1772 — Measles Epidemics, Charleston, SC (800-900), Philadelphia, PA (180) –980-1,080

Boston

–?  “…in 1772…measles was a leading cause of death in Boston…” Hinman and Orenstein, p70

 

Charleston, SC

–800-900  Grob. The Deadly Truth: A History of Disease in America. 2002, p. 79.

–800-900  Webster. A Brief History of Epidemic and Pestilential Diseases (V. 1). 1799, p. 259.

—       900+ Krawczynski. Daily Life in the Colonial City. 2013, p. 424.[1]

 

Philadelphia, PA

–180 (out of population of about 29,000). Anroman. Chapter 2 in Zuckerman, 2014, p. 25.[2]

 

Narrative Information

 

Anroman: “…Philadelphia’s every-growing population provided a constant pool of susceptible individuals, creating the necessary environment for measles epidemics to occur. In her analysis of Philadelphia’s bills of mortality, Klepp (1998b, 1991)[3] notes that two of the most severe epidemics occurred in 1759 and 1772. In 1759, the population of Philadelphia was just over 18,000 people. That year, approximately 113 deaths were attributed to measles. By 1772, the population had grown to approximately 29,000; 180 deaths were recorded for measles.”

 

Grob: “In 1772 and 1773, Noah Webster reported, ‘the measles appeared in all parts of America, with unusual mortality,’ Though mild in New England, it was devastating in Charleston. According to Webster, as many as 800 to 900 children died in the city (out of a total population of 14,000). Although Webster’s figures may have been grossly inflated, they do suggest the potential severity of the disease.”[4]

 

Hinman and Orenstein: ““…in 1772…measles was a leading cause of death in Boston…”

 

Webster: “M.S. letter from Dr. Tufts. In this year [1772],[5] the measles appeared in all parts of America, with unusual mortality. In Charleston, S. Carolina, died 8 or 900 children.” (Webster, Noah. A Brief History of Epidemic and Pestilential Diseases (Vol. 1). 1799, p. 259.)

 

Sources

 

Anroman, Gilda. Chapter 2: “Infectious Disease in Philadelphia, 1690-1807: An Ecological Perspective.” Pp. 15-34 in Zuckerman, Molly K. (ed.). Modern Environments and Human Health: Revisiting the Second Epidemiologic Transition. Wiley Blackwell. 2014.

 

Grob, Gerald N. The Deadly Truth: A History of Disease in America. Cambridge, MA: President and Fellows of Harvard College, Harvard University Press, 2002. Partially Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=U1H5rq3IQUAC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Hinman, Alan R. and Walter A. Orenstein. “A Shot at Protection: Immunizations Against Infectious Disease.” Chapter 4 in Silent Victories: The History and Practice of Public Health in Twentieth Century America (John W. Ward and Christian Warren, eds.). Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2007. Google preview accessed 1-11-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=YPYRDAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Krawczynski, Keith. Daily Life in the Colonial City. Santa Barbara, CO and Denver: Greenwood (An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC), 2013. Google preview accessed 1-8-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=E_QgVyPcmIAC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Webster, Noah. A Brief History of Epidemic and Pestilential Diseases…(in two volumes). Hartford, DT: Hudson & Goodwin, 1799, p. 203. Accessed 1-7-2018 at: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/N27531.0001.001/1:11?rgn=div1;view=fulltext

 

Zuckerman, Molly K. (ed.). Modern Environments and Human Health: Revisiting the Second Epidemiologic Transition. Wiley Blackwell. 2014. Google preview accessed 1-11-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=EdYVAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=measles&f=false

 

 

[1] From Table 12.1. Epidemics in the Cities.

[2] We have seen references to measles in Philadelphia in 1773, but without an estimate of mortality.

[3] SE Klepp. Philadelphia in Transition: A Demographic History of the City and its Occupational Groups, 1720-1830. (New York” Garland Publishing, Inc., 1989; SE Klepp. “Demography in early Philadelphia, 1690-1860.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 133, 1989, pp. 85-111; SE Klepp. “The Swift Progress of Population”: A Documentary and Bibliographic Study of Philadelphia’s Grown, 1642-1859. (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society).

[4] Grob cites, in footnote 16: Caulfield, “Early Measles Epidemics,” pp. 538-545; Noah Webster, A Brief History of Epidemic and Pestilential Diseases, 2 vols. (Hartford: Hudson & Goodwin, 1799), 1: 259-260.

[5] The lines before and after this entry are devoted to the year 1772.