The winter of 1796 was uncommonly moderate. There fell a good deal of rain, but little snow. The navigation of the Delaware was stopped but two or three days during the whole season. Catarrhs were frequent, but very few violent or acute diseases occurred in my practice. The month of March and the first week in April were uncommonly dry. Several cases of malignant bilious fever came under my care during these months. A little girl, of five years old, whom I lost in this fever, became yellow in two hours after her death.
The measles prevailed in April, and were of a most inflammatory nature. The weather in May and June was uncommonly wet. The fruit was much injured, and a great deal of hay destroyed by it. On the 14th of June, General Stewart died, with all the usual symptoms of a fatal yellow fever. Several other cases of it, in this and in the succeeding month, proved mortal, but they excited no alarm in the city, as the physicians who attended them called them by other names.
The rain which fell about the middle of July checked this fever. August, September, and October were unusually healthy. A few cases of malignant sore throat appeared in November. They were, in all the patients that came under my notice, attended with bilious discharges from the stomach and bowels. So little rain fell during the autumnal months, that the wheat perished in many places. The weather in December was extremely cold. The lamps of the city were, in several instances, extinguished by it, on the night of the 23d of the month, at which time the mercury stood at 2° below 0 in the thermometer.
The yellow fever prevailed this year in Charleston, in South-Carolina, where it was produced by putrid exhalations from the cellars of houses which had been lately burnt. It was said by the physicians of that place not to be contagious. The same fever prevailed, at the same time, at Wilmington, in North-Carolina, and at Newburyport, in the state of Massachusetts. In the latter place, it was produced by the exhalation of putrid fish, which had been carelessly thrown upon a wharf.
END OF VOL. III.
Transcriber's Note:
The original spelling and minor inconsistencies in the spelling and formatting have been maintained.
Obvious misprints have been corrected.