38 Memoranda respecting the Influenza. 



warm, and almost constantly dry and hazy ; but, pre- 

 vious to its late appearance, and during its continuance, 

 it was wetter, and more moderate in temperature, than 

 it had been known, at the same season, for several years. 



From the circumstance of the disease having been 

 epidemic in the Cape de Verd-Islands, and in certain 

 parts of Europe, for several weeks before it was ob- 

 served in this country, which the bills of enquiry, taken 

 at the Lazaretto, incontestibly prove ; and from the 

 manner in which it proceeded from one place to ano- 

 ther, in succession ; and from the length of time that 

 elapsed between its appearance at New- York and some 

 of the cities and towns to the northward and southward 

 of it, as well as in those in other directions, I think 

 there is sufficient reason to conclude, that the disease, 

 however it originated, was propagated by contagion, 

 but more active in its operation, and more extensively 

 diffused in the atmosphere, than is observable in the 

 generality of contagious diseases. 



If it had originated from any unsalutary change in 

 the constitution of the atmosphere, or from a general 

 contamination of the same, the disease would have made 

 its appearance in the same latitude, over the whole 

 world, at the same time; for a cause so general or ex- 

 tensive must necessarily produce corresponding effects. 



The number of patients that died of the Influenza, in 

 the city of Philadelphia, the township of the Northern 

 Liberties, and the district of Southwark, which contain 

 a population of from 90 to 100,000, was thirty : of 



