1817 — June-Dec, Yellow Fever, esp. Charleston SC, Natchez MS, New Orleans–1208-1,233

–1,208 -1,233  Blanchard tally based on locality breakouts below.

—          1,085  Keating 1879, p. 83.


Louisiana                   (800-823)

–823  New Orleans.    Aug-Dec 30    Dowler. Tableau of the Yellow Fever of 1853. 1854, p. 14.[1]

–760  White male adults

—  63  White female adults

–800  New Orleans.   June 18-Dec    Carrigan. The Saffron Scourge, 1961, p. 59.[2]

–800            “                                      Keating 1879, 83;[3] Sternberg 1908, 719.

–800           “                                       Marine Hosp. Svc.  An. Rpt…1895. 1896, 433.[4]

–600          “ Barton. The Cause and Prevention of Yellow Fever at New Orleans, 1857, p. xlix.[5]

–600           “                                       Sanitary Com. of New Orleans. Report on Yellow Fever.

—  80           “               June 18-Dec    Augustine 1909, 486.[6]

 

Mississippi                  (134)    (Aug-Nov 15)

–>134  Natchez. Monette. Observations on…Epidemic Yellow Fever of Natchez…1842, p.63.

—  134        “        Dowler. Tableau of the Yellow Fever of 1853. 1854, p. 14.[7]

—      9        “        Keating 1879, 83.

 

New York                   (    4)

—    4  NY Marine Hospital                             Keating 1879, 83; USMHS 1896, 433.

 

South Carolina          (270-272)

–272  Charleston                                Keating 1879, 83; Sternberg 1908, 719; USMHS 1896, 433

–270         “                                         Dowler. Tableau of the Yellow Fever of 1853. 1854, p. 14.[8]

–270   “  NYT. “Yellow Fever. Epidemics in Charleston, S.C. – Statistics from 1700.” 9-18-1871

 

Narrative Information

Natchez, MS:

 

Monette:  “Natchez was a stranger to these visitations [yellow fever] previously to the autumn of 1817, which was soon after the introduction of steamboats on the Mississippi river… this was the first time that Yellow Fever was known as an epidemic in Natchez….

 

“Epidemic of 1817. — Occasional cases were seen in Natchez as early as August preceding the epidemic; but where they contracted the disease I have not been able to learn….

 

“`At this time, when the population was highly susceptible, the Washington steamboat reached us from New Orleans, with persons on board, ill of yellow fever, some of whom were landed; and several young men from town went on board, who were all taken sick soon after and died. The disease spread rapidly and with most destructive malignity. For some time it had its sway over the whole city. On the 28th of September the physicians publicly announced the existence of yellow fever, and a large portion of the population retired to the country.’ It continued to prevail with slight interruptions until the 9th of November; and several cases occurred six days later in those who returned after frost to their houses which had been closed during their absence.

 

“The whole number of deaths in the city, during this epidemic, was one hundred and thirty-four; besides some in the country who contracted their disease in the city.”  (Monette, John W. Observations on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of Natchez and of the South-West. Louisville, KY: Prentice and Weissinger, 1842. Digitized by U.S. National Library of Medicine. Accessed 8-15-2013 at: http://archive.org/details/65030290R.nlm.nih.gov )

 

New Orleans, LA:

 

Carrigan: “Although the records of yellow fever’s visits in the early 1800’s are rather sketchy and sometimes contradictory, during the first two decades of the century New Orleans experienced at least five major outbreaks of the disease: 1804, 1809, 1811, 1817, and 1819.” [p. 40.]

 

“….in 1817 the epidemic period extended from July to late October…In both epidemics [one in 1819] the fever centered its attacks mainly upon Europeans or Americans fresh from the North, but its victims each time included some long-time residents and a few Creoles as well. Not a single Negro was affected by the fever of 1817; some died in 1819.”[9] [p. 40]

 

Eberle: “The epidemic manifested itself in July. Many symptoms of this disease had, however, been noticed as early as the latter part of June, especially in the city hospital, before the arrival of a vessel from Havana, which had lost a part of her crew by the black vomit, during its passage. The disease increased in its ravages during July; and acquired great malignity in August, on account of the arrival of a great number of Europeans and Americans at that time. In the beginning of September, a violent storm took place, upon which the epidemic abated its fury.—Weather variable until the 20th of this month; at which time the south wind began to blow anew. The heat again became very intense, and the fever still raged with violence, especially among those who had lately arrived. In October, it finally disappeared, after a violent tempest; still, however, reigning in some degree at the hospital, after it was extinguished in the town.”  (Eberle. “On Yellow Fever…New-Orleans,” The American Med. Recorder, V2, No. II, Apr 1, 1819, 217)

 

Sources

 

Augustin, George. History of Yellow Fever. New Orleans: Published for the Author by Search & Pfaff Ltd., 1909; General Books reprint, Memphis, TN, 2010. 1909 copy digitized at: http://archive.org/stream/historyofyellowf00auguuoft#page/n4/mode/1up

 

Barton, Edward H., MD. The Cause and Prevention of Yellow Fever at New Orleans and other Cities in America (Third Edition, with a Supplement). New York: H. Bailliere; London and Paris, 1857. Google preview accessed 3-14-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=yEJZDrCO-ZkC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Carrigan, Jo Ann. The Saffron Scourge: A History of Yellow Fever in Louisiana, 1796-1905 (Doctoral Dissertation). Louisiana State University, LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses, 1961. Accessed 3-11-2018 at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1665&context=gradschool_disstheses

 

Dowler, Bennet, MD. Tableau of the Yellow Fever of 1853, with Topographical, Chronological, and Historical Sketches of The Epidemics of New Orleans Since Their Origin in 1796, Illustrative of the Quarantine Question. New Orleans: The Office of the Picayune, 1854, 76 pages. Accessed 3-16-2018 at: https://ia600300.us.archive.org/18/items/65020990R.nlm.nih.gov/65020990R.pdf

 

Keating, J. M. A History of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878 in Memphis, Tenn. Memphis, TN: Howard Association, 1879. Google preview accessed 3-16-2018 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=WEIJAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Monette, John W. Observations on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of Natchez and of the South-West. Louisville, KY: Prentice and Weissinger, 1842. Digitized by U.S. National Library of Medicine. Accessed 8-15-2013 at: http://archive.org/details/65030290R.nlm.nih.gov

 

New York Times. “Yellow Fever. Epidemics in Charleston, S.C. – Statistics from 1700.” 9-18-1871. Accessed 3-18-2018 at: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FB0C13F938541A7493CAA81782D85F458784F9

 

Sanitary Commission of New Orleans. Report of the Sanitary Commission to His Honor J. L. Lewis, Mayor of the City of New Orleans. Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston, 1855. Accessed 3-5-2018 at: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100633711

 

Sternberg, George M. (US Public Health Service, US Marine Hospital Service). “Yellow Fever:  History and Geographic Distribution.” Pages 715-722 in Stedman, Thomas L., M.D. (Ed.) Appendix to the Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences. NY: William Wood & Co., 1908.  Google preview accessed 3-18-2018 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=3ezqX415M5wC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

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 (Document No. 1811). Washington, DC: GPO, 1896. Google preview accessed 3-16-2018 at:  http://books.google.com/books?id=aTnxAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

 

[1] Notes this was out of a “Total mortality for vice months of 1142.”

[2] Carrigan, in footnote 55, cites Jones, Medical and Surgical Memoirs, III, pt. 1, cxliv. She adds that this was “probably a conservative figure.”

[3] Keating notes that “other accounts say mortality for five months 1,142.”  (Keating 1879, 83)

[4] Cites S. Chaille, Va. Medical Journal, 1858, p. 498 (Toner.).

[5] “Comparative Table. Estimate of the Salubrity of New Orleans, as affected by her Epidemics. 1st — of Yellow Fever.”

[6] We assume that “80” is a typographical error, given the prevalence of other reports noting “800”.

[7] Cites a Dr. Perlee.

[8] Notes a total mortality of 1,249, citing “Mills’ Statist.”

[9] Carrigan, in footnote 54, cites: Rapport publié au nom de la Société Medicale de la Nouvelle-Orleans sur la Fievre Jaune, qui y a regne Epidemicquement, Durant l’Ete et l’Automne de 1819 (Nouvelle-Orléans, 1820), pp. 7, 35-36.