Part 2

“On the 3d day of July, the epidemic assumed its malignant and characteristic form. From that time until now, it has maintained its residence among us. For the first week it gradually extended, and during the second it has been rather stationary, the number attacked varying a little from day to day and but little.

“It is now a fortnight since the first deaths took place. The number of cases reported within that period is two hundred and forty-five, and the deaths seventy-two--or a little over one-quarter of the whole. It must however be recollected, that during the same time hundreds had been attacked with _Cholerine_, or the slightest influences of the epidemic. None of these have been reported, _because by timely aid, the disease, in its more formidable shape, was prevented_. We can, we believe, say with truth, that few have entirely escaped the influence of the disease.

“From a consideration of all the circumstances connected with the visitation of Providence, we think our citizens have great cause for thankfulness, that we thus far suffered so little. Compared to our neighbours of Canada, we have suffered less than we had cause to anticipate. The disease has been among us for a fortnight; has passed all over the city, and in one form or other has affected more or less persons of all classes, and yet the deaths have not much exceeded five in a day, whilst at Quebec and Montreal, in a population not much exceeding ours, the deaths some days exceeded one hundred, when the disease had not been so long among them as it has been with us. From the history of the disease in other countries, and the circumstances connected with its progress in this city, we would fain indulge the hope, that it has already spent its venom, and that we shall ere long be free from it entirely. For the last two days, notwithstanding the number of cases reported and the high state of mortality, we are inclined to believe that we see, in the character of the prevailing disease, indications of returning health.

“We have as yet, had no cause to change our opinion respecting the nature of the prevailing disease--we consider it essentially epidemic. It continues to attack people in different parts of the city, and had not been traced from one person to another, as might have been done were its progress dependent on contagion. It is true, in some houses, several persons have been attacked and died; but this only shows that similar causes produce similar effects in individuals placed in like circumstances--all were equally exposed to the local and general causes which engender this disease. The disease _may_, under certain circumstances, be contagious, but no very striking instances of the kind has yet come to our knowledge in this city.

“We cannot reprehend in too strong language, the cold-hearted and inhuman conduct of many of our people, to the unfortunate victims of cholera. They are too often abandoned to their fate, even their friends being afraid to do to them the ordinary offices of charity. Were they labouring under the plague of the Levant they would not be looked upon with more dread. All this is folly. The risk of taking the disease from the sick is little or nothing; much more is to be dreaded from foul air by which the disease is engendered. The first care of friends should be, not to run away, but to take the sick into more healthy and airy lodgings.

“We would also protest against the indecent haste with which the scarcely cold remains of the dead are hurried to their last abode, without a neighbour to follow, or a friend to mourn. Such conduct is discreditable to the character of a Christian people. We trust that we shall not again have to complain of similar indifference to the performance of the duties of charity and humanity.

“To the members of the medical profession, and particularly its younger members, we willingly award due credit for their attention and diligence, under circumstances of no usual difficulty.

“We would again most earnestly entreat our citizens not to neglect to apply for medical aid the moment diarrhœa, or sick stomach and head-ache take place. We have not yet known one instance in which the disease in its malignant form, was not preceded by one or more of these symptoms, for some hours, if not days; and we have not seen or heard of a single instance where these premonitory symptoms were properly attended to, an attack was not prevented. It cannot be too strongly or too often impressed upon the minds of our citizens, that cholera, in its early stages, is easily cured; but that when neglected, in a majority of cases, no human aid will avail. Almost all the deaths have occurred in persons of intemperate habits, and of broken constitutions. A few estimable citizens have fallen victims to it, but these were either aged and infirm, or had neglected the premonitory symptoms, or had tampered with medicines, without proper advice.

“To our constituted authorities we would recommend the most assiduous attention to cleanliness in our streets, along our wharves and docks; to our citizens, strict attention to cleanliness in their houses and persons, to pay due attention to dress, avoid exposure to the night air, and observe strict temperance, not only in _drink_, but in _food_. We would caution them against the free use of _fruit_, _ripe_ or _unripe_, and the employment of Glauber or Epsom salts as medicines. Several cases of cholera have been brought on by their operation. If due attention be paid to all these precautions, we have every reason to hope that the epidemic will soon cease to prevail among us.

“JONA. EIGHTS, Chairman.”

_Bill of Mortality from 22d June to the 7th July, 1832._

June 22, 2--1 poison, 1 small-pox. 23, ---- 24, 1 pneumonia, 25, 1 convulsions, 26, 2--1 convulsions, 1 marasmus, 27, 2--1 convulsions, 1 consumption, 28, 1 scarlatina, 29, 2--1 consumption, 1 unknown, 30, ---- -- 11 deaths from 22 June to July 3.

July, 3, 2 cholera, 4, ---- 5, 4 cholera, 6, 2 cholera, 7, 3 cholera, 8, 4--3 cholera, 1 intemperance, 9, 5 cholera, 10, 8--1 apoplexy, 7 cholera, 11, 9 cholera, 12, 4--1 consumption, 3 cholera, 13, 8--6 cholera, 1 congestion of the brain, after cholera, 1 typhus fever, 14, 7--1 hydrocephalus, 6 cholera, 15, 7--1 debility, 6 cholera, 16, 7 cholera, 17, 8 cholera, -- 78

Cholera 72 Other diseases 6

CHOLERA REPORTS.

July 3, Cases 2 Deaths 2 4, 1 0 5, 7 4 6, 12 2 7, 10 3 8, 11 3 9, 18 5 10, 22 7 11, 28 9 12, 10 3 13, 28 7 14, 27 6 15, 17 6 16, 29 7 17, 23 8 --- --- Total, 245 Deaths, 72

_Board of Health, New York, July 20th, 1832._

TO WALTER BOWNE, Esq. President, &c.

Sir--I have the honour to transmit to your Board of Health, an additional report of the Committee appointed to inquire into the history and origin of the disease at the Bellevue Alms-house, &c.

ALEX. H. STEVENS, M. D. President.

The committee consisting of Drs. Bailey, Macneven, and A. L. Anderson, to whom was referred the inquiry into the origin of the malignant cholera in the Alms-house and the different institutions connected with it, further report: the Penitentiary, situated about five hundred feet from the Alms-house, and containing three classes of criminals, have no communication with one another; but the Bridewell and Penitentiary prisoners have a common stairway to their apartments; and the yards of the Female State and Female Penitentiary prisoners are separated by a high open picket fence, near to which the Penitentiary prisoners pass to and from their work-house, and on the opposite side of the Female State prisoners yard, and at a little distance is situated the Cholera Hospital, first opened on the 5th or 6th of July. In this building were confined, on the 1st of July, fifty-four Female State, about one hundred and twenty Female Penitentiary, and about fifty Bridewell prisoners; and the first person who had malignant cholera in that prison was Ann Smith, taken up at the Five Points, and sent there July 2d--she sickened on the 5th, and died the next day, and on the 7th, four more Female Penitentiary prisoners had the disease. On the 8th of July, all the remaining prisoners of this class were sent to Blackwell’s Island, and put into a fresh white-washed building prepared for them. The removal of those persons to a healthy residence, and an unrestrained exercise in the open country air, appear to have checked the development of that disease among them, for not until the 10th did any of them sicken, when four of them were taken with that disease, and since then seven more. Dr. Spring, the physician stationed there, informed us that the disease had become milder since their removal to the Island, two only having died of thirteen patients, and the remaining eleven, visited by us, were doing well, except one.

The first State prisoner had that disease on the 9th of July, and eight more on the 12th and 13th, four each day; and since that time five more, the greater part of whom have died. They are all in one very large apartment, having three tier of windows on one side only, but the three stories are one open space from the top to the bottom of the building.

The first two cases occurred in the Bridewell class also on the 9th, the next on the 11th instant; since then, six more have had the disease.

When at Blackwell’s Island yesterday afternoon, pursuing our inquiries respecting the Female Penitentiary prisoners, sent there from Bellevue, we considered it appertaining to the duty assigned to us, to extend our inquiry to the occurrences relating to the same subject, which happened on that Island, the institution there being a part of the Bellevue establishment. We were informed by Dr. Spring, the physician stationed there, that the first case of malignant cholera which occurred on the Island, was an Alms-house pauper, who slept there, but worked on the Long Island farms; he was permitted to go as far as Brooklyn, July 1st, but he frolicked in the city all the next day, returned at night to Blackwell’s Island, and slept out of doors all night, and sickened and died July 3d--no other case took place there until the 11th, (three days after the Female Penitentiary prisoners were removed from Bellevue,) when three persons sickened and died the same day; one, a very feeble black man, aged sixty-five; another, a black lad, who had been much reduced by medical treatment for rheumatism--both patients in the hospital, and able to take exercise out of doors. Their building is about one hundred yards from that occupied by the Female Penitentiary prisoners. The third, a white pauper, aged sixty-five, who worked on the Long Island farms, but slept on Blackwell’s Island, formerly in the shanty now occupied by the sick blacks; but some days before he sickened, he slept in a small building at a considerable distance from his former lodging place; but he not being under confinement, would go to any part of the Island when unobserved, and without hindrance to the outside of the Black Hospital.--Since then, three blacks have had that disease.

We were also informed by Dr. Spring, that no case of malignant cholera had occurred among the two hundred and eight male Penitentiary prisoners--that a lad, aged sixteen, who frequently complained of being unwell, died on the 13th inst., after three or four hours sickness of common cholera. Those men are employed in the open air, and their prison is in the most perfect order; the air within was as free from any impure smell as the atmosphere without. We were informed by Col. Woodruff, the superintendent, that it was in contemplation to remove the Bridewell prisoners from Bellevue to this prison--and asked our opinion as to the propriety of the measure; we give it as our opinion, that as there was already a large number of men now confined there, and room only for about thirty more, that the crowding of the prison at this time, and especially from places where the malignant cholera existed, would be exposing the health of the prisoners to some hazard.

We were also informed by John Targee, Esq., one of the Commissioners of the Alms-house, that a boy, whose parents had both died in Laurens street with the malignant cholera, was sent from there in the beginning of July, to the house on Long Island Farms, where there are a large number of pauper boys; he sickened and died of that disease the day after, and no case of that disease has since occurred.

The foregoing being all the facts which have come to our knowledge after a strict examination, are respectfully submitted.

JOS. BAYLEY.

_Magendie’s Treatment of Cholera._

M. Magendie’s success in the treatment of cholera has been vaunted in many of the journals, and we have been repeatedly applied to for information respecting the remedies prescribed by him. His treatment consisted in the administration during the cold stage of the following:--

1st. For common drink--℞. Infus. chamomil. ℔iv.; acet. ammon. ℥ij.; sacch. alb. ℔j M.

2d. Half a glass every hour of the following punch--℞. Infus. flor. Tiliæ Europeæ, ℔iv.; limon. iv.; alcohol, ℔j.; sacch. alb. ℔j. M.

3d. From time to time he gives half a glass of the following--℞. Vinum calefac. ℔ij.; tinct. cannel. ℥ij; sacch. alb. ℥ij. M.

By these stimulants, reaction was sometimes induced, and it was at once concluded that the patient was cured. But violent reaction is not less dangerous than collapse, and M. Magendie’s patients relieved from the latter condition by internal stimulants, soon exhibited evidences of congestion of the brain or digestive organs, which resisted, for the most part, general and local bleeding, cold to the head, and the most active revulsives to the feet. The patient became delirious, coma supervened, and death closed the scene.

It is shown by authentic documents in our possession, that the result of M. Magendie’s treatment was not less unfortunate than that of his colleagues; he lost more than one-half of his patients.

A careful examination of the results of the various modes of treatment adopted in India, Russia, Poland, Germany, Great Britain and France, has satisfied us that the internal administration of powerful stimulants in large doses, in the collapsed stage of cholera, has been eminently injurious, and such appears to have been ultimately the conviction of nearly all the practitioners who resorted to them. Panic struck, with the utter state of prostration of patients in the collapse of cholera, physicians appear every where to have at first been led to administer the most powerful stimulants in large and repeated doses, to rouse the action of the heart. Recovered from their first surprise, and admonished by their ill success, and by the violent and uncontrollable reaction sometimes induced, these remedies were subsequently abandoned, or only applied externally, and with incomparably better results.

_Health of Philadelphia._

Bowel complaints continue to be the prevailing diseases, and within a few days several cases of cholera have assumed malignant characters.

July 27th the Board of Health reported 2 cases of malignant cholera. 28th 6 29th 6 30th 15 31st 19

The whole number of cases, as near as can be ascertained, is 52, of which, 30 have occurred in the districts, 6 in the Alms-house, 1 in the Arch street prison, and the remaining 15, in the outskirts and dirtiest parts of the city.

Report of the Board of Health for the twenty-four hours, ending August 1st, noon:--

PRIVATE PRACTICE.

CASES. RESIDENCE. DEATHS.

1 No. 94 Dillwyn street, N. L. 1 1 No. 1 Clymer street, Moyamensing. 1 No. 3 do. do. do. 1 No. 16 Vine street, City. 1 1 Between Race and Vine and Tenth and Eleventh streets, City. 1 Corner of Bedford and Twelfth streets, Moyamensing. 1 South side of Cedar above Twelfth street, Moyamensing. 1 1 Peach between Green and Coates’s, N. L. 1 Parham’s Alley, Southwark. 1 Queen near Passyunk Road, do. 1 Second below Carpenter st. do. 1 Frankford Road above Bedford street, Kensington. 1 St. John above Poplar Lane, N. L. 1 Shirker’s Alley, Moyamensing. 1 1 Third st. above Globe Mills, Kensington. 1 Otter st. near William street, do. -- -- 16 4

Hospitals. Physicians. New cases. Died. Cured. Remaining.

Alms-house, H. L. Hodge, 1 1 1 0 Jones’ Alley, Parrish, 1 0 0 2 Locust st.[1] Chapman, 2 1 0 1 Moyamensing, Thomson, 1 1 0 1 -- -- -- -- 5 3 1 4

[1] A white woman was brought from the Alms-house in a dying state, and expired soon after admission.

NEW CASES. DEATHS.

Private practice, 16 5 Hospitals, 5 3 Alms-house, 1 1 -- -- 22 9

By order,

WM. A. MARTIN, _Clerk_.

The following table exhibits the whole mortality, and also that from bowel complaints, for the 4th week in July for five successive years.

1828.--4th week, ending July 26th. Whole mortality, 127; of which, the deaths from cholera morbus, were, adults, 3; children, 26; Total, 29.--Diarrhœa, adults, 0; children, 3; Total, 3.--Dysentery, adults, 0; children, 3; Total, 3.--Total from bowel complaints, 32.

1829.--4th week, ending August 1st. Whole mortality, 100; of which, the deaths from cholera morbus were, adults, 1; children, 23; Total, 24.--Diarrhœa, adults, 0; children, 4; Total, 4.--Dysentery, adults, 1; children, 3; Total, 4.--Total from bowel complaints, 32.

1830.--4th week, ending July 31st. Whole mortality, 183; of which, the deaths from cholera morbus were, adults, 0; children, 38; Total, 38.--Diarrhœa, adults, 0; children, 2; Total, 2.--Dysentery, adults, 2; children, 2; Total, 4.--Total from bowel complaints, 44.

1831.--4th week, ending July 30th. Whole mortality, 123, of which, the deaths from cholera morbus were, adults, 0; children, 32; Total, 32.--Diarrhœa, adults, 0, children, 6; Total, 6.--Dysentery, adults, 1; children 3; Total, 4.--Total mortality from bowel complaints, 42.

1832.--4th week, ending July 28th. Total mortality, 147; of which, the deaths from cholera morbus were, adults, 5; children, 27; malignant cholera, adults, 8; Total, 40.--Diarrhœa, adults, 3; children, 4; Total, 7.--Dysentery, adults, 2; children, 5; Total, 7.--Total from bowel complaints, 54.

_Liability of Negroes to Cholera._

An impression appears somehow or other to have got abroad that negroes are not liable to be attacked with cholera; such a notion, however, has no foundation. In New York, it has been observed that they have enjoyed no greater immunity than the whites, and the natives of India, whose constitution much resembles that of the negro, were more liable to cholera than Europeans. There is ample grounds for fearing that the disease will be productive of terrible mortality among the slaves of the southern states, and proper measures of hygiene should be promptly adopted; and on the very first symptoms of derangement of the digestive organs, remedial measures immediately resorted to.

_Cholera at New York._

It affords us pleasure to notice that the cholera is abating in our sister city. During the last few days, the number of cases have considerably diminished, and though accidental causes may occasionally interrupt their constant decrease, it is manifest that the epidemic has reached its height and is on the decline.

The report for the twenty-four hours, ending Tuesday, July 31st, at 12 o’clock, announces--

In private practice, new cases, 59, deaths, 23 Hospitals 52 20 Bellevue 1 3 Harlaem and Yorkville 9 2 --- --- Total 121 48

The number of interments during the week, ending Saturday, July 28th, were 879; of which, there were from cholera morbus, 10; malignant cholera, 689; cramp in the stomach, 1; diarrhœa, 3; dysentery, 4; cholera infantum, 18; inflammation of the bowels, 4; inflammation of the stomach, 2.

_Montreal._

The following is a statement of the cases and deaths from the commencement of the epidemic to the 14th of July inclusive:--