4 On the Epidemics of 



" It is now very grievous in Jersey. It chiefly takes 

 men in full strength, though women and children, in 

 abundance, have died of it. Many families have been 

 broken up, and in some the whole is turning to cor- 

 ruption. Some continue sick, twelve, some twenty- 

 four hours ; many three or four days, and some two 

 weeks, before the fatal tragedy is completed. 



" These two last summers (the summers of 1746 

 and 1747) have been the most sickly that ever we 

 knew ; but not quite so mortal as this spring. Last 

 two summers, the Yellow-fever, and what we call the 

 Dumb- Ague and Dutch-Distemper (because the 

 Dutch first brought it in, many years ago, since which 

 it rages in one pan or another of the country, yearly, 

 and baffles all physicians) prevailed. These two last 

 seem to be joined, and each prevails most according 

 to the particular constitution. Either of them is able 

 to finish the fatal stroke, or render the body so infirm 

 as not to recover its former constitution for several 

 months, and many never. 



" Last summer (1747) the measles afflicted abun- 

 dance of children, and a looseness following carried 

 many off, in town (Philadelphia). Others a cough 

 wasted away. 



" This winter a kind of pleurisy is followed with 

 certain death. But the Yellow-Fever, the Dumb- 

 Ague, and tin Pleurisy joined, arc the chief actors in 

 this tragical scene." 



