city steamed like a dunghill whenever a hot sun came after a fall of rain. That the recent summer has been the hottest for many years is evi¬ denced, among other things, by the number of mad dogs in December and January, a nuisance previously unknown. An unusual!v hot sim \j was playing for some months on a soil now in fermentation, for the water supply had caused a much increased consumption of waster in the town, and as it wras prohibited to throw water in the s tree Island there being no drainage, the people were obliged to turn it into old wells, with which the various, parts of the city are so honeycombed that as many as fifteen or sixteen are found -when a site is being cleared for a h®use. Nay, if sometimes happens that a.lady falls through her parlour floor, and finds an old well (unfilled.) under the car¬ pet. While the city was fermenting and steaming, the water of the Diver Plate was so poisoned /by the liquid from the Riachuelo that the dead fish .covered the roadstead and river as high as Palermo ; yet this same water was what the , citizens of Buenos Ayres had to drink. Meantime, so noxious and. deadly were the vapours that rose-from the ground that wherever it was opened nausea and sickness followed. In Paseo Julio the foreman of Mr. Wheel¬ wright, in driving down posts for the new central terminus, was taken ill a few days after his arrival, and the works were suspended, in the Plaza Once de Setiembre some men were engaged by Mr. N. to make a wall, after’digging through several layers of ‘ vasura’ for a foundation, were tak$n ill and sent t© hospital. The air was foul and sickening; the wafer was corrupted; the earth was reeking with abomination. The plague came, and it found the place ripe f©r destruction. II. Javuajiy.—The Outbre ak . In the first week of last January the plague entered the city by the ‘ Barrio San Telrao;’ but at first its existence was' only felt by a few Italians, who were utterly ignorant of the real character of their guest. Half a dozen peons or washerwomen were taken away daily from their cares; their faces were not missed; others followed the same j®urney to the cemetery; and at last a rumour spread that the. fever was making ravages in San Telrno. In medical circles it >ya§ cautiously whispered, u We have yellow fever amongst us.” But not until the close of the month, when nearly'two hundred 'victims had fallen, did anyone dare publicly to give the alarm. Dr. Golfarini and others hastened indignantly to contradict the rumour, and comfort the' public mind: it was only the fall of the leaf—the unhealthy sea¬ son, when we must not be surprised to see the mortality somewhat abo, £ the average.”