USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. IV > Part 68
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No further sanitary regulations are recorded until Oct. 11, 1665, when a warrant was issued by the General Court, ordering all vessels coming from England to be placed in quarantine. This order was due to the prevalence of the " plague " in London at that time; but it was repealed just two years afterward, owing to the disappearance of the disease. The quarantine grounds then were near the Castle. These two orders appear to have been made to meet special emergencies; but they comprise the whole legislation of the seventeenth century, so far as it relates to quarantine in Massachusetts.
It is said that the first appearance of yellow fever in what is now the United States occurred during the summer of 1693, at Boston, where it had been brought from Barbadoes. A fleet, under the command of Sir Francis Wheeler, arrived in the early summer of that year, after an unsuccessful attempt on the island of Martinico. Chief-Justice Sewall alludes to this fleet in his diary,2 under date of June 13, when he says that " severall of the Frigotts come up above Long Island; " though he does not mention whence they came. It is probable that they had arrived within a few days. A short time afterward he records that -
" Last night Tim. Wadsworth's man dies of the Fever of the Fleet, as is supposed, he having been on board and in the Hold of some ship. Town is much startled at it."
Still later, under date of July 24, he writes : -
"Capt. Turell is buried. Mr. Joseph Dassett was buried yesterday, being much lamented. Jnº Shove and - Saxton died before, all of the Fleet-Fever, as is
1 General Court Records, ii. 238. 2 5 Massachusetts Historical Collections, v. 379.
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MEDICINE IN BOSTON.
suposed ; besides others. The Town is much startled. Capt. Byfield speaks of re- moving his wife and daughters to Bristow. One of the Fleet-Women dies this day, July 24, 1693, at David Johnson's, over against the Town-house.
"July 25. Three Carpenters die.
" July 26. Dr. Pemberton dies. Persons are generally under much consternation, which Mr. Willard takes notice of in his Prayer."
At irregular intervals after this time, quarantine laws were passed or mod- ified to meet the needs of the public. A necessary adjunct to such legisla- tion was a hospital; and as early as the summer of 1716 a committee of the General Court was appointed to select a location for such a building. In due time they reported on two sites, - Spectacle Island and Squantum Neck; but as the owner of the island would not sell it at a fair price, they recommended Squantum as the proper place. A strong protest to this proposition, however, came from the towns of Dorchester, Braintree, and Milton, and that project was abandoned; but during the next year a quar- antine hospital was built on Spectacle Island, which was used for infectious diseases until the year 1737, when the establishment was transferred to Rainsford Island, where it remained until the year 1849. It was then established on Deer Island, where it was kept until April, 1867, when it was removed to Gallop's Island, at which place the quarantine buildings for the port of Boston are now situated.
In the year 1649 a law was passed which is commendatory to the wisdom of that time. It regulated, within certain limits, the practice of medicine and surgery, and required the practitioner to act according to the most ap- proved precepts of the art in each domain. It was a salutary enactment, so far as it went; but it afforded only a slight protection against the deficien- cies of the profession. It was like leaning on a broken reed, however, since it made no provision for educating medical men, and established no test of their qualifications. The attempt, however, is worthy of notice as being the first one, on the part of the colonial authorities, to restrain the quackery of the day. The tendency of the law was to confine the profes- sion to skilled persons; and it must be granted that the whole medical legislation of that period was in the interest of sound learning, as under- stood at the time. The present generation will do well if, tried by the standard two centuries hence, they display as much common-sense in such matters as was shown by the founders of the colony.
The character of the diseases that prevailed in the early days of the colony was substantially the same, though not entirely, as nowadays. It is known that intermittent fever often occurred in certain sections of Massa- chusetts where now it is never seen.
The Rev. Mr. Danforth of Roxbury, during the winter of 1660, makes the following entry in the church records : " The Lord was pleased to visite vs, with epidemical colds, coughs, agues, and fevers."1 Under date of Sept. 8, 1671, he says furthermore: "This summer many were visited with ye
1 P. 199.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
ague and fever." And again the next year, September II, he records : . "Agues and fevers prevailed much among vs about ye Bay, and fluxes and vomiting at Boston." These extracts are taken from the printed edition.
John Josselyn wrote An Account of Two Voyages to New England, which was published at London in the year 1674. He speaks of arriving at Boston, Sept. 1, 1671, and finding "the Inhabitants exceedingly afflicted with griping of the guts, and Feaver, and Ague, and bloody Flux."1 The plain Anglo-Saxon word used as a synonyme of the intestinal canal has gone down in the language, and become indelicate to this generation.
The women had their representatives in the profession in olden times as well as in our day, though they were not so strenuous in regard to their political rights as their modern sisters are. Anne Hutchinson was among the earliest of the sisterhood who practised medicine in Massachusetts. She came to Boston in the year 1636; and in A Short Story, etc., by Thomas Welde 2 (London, 1644), she is spoken of as a person "very helpfull in the times of child-birth, and other occasions of bodily infirmities, and well fur- nished with means for those purposes."
In the Roxbury Church Records, under date of Nov. 27, 1665, Mr. Dan- forth, the minister, writes: -
" M's Sarah Alcock dyed, a vertuous woman, of vnstained life, very skilful in physick & chirurgery, exceeding active, yea vnwearied in ministering to ye necessities of others. Her workes praise her in ye gates." 4
Her husband was a physician, and he is mentioned in the next paragraph.
Two years later, March 27, 1667, it is recorded in the same book that " M: John. Alcock, Physician, dyed. His liver was dryed up and become schirrous." 5 Possibly an autopsy was made in this case.
The following quaint epitaph is found in the Phipps Street Burying- ground at Charlestown, and would seem to indicate that occasionally in early times midwives were commissioned to practise their calling. Some mischievous person has skilfully changed the number on the stone slab, so that 3,000 reads 130,000: -
Here lyes Interred ye Body of M's ELIZABETH PHILLIPS, Wife to M: ELEAZER PHILLIPS. Who was Born in Westminster, in Great Brittain. & Commission'd by John Lord. Bishop. of London, in ye Year 1718 to ye Office of a Midwife ; & came to this Country, in ye Year 1719. & by ye Blessing of God, has brought into this world above 3000 Children : Died May 6th 1761. Aged 76 Years.
1 P. 213. 2 [See on the authorship, Vol. I. p. 176. - ED.] 4 P. 203. 5 P. 205 8 P. 31.
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MEDICINE IN BOSTON.
In the year 1648 Margaret Jones, of Charlestown, was found guilty of witchcraft; and she was the first person hanged in New England for that offence.1 She had been a practising physician, and her medicines, accord- ing to the best testimony of that period, had " extraordinary violent effects." It was said that " she would use to tell such as would not make use of her physic, that they would never be healed, and accordingly their diseases and hurts continued, with relapse against the ordinary course, and beyond the apprehension of all physicians and surgeons."
The earliest treatise on a medical subject published in this country was a broadside, twelve inches by seventeen in size, written by the Rev. Thomas Thacher, the first minister of the Old South. It bears date Jan. 21, 1677-78, and was printed and sold by John Foster, Boston. The title is, A Brief Rule To guide the Common People of New England How to order themselves and theirs in the Small Pocks, or Measels.2 It was intended to furnish some popular hints in regard to the management of this disease, which was then much more prevalent than now, A second edition of this Brief Rule was printed in the year 1702.
The introduction of variolous inoculation was the most important event in the medical history of the Province; and in promoting it the ministers took a leading part. It occurred in the summer of 1721, when there was not a single practitioner of medicine in Boston, with the exception of Dr. William Douglass, who was a regularly graduated physician. Some of the ministers were the peers of the doctors in medical knowledge, though with less clinical experience. In this state of affairs, it can readily be understood that it was a " free fight," whenever there was a medical controversy. Dr. Douglass, the leader of the opponents of inoculation, was a Scotchman, who came to Boston in the year 1718. He received his medical education in Paris and Leyden; was a man of fine intellectual parts, and a versatile writer. He knew astronomy, and could calculate eclipses. He had a taste for natural history, and was withal an excellent botanist. He studied his medical cases, and took careful notes by the bedside. With a large prac- tice, he wrote on a great variety of subjects, and it is not strange that occa- sionally he was inexact in his statements. It was wittily said of him, by some one, that he was always positive and sometimes accurate. He had little tact, and it is not surprising that he found himself continually in con- troversy. He died on Oct. 21, 1752, having passed his whole professional life in Boston, where he had much influence as a physician.3
The credit of the introduction of inoculation into this country is gener- ally given to the Rev. Cotton Mather, who had read, in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society at London, that this method was used in Turkey as a means of protection against small-pox. During a long time the practice had been kept up in Constantinople, where it was brought from
1 [See Vol. II. p. 133 .- ED.]
2 [The annexed fac-simile is of a copy, per- haps unique, belonging to the Massachusetts
Historical Society. It has been once before re- produced. - ED.]
3 ['See Vol. II., Index. - ED.]
A
BRIEF RULE
To guide the Common. People of NEW-ENGLAND Ho v to order themfelves and theirs in the
Small Pocks, or Meafels.
T He Small Pox ( whofe nature and cure the Meafels follow ) is a difeafe in the blood, endeavouring to recover a new form and ftate.
a, This natute attempts -... t. By Separation of the impure from the pure, thrufting it out from the Veins to the Fleth .-- 2. By driving out the impure from the Fleth to the Skin.
3. The Grft Separation is done in the first four dayes by a Feaverifh boyling ( Ebulli- tion'of the Blood, laying down the impurities in the Flethy parts which kindly effected the Feaverifh tumult is calmed.
4. The fecond Separation from the Fleth to the Skin, or Superficies is done through the reft of the time of the dafcafe.
5 There are feveral Errors in ordering thefe fick ones in both thefe Operation, ol Nature which prove very dangerous and commonly deadly either by overmuch haften ing Nature beyond its own pace, or in hindering of it from its own vigorous operation.
. The Separation by Ébullition in the Fcaverifh heat is over heightned by too much Clothes, too hot a room hot Cordials, as Diafesrdimm, Gafeons powder and fuch like, for hence come Permeses, dangerous exceltive Sweats, or the flowing of the Pocks in- ta one overfpreading fore, vulgarly called the Flox.
7. The fame feper ation is overmuch hindred by prepofterous cooling that Feareriths boyling heat, by bloodletting, Glylers, Vomus, purges, or cooling medicines. For though thefe many times haften the coming forth of the Pax. yet they take away that fupply wbich fhould keep them out till they are ripe, wherefore they link in again to the dead- ly danger of the fick.
8. Ma Phrenfe happen, or through a Plukeri. ( that is fulnefs of blood ) the Circula- tion of the blood be hindred, and thereupon the whole inafs of blood choaked up, then either let blood, Or fee that their diet, or medicines be not altogether cooling, but let thera in no' wife be heating, therefore let him lye no otherwife covered in his bed then he was went in health : His Chamber not made hot with fire if the weather be temperate, let him drink Small Beer only warm'd with a Toft. Ict him fup up thin water-grathor »4- rer paringe made only of Indian Flour and water, inftead of Our-wrml : Let him cat boild App'i; But I would not advife at this time any medicine befides. By this means that ex. celTive Ebullition ( or boyling of his blood ) willby degrees abate, and the Symptoms ceafe; Ifnot, but the blood be fo inraged that it will admit no delay. then either let blood ( if Ago will bear it ) or elfe give fome notably cooling medicios, or refrefh him with more free Air.
9. But if the boiling of the blood be weak and dull that there is caufe to fear it is not able to work a Separation as it's wont to be in fuch as have been let blood, or are fat, or Flegmatick. or brought low by fome other ficknet's or labour ol the ( Gewerbss ) run. . Dy of thefe with a Feaverith d'iftemper.
ning of the Reins, or fomc other Evacuation . Infuch Cafes, Cordials muft drive them .. 28. Signs warning of the probable Event. If they break forth cafily, quickly, and out, or they muft dy.
Ic. In time of driving out the Peeks from the Fleth, here care muft be had that the Iuftules keep out in a right mcafure till they have attain'd their end without going ill agam, for that is deadly.
11. In this time tascheed when the Pufthe appear whilft not yet ripe, leaft by too much heat there arife a new Ebullu:on ( or Feaverith boyling ) for this troubles the dra- ving out , or brings back the feparated pares into the blood, or the Flethy parts over heated are difabled from a right fuppuration or Jaftly the temper of the bloedand tone of the Fleth is fo perverted that it cannot overcome and digeft the matter driven out
12. Y'et on the other hand the hreaking out muft not be hindred, by ex polig the fick unto the cold .. The degree of beat muft be fuch as is natural.agrees with the tem per of the Rethy parts : That wasich cicceds or falls fhort is dangerous : Therefore the feafon ofthe year, Age ofthe fick, and their manner ef life here require a difereet and different Confideration, requiring the Counfel of an expert Phyfitian.
13. But il by any error a new Ebullition arifeth, the fame art muft be fed to allay it as is before expreft.
74.If the Pufler, go in and a flux of the belly follows (for elfe there is no fuch danger) then Cordials are to be ufcd, yet moderate and not tos olten lor fear of new Ebultitsom.
ty. If much fpitting ( Piyalefmi) follow you may hope all will go well, therefore by no means hinder it : Ouly with warm fmall Beerfet their mouths be wafhed.
16. When the. Puffles are dryed and fullen,purge well, efpecially if it be in Autumn. .. 17' >-foon' as this ditcafe therefore appears by its hans, let the fick al:Rcinfrom Fleth and Wine, and open Air, let him ufe final! Bear wermed with a Toft for his ordi. nary drink, and moderately when he deires it For lond ufe water. grael, water-por- lagt, and other thing, having no manifest hot quality, cafy of digestion boild Apples, and nulk fometimes for change, but the coldnel, taken off. Let the ufe ofhis bed be according to the feafon of the year, and the owltitude of the Packs, or as found perfons
arc wont. In Summer let him rife according to cuftome, yet fo as to be defended both from heat and cold in Excefs, the difeafe will be the fooner over and tefs troublefome, for being kept in bed nourithetb the Feaverifh heat and makes the Pocke break out' with.s painful inflamation
19% In a colderfcafon, and breaking forth of a multitude of Puffales, forcing the fick to keep his bed. let him be covered according to his cuftome in health a moderate fire in the witter being kindled in his Chamber. morning and Evening, neither need he keep his Arıns always in bed, or ly fill in the fame place, for fear leaft he Should Incat which is very dangerous especially to youth.
20 Before the fourth day ufe no medicines to drive out, nor be too ftrift with the fick; for by how much the more gently the Pafales do grow, hy fo much the fuller and perfecter will the Separation be.
21. On the fourth day a gentle Cordia' may help once gives.
22. From that time a finall draught of warm milk [ not hot ) a little dy'd with Suf- from may be given morning and evening till the Pafules are come to their due greatnef and ripenef
23. When the Puffales begin to dry and cruft. leaft the rotten vapours ftrike inward, .which fomerimes caufeth fudden death; Take morning and evening fome temperate Cordial as four or five Spoonfuls of Malugo wine tinged with a little Jaffres.
24. When the Palmles are dryd and fallen off, purge once and again, especially in the Autumn Pocks
25. Beware of anointing with Oilt, Fatti, Ointmenti. and fuch defenlives, for keep ing the corrupted matter in the Puffales from drying up,by tho moisture, they fret deeg er into the Fleth, and fo make the more deep Scarrs.
26. The young and lively men that are brought to a plentiful fiseat in this fxhne's. about the eighth day the fweat ftops of it felf, by. no ineans afterwards to bedrawn out again; the tick thereupon feels moft troublefonte difreft and anguith, and then makes abundance of water and fo dyes.
Few young men and ftrong thus handled efeape, except they fall into abundance of fpitting or plentiful bleeding at the note.
27. Signs difcovering the Affault at firft are beating pain in the head. Forehead and temples, pain in the back, great ficepinefs, gliftting of the eyes, thuining glimmerings feed before them itching of them affo with tears flowing of themfelves, itching of the Nofe, - Short breadb, dry Coughsoft sneezing, hoarlenefs, heat redness, and fenfc of pricking over the whole body, terrors in the Aleep forrow and reftlef nefs, beating of the heart, "Urine fonetimes as in health, fometime filthy from great Ebullition, and all this or ma-
I foon cometo ripening, it the Symptomes be gentle, the Fever mild, and after the breaking forth Irabats if the voice be tree, and breathing cafie; efpecially if the Pow bered white chilinet, folt few, round, Sharp top'd. only without and not in the in ward parts; if there be large bleeding at the nol'e. Thefe figns are hopeful
2g. But tuch figno are doulxful, when they difficultly appear, when they fink in a. gain when they are black, blewith, green, hard, all in one, if the Fever abato not with their be asking forth if there be Swooning, difficulty of breathing, great thirft, quincy, great un quictnefs. and it is very dangerous, if there be toyn'd with ir fome other malig. nant Feaver, called hy fome the peftilential Pox: the Spotted Feaver is oft joyned with it.
30 Deadly Signs if the Flue of the Belly happen, when they arebroke forth, if the Urine be blcody or black,or the Or dare of that Colour, Or if pure blood be caft out by the Belly or Gununs: I hefe Signs are for the moft part deadly.
Thefe things bove I writew Candid Reader, wet to imforen the Liarmed Phylician that back much more caule to understand what pertains to the difende shaw I, but to give home light to those that have no: fuch advantages, leaving the dificulty of this disease soche Physicians Are, windows, ans Farbfulness: for the right managing of them in the whole Couple of the discole sends both so the Patients fofery, and the Physicians difined Sucede bus Administrations: For in vain to the Physicians Are Employed, if they are as under a Regular Regiment. I am, though ". Physician, per a well wilber to the fuck, And sorfors increating the Lord so sure our hearts, and Day kis hand, I am
A Friend, Reader to chy Welfare,
21. 11. 1673.
Thomas Tbacber.
BOSTON. Printed and foldby 9.b. Fefe. 1677
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MEDICINE IN BOSTON.
Asia, and had met with much success. Dr. Mather was impressed with the importance of the method, and tried to interest the Boston doctors in the subject. With one exception, however, they seemed to be either indifferent or opposed to the whole matter. This exception was Dr. Zabdiel Boylston,1 who took up the practice of it amid the most violent opposition of his professional brethren; and on June 26, 1721, he inoculated his own son Thomas, six years of age, his negro man Jack, of thirty-six years, and a little negro boy, of two and a half years. They all had the disease very lightly, and he was encouraged to try the experiment on others. In his judgment the safety and value of the operation were soon established; but the medical profession were sceptical, and their opposition strong and bitter. With Dr. Douglass at their head they talked against it and wrote against it; and moreover they had the newspaper press on their side. Opposed to them were Dr. Boylston and the ministers, who at last carried the day. At one time the public feeling was so excited that the advocates of the practice were not safe even in their own houses. The town was patrolled by the rabble with halters in their hands, threatening to hang Dr. Boylston, if they could find him, to the nearest tree.
An attempt was made early in the morning of Nov. 14, 1721, by means of a " Fired Granado," to destroy the house of Cotton Mather, who had at the time a kinsman living with him and under his charge for inoculated small-pox. Fortunately the fuse was shaken out of the shell, and no serious damage done. A full account of the affair is given in the Boston News- Letter, Nov. 20, 1721, which says that - .
" When the Granado was taken up, there was found a paper so tied with a Thread about the Fuse, that it might outlive the breaking of the Shell, wherein were these words : COTTON MATHER, I was once one of your Meeting ; But the Cursed Lye you told of --- , You know who, made me leave You, You Dog ; And, Damn You, I will Enoculate you with this, with a Pox to you."
Of the Boston newspapers the New England Courant, edited by James Franklin, was particularly hostile to the new method.2 Within the period of one year Dr. Boylston inoculated two hundred and forty-seven per- sons, and of this number only six died; and during the same time thirty- nine other persons in the neighborhood were inoculated by two other physicians, and all made good recoveries. This low rate of mortality, as compared with that among persons who had taken small-pox in the natural way, was a telling argument in favor of inoculation. The array of these statistics carried the public to the side of Dr. Boylston, who was now honored to the same degree that he had previously been libelled by a fickle populace. He was invited by Sir Hans Sloane, the Court physician, to visit London, where he received the most flattering attentions from the scientists of England, as well as from the reigning family. He was chosen
1 [See Vol. II. p. 557, and Index to that vol- ume, for references to inoculation. - ED.] VOL. IV .- 68.
2 [See the chapter on the " Press of the Pro- vincial Period," in Vol. II. p. 394 .- ED.]
·
538
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
a member of the Royal Society, and read a paper before that learned body on the subject of small-pox inoculation in New England. This was pub- lished in London in the year 1726, and dedicated by permission to the Princess of Wales. In this pamphlet he gives a minute account of many of his cases, telling the names of his patients in full, besides stating their ages ; and in the preface he apologizes for the liberty he has taken in doing so. A second edition of this pamphlet was published at Boston, in the year 1730. In the course of time inoculation, conquered all opposition, and finally became a well established fact in the community. Some of those who had bitterly opposed it were now its warmest friends. Notably among them was Dr. Benjamin Franklin; and in the small-pox epidemic of 1752, even Dr. William Douglass both practised inoculation and spoke of it as a " most beneficial Improvement." In writing on the subject he expresses himself " at a loss for the Reasons why Inoculation hitherto is not much used in our Mother Country, Great Britain; considering that it has with good Success been practised in our Colonies or Plantations."1 During three quarters of a century the practice was continued, until it was super- seded by the great discovery of Jenner.
The next excitement in the medical history of Boston was an epidemic which raged fifteen years later, and excited great consternation. This was described at the time by Dr. Douglass, a close observer in such cases, who wrote a good account of it. The title of this pamphlet is: "The Practical HISTORY of A New Epidemical Eruptive Miliary Fever, with an Angina Ulcusculosa which prevailed in Boston, New England, in the Years 1735 and 1736" (Boston, 1736). The diagnosis was rather obscure, and the disease baffled the skill of the physicians. "It was vulgarly called the Throat Illness, or a Plague in the Throat, and alarmed the Provinces of New Eng- land very much." Dr. Thacher, in his account of Douglass in the Amer- ican Medical Biography, calls the disease by the name of angina maligna ; which is a generic term, and includes any inflammatory affection of the throat or fauces, such as quinsy, malignant sore throat, croup, or mumps. It has been considered also to be scarlatina; but the description leaves little doubt that the diagnosis at the present time would be diphtheria. Dr. Douglass's essay was republished in the New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery (Boston, 1825), with an editorial note that "it has been pro- nounced by competent judges one of the best works extant upon the sub- ject of which it treats." 2
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