On the Telloiu-Fe^er of Charleston. 2S- 



impure water. But I can no more subscribe to such 

 opinions, than I can believe in the Alcoran of Maho- 

 met, or that an acute angle is equal to a rectangle. 

 I am influenced, in this sentiment, from many cir- 

 cumstances. If I can point out that all those sup- 

 posed causes have existed for years, and yet no yel- 

 low-fever appeared ; if I can also show that this dis- 

 ease has prevailed when few or none of those causes 

 could be in existence, I think I have a good founda- 

 tion to ground my opinion on. 



Let us then trace the yellow-fever to its earliest 

 origin in this city. Here we have no medical autho- 

 rity to refer to. We can only have recourse to Hew- 

 att's History of South-Carolina. He tells us, that, in 

 the year 1699, what he calls an infectious distemper 

 broke out in Charleston, and carried off" an incredible 

 number of people ; and he adds, the same year there 

 was a dreadful hurricane, and most of the town was 

 laid in ashes by a fire. Again, in 1703, he speaks of 

 an epidemical disteinper raging in the town, then 

 threatened by the French and Spaniards, which I 

 strongly apprehend to be the yellow-fever ; for he 

 informs us, that the go'oernor held his head-quarters 

 about half a mile from that place, not wishing to ex- 

 pose his men to the dangerous infection. Here we 

 see a correspondence of facts with the present day ; 

 namely, that the people, at a small distance from the 

 seat of the disease, were in perfect safety. He has 

 styled it an infectious and epidemic distemper. But 

 the oldest inhabitants never recollect to have heard 

 of any disease prevalent here, of so deadly a nature 



