level of the city is a serious obstacle to drainage. | believed. The engineer is quoted as saying that

The pools of water which remain after every rain in the unpaved streets, together with the garbage which is allowed to accumulate upon the lots and in the streets, are further sources of disease. The docks, too, are described as being very offensive during that fatal summer. That nothing may be wanting to increase the disasters of a pestilence, this unhealthy waterfront is bordered by "thickly-set, ill-ventilated, overcrowded, dilapidated frame tenements," which, even in spite of the dampness of the soil, are provided with cellars and underground basements. These are occupied by the poorest and filthiest of the population, and are necessarily surrounded by all manner of impurities. "Not a human being of either sex, or of any age, who remained within this precinct, so far as I could learn," says an eye-witness, "escaped the fever; and most of them died."

The sanitary condition of Norfolk is better than that of Portsmouth. It is, as we said before, a little more elevated, and it has a slight slope toward the river, which gives it greater facilities for drainage. It also has the advantage of possessing many paved streets. Still much complaint was made, before the breaking out of the fever, concerning the unwholesome condition of the city. Some of the docks were said to be abominably fetid, and back alleys and vacant lots were pointed out as reeking with impurities.

To these local causes were superadded the usual atmospheric conditions. The weather was hot and moist, the thermometer at mid-day ranging at 94° in the shade. There was also noticed the sultriness which so often ushers in pestilence, the absence of high winds, the unusual rapidity of decomposition in animal and vegetable substances. The weather for the months of June, July, and August is described by an eye-witness as "damp, close, hot, and disagreeable."

yellow fever prevailed to such an extent, shortly after she left St. Thomas, that difficulty was experienced in working the ship. Surreptitious burials are rumored to have taken place from on board of her by night while she was lying at quarantine, and fever was believed to be making sad havoc with her crew. Be that as it may, it is certain that a fraud was perpetrated on the health officer when the health of the vessel was represented to be good. On the day after her arrival at Gosport one of her crew was sent to the naval hospital, where he died in a few hours of black vomit. This man, who was perfectly rational at the time of his admission, told the surgeon of the hospital that he had been taken sick on the 17th, two days before leaving quarantine. It is also certain that the earliest wellauthenticated cases of the disease broke out in her immediate neighborhood, and that many of them occurred in persons who were engaged on board of this ill-fated steamer.* On the 5th of July, a boiler-maker, who had been working at her machinery, was taken sick, and on the 8th he was a corpse. The attending physician entertaining some doubt as to the true character of the disease, requested an eminent naval surgeon to examine the body. Closing the nostrils, and pressing upon the chest of the dead man, the surgeon forced from the mouth a gush of the unmistakable black vomit, to the horror and dismay of the by-standers. Several other cases followed in quick succession, six of them being hands belonging to the steamer. It was useless to attempt concealment, and the presence of pestilence was publicly acknowledged by the Board of Health. By the 24th of July twenty-seven cases and eight deaths had occurred in Gosport, all of them in the immediate vicinity of Page and Allen's ship-yard.

The workmen fled from the infected spot, leaving a large ship unfinished upon the stocks. The clatter of hammers gave place to a painful The steamer Benjamin Franklin arrived on silence, and the idle saw and adze rusted in the the 7th of June from St. Thomas, an island of unoccupied sheds. The authorities hastened to the West Indies, in which yellow fever was pre-board up the infected spot, and to interdict all vailing at the time of the vessel's departure. intercourse between it and the still healthy She was boarded by the health officer, who was portions of the town. These precautions, howinformed by the captain that there was no dis-ever, were taken too late. Like an unconquercase on board of her. Two deaths were ac-able flame, the disease overleaped the barriers, knowledged as having occurred at sea, but were raged along the wooden tenements on the bank attributed by the captain one to diseased heart, the other to exhaustion. The steamer was kept at quarantine for twelve days, and no case of infectious disease on board of her having come to the knowledge of the Board of Health, she was allowed to pass up into the harbor, on condition that her hold should not be broken out. As she needed repairs, she hauled in to Page and Allen's ship-yard, where she remained for nineteen days. There her captain violated his pledge by breaking out her hold, and pumping out an extremely offensive bilge-water.

Since the fatal epidemic which followed the arrival of this pestilential ship, strange stories concerning her have been circulated and generally

of the river, sparing none of their squalid denizens, and destroying three out of every five. It soon began to spread inward to the town, and late in July it crossed the river to Norfolk. It broke out first in Barry's Row, a collection of frame tenements, sweltering in filth, and inhabited, as such places usually are, by uncleanly and indigent people. To this miserable shelter a number of the terrified occupants of the plaguesmitten hovels of Portsmouth had betaken them

* A case of yellow fever was said to have been seen in Gosport on the 24th of June, but there is some doubt of its true character. At any rate, it occurred seven days after the sailor was attacked, and three days after he died.

happy fugitives, they were driven out from the places whither they had fled, and all intercourse with them was prohibited. No communication was permitted with the cities, and if they had been dependent upon their immediate neighbors their citizens must have been penned up in the infected district to die of famine if they escaped the fever. There were, however, some noble exceptions to this pervading selfishness. The inhabitants of the eastern shore of Virginia welcomed the fugitives with all the warmth of their ancient hospitality. Governor Wise fitted up his dwelling-house, barns, and every available house on his estate, and cordially invited the people of the two cities to accept such shelter as he had to offer. Many crossed the Bay, and, on their arrival, found carriages waiting to convey them to the hospitable homes of genuine Virginians.

selves, bringing with them their beds and bed- | In many instances a refuge was denied the unding. On the 28th, a gentleman residing in Norfolk, but acting as clerk at Page and Allen's ship-yard, died of the fever, having been sick since the 25th. On the 31st was made the first public admission of the existence of yellow fever in Norfolk. Seventeen cases and four deaths were acknowledged to have occurred in Barry's Row. The Board of Health now resolved on preventive measures. They ordered the immediate removal of the sick and their families, the speedy clearing out of all the occupants of these wretched hovels, and the barricading of the street above and below the Row. "Too late!" the old story of epidemics. On the 7th of August a case was reported out of the infected district, and the citizens began to be greatly alarmed. On the night of the 9th, Barry's Row was set on fire and burned to the ground. Hopes were entertained that the disease would be abated by the cleansing action of the flames; but they were disappointed. The disease continued to spread. Several influential citizens fell victims to its fury.

Meanwhile the disease was advancing with great strides among the remnant of the population. On the 23d of August, the Portsmouth Transcript announced that it was compelled to stop, since the only persons left about the office were the editor and one compositor. On the 24th, in Norfolk, there were five hundred sick, and the next day there were forty burials. Several physicians in both cities had died, and others were sick, and the people looked forward with alarm to the time when they would be unable to avail themselves of the resources of medical skill. Famine, too, stared them in the face, for the scanty supplies of provisions were growing still more scarce. At this time the sympathies of the citizens of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Richmond manifested themselves in a substantial manner. Money and provisions in ample quantities were forwarded. Baltimore, far from sharing in the panic which disgraced the neighboring towns, not only refrained from instituting a quarantine against Norfolk vessels but encouraged the citizens of that afflicted town to seek an asylum upon her salubrious hills. Numbers availed themselves of this opportunity to escape from the pestilential atmosphere of their home. The boats of the Bay Line continued their daily trips to Norfolk long after they had ceased to pay expenses, and in every boat was a member of the Baltimore Board of Health, who kept the public advised of the

The panic had now fairly commenced, and the old scenes of cowardly selfishness were reenacted. "The ties of blood were sundered; bonds of alliance were as if they had not been; friend shuddered and shrank from friend; the sick and dying lay in hopeless despair, with none to moisten their parched lips nor administer a soothing draught; while burial for the dead was with difficulty obtained." The flight became general. The population of Portsmouth was reduced from eleven to four thousand; that of Norfolk, from sixteen to five thousand. Portsmouth was speedily almost deserted. Whole streets had only two or three families remaining. Hotels and stores, even drug shops, were closed; the great thoroughfares were empty, grass grew up between the bricks, and weeds nodded over the road-bed. The markets were deserted except by a few negroes from the surrounding country, who brought in scanty and insufficient supplies of vegetables and fruit. At night the scene was even more melancholy than during the day. Whole rows of houses entirely deserted, every window closed, and emitting no ray of light, frowned grimly upon the passerby. If here and there a light greeted the eye its effect was even sadder, for it told of watchers by the bedside of the sick. From such win-progress of the fever. dows sounds of wailing floated out upon the silent air, and mingled with the long doleful howl of the dogs that missed their masters. These faithful animals seemed to have a mysterious perception of the calamity which overhung the devoted cities. Banding themselves together, they ran through the streets as though tracking the footsteps of the invisible destroyer who was devastating their homes.

There remained in both cities some noble spirits who rose above the terror which had paralyzed the mass of the population. Hunter Woodis, the heroic Mayor of Norfolk, and the officers of the United States Navy Yard at Portsmouth, were especially conspicuous for their zeal and devotion to the cause of humanity. Late in August the Howard Association was organized, and its members systematically prosecuted those The surrounding country was overrun by the good deeds which they had already commenced fugitives; barns, school-houses, churches, every as individuals. It was high time for the foravailable shelter was crowded. But, alas! the mation of such an organization, for the Corpopanic was not confined to the cities. The coun- ration was virtually dissolved, the Mayor betry and the neighboring towns partook of it. |ing completely overworked, the majority of the

Court and the Councils absent, the collection of
the revenue suspended, and the city treasury
locked up.
On the 25th of August the Mayor
died at his post, and Norfolk was left in the
hands of the Howard Association.

fevers were really fatal cases of yellow fever. Even yet, we do not fully know all the facts in relation to the origin and course of this epidemic. From what we do know, however, it appears unquestionable that it was imported During the first week in September the epi- from the West Indies. There certainly is no demic reached its height, the deaths amounting local cause in the neighborhood of Fort Hamto 80 in a day. A new horror was now added ilton and Governor's Island which does not exto the calamities of the unhappy city. The sur- ist to a greater degree in many parts of the viving undertakers, though working night and city of New York, and along the marshy flats day, and often knocking together rough boards of Staten Island and New Jersey. Yet it is in their haste, could not half supply the demand. notorious that the disease originated in the imCorpses began to accumulate in private houses, mediate neighborhood of the shipping, and that and a ghastly heap of bodies slowly gathered in its propagation can be traced to communication the yard of the hospital. The Howard Associ- with the quarantined fleet and with the disation sent out an urgent appeal for coffins. On trict infected by it. It must also be rememSunday, the 3d of September, fifty coffins ar- bered that the summer was peculiarly unfavorrived from Baltimore, and the next day eighty able to the development of yellow fever. There were received from Richmond. An eye-witness was at no time any long continuance of excesspeaks of "that dark Sabbath morning, when sively hot weather. The month of August, we saw forty men, each bearing a coffin on his which has the most important influence over shoulder, sent in saddest mercy from abroad, the generation and extension of this disease, and seized as soon as sent, that the corrupting was unusually cold. Yet, in spite of these obremains of those dearest to them might be re-stacles to the spread of pestilence, yellow fever moved from their sight forever." From that time forward coffins constituted regular item in the supplies sent to the afflicted cities.

Ten

The universality of the disease was manifested, as in other places, by the greater or less indisposition of those who were not considered as actually sick. Headache, lassitude, nausea, and wandering pains in the back and limbs, were generally complained of, and nearly every face wore the yellow livery of the pestilence. physicians had perished at their posts in Norfolk, and the situation of the people would have been even more terrible had not medical men from abroad hastened to their relief. Sixty of these volunteers were accepted by the Howard Association, and that organization was obliged to issue a circular stating that their wants were fully supplied, and that unacclimated visitors would only furnish additional food to the pestilence. As it was, twenty-five of these strangers died of the fever.

Toward the close of September the weather became dry and cool, and there was a marked abatement in the severity of the cases and in the number of the deaths. On the 25th a meeting of physicians was held, and the 1st of October was named as the day on which the strangers would leave. The mortality will never be accurately known. Four thousand are said to have perished in both cities, forty-five per cent. of the total population, and this estimate is believed to be too low. The entire duration

of the epidemic was 137 days.

During the year 1856 yellow fever reached New York and its environs. Its ravages were chiefly confined to the shores of Long Island. Some cases occurred on Staten Island, in Brooklyn, and in the city of New York, though, according to the usual custom of a mercantile community, the presence of the disorder was pertinaciously denied. Many of the deaths reported as occurring from bilious and remittent

broke out near the quarantine anchorage, and extended slowly to the cities of New York and Brooklyn. Had the weather been such as it was in 1855, nothing could have saved the crowded population of the islands about New York Bay from a most terrible and deadly visitation. As it is, the prevalence of the disease during such a summer, is an evidence of unusual activity in the epidemic cause.

The sanitary history of the American continent since 1850, proves, we think, most conclusively, that we are in the midst of another yellow fever vortex, like those of 1793 and 1819. For several years to come the people of the sea-board cities of our country should be more than ever active in the employment of such sanitary regulations as are necessary to avert this plague. These, and the laws which regulate the progress of epidemic disease, will form the theme of our next and last chapter.

A GENTLEMAN OF THE JURY.

MAKE it a point to respond punctually to every summons of the good-natured Commissioner who presides over that legalized lottery by which the "good men and true," who are to serve the community in the capacity of jurors, are periodically designated. Not that I prefer the stove heat of the court-rooms to the healthier atmosphere of my own fireside, or other people's public quarrels to my own peaceful private affairs; but partly because I am oldfashioned enough to regard jury duty, like every other duty, as better done than left undone, and partly because I have never yet been able to devise any excuse for its neglect which would pass muster, either in the forum of conscience, or at the bar of our city courts. I am quite too hale and hearty to venture toward the Bench with a physician's certificate testifying of chronic maladies aggravated by long-continued sitting and close mental application; I

The last time I was captured on the coast of Nisi Prius, about the beginning of the present year, just as I was making my way toward that dingy receptacle of public servants, in the north-cordingly that something, whatever it was, went east corner of the Park, which serves in the double capacity of engine-house and courthouse, I encountered, in the middle of the path leading thither from the Hall of Records, a mass of two hundred and fifty pounds of solid Dutchman, surmounted by a very striking but not very prepossessing physiognomy, screwed up from its ordinary level of stupidity to an indefinable point of curiosity and perplexity. A glance revealed the cause of the dilemma. Meinherr was vainly endeavoring to decipher the import of one of those familiar strips of blue

There was evidently a screw loose somewhere. Kraut must be managed, or we were in for a night session. I thought I would try the effect of a little persuasion, and edging him off into a corner, I expressed my surprise that a gentleman of such evident intelligence and sagacity as himself should hesitate in so plain a case. I reviewed the whole testimony, and tried to ham-fice of his adversary. mer into his thick head the rudiments of the controversy, and convince him of his error. He heard me very complacently to the end, and then said:

"Ver gut-ver gut; but tell me this von as he concentrated all his energies on that sinting: Vas not dat der, vat you call der plaint-gle focal point, the yellow top. The plaintiff iff, this man who hat der gold-top cane?" laid it down on the table while he paid the jury. Kraut stepped forward and took it up. He gave one despairing and disgusted look at its unmistakable, genuine, California brilliancy, and then laid it down very gently, with the air of a man profoundly conscious of the great truth that there is one thing worse than being humbugged-and that is, to acknowledge it. Just then the court adjourned.