The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-09-26
DR. HOADLEY'S PAPER.
4 pufB' REYIEW OF TIE RavAGEs OF TEL LOW FEVER Iy THIS CITY " f7os.

Its Causes. course and purAtion-ifs
 Ravages Here-swept on ons,Twentieth
 oftho Population. ,.a.,- sa.v4
 In reviewing the history Of the cpl demic of yellow fever, as 1t appeared In this city in l7s4. 1t will be necessary to premise some account of those dls- eases which prevailed here immediate ly before. that we may be able to judge whether there Is any analogy be- tween them and the fever in question
 Some time in 17s2 and l7ss many of the inhabitants of this town were af- ficted with a slight influenza; stinging pains in their jaws and legs. soreness fin the muscles in the neck. with light fever. In November and December fol- lowing several children were afflicted with ulcerous gore throat. These symp- toms were not alarming, and the dis ease terminated favorably in every in- stance. In January 1794. 1t assumed more malignant appearance; In Februa- ry, March. April. May. June and July 1t was highly putrid, and many fell victims to its malignity: so that In June, 1794. when yellow fever first made it's appearance here, scarlatina angino- sa was rife with great violence. Scar latina anglposa being thus the consti- tutional epidemic, and ushered in with many of the same symptoms with the supervening yellow fever, 1t will not ap- pear very extraordinary that, on its first appearance, one should be mistak- en for the other. E
 This was the case in respect of a num- Der of those first seized with yellow fe- yer, who being treated for scarlatina anginosa rarely recovered. Indeed of seventeen or eighteen who were ear Hest affected. fourteen died; but wheth- erthis should be attributed to the treat Inent, at this period, solely, or to the nature and virulence of the infection, was not determined. It was observed that the fever assumed more maAg- nant type in those who received the infection from the fomites. of the dis ease, which was mostly the case at first, than when it was derived immediately from the bodies of the sick; which ob- servation. if just. confirmed the opinion of Dr. Cullen, respecting infection.
 On the 10th of-June. 1794. yellow fe- yer made its appearance in New Haven, and the first person seized with the dis ease was the wife of Isaac Gorham living on the Long Wharf; and the na- ture of her complaint was not under stood or suspected till the time of her death. She complained, of violent pain in, her head. back and legs; her eyes were dull and slightly inflamed; she had nausea at the stomach with a mode rate fever. No marks of Inflammation were discoverable by inspection in the throat. The distressful symptoms above mentioned continued till the 14th when her pain and distress subsided suddenly. and she was elated with the prospect of speedy recovery; in the evening she vomited matter resembling coffee grounds and died the next day, live days after the seizure. ThSfphysf clan. Dr. Hotchkiss, who attended her. was ignorant of the nature of her com plaint till he saw what she vomited; he then pronounced her disease to be yell low fever. ..-- -.--..-.
 Polly Gorham was seized on the 18th and died on the 17th of June. MT. Aus tins store stood within three or four rods of MT. Gorham's house. and no per-, son in town was known to have yellow fever previous to Captain Trumans ar- rival It was supposed that Mrs. Cor ham caught the disease from the in fected sloop or. clothing, as%also Mir. Austin, Henry Hubbard and Polly Cor ham, all of whom died in a. short time after exposure to the contents of the chest. These circumstances appeared to the examining committee,tsat the time, to be clear and decisive evidence of the importation of the fomites of the disease; and especially the fact that, in the case of Mir. Austin and his clerk, the symptoms were declared nearly at the same time. But this opinion, so important to society and to truth, did not meet with unquestioning acquies- cence; and 1t Is necessary to state fur ther on the result of other inquiries.
 On the 18th of June Isaac Gorham lost an infant with yellow fever; and soon after his son and daughter were affected with 1t; the former died. Sol-' omon Nudge died on the 30th; Jacob Thompson's negro woman on the 1st of July; Archibald McNeil on the 9th; Pol ly Brown on the 3rd of August; John Storer, Jr., and John Hide had visited MT. Gorham's house few days before their illness; Polly Brown and Mrs. Thompson nursed in Mir. Gorham's fam fly; and Archibald McNeil nursed Solo, mon Nudge. Elias Gill died on the 18th Of August.
 Dr. Munson made inquiry of several aged persons in this town relative to yellow fever. whether they knew of its ever having been here previous to June, 1794, and there was but single instance reported, the facts relating to which are these: In the year 1743 a transient person by the name of Nevins, and who came from the West Indies, lodged at the house of one Nathaniel Brown, an inn-keeper In this city. The man was taken very sick in the night, and died shortly afterwards; and his body was very yellow after death. MT. Browns wife sickened in short time and died of the same complaint, which was at that time supposed to be yellow fever. ''41
 In respect to the origin and nature of the disease under consideration, will say that the warmly controverted ques- tion of its foreign or domestic origin, which seems unavoidably connected