222 UOSACK ON THE LAWS OF COA'TAGIOA'. 



It is also to be remarked, that its ravages were chiefly- confined to the 

 poor, and to those parts of the city where the houses were smajl, and 

 the least attention given to cleanliness and ventilation. In the language 

 of Mr. Carey, " it was dreadfully destructive among the poor. It is 

 very probable that at least seven eighths of the number of the dead were 

 of that class; the inhabitants of dirty houses have severely expiated their 

 neglect of cleanliness and decency by the number of them that have fallen 

 sacrifices. Whole families, in such houses, have sunk into one silent, 

 undistinguishing grave. The mortality in confined streets, small alleys, 

 and close houses, debarred the free circulation of air, has exceeded, in a 

 great proportion, that in the large streets, and well-aired houses. In 

 some of the alleys a third or fourth of the whole of the inhabitants are 

 no more. The streets in the suburbs that had the benefit of the coun- 

 try air have suffered little. It is to be particularly remarked that, in 

 general, the more remote the streets were from Water-street, the less of 

 the calamity they experienced."* 



" Though the disease," says Dr. William Currie, " was highly conta- 

 gious, the influence of the contagion was circumscribed to a narrow 

 sphere."! 



As a further evidence that it did not depend on a general condition 

 of atmosphere, the same author remarks, " that while this formidable 

 disease was making such ravages in the city, the country, for some miles 

 around, was never more healthy."J In another work Dr. Currie has 

 very explicitly admitted the qualified contagiousness of yellow fever, 

 observing, " that it is only contagious in situations where the air is con- 

 fined, and the exhalations of the sick are permitted to accumulate, 



* Carey's Account, 4th edit. p. 61, 62. ) Treatise on the Synochus Icteroides, p. 8. 



% Ibid. p. 11. 



