Yellow Fever Strikes the Lazaretto (1870)
Dr. Ulrich’s Alarming Letter
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.
Reassurance (?) from the Delaware County American
Delaware County American, 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 [control] 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.”
The Heroine of the Lazaretto Outbreak
Delaware County American
September 14, 1870
A HEROINE AT THE Lazaretto. — We take the following from the Woman’s Department of the Phila. SUNDAY DISPATCH: “It is eminently proper that women should record the doings and the sufferings of sister women in the cause of humanity. Therefore it with great pride and pleasure that we hold up to public honor and esteem the name of Mrs. Mary Riddle. This good woman (an elegant and accomplished lady) lost a friend with the yellow fever, which has been so fatal at the Lazaretto. Upon visiting that place to attend the funeral of her friend, she found the place to be in the greatest confusion. The resident physician was dead, the subordinates were all utterly demoralized and in a state of anarchy and rebellion against the improvised authorities. This lady (a widow) had an aged mother and little children; yet, with a self devotion and humanity rarely emulated – never excelled – she resolved to remain there, and, if possible, bring order out of chaos. This she did, taking the command of the corps of mercenaries hastily placed there by the Board of Health, most of the time herself cooking for over thirty persons, ordering, administering and rendering herself invaluable everywhere. She remained until she though the danger was over, and then returned to her home and her family, bearing with her the seeds of that most terrible disease. After a few days she was stricken down with it, and for a time her life was despaired of. Happily, however, she is now convalescent. [from Sunday Dispatch, 11 Sept. 1870, omitted from Delaware County American: Good friends! readers of the Dispatch! do you think any man of you all would be capable of such courage, such self-devotion, towards those bound to you by no ties of blood or of friendship? We can answer—Not one! You may boast of your acts of heroism, and of your deeds of daring; but it requires a nobler heroism, a more sublime courage than any man is possessed of, to risk life at the sick-bed of strangers, leaving, with full faith, dear and dependent ones in the merciful hands of God.] All honor to Mrs. Riddle, and to others like her, who, in times of public danger and calamity, can put aside thoughts of peril to themselves and to those they love, and regard all suffering men and women as brothers and sisters, children of the same great Father, loving care is over all His works.”