ipl-logo

Essay On Yellow Fever In Philadelphia

554 Words3 Pages

In 1793, Philadelphia, the capital of the United States as well as the country’s most populated city, was ravaged by yellow fever. The lack of public health policies at this time intensified the disease into a full on epidemic. According to Jan Golinski in her article Debating The Atmospheric Constitution: Yellow Fever And The American Climate, the epidemic caused the American people to consider why the virus was able to spread so easily. Citizens eventually came to blame the outbreak on how unsanitary the urban area of Philadelphia was at the time. All American cities at this time were unhealthy to live in due to poor drainage systems and ventilation, overcrowding, and a lack of sun exposure. All these factors led to the yellow fever virus being able to spread with ease in cities like Philadelphia. Ultimately, the public outcry led to the formation urban improvements projects in the early …show more content…

Benjamin Rush's Republican Medicine, the Bilious Remitting Yellow-fever Epidemic of 1793, and the Non-origin of the Law of Informed Consent. Perhaps the most famous physician during this outbreak was Benjamin Rush. Rush used a range of practiced in an attempt to cure yellow fever, including purging and bloodletting. Clark, however, claims Rush’s efforts failed completely. Not only did Rush fail to cure his patients, he also violated their rights. Today, informed consent (the act of a patient giving a medical professional explicit permission to perform treatment on them) is crucial in any medical practice. 1793, however, was a different time. Rush performed medical care on his patients that actually proved to be detrimental to their health. In fact, he often would not even tell his patients exactly what treatments he was using on them or how the remedy would help ease their illness. A lack of laws surrounding informed consent made it extremely dangerous to be a patient in

Show More
Related
731 Words | 3 Pages

It also indicates the hospital was a surreal, almost placid place. While in An American Plague page 105 it indicates,”so many people applied that patients had to have a doctors certificate stating that they did indeed have yellow fever.” With this many people applying to Bush Hill, it would most certainly not be a calm and relaxing place. It also suggests that this place should be like the market or town square before the fever, bustling, constant commotion and always someone wanting or needing something. It also conveys on page 13-14 of An American Plague,”the skin and eyeballs turned yellow, as red blood cells were destroyed, causing the bile pigment bilirubin to accumulate in the body;nose, gums and intestines began bleeding; and the patient vomited stale, black blood.

Read More
294 Words | 2 Pages

Did you know that in 1793, more than 5000 people died from the Yellow Fever in Philadelphia? The book Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a historical fiction about a girl named Matilda trying to survive against yellow fever with Her Mother, Grandfather, and Eliza in Philadelphia. The theme of the book is “Perseverance allows the overcoming of hardships and brings hope to those who persevere.” During the novel Fever 1793, Matilda endured through the entire Yellow Fever epidemic with it having ups and downs that built hope and destroyed it completely, this is a reason that perseverance allows the overcoming of hardships and brings hope to those who persevere. One example is when Mattie was with a child to take care of and is trying

Read More
465 Words | 2 Pages

There actually was a yellow fever outbreak that hit Philadelphia in 1793. It was one of the worst epidemics in US history. In almost three months it killed nearly 10% of the city’s population, which is around 5,000 people. Many had fled the city even Congressman as mentioned in the book, along with George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Since medicine wasn’t very developed at the time many doctors did drain blood from patients, trying to get rid of the “pestilence”.

Read More
546 Words | 3 Pages

In 1793 in philadelphia there was a outbreak of a deadly fever. This fever was know as Yellow fever. In the book Fever 1793 written by Laurie Halse Anderson. The main theme is Death. This book is about a young woman named Mattie who lives through the fever.

Read More
378 Words | 2 Pages

As the Mayor of Philadelphia, Mayor Matthew Clarkson demonstrated a strong sense of duty throughout the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793. He had felt that he should stay in Philadelphia because the people in Philadelphia where his family and if he had left Philadelphia he would have left his family. It was illegal for him to stay he had broken the law so he can stay in Philadelphia. The yellow fever did not treat his family well it had killed his youngest son and his wife had caught it and he still didn’t leave. “... yellow fever had already seized his wife and killed his youngest son, Gerard” (Murphy 24).

Read More
802 Words | 4 Pages

During the antebellum period it was not yet known that microorganisms were the cause of the outbreaks. The people did not understand that poor hygiene was the cause of the epidemic. They did, however, begin to try and keep the streets and the cities cleaner, but were not sure it would help. The people started to distrust doctors and would flee the city in hopes of outrunning the epidemics. It did not always work and they would catch it

Read More
647 Words | 3 Pages

Over 5,000 people died of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793. In the book Fever 1973 by Laurie Halse Anderson, Mattie’s family suffered from the Yellow Fever Epidemic. Many people died because of it but unfortunately some still didn’t believe that it was the Fever. Some even had the symptoms but blew it off saying they were just tired. Some blamed it on the heat, others on the Domingan Refugees.

Read More
589 Words | 3 Pages

During the American Revolution, the disease smallpox virus was spreading enormously over thirteen colonies, created a severe threat in Boston where Boylston was urged to begin inoculations of the virus by the New England Puritan minister Cotton

Read More
1232 Words | 5 Pages

Cholera was a feared disease that attacked a range of countries from every part of the world. It brought about a sense of horror due to its horrendous symptoms and relatively high mortality rate. This fear was no less apparent for the inhabitants of Philadelphia especially after reports were written about towns such as Montreal and Quebec. One particular report written by the “Commission” (Samuel Jackson, Chas. D. Meigs, and Richard Harlan) and appointed by the “Sanitary Board of the City Councils” had a purpose of providing information about the cholera epidemic in Canada for the inhabitants of Philadelphia.

Read More
1806 Words | 8 Pages

One of the first important issues that Crosby discusses in her the book is the transmission and spread of yellow fever throughout the country. The epidemic started advancing quickly as countries relied and profited from selling and trading goods from West Africa. A big part of that theory is that Africa had the perfect climate for mosquitos to breed. Yellow fever requires warm weather to multiply and succeeds in hot, wet summers when mosquitoes can breed easily. Steamboats used to transport slaves

Read More
770 Words | 4 Pages

To begin with, people's outhouse contents, offal, garbage, dead animals, and mud filled the streets. The people living in California were exposed to all of the diseases and bacteria from the streets. People then became sick and weak. Second of all, on the journey to San Francisco many diseases were caught such as such as cholera while crossing the jungles in the Isthmus of Panama. They were not even at San Francisco and they had already contracted diseases making them very sick.

Read More
1599 Words | 7 Pages

Sicknesses that Shaped the World: Spanish Flu and COVID-19 In 1918, a sickness swept the horizon of Kansas that would eventually change people’s everyday life. The 1918 Flu, also known as the H1N1 virus, was an illness unlike the United States had ever seen (“History of the 1918 Flu Pandemic”). As anything that is unknown and scary would, the news about this influenza swept through the United States via newspapers.

Read More
1077 Words | 5 Pages

It killed more people in a year than the people in World War I. It was estimated that 675,000 Americans died from 1918 to 1919 (“The Great Pandemic: The United States in 1918-1919,” n.d). The disease spread so fast that some states could not keep track of the pandemic and did not report to Public Health Services. The Public Health Service did not have enough doctors or nurses to help.

Read More
1130 Words | 5 Pages

This new outbreak proved that the American treatments and vaccinations were effective. The death toll was reasonably lower than the Spanish Influenza outbreak, which showed improvement in lifestyle for people around the world and in America. Cities such as Philadelphia and San Francisco that had at first refused to acknowledge the severity of the outbreak now closed schools, churches, and other public gathering places. (Stock) The U.S. government took initiative and displayed their power by mandating closings of schools, and creating a cleaner society for years to

Read More
1116 Words | 5 Pages

Not only were the American soldiers fighting in Havana being affected by this malady, but Havana was the primary source of yellow fever plaguing the Southern United States. The United States sent many renown scientists to Cuba in search of a way to eliminate yellow fever from Havana. Yellow fever

Read More

More about Essay On Yellow Fever In Philadelphia

Related Topics

Open Document