Fever Strikes (1870)

 

Yellow Fever Strikes the Lazaretto (1870)

*Publication: *DELAWARE COUNTY AMERICAN

*Date: *August 17, 1870


YELLOW FEVER AT THE Lazaretto. - The appearance of the yellow fever at the Lazaretto, and its spread beyond the immediate quarantine grounds, has caused some excitement in this county and Philadelphia, more, perhaps than the facts warrant.


Quarantine consists of eight enclosed acres of ground on Tinicum island. Within is a substantial general hospital, presided over by a steward under the orders of the Board of Health of Philadelphia; not far distant is a hospital for the treatment of infectious diseases, known as the 'Dutch House.'
There are also two brick buildings fronting the river, for the accommodation of the Physician and Quarantine Master and their families. The Lazaretto post office is within the enclosure, and there being no other on the island, the inhabitants have for several years received their mails therefrom, the previous exemption from disease dissipating all fears of infection. Indeed, no such fears seem to have operated on either the inhabitants or strangers, the island being a popular summer resort to Philadelphians, some of whom board there, while fishing parties have been of almost daily occurrence.


About the last of June, the brig 'Home,' Capt. Phillips, arrived in the Delaware with a cargo of logwood from Jamaica, and upon coming to the Lazaretto and being boarded, it was ascertained that the captain had died on the voyage. The ship was in the most filthy condition and she was quarantined. Her cargo was discharged on the wharf, the vessel thoroughly cleaned and fumigated, and then anchored out in the stream for several days, after which she was permitted to depart. A number of stevedores with flats were sent from Philadelphia to remove the cargo to that city. Four of these men were stricken with fever and conveyed to the Hospital, when they recovered. Two of the crew of the vessel had received permission to go to Philadelphia, and both died suddenly, the death of one being ascribed to sunstroke, that of the other to yellow fever.


The disease soon made its appearance in the Hospital at Tinicum, the wife of Mr. Kugler, the steward, being the first victim, and at length, doubtless through the free communication which was permitted between the inmates of the institution and those outside of its enclosures, the fever attacked and destroyed some of the latter. Two of the nurses fell victims, one of them before her death having gone to her home, over a mile distant. Her attending physician, Dr. Boone, pronounced the disease typhus in its nature, but when others were attacked with what was known to be yellow fever, opinion changed as to the cause of the death of the young girl.  The family of Jacob Pepper, Esq., living outside the enclosure, were early attacked, and himself, wife, child and servant died of the disease. Dr. Wm. S. Thompson, who had given more or less attention to all of these cases, took the disease, and after a week’s sickness died.  Robert Gartside, the Quarantine Master, was attacked about the same time, and died on Friday morning last.


The whole number of deaths up to this hour, according to the best information we can gather, is thirteen.  We last week ascribed the death of Mrs. Kerlin and daughter of Chester, to the same disease, and at the time many of the citizens of that city were impressed with the same belief. But the statements upon which the story was predicated have been proven untrue. Mrs. Kerlin had not visited the Gartside family or any other at Tinicum. She was delicate, and her daughter had been ailing for a week with something like diphtheria; this was followed by typhus and after several days sickness she died - her mother’s death occurring from the same cause the next day. 


Chester took better and more prompt precautions than Philadelphia, where the Board of Health (as will be shown by a correspondence which follows) treated the facts presented by Dr. Ulrich and Amos Gartside, Esq., with cool indifference. Both of them are men entitled to attention and consideration, but they found it impossible to penetrate to the Health office of that city - a fact which we commend to the attention of Governor Geary and to the Councils of Philadelphia. The Council of Chester took early action on the subject, and a proclamation from Mayor Larkin warns all inhabitants of the infected district against visiting the city, and all in the city against visiting the island. Cool weather set in on Saturday night last, and we are now satisfied that there is little occasion for further public anxiety, though we cannot but advise the continued enforcement of all proper precautions. If we thought the danger was still imminent, we would exhibit no hesitancy in giving our thought utterance, for we have little faith in that policy which would sacrifice the public health to selfish commercial advantage. Panics are the offspring of ignorance. Give a community complete and reliable information, and you do more to mitigate terror than can positively be done in any other way. As a matter of interest to our readers, we append the letter of Dr. Ulrich.


The wife of the watchman at Ledwardmills, in Chester, but who resided at Leiperville, died of what is supposed to have been the yellow fever on Friday last.  She attended the funeral of Jacob Pepper. Mr. Ledward, so soon as he learned of the illness of the watchman’s wife, relieved him from duty and prevented him from coming there, so that now no danger is feared in that quarter. We quote the following from the Phila. PRESS of Monday last: -'The yellow fever has been brought under at the Lazaretto. All the critical cases have died off. No new cases are reported. Mrs. and Miss Thompson, widow and daughter of the late quarantine physician, arerapidly advancing toward recovery. Under personal direction of Dr. John F.W. Forwood, who has been in charge for some days, the Lazaretto has been thoroughly disinfected. The clothing of all the persons who died has been burned. An ample supply of necessaries is now on hand, and there is a sufficiency of good nurses. The necessary rules are being rigidly enforced. By Dr. Forwood’s instruction, all vessels coming up the Delaware from the West Indies, or ports where the devastating disease now rages or has lately raged, are detained in quarantine at the Lazaretto. There has not been a single case of yellow fever in Philadelphia.”