The evidence brought forward is the declaration and deposition of capt. Bird. In a letter to Dr. Dingley, the captain “thinks it his duty to contradict the report” that Dr. Treat “caught the disease of which he died on board the Zephyr.” He contradicts it by a deposition, that “the mate and one mariner had the fever and ague seventeen days on shore, and came on board with the same disease; and the captain himself had a dysentery on his arrival in New York; and John Wheeler, aged 16 years, died on the day of the arrival of the brig in New York, by worms crawling up into his throat, and choking him. He was sewed up in a piece of canvass, and ready to be committed to the deep, when Dr. Treat came on board, who desired the captain to have the canvass opened, that he might inspect the body; and he only cut the canvass over the face, but did not make any other examination of the body.”
How far this proves captain Bird’s assertion, that Dr. Treat did not catch the disease on board the Zephyr, the reader will judge. It is, however, inconsistent with the plan of this treatise to enter into an examination of contradictory evidence concerning matters of fact. Accounting as nothing, therefore, all that has been said, by either party, concerning the brig Zephyr, let us proceed to other testimonies.
In a collection of facts and observations by the College of Physicians, published last year, we find the following remarkable accounts tending to prove that the disease was introduced by the ship Deborah, from Port au Prince and Jeremie in St. Domingo: 1. In a letter from Dr. Stevens to Dr. Griffiths it is stated, that “the yellow fever prevailed in almost all the sea-port towns in the French part of Hispaniola, particularly at Cape Nichola Mole, where it raged so violently that it obliged the British to abandon the post sooner than they intended. About the same time it appeared in the harbour of St. Thomas, and was so destructive to foreigners, that it obtained the name of the plague.” The Doctor saw several cases of it in St. Domingo, during the months of August and September, 1798, and “these were entirely confined to American seamen, while the native inhabitants of the city were totally exempt from it.” 2. From this very sickly coast arrived the Deborah on the eighth of July. 3. On the 12th of August John Lewis, mate of the Deborah, informed Dr. Currie, that the vessel had lost seven persons with fever on board during her passage, and one by accident; and that she had been employed as a transport in the British service previous to her taking in her cargo at Jeremie. 4. Mr. Thomas Town informed Dr. Wistar, that, on the first of August, 1798, he was told by Alexander Philips, of Water-street, that he (Mr. Philips) had brought up two or three sick people from the Deborah, in one or two boats. Some of them he had brought to his own house; and one was dead. Philips himself was sick at the same time, and died a day or two after. 5. Mr. Purdon informed Dr. Currie that he had a similar account from Mr. Philips, whom he saw on the first or second of August in apparent good health, and that he died on the Saturday following.
All this, and further evidence seemingly equally strong, was set aside with the greatest facility by bringing counter-evidence, particularly that of Mrs. Philips, who denied that there were any sick people in the house; and by bringing instances of the fever existing in town before the vessel arrived. It is needless therefore to trouble the reader with any further discussion of this evidence more than the rest. As the ancient Britons, in their letter to Aetius, lamented that the barbarians drove them to the sea, and the sea drove them back to the barbarians, so may we lament, in the present investigation, that the uncertainty of theory drives us to facts, and the uncertainty of supposed facts drives us to theory. Still, however, we shall not despair. The introduction of a disease into a large city is much more difficult to be traced than in a smaller one. In the year 1794 the disease appeared in the town of New Haven in Connecticut. Dr. Monson of that place informs us, that it appeared on the 10th of June, when Mrs. Gorham, residing on the Long wharf, was visited by Dr. Hotchkiss, who found her affected with symptoms of the yellow fever. In three days her complaints suddenly vanished, and she was supposed to be in a fair way of recovery, but the same evening she vomited matter resembling coffee-grounds, and died next day. On the same day that Mrs. Gorham died, Dr. Monson visited her niece, a girl of eight years of age, who had staid a week with her aunt, and was taken ill three days before. The day after the Doctor saw her she was suddenly relieved as her aunt had been, but in a few hours vomited matter like coffee-grounds, and died next day. These and some other similar cases having alarmed the select men, inquiry was made, when “it appeared, that, in the beginning of June, capt. Truman arrived from Martinico, in a sloop that was infected with the contagion of the yellow fever; that this vessel lay at the wharf, within a few rods of Mrs. Gorham’s residence; that she had on board a chest of clothes which had belonged to a mariner who died of the yellow fever in Martinico; and that his chest was carried into Mr. Austin’s store, and opened in presence of Capt. Truman, Mr. Austin, Henry Hubbard, and Polly Gorham: the three last died in a short time after their exposure to the contents of the chest. Hence it is highly probable that Mrs. Gorham caught the disease from the infected sloop or clothing. Mr. Austin’s store stands within three or four rods of Mr. Gorham’s house; and no person in town was known to have the yellow fever previous to capt. Truman’s arrival.”
In his further account of this fever Dr. Monson shows that it was contagious in the highest degree, and that Mr. Gorham’s house proved a kind of seminary from whence the disease spread itself. “June 26 (says he) Isaac Gorham lost an infant child with the yellow fever; and soon after his son and daughter were affected with it: the former died. Solomon Mudge died on the 30th; Jacob Thomson’s negro woman on the 1st of July; Archibald McNeil on the 9th; Polly Brown on the 3d of August; John Storer, jun. and John Hide, on the 8th; and widow Thomson on the 10th. Jacob Thomson’s negro woman, Solomon Mudge, John Storer, jun. and John Hide, had visited Mr. Gorham’s house a few days before their illness; Polly Brown and Mrs. Thomson nursed in Mr. Gorham’s family; and Archibald McNeil nursed Solomon Mudge. Elias Gill died on the 12th of August, and Samuel Griswold’s wife on the 7th: the former visited Mr. Gorham’s house, the latter nursed in his family.
“There were a number of persons who caught the disease at Mr. Gorham’s house, and recovered.
“Mrs. Thomson, on the first day of her illness, was moved half a mile from Mr. Gorham’s, into George-street. Luther Fitch caught the disease from Mrs. Thomson, and communicated it to his servant maid. Both recovered. Mr. Fitch lives in College-street, nearly three quarters of a mile distant from Mr. Gorham’s house. I could trace the disease throughout the town. No person had the yellow fever unless in consequence of attending the sick, or of being exposed by nurses, infected houses, clothing, or furniture.
“I have inquired of several aged persons in this town relative to the yellow fever, whether they knew of its having ever been here previous to June 1794, and there is but a single instance; the facts relating to which are these: In the year 1743 a transient person, by the name of Nevins, who came from the West Indies, lodged at the house of Nathaniel Brown, an inn-keeper in this city. The man was taken very sick in the night, and died shortly afterwards; and his body was very yellow after death. Mr. Brown’s wife sickened in a short time, and died of the same complaint, which was at that time supposed to be the yellow fever.
“I am credibly informed that several persons at Mill-river, in Fairfield county, and also at New London, died with the yellow fever in August and September, 1795. It was propagated there by infected persons from New York.
“Capt. John Smith died in this town, the 20th of August, 1795. He caught the disease in New York, and communicated it to one of his negro servants.”