To the Editor of The Evening Telegraph:

CHESTER, Pa., Aug. 10. 1870.

DEAR Sir: I wish to make to the public, through the columns of your paper, a statement respecting the yellow fever now existing at the Lazaretto. Mr. Jacob Pepper, a resident of Tinicum, living just outside the bounds of the Lazaretto, being sick, and the yellow fever having been brought to quarantine by a vessel from the West Indies, still lying in the river opposite his residence, his friends requested me to see him professionally, knowing that I had practiced several years in Louisiana, where that disease was of frequent occurrence.

I saw Mr. Pepper last Sunday morning half an hour before he died, and unhesitatingly pronounced his case one of yellow fever. In the same family his wife’s sister was then, and still is sick of the same disease. I visited the Lazaretto twice a day since and have seen Dr. Thompson, the Lazaretto physician, and his wife and daughter, all of whom are dangerously sick of yellow fever. On Monday I found Mr. Robert Gartside, the Quarantine Master, in the first stage of yellow fever. Dr. Thompson’s family has no nurse except a lady friend who volunteered her assistance before she knew it was yellow fever. His brother who is also a physician, has medical charge of the family. Mr. Gartside has no nurse except his wife and daughter, both of whom are, by their relations to the patient, and by their anxiety and alarm, unfitted to perform the highly important duties of nurse in yellow fever. The Board of Health has not furnished any nurse for these officials, who have been stricken down in the performance of their duty. nor have they even been supplied with ice in sufficient quantity and the many other things necessary in such cases.

Believing that the importance of these facts in their relations to the health and safety of the citizens of Philadelphia were not duly appreciated by those who were elected to the guardianship of the city’s health, fully understanding the importance of proper nursing, under medical direction, in the first few days of this dangerous disease, I felt impelled to visit the Board of Health, and did so at the meeting on Tuesday of this week, accompanied by Mr. Amos Gartside, a brother of the Quarantine Master. I sought an interview with the Board, but failed to obtain it. One of the members came out from the meeting and said that the Board was controlled by a few physicians, who did not like to be dictated to by an outsider. After the meeting I had some conversation with Drs. LaRoche and Ward, who I believe are members of the Board of Health, in presence of several other members. Dr. LaRoche was imposing in his manner, and asked a few questions that were not intended to elicit information. - Dr. Ward informed me that they were the conservators of the city’s safety in this hour of danger, and that they were competent to meet the exigency.

This would all have been satisfactory if I had not met these gentlemen a few days before at the Lazaretto, where they both had to be convinced, by evidence I there pointed out to them of symptoms in the living and the appearance of the dead, before they would believe that the cases were yellow fever at all.  I have no disposition to alarm the people of Philadelphia and Chester by magnifying their danger, but a full knowledge of all the facts cannot be otherwise than useful. It will point to the means necessary to safety and will allay that alarm which is always felt when imagination takes the place of knowledge.

There have been about twenty cases of yellow fever, thirteen of which have proved fatal, and not more than two or three of the remainder are out of danger. The mortality may safely be estimated at seventy five percent. In New Orleans thirteen percent is the largest I ever knew, and ten percent is about the average mortality there. This fearful state of affairs certainly demands prompt and decided action on the part of the Board of Health. The hesitating policy which has delayed action in the taking of proper measures to prevent the spreading of the disease into the country along the river shore will not keep it out of Philadelphia, where the same rate of mortality will destroy tens of thousands of lives.

WM. B. ULRICH, M.D.