FOM1TES. 103 



Hosack asserts, that the virus is, under such circum- 

 stances, augmented in quantity. 



Hecker, to whose opinions I have already referred, holds 

 that fomites may even aggravate tJte infectious powers of a 

 virus. 



Doctor Rush mentions one trunk-case, in detail, and 

 says that he heard of two other instances, in all of which 

 only those suffered who opened the packages. According 

 to William Stevens of Santa Cruz, " The poison is made 

 more intense ~by being confined in clothes and bedding." 



In 1747, the trunk of a young supercargo who died at 

 Barbadoes, was opened in Philadelphia in the presence of 

 Mr. Powell, Mr. Hatton, three Welshmen, a cooper and a 

 boy of Mr. Powell's: all sickened, and died of yellow fever 

 within a few days. 



"I have seen the cases of some servants in Mr. O.'s 

 family, attacked by yellow fever, upon receiving the cloth- 

 ing of a relative who had died of that disease in the West 

 Indies, at a time, too, when no yellow fever prevailed in 

 New York." (Hosack.) 



On the same authority, we learn that, after the death by 

 yellow fever of the late Gardiner Baker, whilst on a visit 

 to Boston, where it prevailed epidemically, his clothes 

 were sent home to his wife, then a resident of Long Island. 

 The opening of the trunk was followed by yellow fever, of 

 which Mrs. Baker died. No disease of the kind existed at 

 that time in New York or its vicinity. 



A recent report to the Legislature of New York on the 

 subject of Quarantine, contains unanswerable facts of this 

 kind, both numerous and well authenticated. Were yel- 

 low fever a contagious disease, these examples of propaga- 

 tion by fomites might be easily explained; but as its non- 

 contagiousness is clearly shown, by even stronger testimony 

 than that above cited in favor of introduction by fomites, 



