USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 2 > Part 4
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"Providence, Sept. 19, 1800.''1
This document was signed by twenty persons.
Dr. Charles F. Bartlett, of Newport, wrote a pamphlet in 1801, a copy of which is in the library of the Rhode Island Historical Society, in which he described the origin and progress of the epidemic in that city. As will be seen, he was a strong advocate of the contagion theory. From the pamphlet the following is taken :
"The manner in which this Disease was first communicated, and its subsequent progress, too clearly evinces its pestilential and con- tagious nature.
"The United States Frigate General Greene, arrived in the harbor of Newport the 21st of July, 1800; came to a wharf at that part of the town of Newport called the Point, the 26th of the same month; at which time, the Author was called on to examine the state of the ship, and those men diseased on board her as well as many on shore belong- ing to her, by the Town-Council, through the medium of the Health Officer [Mr. John Wanton.]-The Author accordingly obeyed the mandate, and made a just report, as desired, in writing. Unfor- tunately, little attention was paid to the report; and the heretofore healthy town of Newport, became in a great measure infected with this Plague-many diseased-some recovered. The mistaken idea that the pestilential fever was not contagious in this fine atmosphere, which
Providence Town Papers, 00226.
33
EPIDEMICS AND MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS.
has been very industriously reported by the medical faculty, as well as others, (from what motives is best known to themselves) occasioned the too tardy steps, taken by those authorized, to prevent the spread- ing of the disease, which soon destroyed many valuable lives: I say valuable, as many, though poor laborers, were heads of families, and on whom their entire subsistence depended. There were particular individuals, whose names it were useless to make mention of, that thought proper to oppose the idea held out by the Author, not only interestedly as to themselves; but not satisfied with that, attempted to blast the character of the person whose only wish, and design, was the Public welfare, despising every other consideration, and acting on the scale of humanity alone. This treatment was cruel to the last degree ; but will vanish like all calumny (the Author hopes) before rectilineal and philosophic conduct."
After reciting the symptoms and character of the dreaded disease as manifested at that time in Newport, Dr. Bartlett described his method of treatment. After his visit to the infected ship Dr. Bartlett made his report to the Town Council and appeared before that body in person to give such further information as might be necessary. He said : "I recommended by all means, the removal of the ship from the wharf, to some distant place. and that the most likely means of cleansing her from the infection, was to sink her to her lower deck in salt water for at least a fortnight." It seems that his recommenda- tions were almost wholly neglected.
Dr. Bartlett then proceeded to describe in detail the cases attended by him personally and the results of his methods of treatment, to which he added a few cases that came under his observation while he was in the West Indies. The Newport cases numbered twenty-one, of whom five died and sixteen recovered ; and there were many other cases attended by other physicians. It may be interesting to physicians to read that the case of Capt. Francis Anderson "(on the lower ferry or market wharf), who was supposed to have taken the pestilential fever from one of the Providence Packets", and recovered after nine days of illness, "took no less than 125 grains of calomel in two days". Dr. Bartlett seems to have freely used calomel, yellow Peruvian bark, jalap, and "æther of vitriol".
In this connection the following document possesses historical interest :
"Newport 20th August, 1800.
"Gentlemen
"Yours of the 25th instant we have received and most cheerfully comply with your Request in giving a true and impartial Statement of the Malignant Disorder that has prevailed in this Town since the
3
34
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
arrival of the United States Frigate General Greene, which was on the 21st of July last, to this date, Fourteen persons have died with that disorder, nine of which belonged to or had belonged to the Frigate, one person who came from New York sick, and the other four were Inhabitants of this Town who had been to work in the Hold of said Frigate. the first person that died was about the last of July or first of August and the last person that died was on the 26th instant, and we are happy to inform you that there is but one new case and that is a person who we are informed has been on board the frigate and she is removed to the Hospital, and no other person in the town is sick with that disorder. We would add further that no person to our knowledge has taken the disorder but those that belonged to the Frigate or those that had been to work on board. Inclosed you will find a Statement given by the Surgeon of the ship on the day of her arrival at this port.
Jonathan Almy, "Council Clerk."1
The certificate mentioned was signed by William Turner, surgeon, and certifies that on August 20 there was no contagious case on the ship.2
The number of cases of the fever in Providence in the year 1800 reached well towards a hundred, of which about one-half resulted fatally, as seen in the following list found in Providence Town paper 13914 :
Mrs. Taylor,
Taken. August 15
Died. August 21
Elizabeth Whiting,
66
22
Joseph Tillinghast,
16
21
Mrs. Luther,
60
16
Mary Earle,
66
18
Miss Dana (child),
66
18
Miss Warner,
60
18
Patrick Morris,
18
23
Jeremiah B. Howell,
19
Rebecca Carr,
19
16
23
Jonathan Eddy,
19
25
Jeremiah Whiting,
19
Mrs. Atkins,
29
Charles Tillinghast,
21
Mrs. Charles Tillinghast,
21
26
Nancy Briggs,
22
Richard Hinman,
66
23
25
Joseph Cooke,
17
(4
23
Sweet Luther,
1Providence Town Papers, 00182.
2Providence Town Papers, 00181.
35
EPIDEMICS AND MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS.
Taken.
Died.
Lucretia Pearce
August
August 26 Sept. 1
Mary Whiting,
Patience Greatrix,
27
Joseph Arnold,
27
Aug. 31
Thomas Mitchell,
27
Mrs. Bird,
27
Amey Read,
23
Sept. 1
Lucy Libbey,
66
29
Hannah Fuller,
66
29
Mrs. Newell,
Sept.
1
Mrs. John Sheldon,
Aug.
31
66
7
Betsey Stokes,
Sept.
5
11
Prime Burrill,
5
66
12
Mrs. Prime Burrill,
5
Ruth Curtis,
7
11
Mrs. John Warner,
6
66
10
Stephen Ashton,
6
8
Amey Tillinghast,
4
66
13
Nancy Blinn,
66
4
Edward Luther,
4
12
Edward Dickins,
8
15
Pheobe Hull,
8
16
13
Mrs. Edwin Dickins,
11
16
William Olney,
11
Mrs. Daniel Pearce,
66
13
Mrs. Dickins (widow),
8
66
17
Polly Godfry,
12
20
Eliza Dickins,
15
Moses (black man),
13
66
17
Mary Fields,
66
17
21
Eunice Congdon,
66
17
23
Mrs. Brown,
14
19
James Temple,
66
12
Ephraim Langdon,
Mrs. Mitchel,
18
20
Sally Howe,
15
66
26
Mrs. Brown (black woman),
16
61
19
66
17
23
Richard Congdon,
17
19
Daniel Bucklin,
18
14
Sally Hull,
14
Mary Tillinghast,,
13
Sarah Gibbs (black woman),
16
Mrs. Samuel Warner,
8
Mrs. Bogman,
24
Jabez Bucklin,
12
1146738
36
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
Taken.
Died. Sept. 23
John Stokes,
18
66
21
Lydia Eveleth,
18
21
Betsey Huntington,
22
66
22
Amey Godfrey,
22
27
Rebecca Luther,
22
Oct.
1
Mary Stokes,
22
John Warner,
66
22
Sept. 28
Mrs. J. Tillinghast,
Sept.
23
27
Violet Cook (black),
66
20
28
John Sheldon,
66
24
25
Nancy Waters,
66
23
Pheobe Sisco (colored),
26
Mrs. Congdon,
25
Piney Bucklin,
Oct.
8
Joshua Salisbury,
5
Oct. 8
A list of the cases and deaths in this year is found also in the Moses Brown manuscript before mentioned; its only value here is the addition of a few given names. The name, "Mrs. Taylor", in the foregoing list he gives as Mary Taylor; "Mrs. Luther", as Sweet Luther's wife; "Mary Earle", as William Earle's wife; "Miss War- ner", as John Warner's wife. He also adds the names of Ephraim Congdon's son and daughter, and states that one man and one woman were attacked by the fever in Providence and died in Swansea; one at Foster and one at Rehoboth. He notes also one death at East Greenwich.
It will be of interest to the medical profession to note the fact that in Dr. Bartlett's pamphlet of 1801 he strongly discountenanced the use of salts of tartarized antimony in the treatment of yellow fever. Said he: "I have constantly found in the course of my practice, ill effects from their use. They always increase the irritability of the stomach (which is the affection most to be guarded against) and con- sequent debility. I have with greater advantage in the first stage, and to answer the first intention of cure, used the following evacuant, R, Calomel, 20 gr. Pulv. R, ad, jalap, 20 gr. m.". He then explains the beneficial action of these drugs on the patient. It is not at all sur- prising that differences of opinion as to the best methods of treating the then little known disease should have arisen, for they exist also at the present day.
22
26
Nancy Newfield (B. woman),
23
27
Daniel Pearce,
Sally Waters, wife of Jno.,
23
28
28
Mrs. John Davis,
Sept. 16
37
EPIDEMICS AND MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS.
Enough space has, perhaps, been devoted to this terrible visitation of fatal disease to the infant community of Providence, which during a number of years not only caused anxiety, suffering, and mourning in so many households, but also laid a paralyzing hand upon all kinds of business. The outbreak gradually decreased through the years 1801-5 and finally disappeared. A few other Town papers only can be given place here, in connection with the disease during the remain- ing years of its prevalence. Esek Eddy was keeper of the hospital in 1800 and rendered a bill of $419.21 for his services from August 22 to November 1, and John Spurr's bill for about the same period was $372.34. On October 22, 1800, Philip Martin put in a bill "for House
SMALL-POX HOSPITAL AT FIELD'S POINT, PROVIDENCE.
Rent three weeks and sase in the garden for the family of John Till- inghast, Removed in Thare by Mr. Elexander, four Dollars 50 cent". Henry Alexander's bill: "To my services from the 23d Day of August, to the 15th Day of October, [1800] inclusive being fifty-three days and during the Yellow Fever at 4 Dollars pr. Day, $212.00". On December 3 of that year Dr. Levi Wheaton rendered his bill "for services to Town", $225.25. A bill dated November 7, 1800, was paid February 28, 1801, for $76, payable to Dennis Bishop, Ephraim Congdon, Henry Alexander, and Stephen Whipple, "being a watch set under the direction of the Hon'ble Town Council 22 nights during the time of the yellow fever prevailed from 1 to 22 October".
38
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
Town paper 005546 consists of a letter from the authorities of Newport asking if Providence would quarantine against New York; stating that six vessels came in there in one day and the council had voted to stop them outside of Fort Island. Also stating that Philadel- phia had "laid an embargo on all shipping going or coming from New York and stages with passengers by Land coming to the city by 15 days Quarantine".
A number of bills were rendered through 1801, 1802, 1803, in Providence,1 for services, tar to burn in the streets, stone lime, making of coffins, hospital supplies, carrying nurses and patients to the hos- pital, etc.
With the passing of years of the present century, and with careful and efficient quarantine regulations, this dreaded disease has become unknown in the State.
The first scourge of Asiatic cholera which swept over this country was in 1832. After devastating some parts of Europe this disease crossed the ocean from England, where it had made its appearance the preceding year, and was first developed in Quebec, on June 8, 1832; it was probably brought over in an emigrant vessel. On the 10th of the same month it passed up the St. Lawrence to Montreal, and on the 1st day of July appeared in Albany and New York. From Albany it followed the Erie canal westward, making great ravages in Syracuse, Rochester and especially in Buffalo, while it was at the same time sweeping hundreds to death in New York and the other cities mentioned. Intense excitement prevailed throughout the coun- try, and strange methods were adopted to aid in preventing the out- break of the pestilence in some localities.2 At an early date in the progress of the disease Bishop Onderdonk, of New York, issued a circular with the form of prayer to be used, that the epidemic might be stayed. In June, 1832, the leading newspapers in Providence, Newport, and elsewhere in the State, contained exaggerated accounts of the ravages of the disease, theories were advanced and remedies
1The Providence Town Papers contain hundreds of bills, reports, orders, etc., relating to this epidemic and must be consulted for any special investigation of the subject .- ED.
2The legislative, executive, and ecclesiastical authorities in all our cities at once adopted measures with the view of preventing the epidemic. Unfortu- nately, in most places, more confidence was placed upon quarantines, and upon fasting and prayer, than upon internal sanitary measures. This absurd and inconsistent idea that cholera was sent by God, and that, at the same time, its progress could be stopped by quarantine regulations seems to have pre- vailed at that period .- History of the Asiatic Cholera in Providence, by E. M. Snow, M. D., in Library of Rhode Island Hist. Soc'y.
39
EPIDEMICS AND MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS.
recommended for its cure, and quacks of all degrees of intelligence or lack of intelligence, became numerous on every hand. The pestilence continued to spread.
On the 19th of June, 1832, the physicians of Providence, at the call of Dr. Levi Wheaton and by request of the mayor, met in the Senate chamber to consider the subject of this disease. After discus- sion Drs. Levi Wheaton, Joseph Mauran, and Thomas H. Webb were appointed a committee "to report such measures as they may deem expedient". On June 21st a quarantine ordinance was put in force, and on the 25th the report of the committee appeared. Its recom- mendations were at once adopted by the council, and included the removal of all filth and other nuisances, the provision of hospitals, effective quarantine, etc. The council adopted an ordinance to carry out the recommendations of the committee and appropriating $5,000 for the purpose. On July 10 Drs. Joseph Mauran, Thomas H. Webb, and Samuel Boyd Tobey proceeded to New York city, to inform them- selves as far as possible by personal observation of the malady.1 Their report was published promptly and served to greatly allay the prevailing anxiety and fear. As steamboats were forbidden to land passengers in Providence, they discontinued doing so on July 16,2 and afterwards landed passengers at Seekonk, East Greenwich, Somerset and at other points. On July 18 an ordinance was adopted by the Providence Council prohibiting persons from any city infected with cholera from entering Providence, until ten days had expired from the time they left the infected place. Newport had already passed a similar ordinance, and Wickford and other places followed the example. A few days later the cholera appeared in Newport and the mail coach from that city was stopped by the Fall River authori- ties. All of these incidents reflect the popular excitement of the time.
As late as July 26 the press of Providence proclaimed the good health of the city; but this feeling of congratulation was short lived. Two persons died of cholera in Newport on the 25th and others closely followed. On the 31st of July Mrs. John Thurber, and a girl named
1See "Remarks on the Cholera, embracing facts and observations Collected at New York, during a visit to the city Expressly for the purpose," in posses- sion of the Rhode Island Hist. Soc'y.
2When the three physicians named returned from New York they were not permitted to land at Providence, the people fearing infection, and therefore they landed at Seekonk, proceeding thence to Pawtucket. They were refused admission to all public and private houses on their way until they reached Horton's Grove, where they were permitted to remain through the night. The next day, after being fumigated, they were allowed to return to their homes .- Dr. Snow's pamphlet, before quoted.
40
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
Sloeum living at Eddy's Point, were seized with the malady and died on the next day. The husband and another girl named Slocum were attacked about the same time and died the following day. These were the first cases of eholera reported in Providenee.
On the 3d of August the local physicians formed themselves into a medieal board "for the purpose of reporting all eases of cholera", and Drs. Thomas H. Webb, Isaae Hartshorn, Leander Utley, David B. Slack, and Sanmel B. Tobey were appointed a committee "to in- vestigate and report all the facts relating to the cases in the Thurber family". The report of this committee, according to Dr. Snow, seemed to indicate that quarantine regulations were useless; that neither of the eases had been exposed to the disease, and that "the Cholera atmosphere" had reached the eity. On the 6th of August Moses B. Ives offered the building afterwards known as "the Tockwotten house" for a cholera hospital, and it was aceepted by the authorities, fitted up for its purpose and provided with attending physicians.
Two weeks elapsed before there were any other eases in Provi- denee. On the 16th of August a ease was reported on Christian Hill, which recovered. On the 26th of that month two cases were reported, both of which resulted fatally, making seven eases in August, six of which were fatal. It now seemed evident that the disease would not prevail so extensively in Providenee, or elsewhere in Rhode Island, as it had in New York and some other eities, and the ordinance restrict- ing commeree and travel was repealed in response to popular demand on August 31. But Providenee had not yet eseaped. The warm weather of September was favorable to the spread of the malady, and from the first of that month to the ninth of October, twenty-nine cases were reported, making the whole number of eases in the city during the year thirty-six; twenty-five died and eleven recovered. The dis- ease manifested itself in many parts of the eity, but there was none east of North Main street and north of Power street, nor in what was the Sixth ward. The cholera did not become epidemic in Providence, a faet due doubtless to the efficient aetion of the authorities and the physicians for the isolation of the sick and for improvements in various sanitary directions. The disease remained in this country to a limited extent during the two following years, but no cases were reported in Providenee. From that date forward during a period of fifteen years the country was free from it.
In the months of December, 1848, and January, 1849, there were eases of eholera in New York eity, and the disease was then epidemie in some parts of the South. On the 27th of May, 1849, a six year old
41
EPIDEMICS AND MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS.
boy died of the disease on Eddy street in Providence, and during the month of June there were four more deaths. In July there were six- teen deaths, and during the week ending August 11 there were thirty- four deaths. During the whole month of August there were ninety deaths, thirty-two in September, three in October, and four in Novem- ber, making a total of one hundred and fifty. From the 1st to the 15th of August the disease was epidemie in Jail lane, Canal, Gaspee, and some other streets near the canal, while from the 15th to the 30th the greater part of the eases were near the south end of Main street and Benefit street and in what is now Globe street.
As only the deaths were recorded at that time, the whole number of cases ean only be estimated. Of about fifty cases attended by the city physicians in 1849, two-thirds died; the same ratio for the whole city would give two hundred and twenty-five as the whole number of cases. Although the ravages of the disease were more extensive at this time than in 1832, far less exeitement and fear existed, for reasons that will be apparent. The newspapers published less agitating matter regarding the disease, people had learned more as to what precautions would probably keep it from their doors, and were more familiar with its consequences than they were seventeen years earlier.
Dr. Snow wrote that "the same local filth, and eause of disease and death, existed in 1850, and in the sueeeeding years, as in 1849; but this atmospheric influenee [to which he had previously alluded] was absent, and they did not give rise to Asiatic cholera". In the late months of 1853 emigrant vessels lost many passengers from the disease, which appeared in New Orleans, where two hundred and fourteen deaths took place in the week ending December 5. With the warm weather of the following spring it appeared at other points, and on the 16th day of May two persons died of the malady in Jail lane, Providence; another died in the same lane on the 20th and a third on the 28th. There was still another death in a filthy loeality on North Main street on the 21st of May; it was the ease of a married woman, and on the 22d and 23d of the same month her husband and son died. On the 30th of May two more persons died, a mother and her son, also on North Main street, making nine deaths in the month. In June there were eight deaths, all but two on Gaspee street. From the 1st to the 20th of July the city was free from fatal cases, but between the 21st and the 30th there were fourteen deaths, five of which were near the south end of South Main street. The disease rapidly inereased after the first of August, there being sixty-four deaths between the 1st and the 15th inelusive, forty-eight of which were in the seetion
42
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
bordering the canal, a locality that suffered more severely than any other from the disease in that year; but, strange to state, after the 15th of August there was scarcely a case there. In the last half of August there were forty-five deaths, of which twenty-three were in the neigh- borhood of India street and Fox Point hill. In the month of Septem- ber there were nineteen deaths, and the last death from the disease in that year was on September 29. The whole number during the year was one hundred and fifty-nine. Of these one hundred and forty were on the east side of the river, with only eighteen on the west side; the residence of one case was not given in the record. The disease in this year seemed to be of a milder type than in 1849 and there were a larger porportionate number of recoveries; it is believed that in 1854 only about one-half died. There was scarcely a wave of excitement at any time during the season, although the outbreak was receiving, perhaps, more careful and efficient attention from the authorities and physi- ciaus than it had on previous occasions. According to Dr. Snow, many important facts were learned from the disease in 1854, the value of which has been far-reaching. Some of the more important of these were: That nine-tenths of all who died were of foreign parentage. That seven- entlis of the deaths took place in two comparatively re- stricted localities, viz. : near the canal, and on and near Fox Point Hill. That the great proportion of deaths among foreigners was caused by the character of the tenements in which they lived and their habits of life; and that the principal local causes of the pestilence were the condition of the canal near Gaspee street, the filth on Fox Point Hill, with the porous character of the soil in both those localities.
At the annual meeting of the Rhode Island Medical Society in 1881, the author read a paper on "Malaria in Providence", which was called out by an endemic visit of that disease to this locality. The following is a quotation from that paper :
"The recent appearance of such diseases among us has given rise to the enquiry whether they have, at any period of our history, been prevalent in New England. Dr. Holmes, in an essay published in 1836, gives the result of his extensive researches in this matter, which show that intermittent fever existed in this section, to a moderate extent, from its settlement till the early part of the present century. He quotes from various sources to show, that at the time of the Revolu- tion, it occurred in Providence, Cranston, and South Kingstown, while other parts of the State escaped. I have been told that in the early years of his practice, Dr. Mauran had cases in the north part of this town, and Dr. Usher Parsons, in a letter to Dr. Holmes, states that he had known of chills and fever many years before, in the vicinity of
43
EPIDEMICS AND MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS.
a dam that had been built across the Moshassuck River. Dr. Levi Wheaton also mentioned the same thing in a communication to the Massachusetts Medical Society.
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