Regarding Whether Shipped Clothing is Infected with Yellow Fever
Document 1793Knox provides physician opinion upon the probability of Yellow Fever being contained in the clothing: which states that one should unpack the clothing, expose them to air and then smoke them for twenty four hours.
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War department
Yo 122 August 31, 1793
Sir
The following is the opinion of the Physicians upon the possibility of the infection being contained in the clothing
"We are of Opinion that it will be proper to unpack them, expose them to the air and to smoak them for the space of twenty four hours"
You will have it affectually executed with the least delay each case or package by itself and then carefully repacked.
Upon communicating with the Physiicans they are of opinion from the circumstances that thie precaution may be necessary although it is not very probably that any infectious matter is contained in the clothing.
I am
Sir
Your humble Servant
HKnox
Major Issac Craig
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War department
August 31. 1793
[No 12]
Sir
The following is the opinion of the Physicians upon the possibility of the infection being contained in the clothing
"We are of Opinion that it will be proper to unpack them, expose them to the air and to smoak them for the space of twenty five hours"
You will have it effectually executed with the least delay each case or package by itself and then carefully repacked
Upon communicating with the Physicians they are of opinion from the circumstances that this precaution may be necessary although it is not probable that any infectious matter is contained in the clothing.
I am
Sir
Your humble Servant
H Knox
Major Isaac Craig
Type
Copy of Signed Document
Description
Knox provides physician opinion upon the probability of Yellow Fever being contained in the clothing: which states that one should unpack the clothing, expose them to air and then smoke them for twenty four hours.
Date
08/31/1793
Author
Recipient
Sent from
War Department
Collection
Document number
1793083114001
Page start
1
Note
Note from transcriber Nsalomone: The "infection" that Henry Knox discusses in this letter is the Yellow Fever epidemic, which hit Philadelphia in the summer of 1793. While generally a tropical disease, there was a revolution in the Caribean, which sent fleets of refugees to the port city of Philadelphia. Thousands of people were displaced in the city of Philadelphia at this time. With them, they brought culture, family, and mosquitos. These mosquitos carried the disese 'yellow fever'.
Yellow fever derrives its name from the color that ones skin and eyes turn if the disease progresses to the point of shutting down the liver (jaundice). While not always terminal, it was the cause of thousands of deaths in Philadelphia in the 1793 outbreak.
Notable persons
Isaac Craig
Henry Knox
physicians
Notable locations
War Department
Notable items
infection
clothing
smoke
fever