The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-09-27
DR.. HoADLEY'S PAPER.
lConcluded.)

Had the origin and pnenotnehh ot ep'
 demic diseases ever been understood
 the people of New Haven would have
 foreseep, with good degree of certain
 ty. that they, could not escape pesti'
 lence. This will appear from the fol
 lowing facts: In the winter and spring
 of l794 scarlatina anginosa prevailed
 generally in New Haven and the neigh
 boring towns; manifesting a highly pes
 tilential condition of the clements. one
 case of bilious fever attended with
 vomiting of black matter, occurred as
 early as the first week In March. For
 many months preceding the invasion of
 the fever the oysters on the coast
 of Connecticut were In very sickly
 state. Many people can testify 10 the
 truth of this fact; but have an account
 of 1t recorded at the time by the late
 President Stiles: In letter to hls son.
 in-law, the Rev. Mir. Holmes, of Cam
 bridge, Mass, dated September 25 l7s4,
 he writes, that for twelve months past
 he had eaten very few oysters. as they
 were diseased, poor and dropsical. He
 remarked this of the oysters from NEW
 York to Boston Those caught on the
 shores of Branford Killingworth and
 at Blue Point on the south side or Long
 Island were intolerable. At the date of
 the letter they were recovering and be-
 coming more palatabe This is strik-
 ing proof of the derangement oi the el-
 ements.
 Further evidence of this fact was fur
 nished by the multitudes Of caterpii-
 lars which overran the city of New
 Haven in 1794. (Some persons say this
 was in l793, but 1t is not materiaD My
 History" furnishes many instances or
 this phenomenon, preceding and accom-
 panying pestilence. Had these pne-
 nomena been understood the people or
 New Haven would have had no occa- sion to appoint committee to examine into the causes of the fever It was hardly possible, in the nature of things, that the human race should escape the calamity of epidemic disease, under the operation of causes so general ana pow crful. But these are not all. MT. Cor
 ham, whose family first suffered by the fever, had, in the month preceding the
 invasion, cleaned a great number Of shad upon the wharf by his door, and thrown the garbage, to the amount of a cart-load perhaps, into the dock. The alternate washing of the tide, and 'ac- ton of a hot sun, had rendered the pu- trefaction of this mass of filth extreme ly rapid; and there being no current to remove it, the stench became intolera- ble. On the other side of the wharf, a few rods distant, 8 boat-load of clans oI hn rV,I11 that the water, during the fiux of the tide, might preserve them, but great part of them were soon spoiled, and added to the fetor of the atmosphere. To complete the list of nuisances. some barrels of damaged pickled codfish had been thrown from store into the dock, and the whole was left uncovered dur ing the recess of the tide. So noisome was the air of the place, for some time before the fever appeared, that the pro- prietor of the wharf desisted from his usual morning visits before breakfast. For all these facts have the declara- ton of the persons concerned and eye witnesses.
 . The putrefaction of flesh, from thirty years observation, can testify, will not always produce disease. But in a pes tilential state of air the dissolution of flesh is unusually rapid, and the acid evolved peculiar noxious. In such cases putrescent substances of all kinds appear to be powerful auxiliary causes of disease. The condition of the ele- ments accelerates putrefaction, and pu- trefaction in turn increases the delete lious quality of the air.. Under the op- eration of so many causes of disease, instead of being surprised at the ap- pearance of a. pestilentiat fever, we are to wonder that itsrayislaes were not more extensive. That the putrefac- tion of filth was the exciting cause of the fever, in New Haven is probable from the early appearance of 1t in sum- mer.. The first cases occurred about the 10th of June, which is earlier than the epidemic pestilence of America usually occurs; and which indicates the exist ence of strong local causes. What fur ther confirms this opinion is, that after a few weeks the distemper was nearly or wholly extinct. In uly died only three persons, and for about two weeks no new cases occurred. But in Au- gust, the usual time for the appearance of this disease in this part of America, it broke out with violence. It is prob able, therefore, that the morbid local causes induced the fever in one small spot, before tn proper season for 1t to prevail These causes being gradually by the tides and hot sun, the disease subsided until the usual season for such levers. The same took | place in New York in 17s5. in 17s6 and l7ss. .,,,. ...... l
 No doubt the condition of things in New Haven In 17a4, in respect of sani- tation, left much to be desired; no doubt l the atmosphere at and in the neighbor- hood of Long Wharf was contaminated | :o deplorable degree by the fetid eff1u- 1ium from animal and vegetable matter | n an advanced stage of decomposi- ion. Along the creek, that ran paral- | ei to and by the side of Union street, | he ground had been so filled in and | 'aissd by art for the purpose of build- ng necessaries, hogpens, tan-houses | md stables, that ordinary tides did not 1 lffect it.. In addition to, what was lsual, in one of the tan-yards on the borders of this creek, and contiguous to he seat of the greatest sickness, were hrown large number of putrid seal ;kins brought from the South seas bout the time the fever began; these 70 impregnated the air with their offen- i've exhaIations that the people in the were very much incom- noded. and were compelled to keep heir windows next to the yard closed; hese skins were thrown after a while o~l ko; {,, tL4 o.,,rr@ ae |