AN ACCOUNT
OF THE
BILIOUS YELLOW FEVER,
AS IT
APPEARED IN PHILADELPHIA,
IN 1803.
The weather in January was uniformly cold. On the 21st of the month, the Delaware was completely frozen.
On the 4th of February there was a general thaw, attended with a storm of hail, thunder, and lightning, which lasted about three quarters of an hour. The diseases of both these winter months were catarrhs and bilious pleurisies. The latter appeared in a tertian type. The pain in the side was most sensible every other day.
The weather was cold and dry in March, in consequence of which, vegetation was unusually backward in April. The hooping cough, catarrhs, and scarlatina were the diseases of this month.
The beginning of May was very cool. There was ice on the 7th of the month. The winds, during the greatest parts of this and the previous month, were from the north-east.
In June, the weather was cool. Intermittents were common in this month, as well as in May. Such was the predominance of this type of fever over all other diseases, that it appeared in the form of profuse sweats, every other night, in a lady under the care of Dr. Dewees and myself, in the puerperile fever. On the intermediate nights she had a fever, without the least moisture on her skin. There were a few choleras this month. During the latter end of the month, I lost a patient with many of the symptoms of yellow fever.