We're all caught up in some way by the current coronavirus situation. It got me thinking about how these things were handled - or not handled - by our Colonial ancestors. Here's what I found:
There were many diseases that did great damage to the population throughout history including smallpox, diphtheria, scarlet fever, yellow fever, measles, whooping cough, mumps, malaria, dysentery, typhoid fever, typhus, tuberculosis, and venereal diseases.
One of the most deadly that plagued the Colonies, especially those with a large immigrant influx from the Caribbean area, was yellow fever. In 1793, at least 5,000 people died in the city of Philadelphia alone, while another 17,000 fled the city. Medicine was exceedingly primitive with mostly bloodletting and purging. However, the College of Physicians adopted a series of eleven preventive measures for the city of Philadelphia on August 26, 1793:
1) Avoid every infected person, as much as possible.
2) Avoid fatigue in body and mind. Don’t stand or sit in a draft, or in the sun, or in the evening air.
3) Dress according to the weather. Avoid intemperance. Drink sparingly of wine, beer, or cider.
4) When visiting the sick, use vinegar or camphor on your handkerchief, carry it in smelling bottles, use it frequently.
5) Somehow mark every house with sickness in it, on the door or window.
Place your patients in the center of your biggest, airiest room, in beds without curtains.
6) Change their clothes and bed linen often. Remove all offensive matter as quickly as possible.
7) Stop the tolling of the bells at once.
8) Bury the dead in closed carriages, as privately as possible.
9) Clean the streets, and keep them clean.
10) Stop building fires in your houses, or on the streets. They have no useful effect. But burn gunpowder. It clears the air. And use vinegar and camphor generally.
11) Most important of all, let a large and airy hospital be provided near the city, to receive poor people stricken with the disease who cannot otherwise be cared for.
1) Avoid every infected person, as much as possible.
2) Avoid fatigue in body and mind. Don’t stand or sit in a draft, or in the sun, or in the evening air.
3) Dress according to the weather. Avoid intemperance. Drink sparingly of wine, beer, or cider.
4) When visiting the sick, use vinegar or camphor on your handkerchief, carry it in smelling bottles, use it frequently.
5) Somehow mark every house with sickness in it, on the door or window.
Place your patients in the center of your biggest, airiest room, in beds without curtains.
6) Change their clothes and bed linen often. Remove all offensive matter as quickly as possible.
7) Stop the tolling of the bells at once.
8) Bury the dead in closed carriages, as privately as possible.
9) Clean the streets, and keep them clean.
10) Stop building fires in your houses, or on the streets. They have no useful effect. But burn gunpowder. It clears the air. And use vinegar and camphor generally.
11) Most important of all, let a large and airy hospital be provided near the city, to receive poor people stricken with the disease who cannot otherwise be cared for.
Some of these helped. Some are very close to what we're being asked to do today, especially avoiding those who are ill and keeping things clean and aired out. Good advice. Stay safe, everyone.
Pegg Thomaspeggthomas.com - Writing History with a Touch of Humor