Remedies, Cures and Old Time Practice

Cholera Epidemic

Missouri Biographical Dictionary:

In January 1849 the fearful cholera epidemic afforded the medical profession a prolific field for the exercise of energy, ambition and medical research during its prevalence. For long, weary months the trial upon physicians and nurses was a sore one, but by then watchful care and the sanitary measures of the Board of Health, the dread scourge was finally overpowered and the city assumed its wonted healthful status.
The year 1849 will be long remembered as the year of death in St. Louis, when that fearful scourge, the cholera, swept the city as with a beson of destruction. Citizens left the city in crowds, and even some of its officials gathered their families together and hurried away. It was a thrilling emergency, one calling for prompt action; death was stalking the streets and staring in at windows; pestilence breathed from the alleys, and a day’s delay might give the demon opportunity to enter every domicile. The citizens held an indignation meeting, and demanded the return of the city officials (without whom no measures of safety could be inaugurated) or in case of failure, to resign their offices and give way to men that would do their duty. In answer to the request of the citizens, the counsel (absent members having returned), convened, and passed an ordinance June 27, 1849, No. 2215, establishing “The Committee of Public Health”. Every man of the committee dared death for duty, and for one terrible month fought the destroyer, until their vigilance and the careful attendance of their doctors and nurses drove the foe from the city and re-peopled the desolated streets. After faithfully performing their duties daily during the scourge, the Board of Health on August 1, 1849 declared the city free of cholera, and adjourned.
In 1866, the Board of Health was again called into service in the city of St. Louis, during the awful cholera scourge.

Missouri History Encyclopedia, 1901:

Richard Ferral Barret served as the first city physician during the Cholera epidemic of 1849, and established the first quarantine in St. Louis.

Cholera appeared in epidemic form in St. Louis in 1832, when, with a population of about 8,000 there was for several weeks an average of about twenty deaths per day. Again it was prevalent in 1833, though in a far less malignant form. In 1848 a fatal contagious disease, the ship fever, was brought there by foreign immigrants arriving by boat, but soon disappeared. The severest visitation of cholera was that of 1849, by which time the population within the limits of St. Louis had increased to 63,471 as shown by a census taken in February of that year. From a report made in 1849 by Robert Moore, civil engineer, the facts in regard to this terrible epidemic are here given: “The disease had been brought to New Orleans on emigrant ships in December 1848, and in a few weeks was carried to all the principal cities on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. During the last week in December several boats with cholera on board arrived in St. Louis, one of them being the steamer “Amaranth”, which arrived on the 28th with no less than thirty cases among its passengers and crew. On January 23, 1849 the steamers “Aleck Scott” and “St. Paul” arrived here, having left New Orleans on the 26th ultimate. The former reported forty-six cases of cholera for the trip, six of them fatal; the latter, twenty-six cases and four deaths. On the 7th the steamer “General Jessup” arrived from the same port, having had “many cases” of cholera on her trip, six of them fatal. Each of these steamers brought many immigrants, who were landed at the wharf with all their baggage and scattered throughout the city in boarding houses, without the slightest hindrance or seeming to care on the part of the city authorities. It is no surprise, therefore, when in the morning paper of the 9th we read that “several cases of cholera were reported in the city yesterday, one or two fatal”. The editor adds however, that they were “caused by cabbage”, and to many of his readers this explanation was perhaps sufficient. The cholera was now fairly planted, and for the next four years, including the years 1849, 1850, 1851 and 1852, it was never wholly absent from the city, except for three short intervals of four weeks each. It did not however, at once become an epidemic. The deaths from cholera in January were thirty-six. In February there were but twenty-one, a decline which led the “Republican” to announce that there was no ground for alarm, there being “no cholera in the city”. During the next month however, in spite of this assurance, the deaths from this same cause were seventy-eight, or over double the number of January; and in April there was a still further increase to 126. All this time nothing was done by the city authorities, either to prevent the spread of the disease within the city or to stop the stream of infection which kept pouring in from New Orleans. For example, the “Republican” of April 12th records the arrival from New Orleans on the night before of the steamer “Iowa”, with 451 deck passengers, mostly English Mormons, and that during the trip there head been nine deaths from cholera. Of course, in view of such facts, the disease could not help spreading, and during the first week in May the deaths this cause amounted to seventy-eight. By this time the city had become thoroughly alarmed. The Board of Health, which consisted of a physician and a committee of the council, by proclamation urged the “disinfection of back yards and damp places with chloride of lime”. Even the newspapers now admitted the disease to be on the increase – “perhaps epidemic”. The city was also reported to be filled with hundreds of immigrants, besides those en route from other States to the gold fields of California. On May 9th the circuit court adjourned for three weeks on account of the difficulty of getting jurors. Twenty-four new cases of cholera and six deaths are also reported for this day; and the same paper which contains this record notes the arrival of the steamer “America”, on which there had been twenty-two deaths since her departure from New Orleans. The epidemic was now fairly established, and for seven days ending May 14th the average number of interments due to this cause was over twenty-six per day. On the night of May 17th occurred the great fire, in which twenty-three steamboats and many blocks of buildings in the business part of the city were consumed. After the fire the mortality from cholera fell below twenty per day for a couple of weeks, and a hope sprang up that the cholera had spent its force and would soon cease. But it was short-lived, for on Saturday the 9th of June, the deaths from cholera rose again to twenty-six, and on the 10th, to thirty-seven. For the week ending June 17th, the burials due to this cause were 402, or over fifty-seven per day. Meantime the importation of fresh cases from New Orleans continued without abatement. On the day last named – June 17th – the steamer “Sultana” arrived with between 300 and 400 immigrants. Twenty-five deaths had occurred during the trip, and on her arrival she had six dead bodies still on board. During the next week, ending June 24th, the deaths from cholera rose to 601, or eighty-six per day. By this time the alarm had deepened, until we hear of a popular subscription to clean the streets, and a patriotic citizen offers $20 worth of sulphur for purposes of disinfection. On the 25th a mass meeting was assembled at the courthouse, at which the propriety of quarantine was at last suggested, and the authorities were strongly denounced for their inaction. A committee of twelve, two from each ward, was appointed to wait upon the city council and urge immediate action. The latter body was not at that time in session, and many of its members had sought places of safety outside the city. By vigorous efforts however, they were hastily assembled on the afternoon of the next day – June 26th – and audience given to the prayer of the committee. By way of answer an ordinance was passed at the same sitting and then approved by the mayor, James G. Barry, by which the city government was virtually abdicated in favor of the petitioners. The committee of twelve appointed by the mass meeting of the day before, composed of T.T. Gantt, R.S. Blennerhasset, A.B. Chambers, Isaac A. Hedges, James Clemens, Jr., J.M. Field, George Collier, Luther M. Kennett, Trusten Polk, Lewis Bach, Thomas Gray and William G. Clark, were made a “Committee of Public Health”, with almost absolute power. Authority was conferred upon them to make all rules, orders and regulations they should deem necessary and any violation of their orders was made punishable by fine up to $500. This authority was to continue during the epidemic. Vacancies in the committee were to be filled as they themselves should determine, and $50,000 was appropriated for their use. The committee, thus suddenly clothed with the sole power and responsibility, at once took up their task. At their first meeting, held on Wednesday, June 27th, certain school houses in each ward were designated as hospitals, and physicians appointed to attend them. They also provided for a thorough cleansing of the city, to be begun at once, with an inspector or superintendent for each block. Among these “block inspectors”, as they were termed, were many of the best citizens of the city, who entered into the work with the utmost zeal and declined afterward to receive any pay. On the next Saturday, June 30th, the committee recommended “the burning, this evening at 8 o’clock throughout the city, of stone coal, resinous tar and sulphur”, a measure which seems to have met with much favor, for in the next day’s paper we are told that on the night before, “in every direction the air was filled with dense masses of smoke, serving, as we all hope, to dissipate the foul air which has been the cause of so much mortality”. The committee also appointed Monday, July 2nd, to be observed as a day of fasting and prayer – a recommendation in with which, as with that for bonfires, there was general compliance. The committee, however, did not content themselves with prayer and smoke alone. Thus we are told that on Sunday the block inspectors continued their work of purification without regard to the day, and on the very day of fasting and prayer appointed by themselves, the committee dictated to the city council an ordinance, which was passed the same day, establishing quarantine against steamboats from the South, and the steam boatmen were at once notified to govern themselves accordingly. On the next day – July 3rd – a quarantine station was established on the lower end and west side of Arsenal Island, with Dr. Richard F. Barret as visiting physician, and the detention of steamers and the uploading of immigrants and their baggage at once began. On the 10th of July there were over 300 people at quarantine. Meantime, the mortality kept steadily increasing until on the last day mentioned, two weeks after the appointmet of the committee, the total deaths reached the alarming figure of 184, of which 145 were from cholera. After this date, however, the death rate rapidly declined until on the 1st of August the committee of public health, in a proclamation signed by Thomas T. Gantt, chairman and Samuel Treat, clerk, declared the epidemic to be over and that there was no longer any danger in visiting the city. At the same time they closed their accounts, having spent $16,000 out of the $50,000 at their disposal, resigned their trust and adjourned sine die”. But for the three succeeding years the city was not without the dreadful pestilence. In each of the twelve months of 1850 it was the cause of more or less mortality, there being 883 deaths during the year, more than half of which, however, occurred in July. Nearly as many – 845 – were recorded during 1851, but the following year there were but few, and those sporadic cases. In 1865, there was another cholera alarm and the suitable sanitary precautions were taken, although there were few, if any, fatal cases. However the following year cholera appeared in a malignant form, and there were 684 fatal cases. In 1872 there was an epidemic of smallpox. Out of 3,759 cases reported the mortality was 1,591 and the following year there were 837 deaths from this disease, which continued to rage in certain quarters during 1874-5, in which two years there were 1,050 deaths. Cholera entirely disappeared in 1874. The year 1878 was memorable for a heated term, from July 10 to July 20th, during which 172 persons died from the heat. The same year the yellow fever broke out in the South, and 125 cases were brought here of which forty-five were fatal. There were ten local cases. Several cases occurred at quarantine during the two succeeding years. Smallpox again appeared in the city in 1881, and there were 115 deaths from that disease, all occurring at the quarantine hospital, to which the patients had been removed. In April 1882 it again broke out, continuing the entire year and causing 233 deaths. During the years 1886-7, diphtheria prevailed alarmingly, the mortality being 1,840. The dreaded disease again made its appearance in 1895, there being 3,196 cases of which 526 were fatal. In 1892, owing to the pollution of the water supplied from the reservoirs by the discharge from Harlem Creek and the Prairie Avenue sewer, typhoid fever made its appearance in epidemic form in that neighborhood. Out of 3,624 cases there were 514 deaths.” Charles W. Francis