1668 – late summer to early fall, Yellow Fever epidemic, New York City, NY –many

–Many Kohn. “New York Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1668.” Encyclopedia of Plague… 2001, 238.

Narrative Information

Duffy: “Epidemic Diseases. The great epidemic diseases that periodically swept the colonies did not spare New York. In September of 1668 Governor Lovelace proclaimed ‘a General Day of Humiliation’ because of the ‘unusual sicknesse’ whereby many were ‘dayly swept away & many more lying on their languishing beds, expecting each houre their dissolution.’” (Duffy. A History of Public Health in New York City, 1625-1866. 1968, p. 34.)

Heaton: “Yellow Fever first appeared in New York in 1668. The disease, which Noah Webster described as “Autumnal bilious fever in its infectious form,” was so fatal that the newly arrived Governor Dongan ordered a fast day. The Reverend Samuel Megapolensis, writing to a friend in September noted that:

The Lord begins to deal in judgment with his people. He has visited us with dysentery, which is even now increasing in virulence. Many have died of it, and many are lying sick. It appears as if God were punishing this land for its sins.”

(Heaton, Claude Edwin, MD. “Yellow Fever in New York City.”)

Kohn: “New York Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1668.”

“One of the earliest recorded epidemics of yellow fever in colonial America, killing many inhabitants of New York City in the late summer and early fall of 1668. This epidemic occurred before physicians consistently identified yellow fever correctly and well before they were aware that the Aedes aegypti (first named Stegomyia fasciata) mosquito carried the disease.

“Later, American lexicographer Noah Webster described this 1668 epidemic as a ‘autumnal bilious fever in infectious form’ in his book A Brief History of Epidemic and Pestilential Diseases (1799)….

“In September 1668 Governor Francis Lovelace of New York proclaimed a ‘General Day of Humiliation’ because of the ‘unusual sickness.’ He noted that many persons died each day and that many more were sick with the fever….

“Further reading: Duffy, A History of Public Health in New York City; Duffy, Epidemics in Colonial America; Webster, A Brief History of Epidemic and Pestilential Diseases.” (Kohn. “New York Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1668.” Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence… 2001, p. 238.)

U.S. Marine Hospital Service: “1668…New York…West Indies [origin]…According to Toner the first appearance of yellow fever in the United States (Report, U.S. Marine-Hospital Service, 1873; J. H. Griscom, M. Rep., 1856, p. 561 [remarks].)”

Wikipedia: “1668 – First yellow fever epidemic in the city.” (Wikipedia. “Timeline of New York City Crimes and Disasters.”)

Sources

Duffy, John. A History of Public Health in New York City, 1625-1866. Russell Sage Foundation, 1968. Accessed 3-15-2021 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=LAcXAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true

Heaton, Claude Edwin, MD. “Yellow Fever in New York City.” Bulletin Medical Library Association, April 1946, Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 67-78. Accessed 11-23-2010 at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC194570/

Kohn, George Childs (Ed.). Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence From Ancient Times to the Present (Revised Edition). NY: Checkmark Books, 2001.

United States Marine-Hospital Service, Treasury Department. Annual Report of the Supervising Surgeon-General of the Marine-Hospital Service of the United States for the Fiscal Year 1895. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1896. Digital version accessed 3-15-2021 at: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Annual_report_of_the_Surgeon_General/aTnxAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1

Wikipedia. “Timeline of New York City Crimes and Disasters.” Accessed 11-23-2010 at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_New_York_City_crimes_and_disasters