of nations
to shut it out of villages and towns, until it was ascertained to be an
epidemic disease, the germs of which were in the atmosphere, and could
no more be controlled than the winds which sweep the earth.

The YELLOW FEVER, however, has for many years been the most terrible
bugbear, and to prevent its introduction into the seaports of Europe
and the United States has been the chief end and aim of the absurd and
ridiculous quarantine regulations to which I have referred. It has never
been regarded as contagious by well-informed men in countries where it
is most prevalent, and now, in spite of long-existing and deeply-stamped
prejudices, it is generally admitted, by enlightened physicians, that
the YELLOW FEVER IS NOT CONTAGIOUS. NOT A SINGLE WELL-ESTABLISHED FACT
CAN BE ADDUCED TO SHOW THE CONTAGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE DISEASE, OR THAT
IT CAN BE CONVEYED IN CARGOES OF ANY DESCRIPTION FROM ONE COUNTRY TO
ANOTHER.

Persons in good health may leave a port where yellow fever prevails, and
carry within them the seeds of the disease, and on arriving at another
port several days afterwards, or on the passage thither, may be attacked
with the disease in its most appalling character, and die; BUT THE
DISEASE IS NOT COMMUNICATED TO OTHERS. Indeed, the yellow fever is
not so INFECTIOUS as the typhus or scarlet fever, which prevails every
season in northern climes.

When the yellow fever broke out in New York, and caused much alarm,
nearly forty years ago, the first cases occurred in the vicinity
of Trinity Church, and until destroyed by a black frost, it spread
gradually in every direction from this common centre, insomuch that the
"infected district" was clearly defined and marked out from day to day.
Persons, who had been in the "infected district," and left it for
other parts of the country, were subsequently attacked by this disease
hundreds of miles from New York, and died; but not a single instance
occurred in which it was communicated to others. And so in the West
Indies: the yellow fever sometimes rages fearfully in one city or town,
while in another, on the same island, not a single case exists, although
there is a daily and unobstructed intercourse between the two places.
And whenever, owing to some mysterious agency, it makes its appearance,
precautions to prevent its extension seem useless. It overleaps all
barriers, and attacks with equal severity the inmates of a palace or a
filthy hovel, the captain of a sh