Altogether, in the years since 1793, New Orleans had suffered more than 40,000 deaths, Philadelphia more than 10,000, Memphis more than 7,500, Charleston more than 4,500, and New York almost 3,500, while the total for
the United States exceeded 100,000 deaths. 1[1]
Perhaps worse than the sickness, which attacked from three to five persons for every one who died of the disease, and certainly worse than the economic disruption, was the sheer terror of the deadly infection which struck no one knew how and against which no precautions, no defenses, seemed to avail.
Writing of the Philadelphia epidemic of 1793, eyewitness Mathew Carey says in his "Short Account of the Malignant Fever Lately Prevalent in Philadelphia," that the "consternation of the people * * * was carried beyond all bounds. Dismay and affright were in the countenance of almost every person." Flight from the city was sought by many, including some of the representatives of the Federal government while "of those who remained many shut themselves in their houses and were afraid to walk the streets * * *."
The "marks of terror" seen on every hand included burial of "the corpses of the most respectable citizens, even those who did not die of the epidemic * * * unattended by a friend or relative, and without any sort of ceremony." Pedestrians kept to the middle of the streets "to avoid being infected in passing by houses wherein people had died." The custom of shaking hands was discontinued, and it became common practice to try to keep to the windward of persons met abroad in the streets." 2[2]
Nearly a century later, when the great epidemic of 1878 struck the Mississippi Valley, causing a loss of 16,000 lives, J. M. Keating, who lived through them, wrote of the scenes in Memphis. "Men, women and children," he said, "poured out of the city by every avenue of escape * * * by every possible conveyance — by hacks, by carriages, buggies, wagons, furniture vans, and street-drays; by bateaux, by anything that could float on the river; and by the rail-roads * * *. The aisles of the cars were filled and the platforms packed * * *. The ordinary courtesies of life were ignored, politeness gave way to selfishness, and the desire for personal safety broke through all social amenities."
- ↑ 1 (1) Yellow Fever: A Symposium in Commemoration of Carlos Juan Finlay. The Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, 22-23 September 1955, pp. 4, 5. [Hereinafter cited as Symposium.] (2) Kelly, Howard A.: Walter Reed and Yellow Fever, 2d edition. Baltimore: Medical Standard Book Co., 1906, pp. 83, 84, 204, 210, 221, 233, 238. (3) Reed, W., and Carroll, J.: The Prevention of Yellow Fever. Medical Record (New York) 60: 641, 26 October 1901.
- ↑ 2 Carey, Mathew: A Short Account of the Malignant Fever Lately Prevalent in Philadelphia, Philadelphia. 1793, quoted in Kelly, op. cit., pp. 212-215.
