TREATISE
ON THE
Plague and Yellow Fever.
PART SECOND.
Of the Yellow Fever.
We now come to treat of a disease, less fatal indeed than the Asiatic plague, but yet so deadly in its nature in the Western World, that it has of late been confounded with the former, and attempts made to prove that they are both to be considered only as degrees of the same disease, and that both have been recorded by historians indiscriminately under the common appellation of plague or pestilence. To investigate this matter candidly, and to show that there is a real and essential difference between the two, as far as we can credit testimonies drawn from the most respectable writers, shall be the work of the following part of this treatise.
SECTION I.
History of the Yellow Fever.
The distemper now under consideration has been commonly distinguished by two different names; one of which is the Yellow Fever, the other the Black Vomit. Both of these are taken from symptoms so remarkable (though not occurring in every case) that, had the disease existed in ancient times, we can scarce think but some of the historians of antiquity would have taken notice that in such a plague those who died generally became yellow, or that they had a continual vomiting of black matter, which could not be stopped. Black or bilious vomitings are indeed mentioned, though not as the principal symptom, but the yellow colour is not once taken notice of. Dr. Hodges indeed mentions a single instance of a patient who became all over of a green colour; but as a change of colour is not taken notice of in the plague as a general symptom, either by him or by any other writer, we must conclude that this distemper (the yellow fever) has been observed only in modern times.
When Columbus first visited the West India islands, we hear nothing of his having found such a disease existing there; nor does it appear that it was known among the many Spanish adventurers who succeeded him, and who subdued such immense tracts on the Southern Continent. Soon after the settlement of some of the West India islands, however, by other European nations, this disease began to make its appearance, though at what time is still uncertain. Dr. Hillary says, that, “as we have no accounts of this disease in the ancients, nor even in the Arabian writers, who lived and practised in the hot climate, we must give it some name;” and he calls it the putrid bilious fever. “From the best and most authentic account (adds he) that I can obtain, as also from the nature and symptoms of the disease, it appears to be a disease that is indigenous[142] to the West India islands and the continent of America which is situated between the tropics, and most probably to all other countries within the torrid zone. But I cannot conceive what were the motives which induced Dr. Warren to think that this fever was first brought from Palestine to Marseilles, and from thence to Martinique, and so to Barbadoes, about thirty-seven years since (1721 or 1722.) A better inquiry would have informed him, that this fever had frequently appeared, in this and the other West India islands, many years before: for several judicious practitioners, who were then, and are now, living here, whose business was, visiting the sick the greatest part of their life time, some of them almost eighty years of age, remember to have seen this fever frequently in this island, not only many years before that time, but many years before that learned gentleman came to it.”