<\/p>\n
Through the courtesy of Dr. Frederick T. Hill I have been able to examine a very old book that once belonged to a prominent Waterville physician of more than a century ago. The local physician was Dr. Moses Appleton, many of whose medical books and surgical instruments are now in the possession of Mr. Hill.<\/p>\n
This particular book was published in Boston 168 years ago in the year 1800, and it carries a long title typical of the time. That title reads: “A Treatise on the Nature, Origin and Progress of the Yellow Fever. with Observations on its Treatment: Comprising an Account of the Disease in Several of the Capitals of the United States, but More Particularly as it has Prevailed in Boston.” The author was not a doctor of medicine, but was Samuel Brown, who had the title of Bachelor of Medicine, a degree granted by a few institutions at a time when there were almost no medical schools. At that turn into the 19th century many doctors had not attended school at all, but learned the profession by studying with a licensed physician and assisting him as a sort of intern.<\/p>\n
In the later years of the 18th century and the early years of the 19th, the most dread disease in America was Yellow Fever epidemics of which spread in the coastal cities every few years. More than once the dread disease decimated the populations of New Orleans and Charleston, hit hard in Philadelphia and New York, and spread as far north as Boston.<\/p>\n
In our day. when yellow fever has been completely conquered, it is a mark of medical progress to look back on a time when little was known about it. In 1800 no physician had ever heard of germs; no one suspected any such thing as a virus and anyone would have been laughed out of court if he suggested that mosquitoes had anything to do with yellow fever. That discovery had to wait more than a hundred years after Mr. Moses Appleton wrote his name and the date 1800 in this copy of Brown’s book. Not until General Gorgas, the noted Surgeon General, verified the connection between yellow fever and the mosquito, during the construction of the Panama Canal, did medical science win its victory over this virulent disease.<\/p>\n
Samuel Brownfs account begins with these words: “The destructive fever which prevailed in Boston from the latter part of July to the middle of October in 1798 was the most violent we have known. The disease proved fatal generally on the fourth or fifth day after the attack, and very few of those attacked survived after the seventh day.”<\/p>\n
As to the nature of the disease, Brown wrote: “The symptoms form one of the most insidious aspects of this distemper, the patient declaring that little or nothing is the matter with him. I thus conclude that the nerves and muscles, as well as the blood, are overcharged with septon and undercharged with oxygen.<\/p>\n
Brown suggested that treatment might be the same as for scurvy. Brown advised the afflicted to drink plenty of lemonade and cider, and eat lots of peaches, pears and apples. Brown pointed out that a certain Dr. Gamble had investigated the disease in several Caribbean Islands and had seen the patients seized with a fit of shivering as in ague, which lasted for more than an hour, followed by high fever with severe pains in head and back, insatiable thirst and restlessness, and sometimes nausea. In cases where the patient’s skin soon turned yellow, he had almost no chance to survive. Within 24 hours the patient began to grow cold and his pulse slackened until it could not be felt at all. He became almost as cold as stone. Sometimes he lived for twelve hours without any sign of pulse or heat. Then he expired quietly.<\/p>\n
Brown proceeded to tell the story of the fever’s spread in Boston in the summer of 1798. He noted that it first appeared in the family of Mr. Stoddard in Fore Street, near the market place, on June 21, when his wife and daughter died within a few days of each other.<\/p>\n
At that time many doctors believed the disease came from decaying animal matter. So Brown had this to say about the start of the epidemic on Fore Street: “The market place is in a low, sunken part of the town, a reservoir of every putrid matter flowing in from more elevated sections and accumulating in every rain. It is surrounded by stagnant waters filled with offal, which at every tide throws up a stench. The market stalls are always supplied with meats of various kinds, which in the warmer season of the year are usually in a state of putrifaction, sometimes far advanced. Thus the purity of the surrounding atmosphere is destroyed by loading it with animal effluvia, which can be smelled at a distance of more than a hundred yards.”<\/p>\n
Brown tells us that the disease spread from the market place to the dwellings near Codman’s wharf, then up Fort Hill through Liberty Square to State Street. Said Brown: “Fort Hill is exposed to reflected heat, almost excluded from the western breezes. From summit to base, the hill is underlaid with a stratum of clay. The soil is thin and is soon covered with putrid residue which cannot penetrate below the thin topsoil. This noxious covering came in excessive quantity during the extreme heat of July and August, and so contaminated the surrounding atmosphere that here occurred the greatest mortality. Scarcely a family escaped, and one lost five persons out of six.”<\/p>\n
Brown went on to recount how the fever raged from the harbor to the northeast end of Boston during August and September. One reason for the spread said Brown, was the collection of refuse in many cellars, from some of which nothing had been removed for several years. He said these cellars had to be doused with several hogsheads of lime before anyone dared to clean them.<\/p>\n
Brown was sure that filth was the real cause of yellow fever, and he placed the blame on avaricious landlords. He said: “Multitudes of lives are annually sacrificed to the avarice of landowners. The narrow, dirty houses, kitchens and yards, surrounded by high fences excluding air and vegetation, are, in cities like Boston, devilishly contrived to waste human life.”<\/p>\n
Brown stated that deaths from yellow fever that summer in Boston exceeded 300. In the section of his book devoted to causes of the disease, Brown had this to say: “From marsh exhalations and human effluvia, it has been believed from the earliest ages of medicine, malignant and pestilential diseases have their origin. Jail fever, for instance, is ascribed to human perspiration, rendered putrid by the heat and confined atmosphere, as well as uncleanliness. As for yellow fever, it is near marshes, with abundance of decayed vegetable and animal matter, that we observe the disease to start.”<\/p>\n
What Brown and all doctors of his time missed was the significance of marshes as the breeding ground of mosquitoes, and it never entered the minds of any investigator of that time that the tiny mosquito was the carrier of the fatal disease. Even if they had made such a guess, the physicians of 1800 would have had no idea of what the mosquito carried, for they knew nothing about germs. As Brown indicates, the prevailing opinion in 1800 was that yellow fever was caused by inhaling the fumes of decaying animate matter.<\/p>\n
It is easy to scorn the unscientific and crude methods of the old time doctors because medical science has made such enormous strides in our time. But we ought rather to applaud those physicians of 150 years ago. As Brown’s book shows, many of them were ardent and devoted investigators, with only one goal in mind: to alleviate suffering and prolong human life. It was only because they and their successors kept on searching, tirelessly and relentlessly, that we today live in a world of striking medical advance.<\/p>\n
Ray Tobey of Fairfield, who has made many valuable contributions to this program, has sent me an interesting addition to my story of the boundary dispute that ended in the Aroostook War in 1839. Mr. Tobey’s contribution is a photostat copy of the brigade orders issued on February 21, 1839 at Gardiner to the First Brigade, Second Division of the militia. What these orders make clear is that militia companies were not sent as bodies into Aroostook, but that men were drafted from each company according to a definite plan. Let us see just what the orders said and we will then understand the process: “A draft from the officers, the non-commissioned. the musicians, and the privates of this brigade is ordered to be made as follows: Col. Simonds of the Regiment of Cavalry will detail from his command one captain, one sergeant, one musician and cause five privates to be drafted from each company. Col. Currier of the Regiment of Artillery will detail one captain, one lieutenant. two sergeants, one drummer and one fifer, and will cause to be drafted 20 privates from each of his companies A, Band C. Col. Stevens of the First Regiment of Infantry will cause a draft to be made of 150 privates of infantry. 18 of light infantry, and 12 of riflemen.”<\/p>\n
In the same way the orders directed the colonels of other regiments to supply officers and men. All regimental commanders were ordered to prepare the lists of names thus selected and forward them at once to the Brigadier General of the Brigade. George Bachelder. Then the order ended with these words: “Every officer, non-com and private so detached will forthwith arm and equip himself and be in readiness to obey marching orders at a minute’s warning. The Brigadier General would impress upon all that the honor of our State and the right of our soil is in danger. Under such circumstances he feels most confidently assured that no stronger motive need be presented to the officers and soldiers of this brigade to induce them to respond to this call of the Executive, with the utmost cheerfulness and promptitude.”<\/p>\n
And with that information about the securing of troops for the Aroostook War, we must say goodbye until next week.<\/p>\n
Year: 1968<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #762, Broadcast on March 31, 1968<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1199,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8812"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8812\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}