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The Yellow Fever Outbreak of 1793 23

The Yellow Fever
Outbreak of 1793: Nine

Observations and Lessons

Continued from Page 22

1. People Stopped Shaking Hands.

Unaware that mosquitoes spread yellow fever,
Americans feared contact with the sick or
unwitting carriers. In their fear of contagion,
Americans abandoned the custom of shaking
hands. Jones and Allen remarked that “friends,
when they met in the streets, were afraid of each
other.” Fenno mentioned “no shaking of hands,”
“every one stood aloof.” Carey wrote, “The old
custom of shaking hands fell into such general
disuse, that many were affronted at even the
offer of the hand.” Instead, acquaintances and
friends “only signified their regard by a cold
nod.

2. Fear of Contagion Made the City a

Ghost Town.

Fenno wrote, “The City is now in a manner
Americans resorted to preventives that Mathew Carey also suspected psychological
depopulated—almost every person who can quit
combatted stench. John Fenno recalled that factors increased mortality. On a
it, is gone. I should judge by appearances that
“every person was seen with a spunge or a bottle recommendation from the College of
full one half of the People are gone—business is
at their Nose.” Carey reported, “Those who Physicians, churches no longer rang bells to
in a great degree stagnant.” About 20,000 people
ventured abroad, had handkerchiefs or sponges mark each death. The constant knell, Carey
left the city, Fenno explained, so “business of
impregnated with vinegar or camphor, at their believed, worked only “to terrify those in health,
every kind became suspended, and universal
noses, or else smelling bottles with the thieves’ and drive the sick, as far as the influence of
stillness prevailed night & day.”
vinegar. Others carried pieces of tar in their imagination could produce that effect, to their
hands, or pockets, or camphor bags tied round graves.”
“The streets every where discovered marks of
their necks.” Four thieves vinegar, or “thieves’
the distress that pervaded the city,” Rush
oil,” is vinegar spiked with herbs or spices. John Fenno opted to stay indoors to shield
reported. “More than one half the houses were
himself from the demoralizing effect of a
shut up, although not more than one third of the
Alas, these precautions were ineffective. Rush desolate city. Fenno explained, “In addition to
inhabitants had fled into the country. In walking
noted, “There did not appear to be any the numerous carriages employed to carry the
for many hundred yards, few persons were met,
advantage from smelling vinegar, tar, camphor, dead, there were 8 or 9 Carts constantly
except such as were in quest of a physician, a
or volatile salts, in preventing the disorder.” employed in carrying out the sick.” At one stage
nurse, a bleeder, or the men who buried the
of the outbreak, “it was not possible . . . to go the
dead. The hearse alone kept up the remembrance
4. Negativity was Fatal. distance of a square without meeting a Corpse,
of the noise of carriages or carts in the streets.”
& often 3 or 4.” Fenno wrote, “During this sad
Although he knew of exceptions, Carey wrote, state of affairs—I was obliged to go into the
Philadelphia residents made social isolation the
“The effect of fear in predisposing the body for center of the Town to market, & to the post-
norm. Carey wrote, “Of those who remained, office every day—but such was the dismal
many shut themselves up in their houses, and this and other disorders, and increasing their
malignance, when taken, is well known.” In scene, & so shocking the details from every
were afraid to walk the streets.” When people quarter . . . I therefore left off going into town.”
summoned the courage to take a walk, “the sick many cases of yellow fever, Rush was certain
that depression was a contributing cause of
cart conveying patients to the hospital, or the
hearse carrying the dead to the grave,” “soon death. “The deaths which occurred on the 3d, 5. Many People were Heroic.
damped their spirits, and plunged them again 5th, and 7th days, appeared frequently to be the
effects of the commotions or depression, The epidemic also exposed both the widespread
into despondency.”
produced in the system on the 2d, 4th, and 6th good citizenship of Americans, and their low
days.” Rush also attributed high mortality expectations of each other. Rush marveled, “It
3. Many Popular Remedies Failed.
among servant girls not only to the rigors of was remarked during this time, by many people
their work, but also “To their being left more that the name of the Supreme Being was seldom
Many Americans subscribed to the belief that
alone in confined or distant rooms, thereby profaned . . . Two robberies only, and those of a
foul smells communicated disease. Some
suffering from depression of spirits.” trifling nature, occurred in nearly two months,
Philadelphia residents believed the stench of
although many hundred houses were exposed to
rotten coffee on a wharf started the outbreak.
Likewise, the reverends Absalom Jones and plunder, every hour of the day and night.” Jones
Fenno was sure Thomas O’Hara, a clerk,
Richard Allen were shocked by the morbid and Allen also remarked that “it is rather to be
contracted yellow fever when he passed an open
pessimism that “took hold on the minds of admired that so few instances of pilfering and
coffin, “took the scent & died the Wednesday
thousands.” Jones and Allen believed “dejection robbery happened, considering the great
following.” Even Devèze, who knew the disease
and despondence” “aggravated the case of opportunities there were for such things.”
was not contagious, believed that its “first
many; while others who bore up cheerfully got
cause” was “alterations of the atmospheric air,”
up again, that probably would otherwise have
air that was “more or less adulterated or
died.” (Continued on Page 24)
modified.”