-266 ADDITIOtfL NOTES ON CONTAGION. 



NOTE F. (See page 226.) 



•v 



The following -cases, selected from those referred to in the text, illustrate, in the most 

 satisfactory manner, the specific nature of the contagion of the yellow fever, at the same 

 time that they show that this disease is occasionally communicated from person to person, 

 even in the pure air of the country. 



Facts relative to the contagions nature of Yellow Fever, in the pure air of the country. 

 In a letter addressed to David Hosack, M. D. from the right Rev. Dr. Richard 

 Channing Moore. 



Staten-Island, October 20, 1806. 

 Dear Sir, 

 The discordant opinions which are held by physicians of the first reputation, upon the 

 subject of yellow fever, have prevented me from replying to your letter of January last, 

 lest the information which I may offer should give rise to such observations as would 

 necessarily involve mft in a medical controversy. From frequent conversations with my 

 worthy preceptor, the late Mr. Richard Bayley, as well as from the perusal of those 

 tracts which had fallen under my notice, I for many years entertained the opinion, that 

 the yellow fever, which has proved a scourge to our cities, "originated exclusively within 

 their enclosures, and was confined to the impurity of their immediate atmosphere. 



One of the first circumstances which excited in my mind an impression of the infec- 

 tious nature of the disease, and which induced an alteration in my views, was the illness 

 and subsequent death of Dr. Wynant and his wife. This gentleman had been called to 

 take the charge of a man from New- York, ill with yellow fever, upon the north side of 

 this island. The doctor, after an examination of the case, judged it expedient to bleed 

 his patient, and while engaged in the performance of that operation, the man was seized 

 with violent puking, and discharged the contents of his stomach upon his physician's 

 clothes. 



From the appearance of the matter so discharged, Dr. Wynant expressed his appre- 

 hensions with respect to his own safety ; he continued, however, his attendance faithfully 

 until the patient expired. A few days after the death of the person alluded to, Dr. Wy- 

 nant was taken seriously ill; the usual remedies were applied, from the use of which he 

 imagined Mmselt relieved, and expressed a convic r ion of his recovery At this moment 

 he was visited by Dr. Henderson and myself. When we entered his room, which was a 



