Observations on the Tellovj-Feifei'. 37 



to the east, and Baltimore, Norfolk, and Charleston, 

 to the south, also suffered by it, in 1797. In the year 

 1798, Baltimore and Charleston both escaped, though 

 it invaded, and occasioned extraordinary mortality, in 

 almost every other sea-port in the Union. Every year 

 since 1798, one or more cities of the Union have suf- 

 fered by this destructive disease, while the rest have 

 remained free. 



If the disease depended upon a change that had tak- 

 en place in the constitution of the atmosphere, how is 

 this irregular and capricious appearance to be account- 

 ed for? 



If the disease depended upon the joint operation of 

 some extraordinary change in the constitution of the 

 atmosphere, and the exhalations from putrid vegetable 

 and animal substances, the disease would appear in all 

 the marshy districts of the country, and in different 

 parts of the same city, or populous town, at the same 

 time, and not have been confined, as has always been 

 the case, to a single spot in the neighbourhood of the 

 shipping, where it has been confined for the first fort- 

 night, and afterwards spread to those families who 

 had the greatest intercourse with the sick, after the 

 manner of other contagious diseases, as I have repeat- 

 edly had opportunities of observing. 



During the prevalence of the fever in Philadelphia, 

 in 1793, more than 200 persons were confined in the 

 criminals' apartment of the new jail, including lOG 

 French soldiers, ordered there by the consul, and a 



