1753-54 — Dec-Jan (2 mo.), unknown epidemic Fever, Holliston (pop. ~80 families), MA–43

–43  Vaughan. Epidemiology and Public Health. 1922, p. 88.

–43  Webster. A Brief History of Epidemic and Pestilential Diseases. 1799, p. 244.

Narrative Information

Webster: “In December 1753 and January succeeding, the small town of Holliston, in Massachusetts, lost forty-three of its citizens, by a fever. The disease began with a violent pain in the breast, or side, not often in the head; then succeeded a high fever, but without delirium. The critical days were the 3d, 4th, 5th, or 6th. Some of the patients appeared to be strangled to death. The town contained no more than 80 families.”

Sources

Vaughan, Victor C., MD assisted by Henry F. Vaughan and George T. Palmer. Epidemiology and Public Health: A Text and Reference Book for Physicians, Medical Students and Health Workers Vol. I, Respiratory Infections. St. Louis: C. V. Mosby Co., 1922. Google preview accessed 4-8-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=duUxAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Webster, Noah. A Brief History of Epidemic and Pestilential Diseases; with the principal phenomena of the physical world which precede and accompany them, and observations deduced from the facts stated (in two volumes). Hartford, CT: Hudson & Goodwin, 1799. Accessed 1-7-2018 at: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/N27531.0001.001/1:11?rgn=div1;view=fulltext