110 



demic typhus periods. Tlic fact now referred to was strikingly 

 exemplified in 1837. In that year the mortality from typhus was 

 338, while that of the preceding year amis hut 117, and that of tin- 

 following only 104. From this time, though the amount of mor- 

 tality annually varied, there was no notable increase of deaths from 

 typhus until 1846, when the number rose to 256; and the disease 

 continuing to prevail and with increasing severity, the deaths in 1847 

 reached the frightful sum of 1396, to which should be added very 

 many of 657 deaths from dysentery, a disease which, in a large 

 proportion of the cases in the hospitals, was typhus fever. 



The foregoing facts fully warrant the inference that the diffusion 

 of typhus is favoured by a peculiar aerial influence which occurs 

 periodically. Sueh an influence is sometimes very widely extended. 

 It is said by Barker and Chcyne, in speaking of the epidemic typhus 

 period of 1817-18, as quoted by Dr. Davidson,* that "it must be 

 acknowledged that the simultaneous increase of the disease in Ire- 

 land, and on the Continent, leads to the inference, that whatever 

 may have been its origin, an epidemic constitution prevailed over a 

 great part of Europe during a series of years past." Now such an 

 epidemic constitution has manifestly prevailed over the British Isles 

 during the years 1846-47; and its influence, in its western direction, 

 appears to have extended across the Atlantic ocean to the shores of 

 our North-eastern States and the adjacent British Provinces. 



But coincident with this wide-spread epidemic meteoration, were 

 other causes more immediately influential in predisposing to typhus on 

 both sides of the Atlantic. The more efficient of these causes, espe- 

 cially in Ireland, were famine, and the evils physical and moral, 

 attendant upon it. Whilst starvation ami disease were destroying 

 thousands of the poor in that ill-fated land, multitudes of them, to 

 escape from calamities so fearful, sought to ameliorate their con- 

 dition by a removal to this continent. In no annual period in the 

 history of emigration, has the number of foreigners, added to our 

 population, equalled that of the last year. It has been estimated 

 that about a quarter of a million of emigrants arrived in the United 

 States in 1847. f Of this number, 160,134 landed at New York, 

 and the remainder mostly at Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and 

 New Orleans. Thousands also entered our country by the way of 



* Thackeray Prize Essay. 



f It appears from the report of the Secretary of State to the House of Representatives, 

 that the whole number of passengers who arrived in the United States during the year 

 ending Sept. 30th, 1847, was 239, 480. 



