The streets every where discovered marks of the distress that pervaded the city. More than one half the houses were shut up, although not more than one third of the inhabitants had fled into the country. In walking for many hundred yards, few persons were met, except such as were in quest of a physician, a nurse, a bleeder, or the men who buried the dead. The hearse alone kept up the remembrance of the noise of carriages or carts in the streets. Funeral processions were laid aside. A black man, leading or driving a horse, with a corpse on a pair of chair wheels, with now and then half a dozen relations or friends following at a distance from it, met the eye in most of the streets of the city, at every hour of the day, while the noise of the same wheels passing slowly over the pavements, kept alive anguish and fear in the sick and well, every hour of the night[55].
But a more serious source of the distress of the city arose from the dissentions of the physicians, about the nature and treatment of the fever. It was considered by some as a modification of the influenza, and by others as the jail fever. Its various grades and symptoms were considered as so many different diseases, all originating from different causes. There was the same contrariety in the practice of the physicians that there was in their principles. The newspapers conveyed accounts of both to the public, every day. The minds of the citizens were distracted by them, and hundreds suffered and died from the delays which were produced by an erroneous opinion of a plurality of diseases in the city, or by indecision in the choice, or a want of confidence in the remedies of their physician.
The science of medicine is related to every thing, and the philosopher as well as the christian will be gratified by knowing the effects of a great and mortal epidemic upon the morals of a people. It was some alleviation of the distress produced by it, to observe its influence upon the obligations of morality and religion. It was remarked during this time, by many people, that the name of the Supreme Being was seldom profaned, either in the streets, or in the intercourse of the citizens with each other. But two robberies, and those of a trifling nature, occurred in nearly two months, although many hundred houses were exposed to plunder, every hour of the day and night. Many of the religious societies met two or three times a week, and some of them every evening, to implore the interposition of Heaven to save the city from desolation. Humanity and charity kept pace with devotion. The public have already seen accounts of their benevolent exercises in other publications. It was my lot to witness the uncommon activity of those virtues upon a smaller scale. I saw little to blame, but much to admire and praise in persons of different professions, both sexes, and of all colours. It would be foreign to the design of this work to draw from the obscurity which they sought, the many acts of humanity and charity, of fortitude, patience, and perseverance, which came under my notice. They will be made public and applauded elsewhere.
But the virtues which were excited by our calamity were not confined to the city of Philadelphia. The United States wept for the distresses of their capital. In several of the states, and in many cities and villages, days of humiliation and prayer were set apart to supplicate the Father of Mercies in behalf of our afflicted city. Nor was this all. From nearly every state in the union the most liberal contributions of money, provisions, and fuel were poured in for the relief and support of such as had been reduced to want by the suspension of business, as well as by sickness and the death of friends.
The number of deaths between the 1st of August and the 9th of November amounted to four thousand and forty-four. I shall here insert a register of the number which occurred on each day, beginning on the 1st of August, and ending on the 9th of November. By comparing it with the register of the weather it will show the influence of the latter on the disease. Several of the deaths in August were from other acute diseases, and a few in the succeeding months were from such as were of a chronic nature.
| died. | ||
| August | 1 | 9 |
| 2 | 8 | |
| 3 | 9 | |
| 4 | 10 | |
| 5 | 10 | |
| 6 | 3 | |
| 7 | 12 | |
| 8 | 5 | |
| 9 | 11 | |
| 10 | 6 | |
| 11 | 7 | |
| 12 | 5 | |
| 13 | 11 | |
| 14 | 4 | |
| 15 | 9 | |
| 16 | 7 | |
| 17 | 6 | |
| 18 | 5 | |
| 19 | 9 | |
| 20 | 7 | |
| 21 | 8 | |
| 22 | 13 | |
| 23 | 10 | |
| 24 | 17 | |
| 25 | 12 | |
| 26 | 17 | |
| 27 | 12 | |
| 28 | 22 | |
| 29 | 24 | |
| 30 | 20 | |
| 31 | 17 | |
| September | 1 | 17 |
| 2 | 18 | |
| 3 | 11 | |
| 4 | 23 | |
| 5 | 20 | |
| 6 | 24 | |
| 7 | 18 | |
| 8 | 42 | |
| 9 | 32 | |
| 10 | 29 | |
| 11 | 23 | |
| 12 | 33 | |
| 13 | 37 | |
| 14 | 48 | |
| 15 | 56 | |
| 16 | 67 | |
| 17 | 81 | |
| 18 | 68 | |
| 19 | 61 | |
| 20 | 67 | |
| 21 | 57 | |
| 22 | 76 | |
| 23 | 68 | |
| 24 | 96 | |
| 25 | 87 | |
| 26 | 52 | |
| 27 | 60 | |
| 28 | 51 | |
| 29 | 57 | |
| 30 | 63 | |
| October | 1 | 74 |
| 2 | 66 | |
| 3 | 78 | |
| 4 | 58 | |
| 5 | 71 | |
| 6 | 76 | |
| 7 | 82 | |
| 8 | 90 | |
| 9 | 102 | |
| 10 | 93 | |
| 11 | 119 | |
| 12 | 111 | |
| 13 | 104 | |
| 14 | 81 | |
| 15 | 80 | |
| 16 | 70 | |
| 17 | 80 | |
| 18 | 59 | |
| 19 | 65 | |
| 20 | 55 | |
| 21 | 59 | |
| 22 | 82 | |
| 23 | 54 | |
| 24 | 38 | |
| 25 | 35 | |
| 26 | 23 | |
| 27 | 13 | |
| 28 | 24 | |
| 29 | 17 | |
| 30 | 16 | |
| 31 | 21 | |
| November | 1 | 13 |
| 2 | 21 | |
| 3 | 15 | |
| 4 | 15 | |
| 5 | 14 | |
| 6 | 11 | |
| 7 | 15 | |
| 8 | 8 | |
| 9 | 6 | |
| Total[56] | 3881 | |
From this table it appears that the principal mortality was in the second week of October. A general expectation had obtained, that cold weather was as fatal to this fever as heavy rains. The usual time for its arrival had come, but the weather was still not only moderate, but warm. In this awful situation, the stoutest hearts began to fail. Hope sickened, and despair succeeded distress in almost every countenance. On the fifteenth of October, it pleased God to alter the state of the air. The clouds at last dropped health in showers of rain, which continued during the whole day, and which were succeeded for several nights afterwards by cold and frost. The effects of this change in the weather appeared first in the sudden diminution of the sick, for the deaths continued for a week afterwards to be numerous, but they were of persons who had been confined before, or on the day in which the change had taken place in the weather.
The appearance of this rain was like a dove with an olive branch in its mouth to the whole city. Public notice was given of its beneficial effects, in a letter subscribed by the mayor of Philadelphia, who acted as president of the committee, to the mayor of New-York. I shall insert the whole of this letter. It contains, besides the above information, a record of the liberality of that city to the distressed inhabitants of Philadelphia.
“Sir,
“I am favoured with your letter of the 12th instant, which I have communicated to the committee for the relief of the poor and afflicted of this city.