Several other means have been recommended to preserve cities from malignant fevers during their prevalence, which are of doubtful efficacy, or evidently hurtful. They are,
5. Strewing lime over putrid matters. Dr. Dalzelle says, he once checked a bilious fever, by spreading twelve barrels of lime on a piece of marshy ground, from whence the exhalations that produced it were derived[20]. A mixture of quick lime and ashes in water, when thrown into a privy, discharges from it a large quantity of offensive air, and leaves it afterwards without a smell. As this foul air is discharged into the atmosphere, it has been doubted whether the lime and ashes should be used for that purpose, after a malignant fever has made its appearance.
6. Mr. Quiton Morveau has lately proposed the muriatic gas as a means of destroying miasmata. However effectual it may be in destroying the volatile and foul excretions which are discharged from the human body in confined situations, as in filthy jails, hospitals, and ships, it is not calculated to oppose the seeds of a disease which exist in the atmosphere, and which are diffused over a large extent of city or country. Mr. Morveau ascribes great virtues to it, in checking the malignant fever in Cadiz, in 1801, but from the time at which it was used, being late in the autumn, there is more reason to believe it had run its ordinary course, or that it was destroyed by cold weather.
7. The explosion of gunpowder has been recommended for checking pestilential diseases. Mr. Quiton Morveau says, it destroys the offensive odour of putrid exhalations, but does not act upon the fevers produced by them.
8. Washing the floors of houses with a solution of alkaline salts in water, has been recommended by Dr. Mitchell, as an antidote to malignant fevers. As yet, I believe, there are no facts which establish the efficacy of the practice, when they are produced by exhalations from decayed vegetable and animal substances in a putrid state.
9. Large fires have sometimes been made in cities, in order to destroy the miasmata of pestilential diseases. They were obviously hurtful in the plague of London, in the year 1665. Dr. Hodges, who relates this fact, says, “Heaven wept for the mistake of kindling them, and mercifully put them out, with showers of rain.”
I cannot conclude this head, without lamenting the want of laws in all our states, to compel physicians to make public the first cases of malignant fever that come under their notice. The cry of fire is not more useful to save a city from destruction, than the early knowledge of such cases would be to save it from the ravages of pestilential and mortal epidemics. Hundreds of instances have occurred, in all ages and countries, in which they might have been stifled in their birth, by the means that have been mentioned, had this practice been adopted. But when, and where, will science, humanity, and government first combine to accomplish this salutary purpose? Most of our histories of mortal epidemics abound with facts which show a contrary disposition and conduct in physicians, rulers, and the people. I shall mention one of these facts only, to show how far we must travel over mountains of prejudice and error, before we shall witness that desirable event. It is extracted from the second volume of the Life of the late Empress of Russia. “The Russian army (says the biographer), after defeating the Turks, on entering their territories were met by the plague, and brought it to their country, where the folly of several of their generals contributed to its propagation, as if they thought by a military word of command to alter the nature of things. Lieutenantgeneral Stoffeln, at Yassy, where the pestilence raged in the winter of 1770, issued peremptory orders that its name should not be pronounced; he even obliged the physicians and surgeons to draw up a declaration in writing, that it was only a spotted fever. One honest surgeon of the name of Kluge refused to sign it. In this manner the season of prevention was neglected. Several thousand Russian soldiers were by this means carried off. The men fell dead upon the road in heaps. The number of burghers that died was never known, as they had run into the country, and into the forests. At length the havoc of death reached the general's own people: he remained true to his persuasion, left the town, and went into the more perilous camp. But his intrepidity availed him nothing; he died of the plague in July, 1771[21].”
III. Let us now consider, in the last place, the means of exterminating malignant and other forms of summer and autumnal disease, by removing their causes. These means are,
1. The removal or destruction of all those putrid matters formerly enumerated, which are capable of producing fevers. Many of the institutions of the Jewish nation, for this purpose, are worthy of our imitation. The following verses contain a fund of useful knowledge upon this subject.—“Thou shalt have a place without the camp, whether thou shalt go forth abroad; and shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon, and it shall be when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back, and cover that which cometh from thee; for the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp to deliver thee, therefore shall he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee.” Deuteronomy, chapter xxiii. verses 12, 13, and 14. “But the flesh of the bullock, and his skin, and his dung, shalt thou burn with fire without the camp.” Exodus, chapter xxxix. verse 14. The advantages of thus burying and removing all putrid matters, and of burning such as were disposed to a speedy putrefaction, in a crowded camp, and in a warm climate, are very obvious. Their benefits have often been realized in other countries. The United Provinces of Holland hold their exemption from the plague, only by the tenure of their cleanliness. In the character given by Luther of Pope Julius, he says, “he kept the streets of Rome so clean and sweet, that there were no plagues nor sicknesses during his time.” The city of Oxford was prepared to afford an asylum to the royal family of Great-Britain from the plague, when it ravaged London, and other parts of England, in the year 1665, only in consequence of its having been cleaned, some years before, by the Bishop of Winchester. In a manuscript account of the life of Doctor, afterwards Governor Colden, of New-York, there is the following fact. It was first communicated to the public in the daily gazette of the capital of that state, on the 30th of October, 1799. “A malignant fever having raged with exceeding violence for two summers successively in the city of New-York, about forty years ago, he communicated his thoughts to the public, on the most probable cure of the calamity. He published a little treatise on the occasion, in which he collected the sentiments of the best authority, on the bad effects of stagnating waters, moist air, damp cellars, filthy shores, and dirty streets. He showed how much these nuisances prevailed in many parts of the city, and pointed out the remedies. The corporation of the city voted him their thanks, adopted his reasoning, and established a plan for draining and cleaning the city, which was attended with the most happy effects.” The advantages of burning offal matters, capable by putrefaction of producing fevers, has been demonstrated by those housekeepers, who, instead of collecting the entrails of fish and poultry, and the parings and skins of vegetables, in barrels, instantly throw them into their kitchen fires. The families of such persons are generally healthy.