historical Sfcctcijcs of (Quarantine. 
A D D R E S~S 
DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
(tatij JWnil gritty 
January 28, 1857, 
AGREEABLY TO A PROVISION OF THE CONSTITUTION, 
, BY 
WILSON JEWELL, M.D., 
ON THE CLOSE OF HIS OFFICIAL TERM AS PRESIDENT. 
PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE SOCIETY: 
PHILADELPHIA: 
T. K. AND P. G. COLLINS, PRINTERS 
1857. ADDRESS. 
GENTLEMEN OF THE PHILADELPHIA COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY: 
The eighth article of the Constitution of our Society requires 
that the President, " at the close of his term of office, shall deliver 
a public address." 
I assure you, gentlemen, nothing less than a sense of the obli- 
gation I am under to discharge the final claim of that office, to 
which, one year ago, I was called by your extreme partiality, 
would have induced me to appear before you on this occasion. 
In the selection of a subject for my address, you will not charge 
me with misdirected judgment, should I deviate somewhat, from 
the course adopted by my talented predecessors. While those 
eminent men, in the fulfilment of this constitutional requirement, 
confined themselves chiefly to the discussion of medical ethics 
and medical education, I shall venture on a slight innovation. 
I design to turn back the dusty page of history, and address 
you upon a subject, neither irrelevant, nor unimportant in its 
bearing, to the broad platform of our useful and distinguished 
profession. 
Accompany me, then, while I take a retrospective glance at 
some of the primitive records of our own beloved metropolis, as 
early as the commencement of the 18th century, and gather 
from the destructive waters of oblivion, a few scattered histori- 
cal sketches of quarantine. 
Before entering, however, upon this retrospect, it may not 
be inappropriate to introduce a few remarks upon the origin of 
this important and world-wide system for the prevention of dis- 
ease. 
By quarantine, is understood that "regulation by which all 4 
communication with individuals, ships, or goods, arriving from 
places infected with the plague, or other contagious disease, or 
supposed to be peculiarly liable to such infection, is interdicted 
for a certain definite period."* 
The term quarantine comes directly from the Italian word 
quaranta, signify ing/orZy. Why forty days were fixed upon as 
the period for purification from disease, has nowhere been par- 
ticularly explained. By some, it is said not to be of medical 
authority, but to have its origin from a superstitious regard for 
the fast of forty days called Lent, a period of abstinence, insti- 
tuted by the church for the purification of the soul; which insti- 
tution was founded on the forty days' fast of our Saviour in the 
wilderness. Hence, it is said, the superstitious institutors of 
quarantine demanded forty days to purify merchandise, ships, and 
other articles, as well as persons, from pestilential contagion.f 
Hecker^: suggests, that the appointment of a forty days' detention 
was not dictated by caprice, but probably had a medical origin, 
derivable, in part, from the doctrine of critical days. 
The period of separation, however, in my opinion, is more 
likely to have reference to the time of purification practised 
during the patriarchal ages. Moses, the lawgiver, revealed to 
his people, the Jews, certain laws for the cleansing of legal im- 
purities, as the touching of a leper, &c., some of which impurities, 
the sacred historian informs us, required forty days for their 
cleansing. 
As the origin of plague and contagion is veiled in obscurity, 
so also is the precise date of the first institution of a system of 
quarantine. The history of the former embraces the record of 
the latter. That they date far back into the primitive ages of the 
world's existence, both the works of sacred and profane writers 
teem with the clearest proofs. 
Moses, the Jewish legislator, was not only familiar with conta- 
gion, but he inculcated sanitary precepts and instituted quaran- 
tine regulations. In the 13th chap, of Leviticus, we find the 
most stringent precautionary measures directed to be carried out 
* McCullough's Commercial Diet. 
f Caldwell's Thoughts on Quarantine. 
$ Hecker's Epidemics of the Middle Ages. 5 
by the children of Israel, with a view to prevent the spread of 
disease, by separating the sick from those in health. He there 
not only gives orders for the lepers to be set apart from the rest 
of the people, but requires that their clothes shall be purified, 
and even that the garments belonging to the more aggravated 
cases should be burned. In the 14th chapter, he gives explicit 
directions for the purification of the persons of those who have 
been cured of the disease, and also determines the time that the 
diseased shall dwell alone without the camp, as well as without 
their tent, after being permitted to enter the camp (8th and 9th 
verses). 
Nor is profane history less fruitful in its recorded instances of 
pestilential and contagious diseases, as well as in the precautions 
observed to prevent the spread of infection. 
We have reliable authority, from the writings of ancient philo- 
sophers, physicians and poets, for the opinion, that a belief in the 
contagious nature of disease has descended from remote antiquity, 
was entertained by the physicians of Greece and Rome, and that 
precautions were taken at that early period to prevent its spread, 
however crude and conjectural their views may have been. 
It was not, however, until the 14th century that any attempts 
were made to enforce legal restrictions, as a means of protection 
against the introduction of disease. 
The return of one of those military expeditions undertaken 
by Christians for the recovery of the Holy Land from the power 
of infidels, brought with it, we are told, the Egyptian plague. 
Being looked upon as a new disease, it excited an unusual degree 
of attention.* Its great mortality, and its contagious character, 
gradually attracted notice. It was soon discovered, that those 
who avoided the sick, escaped the disease. Building on this 
hypothesis, measures for defence were early instituted, to avoid 
all communication with persons affected with the disease, and to 
prevent all intercourse with places where the plague prevailed. 
The first of these regulations originated with Viscount Bernabo, 
of Reggio in Italy, and was issued in January, 1374.j* This in- 
* White on Plague. 
f The authorities of Florence are said to have used occasional precaution, as 
early as 1348.-Russell on the Plague. 6 
junction required that "every plague patient be taken out of the 
city into the fields, there to die or to recover."* Their attendants 
were forbidden to associate with any one for ten days. Cruel 
and inhuman as these regulations appear to be, they were not 
only strictly enforced, but in 1388, Bernabo " forbid the admission 
of people from infected places into his territories on pain of death." f 
In 1399, Viscount John imitated the example of his predecessor, 
when the disease appeared again, but in rather milder terms. 
In process of time the benefits of this system of segregation 
of the sick, and of non-intercourse with infected places as a means 
of self-preservation, began to be understood and generally prac- 
tised. 
But we have no account of any well defined legal code of 
regulations being introduced, until about the middle of the 
15th century. At this period, the world renowned prosperity 
of the maritime commerce of the once proud Venice was at its 
highest point of success. 
Monopolizing the principal trade of Constantinople and the 
Levant, while her richly laden vessels were visiting every coast 
of Europe, it is not surprising that this ancient and flourishing 
capital, which had suffered severely from pestilence, should have 
found it necessary to establish a cordon sanitaire, in order to guard 
against the introduction of pestilential diseases from abroad. 
These haughty Venetians, fearing the consequences from the 
appearance among them of a disease so dreadful in its visitations 
as the plague, which at this period was spreading among the sea- 
ports of the Mediterranean, and doubtless in possession of infor- 
mation as to the advantages from the entire separation of the 
sick, and of non-intercourse with infected places, their Senate, in 
1448, instituted a quarantine by the enactment of a digest of laws, 
known from that period to the present, as the laws of quarantine.^ 
The system thus legalized, obliged all ships and individuals 
arriving from suspected places, to undergo a term of probation, 
before they could be allowed to enter the port and discharge their 
cargoes. 
A few years subsequent to the passage of this law, we have an 
* Hecker. f Ibid. 
J White on Plague. 7 
account of the first organized Lazaretto, or pest-house. It was 
erected in 1453 on the island of Sardinia, and called il Lazaretto 
vecchio. Another was erected in 1468, entitled il Lazaretto nuovo* 
All persons arriving from places where the existence of plague 
was suspected, were detained here. The sick from the city labor- 
ing under the disease, were sent with their families to the former 
station, and when cured, were kept still forty days longer in the 
latter, or new Lazaretto.f 
At a still later period, 1485, the Republic of Venice established 
the first board of health. It consisted of three nobles appointed 
by the Grand Council. They were called the Council of Health, 
and were ordered to investigate the best means for preserving 
health and for preventing the introduction of disease from abroad.^: 
The efforts of this Council not being entirely successful, their 
powers were so enlarged in 1504 as to " grant them the right of 
life and death over those who violated the regulations for health." 
No appeal was allowed from the sentence of this tribunal^ 
Bills of health are said to have been introduced for the first 
time in the year 1527, during a fatal plague in Italy, but did not 
become general until the year 1665.|| 
Following the example of the Venetian oligarchy as a means 
of protection, quarantines and lazaretto's began to multiply 
among other powers along the shores of the Adriatic; until at 
length the constituted authorities of other commercial nations, 
believing in the absolute necessity for external police restrictions, 
founded on the doctrine of contagion, began to establish similar 
laws for the preservation of their maritime cities from imported 
diseases. 
Although there had existed in England, certain preventive 
regulations at a very early period,^" no regular system of quaran- 
tine was enforced, until about the year 1710, in Queen Ann's 
reign, when the plague was raging in towns on the Baltic Sea. 
* Beckman's History of Inventions. Art. Quarantine. 
f Hecker. 
t Le Bret's History of the Republic of Venice. 
§ Ibid. 
|| Hecker. 
IT In the plague of 1348, the people of Gloucestershire prohibited communica- 
tion with the city of Bristol, where the plague prevailed.-Russell on the Plague. 8 
At that period the greatest excitement prevailed. But in 1720, 
during the dreadful plague of Marseilles, France, the government 
taking the alarm, appointed the celebrated Dr. Richard Mead to 
execute a draft of quarantine regulations, with the hope that if 
enforced, their country would be preserved from the pestilence 
then desolating one of the fairest cities of France. The Parlia- 
ment approving the suggestions drawn up by this learned phy- 
sician, repealed the Act of 1710, which was defective, and passed 
an act establishing quarantines throughout the commercial ports 
of the kingdom,* which law, until within a few years, has been 
rigidly enforced. 
Twenty years before the enactment of this law of 1720 in 
England, a similar movement was projected in our own country, 
and in the province of Pennsylvania. 
It was towards the close of the 17th century (1699) that Phila- 
delphia, then in her infancy, and with a population of only about 
4000 souls, was visited for the first time in its history, by a terrible 
calamity. A fever, pestilential in its character, raged with un- 
usual virulence. It carried off " six, seven, and sometimes eight 
a day, for several weeks together; there being few if any houses 
free from sickness."f The records of those early days furnish 
no medical account of this fearful epidemic. The few distin- 
guished historians and journalists, however, who refer to the 
pestilence, unite in opinion, not only that it was the veritable 
yellow fever, or " Barbadoes distemper," but moreover, that it 
was brought into the colony from the West Indies.^ 
The same year (1699) brought with it the arrival of William 
Penn, the proprietary of the colony, from England, after an 
absence of fifteen years. This was his second visit to his virgin 
settlement, where he intended to remain for life, in what he then 
denominated " the quietness of our wilderness." An effort, how- 
ever, having been made by the board of trade in London, to 
enable the Crown to assume the control of the colonies, Penn 
hurried back to England, in order to protect the interests of his 
infant colony, after a brief stay of only two years, but still long 
* Russell on the Plague. 
f Thomas Story's Journal, p 223. Phila. Lib. 
J Isaac Norris' letter to Jonathan Dickenson.-Hutson's Annals. 9 
enough to have established numerous important laws, among 
which was that of quarantine. 
The occurrence of that fatal epidemic to which we have just 
alluded,* its malignant character, its dreadful ravages, with its 
fearful concomitants, the prevalent opinion at that early day, of 
its importation "in a ship or other sea vessel from the island of 
Barbadoes," together with the seeming necessity for some legal 
arrangements for the future protection of the citizens from the 
introduction of disease through the channels of a foreign com- 
merce, gave rise, without doubt, to direct legislation upon the 
subject of the contagious nature of this epidemic, and its impor- 
tation into the infant colony from abroad, which resulted in the 
enactment of the first quarantine law in this country. 
This took place in the following year, 1700, when the citizens of 
Philadelphia were induced to represent their exposed situation 
to the Colonial Assembly which met at New Castle. 
It was no doubt fortunate for the petitioners, that William Penn, 
who was a man of great benevolence of character, and of tender 
sympathies, was present on this occasion. He had been an eye- 
witness of some of the scenes of distress and suffering through 
which our ancestors had passed. And if allowed to judge from 
the earnest desire he had manifested for the prosperity of his 
darling project, it was chiefly through his influence and instru- 
mentality that this law was enacted, to prevent, if possible, the 
recurrence of a similar calamity. 
This is the earliest act to be found on record in America, having 
any reference to a system of regulations for the government of 
sickly vessels.! It was done " At a General Assembly began at 
New Castle on the 4th day of October, in the 12th year of the reign 
of King William 3rd, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
seven hundred (1700), by William Penn, Esq., absolute proprie- 
tary and Governor-in-Chief of the provinces of Pennsylvania," is 
* The whole number of deaths amounted to 220. This was one out of every 
17.3 of the population, which by some writers is said to have been only 3800, 
instead of 4000. 
f In 1701 a health law, partially quarantine, was enacted in Massachusetts.- 
Mass. Sanitary Commission. In New York, the first law on the subject passed by 
the colonial legislature was in 1758.-Report Select Com. of Legis. of New York, 
1845, p. 5. 10 
entitled "An act to prevent sickly vessels coming into this 
government," and reads as follows:- 
" Whereas, It hath been found, by sad experience, that the com- 
ing and arriving of unhealthy vessels at the ports and towns of 
this province and territories, and the landing of their passengers 
and goods, before they have lain some time to be purified, have 
proved very detrimental to the health of the inhabitants of this 
province: Be it therefore enacted, by the authority aforesaid, That, 
from and after the publication hereof, no unhealthy or sickly ves- 
sels, coming from any unhealthy or sickly place whatsoever, shall 
come nearer than one mile to any of the towns or ports of this 
province or territories without bills of health ; nor shall presume 
to bring to shore such vessels, nor to land such passengers or 
their goods at any of the said ports or places, until such time as 
they shall obtain a license for their landing at Philadelphia, from 
the governor and council, or from any two justices of the peace 
of any other port or county of this province or territories, under 
the penalty of one hundred pounds for every such unhealthy 
vessel so landing, as aforesaid, to the use of the proprietary and 
governor; and that suitable provision be ordered by the governor 
and council for their reception, if they be permitted to land or 
come on shore."* 
Whether this primitive health law was at once enforced, or 
whether it remained for a time as a dead letter on the statute- 
book, is buried in the lost history of those early days of the 
colony. 
Nor does it appear, from the vague account left us for reference, 
either in the act itself or in the minutes of the provincial council, 
that any person was appointed as port-physician or health-officer, 
to visit sickly vessels coming into port, although allusion is made 
in the law to "bills of health;" and, according to this law, they 
were obliged to obtain this health bill, or "license," from the 
governor or two justices of the peace, before such vessels could 
come to the shore, or land their passengers or goods, under a 
heavy penalty. 
The conclusion is, that the law was not immediately enforced 
or if so, but very imperfectly, during a period of nineteen years 
* Laws of Penna., P. Miller's Ed., chap. Ixii., p. 182. Athenanum. 11 
after its enactment. This opinion may be sustained from the 
records of history, which inform us, that, on the 22d of March, 
1720, the Hon. William Keith, governor of the province, stated 
to the council " that, there being frequent late advices of the 
plague and pestilential distempers raging in several countries of 
Europe, and there being great numbers of people daily imported 
into this colony from Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, and other 
parts," he thought it a subject worthy their serious deliberations, 
to consider some further means than the health law provided, for 
preventing sickly vessels, arriving in this province, from landing 
their cargoes or passengers. He then informs them that, in order 
to render the provisions of the law more effectual, he " had caused 
the draft of a commission to be prepared, whereby Patrick Baird, 
of Philadelphia, chirurgeon, is authorized and required to go on 
board all vessels arriving from sea, in any port of this province, 
and to examine the state of the health of the mariners and pas- 
sengers on board, and, upon reasonable cause of suspicion of any 
pestilential or contagious distemper being aboard, to warn or 
require the master or commander of such sickly ship or vessel, 
not to presume to land, or suffer to be landed, any goods or pas- 
sengers from aboard the said vessel, before such master or com- 
mander has obtained the governor's license for so doing."* 
This commission, as amended, was approved by the Council, who 
were also of opinion " that, without the appointment of such an 
officer, the health law was lame and defective, and could not 
answer its first design and intention." 
From the minutes of the Colonial Council, which are reliable 
history, we may safely affirm that Patrick Baird, chirurgeon, was 
the first regularly appointed port-physician in this city, under the 
health law of 1700. He received his commission from Governor 
Keith, by consent of the Council, in 1720, nearly twenty years 
after the passage of the law, and one hundred and thirty-seven 
years ago. 
It is a source of regret that so little information is left us of 
Dr. Patrick Baird, among the scattered records of the history of 
the times in which he lived. Of his professional claims for an 
office so responsible and important, over those of Drs. Wynne, 
* Colonial Records, vol. iii. p. 112. 12 
Kearsley, Jones, Owen, Goodson, Hodgson, Zachary, and Graeme, 
his contemporaries of that early period, several of whom were dis- 
tinguished in their profession, and one, Dr. Thos. Wynne, "a 
person of note and character"* in public affairs, we are at a loss 
to determine. lie could not have been known extensively as a 
practitioner of medicine, for we have been unable to discover any 
record of his name among others of the profession who flourished 
in those primitive days. In all probability the true secret of his 
appointment was the relation in which he stood to the governor, 
with whom he was a great favorite. 
At the time of his appointment he held another office, that of 
private secretary to his excellency; and in 1723, he was chosen 
secretary to the colonial council, in the place of James Logan, 
which position he held until 1726. He was evidently a man of 
education, and must have possessed more than an ordinary share 
of intelligence to have held the position of secretary to the 
Governor's Council. 
Again we find him in public life in 1740, as secretary to the 
council, under the administration of Governor Thomas, in which 
office he continued until 1743, when he resigned on account of 
failing health. On retiring from office, the council, in apprecia- 
tion of his services, gave him a vote of thanks for his "strict 
probity, diligence, and exactness in the discharge of his duties."! 
Whether Dr. Baird ever boarded vessels in his official position, 
or detained them in the river, on account of " any suspicion of a 
pestilential or contagious distemper on board," history is silent. 
From this circumstance we draw the conclusion that if he ever 
did so, there existed no occasion to detain them in the river. 
Of the length of time he held this appointment, the record of 
events in those days is to us a sealed book. The presumption 
is, however, that as he was removed from the office of Secretary 
to the Council in 1726, by Gov. Gordon, on account of political 
differences, he either threw up his commission as port-physician, 
or was removed at the same time. At all events, he could not 
have remained longer in the office than two years after Gov. 
Gordon's arrival, for in April, 1728, Drs. Graeme and Zachary 
* Proud's History of Pa. 
| Colonial Records, vols. iii. and iv. 13 
received special appointments from the Governor, to visit two 
sickly vessels which had arrived in the river from Bristol, Eng- 
land. 
An interest is connected with this event, which should not be 
overlooked. It is the first instance on record in this State, if not 
in all America, of the detention of a vessel on account of sick- 
ness, that has any resemblance to the enforcement of quarantine 
laws. It was in April, 1728. 
The arrival of these vessels produced much excitement and 
alarm, as rumors were in circulation that a malignant disease 
prevailed on board, and the inhabitants had not yet forgotten 
their many and severe trials from the fever of 1699. 
The Council on this occasion held a special meeting, at which 
the Mayor and Recorder were present by invitation. The Go- 
vernor rose and stated that the ships Dorothy and Pharaoh had 
arrived with passengers, and that several persons had died on 
board of the former, from malignant fever. That he had detained 
these vessels in the river, and had commissioned Drs. Graeme 
and Zachary to visit them, and report their condition. The 
report was next read, which stated " that on board the Dorothy 
several had been seized with a malignant fever, of whom fifteen 
died, a good many recovered, and a few still ailing; and they 
conceived it proper to order a removal of all such as are in the 
least ailing, into fresh air, with other conveniences; and further 
that having visited the Pharaoh, they find all on board in good 
health." This report was signed after being sworn to by Dr. 
Graeme, and affirmed to by Dr. Zachary. 
The council "ordered that the Dorothy come not nearer than 
one mile to any of the towns or ports of this province; that the 
master or owners do not presume to land any goods, passengers, 
or sailors, at Philadelphia without license, under the penalty in 
the said act mentioned; and that the sheriff serve the said 
masters or owners, with a copy of this order; and further, that 
he be required to provide some convenient place at a distance, 
for the reception of those persons still sick on board, that proper 
care may be taken for their recovery."* It was further ordered, 
* It is believed they were landed at the Swedes' Church, and conducted 
through the woods to the Blue House Tavern, corner 10th and South, then rural, 14 
that " the Pharaoh be admitted to enter and land at Philadelphia, 
the goods and passengers now on board her." 
Nine days after these timely proceedings, the Council met 
again, to act on an application of Mr. Thos. Willing, part owner 
of the Dorothy, accompanied with the certificate of the physicians, 
to allow him to enter said vessel at the port of Philadelphia. 
The report of Drs. Graeme and Zachary being favorable, the 
Council "ordered that the said ship Dorothy be allowed to enter 
and put on shore, the goods and passengers on board; due care 
being had, that before said vessel come up to Philadelphia, all 
the bedding be put ashore at a convenient distance from the city, 
there to be aired, the vessel to be smoked with tobacco and 
washed with vinegar; the bales of woollen goods on board, to 
remain some time exposed to the air on deck before landing; and 
further, that the said ship lay out in the stream of the river and 
not come near any wharf, till she is sufficiently cleansed."* 
We have been thus minute in presenting this item of history, 
because it is worthy of preservation, as illustrative of the begin- 
ning of a system of quarantine in this city, and perhaps country, 
which, after a long course of years and in consequence of its 
many useless yet rigid exactions, has become oppressive to those 
who are obliged to submit to its restrictions, as well as burden- 
some and injurious to commerce, from the imposition directly 
and indirectly of heavy taxation, as well as unnecessary delay, by 
profracting the length of the voyage. 
It is moreover, information full of interest to the advocates for 
a medical police. It gives a clear and succinct account of those 
instructions to the first vessel ever required to ride quarantine, 
bound for this port, as early as 1728 ; and as far as we have any 
knowledge, the first known instance of the performance of 
quarantine in this western world. 
It will also be observed, that in these requirements there were 
many wholesome principles of sanitary police, not only under- 
stood, but carefully observed. 
Those sick on board the vessel were " removed into fresh air 
where two years before they had taken smallpox cases from on ship-board.- 
Watson's Annals. 
* Colonial Records, vol. iii. pp. 293-5. 15 
and other conveniences." The bedding and all woollen goods, 
were to be exposed on deck and to be well aired at a convenient 
distance, before entering the city. The vessel, also, had to un- 
dergo the process of purification by " smoking with tobacco and 
washing with vinegar." 
This narrative reveals another fact in the early history of 
quarantine, viz., that the sheriff of the county performed the 
duties of health officer on this occasion, and saw executed the 
orders of the Governor and Council. 
The time required for detention at quarantine, however, is but 
vaguely expressed. After the lapse of nine days in this instance, 
the physicians furnished a certificate of health for the vessel. 
This it appears did not, as it would now under the existing laws, 
clear the vessel. Something more was necessary; it had to 
undergo the process of ventilation and purification, which opera- 
tion may have occupied five or ten days longer,* thus prolonging 
the time of separation to fifteen or twenty days. 
The next historical event on record, demanding the enforce- 
ment of quarantine, did not happen until 1738, ten years after the 
detention of the Dorothy. The circumstances are briefly these: 
Four ships had arrived from Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Two of 
them, the Nancy and Friendship, had passengers, "and as the 
landing of them might prove dangerous to the health of the in- 
habitants," they were required to remove one mile from the city; 
which their captains refused to do; upon which they were 
arrested and obliged "to give security in the sum of £500 
each," that they would neither land passengers nor goods, without 
the Governor's license, f 
It does not appear, however, that there was any sickness on 
board these vessels. But from the prompt action of the authori- 
ties, it is inferred they had either sailed from sickly places, had 
suffered from disease during the voyage, or else, from their filthy 
condition, the physician, Dr. Graeme, feared the introduction of 
disease into the City at that warm season (September), if per- 
mitted to enter and land their passengers without proper puri- 
fication and ventilation. Hence these summary proceedings. 
* My MS. Hist, of Quarantine, p. 15. 
f Colonial Records, vol. iv. p. 306. 16 
This case is also the first on record in Pennsylvania, of resist- 
ance to the execution of the health laws, as well as arrest and 
binding over before the authorities, until they were complied 
with. 
About this period in the history of Philadelphia, we first hear 
of " Palatine Fever." A disease, called typhus fever by some 
writers, by others, yellow fever. It prevailed extensively and 
fatally among the German citizens, but especially the German 
emigrants, through whom it was believed the fever was introduced 
from Germany. It is therefore not improbable, that this circum- 
stance influenced Doctor Graeme in his careful examination of 
the ships and their passengers, as well as in their detention. 
It was in this year, also, that strict orders were given to the 
pilots, " not to bring up any ship with passengers on board, 
nearer than the distance of one mile from the city," until visited 
by the physician. And the proper officer was directed to see 
that this order of Council was strictly executed.* 
This same year (1738) introduces us to the beginning of inter- 
esting and important proceedings, intimately related to the quaran- 
tine of this city, which, however, were not consummated until 
1743-the establishment of a Lazaretto, or, as then called, a 
Pest-house, or hospital, for the accommodation of sick emigrants 
upon their arrival in the province. Hitherto no provision of this 
kind had been secured, further than as temporary arrangements 
from time to time were provided in private untenanted houses 
in the city, and elsewhere among the farmers in the country. 
It was the dawn of a noble charity; the origin of the first 
public hospital in Philadelphia. A philanthropic arrangement, 
* In 1728, these duties devolved upon the sheriff. This year (1738) David 
Brentnail was sheriff, but the duty was assigned to Thomas Glentworth, a sea- 
captain, who held his appointment under the Assembly, to carry out the law 
called " An act for imposing a duty on persons convicted of heinous offences, and 
to prevent poor and impotent persons being brought into the Colony." On refer- 
ence to the printed minutes of the Colonial Assembly for 1754 (Phila. Library), 
it appears that a bill was before them, in the form of a supplement to the " Act 
to prevent the spreading of infectious distempers," passed in 1743, making pro- 
vision for a health officer. The Assembly filled the blank with the name of 
Spencer Trotter, from among the numerous applicants; but, after passing the 
house, was rejected by the Governor and Council, and failed to become a law. 17 
on a permanent basis, for the sick, even for the most destitute, 
especially in times of pestilence, that knows no rival. 
Scarcely seven years had elapsed, before this incipient, yet 
humane public effort, was imitated through the beneficence of a 
few prominent citizens, among whom stood foremost one of our 
own profession, Dr. Thomas Bond ; and to him, it is said, belongs 
the honor of originating a movement, which resulted in the or- 
ganization and erection of that distinguished monument of 
benevolence and medical science, the Pennsylvania Hospital*-a 
model institution, devoted to the relief of suffering humanity, 
and which has grown with the growth and strengthened with 
the strength of our metropolis-an institution, widely known and 
appreciated for its usefulness, and justly the pride and ornament 
of the State whose name it bears, as well as the boast of the city 
in which it is located. 
Philadelphia at this period (1738) had been in existence nearly 
half a century-had been already decimated by the ravages of 
a fatal epidemic, and was again threatened by the appearance of 
a blighting fever, brought into the province from over the sea. 
The time had arrived for more permanent provision for the 
sick. Emigrants were flocking to her shores; many of whom upon 
their arrival, prostrated by disease, soon perished in the absence 
of suitable accommodations, who otherwise might have survived. 
The earliest intimation in the provincial records of our State 
having reference to a hospital or pest-house, is to be found in 
Governor Thomas' annual message to the Assembly, January 2d, 
1738,t in which he says: "This province has been for some years 
the asylum of the distressed Protestants of the Palatinate and other 
parts of Germany; the condition, indeed, of such as arrived here 
lately has given a very just alarm, but had you been provided with 
a pest-house or hospital in a proper situation, the evils which have 
been apprehended might, under God, been entirely prevented." 
He then alludes to the strict execution of the law to prevent 
sickly vessels from coming into the province, that having pro- 
vided board for the sick in the country at a distance from the 
city, more could not have been done without inhumanly exposing 
great numbers to perish on board the ships that brought them, 
* Dr. Wood's Centennial Celebration Address, 
f Colonial Records, vol. iv. p. 315. 18 
and pleads, that hospital accommodations should be provided for 
them in the future. 
To this humane request, the Assembly returned a negative 
reply. They considered the proposition as too great an under- 
taking at that time, for the state of the public treasury. 
This positive refusal of the Assembly to comply with the 
Governor's request, together with their declination in the year 
1740 to settle the long standing account of Dr. Graeme for visit- 
ing unhealthy vessels by appointment of the Governor and 
Council-the Assembly denying the right of the executive to 
appoint to office without the approval of the legislative branch of 
government-were not only alleged to have been indirectly the 
cause of the introduction of malignant fever into the city, but 
more especially the latter, laid the foundation for a tedious and 
bitter dispute between the Governor and the Assembly of the 
province. 
It is not proper, at this remote period, either to condemn or to 
justify the conduct of Dr. Graeme and other medical men, who 
from the time the Assembly declined remunerating the Doctor 
for past services as port-physician,* refused, " for the most part," it 
is said, to perform the duties of the office, although still under 
appointment. The sequel, however, was most serious. Unhealthy 
vessels came into port without receiving a visit from the phy- 
sician, and landed their passengers, many of whom were "afflicted 
with mortal and contagious diseases." 
Sorrowful indeed were the consequences of this dereliction of 
duty, let the censure fall where it belongs. History reveals the 
melancholy fact, that in the following year, 1741, Philadelphia 
was visited for the second time with the yellow fever.f By many 
it was called the " Palatine distemper," because it prevailed exten- 
sively among the German emigrants.^: Dr. Thomas Bond, who 
lived and practised in Philadelphia at that time, says it was the 
* The accounts of Dr. Graeme were finally adjusted through a committee of 
the Assembly, by allowing the Dr. £100 for his services, " for visiting sickly ves- 
sels for many years, and other services done the public, in going a journey about 
Indian affairs."-Colonial Records, vol. iv. 
f Noah Webster calls it the "American Plague." 
J The German emigrants during this period were chiefly from the palatinate 
districts bordering on the Rhine. 19 
yellow fever, and was introduced by a passenger vessel from 
Dublin* But the Colonial Records tell us "it is much more 
probable that the fatal distemper was brought from the West 
Indies than from Europe, whence two vessels came, as it is almost 
peculiar to the former, and was known to have raged among the 
King's forces at Carthagena and Jamaica.''^ 
This sad event, and the sickness of the two preceding years, 
seem to confirm the accounts given in the Colonial Records, that 
during the years 1739-40, and '41 the existing health laws were 
scarcely observed, and that sickly vessels instead of undergoing 
quarantine, were allowed to enter the port, discharge their cargoes, 
and distribute their sick in empty houses about the city.^ 
Before this serious calamity had befallen the city, the deepest 
solicitude prevailed in the entire community, but more especially 
among the Germans, for fear they would again be overwhelmed 
by a violent distemper. One chief cause for this distress arose 
from the unpleasant difficulty then existing between the Governor 
and Assembly, in respect to the appointment and compensation 
of the port physician, as well as the very imperfect manner in which 
the health laws, relating to foreign vessels, had been executed. 
This neglect in their opinion, had introduced quite an increase of 
disease amongst them through an emigrant population. 
But there was yet another cause: scarcely had they ceased to 
forget or to mourn over the dreadful havoc of the epidemic of 
1699, which had covered up in the grave so many of their dearest 
friends, prostrated their energies and laid waste their business, 
ere they were again threatened, by "the pestilence that walketh 
in darkness and the destruction that wasteth at noonday ."§ 
* Watson's Annals. x 
f Col. Rec., vol. iv. p. 527. 
J Watson's Annals. 
§ Through, the kindness of Dr. G. W. Norris, I am able to furnish an extract 
from the letter of Secretary Peters to the Proprietary of the Colony, giving an 
account of this epidemic; it is as follows :- 
"At the time of your Brother's departure from this city, it was afflicted with 
a most malignant distemper, imported in the spring by ships from Ireland. At 
first it crept along the wharves, affecting strangers, common sailors, and the low 
and poor part of the people, and was easily managed by the Physicians, but as 
the Dog Days advanced, having a long and dry season without gusts, the sickness 
increased and attacked the better sort of the inhabitants, of whom a good many 20 
It was in the midst of this disheartening emergency, that the 
people of Philadelphia petitioned the Governor, that more effectual 
health laws might be enacted for their protection, and earnestly 
pleaded the necessity for the erection of a hospital for the reception 
of the sick emigrants. Their urgent appeal was not in vain. The 
Governor laid the subject once more before the Assembly, where 
it met with favor. It came too late, however, to avert the storm 
of disease and death which bad been gathering around their 
horizon. 
It was not until November, 1741, following the epidemic of 
that memorable year, that the Assembly resolved upon measures 
to build and maintain a hospital for contagious diseases, and for 
sick emigrants at the public expense. 
At this session they also appointed Dr. Lloyd Zachary as 
their physician to visit sickly vessels. 
When this appointment of a new port physician was commu- 
nicated to the Governor, he expressed his dissatisfaction, that the 
Assembly presumed to appoint an officer of government, whose 
authority should emanate from him as the representative of His 
Majesty the King of England. He called it " unprecedented, 
illegal, and unwarrantable," refusing to recognize Dr. Zachary as 
the proper officer. This difficulty was finally adjusted between 
the Council and Assembly, by the Governor appointing Dr. Bond 
in connection with Dr. Zachary. To this arrangement the 
died, tho' not in such numbers as is reported. About the 17th August, the 
Physicians opened a body of a man who died in 48 hours from the first sensible 
attack, and found his Bowels and Stomach quite mortified. From the 17th 
August to 17th September, the distemper continued very violent and baffled 
all the arts of the Doctors. I staid a few days at New York after your Brother 
went, and there by accident I lighted on Dr. Warren's treatise of the Yellow 
Fever at Barbadoes, a book well known in London, and finding his description 
answer in most points to the Philadelphia sickness, I dispatched it immediately 
to Dr. Grseme, who was much assisted by it-and after the arrival of the Book 
the distemper- came to be well understood, so as to yield, even in very violent 
cases, to a free use of sudorificks-Dr. Warren's specifick for the cnre. One 
particular symptom attended the fever in Philadelphia which I suppose never 
appeared in Barbadoes, and that is a suppression of urine from the first- attack- 
this was the case of poor -, and where the urine was suppressed, there 
is no instance of any one's recovery. At present we enjoy good health and a 
fine season. According to the best accounts I am able to get, the number of the 
dead since the 1st of June amounts to no more than 250." 21 
Assembly consented, and agreed also, to allow him a suitable 
compensation. From this time all suitable measures were pro- 
vided to visit sickly vessels. 
Towards these gentlemen greater liberality was expressed than 
had been shown to Dr. Graame. They received for their services 
a sum equal to $2 each, for every vessel visited. 
To carry out the intentions of the Assembly in the erection of 
a hospital, a committee was appointed consisting of Isaac Norris, 
Thos. Leech, Edward Warner, Israel Pemberton, Oswald Peele, 
Abraham Chapman, Thos. Tatnall and John Wright to prepare 
a plan, make an estimate of the expense for building and main- 
taining the same. This committee acted promptly. In four 
months they had selected the site and even purchased at public 
sale from the executors of John Fisher, a tract of land called 
Fisher's Island, at the southern junction of the Delaware and 
Schuylkill Rivers.* The Assembly approved the purchase, and 
authorized the Trustees of the General Loan Office to pay the 
purchase-money of £1700, Pennsylvania currency. 
This island contained 342 acres of land and meadow, and had 
several buildings on it, with stock, &c. 
In the following year, 1743, the Assembly passed the first act 
in Pennsylvania providing for a lazaretto or hospital for sick pas- 
sengers arriving in the province, and " to prevent the spreading 
of infectious distempers." The Trustees of this property, viz: 
Joseph Harvey, Thos. Tatnall, Joseph Trotter, James Morris, and 
Oswald Peel, were directed to lease the island, reserving six acres 
for future hospital buildings,f with the understanding, that the 
present buildings should be used as a hospital for sick emi- 
grants. The law required that the nursing, medicine, mainten- 
ance and other necessaries should be defrayed by the importer, 
who was to give bonds for the faithful performance of his obliga- 
tion, and in the event of a failure, he was to be committed to 
prison without bail or mainprise until he conformed therewith. 
No patient could be discharged from this hospital without a 
certificate from the physician, concurred in by the Trustees, that 
* This island afterwards received the name of Province Island, but is now 
known as State Island, and belongs to the United States. The walls of the old 
Lazaretto buildings are yet standing. 
f These were not erected until 1794. 22 
he was free from infectious diseases. Among other stringent 
sections of this act,* was one, exacting a penalty of ten pounds for 
harboring any sick person who had been ordered to the pest- 
house, and compelling persons so offending, not only to take care 
of them during their sickness, without charge, but in the event 
of their death, to bury them at their own expense; and further, 
if they were unable to pay the fine, they were imprisoned for one 
month. 
This severe law may perhaps be in part accounted for, from 
the fact that in July, 1^42, the ship Constantine arrived in port 
with a "putrid, infectious fever."t Drs. Bond and Zachary having 
visited her, the Governor ordered her to anchor a mile below the 
city for purification, and her sick to be taken to Fisher's Island. 
But it appeared that five or six of the sick had been landed in 
the city. The Council, upon learning of this violation of the 
Governor's order, directed the Attorney-General to prosecute the 
captain. Hence the necessity for the above section of the law, to 
prevent similar occurrences in the future. 
The first appointed Lazaretto physicians, were Drs. Bond and 
Zachary, who were paid for the first six months' services, the 
former, <£5 10s.; the latter, £25. 
Soon after this appointment, Doctor Zachary must have re- 
signed, as from 1743, until 1754, Drs. Bond and Graeme were 
employed to visit sickly vessels. 
During the year 1743, considerable apprehension was felt by 
the citizens, owing to the great prevalence of infectious diseases, 
which they attributed to the constant arrival of numbers of 
German emigrants, and the crowded state of the vessels in which 
they were imported. To relieve this grievance, they petitioned 
the Assembly to provide a more "effectual remedy to the said 
evil." This petition, however, was laid upon the table, receiving 
no attention. • 
In January of the following year, a ship arrived from the 
Mediterranean, where the plague was then prevalent. This 
arrival caused a great sensation. As soon as the vessel reached 
the wharf, the captain was arrested and committed to prison for 
* Act of Feb. 3d, 1743. 
| Colonial Records, vol. iv. p. 568. 23 
a violation of the health laws and for abusive language. After a 
careful examination of the vessel and crew by Drs. Bond and 
Graeme, who found all on board healthy, and the captain in pos- 
session of a clean bill of health, he was released from prison with 
a reprimand, while his ship was ordered to undergo quarantine 
two miles below the city; the bedding and clothing aired, the 
vessel ventilated and fumigated, and given in charge of the naval 
officer, Dr. Graeme.* To prevent a recurrence of the excitement 
this arrival produced, the pilots were again instructed, under 
the severest penalty, against bringing vessels from sickly places 
nearer to the city than two miles. 
The advent of the year 1747 was characterized by the return 
to Philadelphia of the yellow fever for the third time, in an epi- 
demic form. Great care had been observed in the examination 
of all vessels from abroad. In the month of September the ship 
Euryale, Capt. Cox, arrived from Barbadoes, where sickness pre- 
vailed when they left; had lost one of the crew with yellow 
fever, and one passenger was sick on board. This vessel was 
ordered into a strict quarantine, one mile below the city. She 
was considered an infected vessel. But notwithstanding the pre- 
cautions observed, many of her passengers contrived to land and 
scattered themselves over the city, and as the record says, " to 
the great danger of the health and lives of the inhabitants."! It 
may be proper, however, to observe that according to some 
authorities, the fever prevailed before the arrival of the Euryale. 
During this year a number of suspected vessels were visited 
by the physicians, but finding no sickness on board, were per- 
mitted up. 
In September, 1749, the ship Francis and Elizabeth arrived 
from Rotterdam with Palatines on board, many of whom were 
sick with an eruptive fever.! Her presence caused great excite- 
ment and alarm. She was visited by Drs. Graeme and Bond, and 
ordered to Province Island, where the sick on board were landed 
and placed in the hospital, and the well detained on board until 
allowed to come to the city. 
In the following year (1750), after a strong appeal from the 
* We have no record of this appointment. 
f Colonial Records, vol. v. p. 109. J Ibid., p. 410. 24 
citizens, remonstrating against the practice of importers of emi- 
grants crowding their ships with passengers, to which cause they 
attributed the frequent introduction of pestilential diseases into 
the province, the Assembly enacted a new health law, prohibiting 
the importation of emigrants in too great numbers in one vessel* 
This law made provision for the space that each passenger should 
be allowed in length and breadth, and also, for suitable provisions 
during the voyage. 
The year 1754 was a sickly one, caused by a fever which 
prevailed among the Palatines who had but recently arrived in 
the city.f Every precaution was observed to arrest it, and an 
extended medical report from Drs. Graeme and Bond will be 
found in the Colonial Records, on the causes and character of the 
epidemic.^ 
Fifteen years after the law of 1750, a supplement was enacted 
May 18th, 1765, providing for the height of room each passen- 
ger shall have on board the ship. It also requires that each 
passenger vessel shall carry a surgeon and medicine chest, and for 
the proper cleansing and fumigation during the voyage.§ 
No further action was taken by the Assembly in regard to 
quarantine laws until 1774, when a committee of the House was 
appointed to prepare and introduce a new bill for the protection 
of the province from pestilential diseases imported in ships. 
* Act of January 27th, 1750. My MS. History of Quarantine. 
f For an account of this fever, contained in the following extract from a letter 
written by Isaac Norris, to a friend in London, dated Dec. 21st, 1754, I am in- 
debted to my friend Dr. Geo. W. Norris :- 
" The late importations of passengers here have brought among us a distemper 
almost equal to the plague, for which we are now endeavouring to provide some 
remedy by law, having found by experience the laws already in force insufficient. 
The infection was brought in by the Palatines, and about a thousand of them 
have died, and many of the captains who brought them over, aud nurses, and 
attendants who have been among them, have perished under the strong con- 
tagion : numbers are yet dying, but our present severe frost keeps it from 
spreading far, and we hope if we can find a remedy for cleansing themselves, 
their chests, and other goods, that we may escape the danger of the effects on 
the return of warmer weather. As these people were well when they came on 
shipboard, they have undoubtedly contracted their distemper from their number 
and nastiness at sea, and our Doctors are I presume in the right in calling it the 
Jail Distemper." 
t Colonial Records, vol. vi., p. 173. 
§ Act of May 18th, 1765. My MS. History of Quarantine. 25 
This bill passed the house Jan. 22, 1774, and contains several 
new features. It provided for a steward of the hospital at Pro- 
vince Island, to take charge of the sick. It exacted a penalty of 
£100 for bringing a passenger vessel, or one coming from a 
sickly port, nearer to Philadelphia than Mud Island or Fort 
Mifflin, without a permit from the health officer, after an examin- 
ation by the physician. A fine of £100 was also exacted for 
concealing a sick passenger. Another provision was, that any 
sick person escaping from Province Island and arrested, was 
required to pay a fine of £50, and if not able, was to receive any 
number of lashes, not exceeding twenty, on his bare back, well laid on. 
The visiting physician was to receive £3 10s. for each visit made 
to a vessel. Head money of sixpence for each passenger was to 
be paid to the health officer. The amount received to go to the 
trustees of Province Island, to assist in defraying the hospital 
expenses. 
This health law of 1774 remained unaltered for nineteen years. 
In all probability during this long interval, or at least for a 
period of several years, it was almost, if not quite, a dead-letter 
law. We have reference here particularly to those years when 
the country was involved in both a civil and a revolutionary war; 
when the colony of Pennsylvania, in common with others, threw 
off her allegiance to Great Britain and resolved to become free. 
During this political struggle, many of our laws ceased to be 
enforced, or were ruthlessly violated. Commerce being ob- 
structed, there was but little occasion for the enforcement of 
quarantine laws, which, like many other observances adopted by 
the Colonies, were lost in the fury of the strife. 
Thus, gentlemen, I have gathered up and presented you, in 
chronological order, a few scattered fragments of quarantine, 
more especially as it existed prior to the war of the Revolution 
in our own State. If I have wearied your patience, and failed to 
interest you, let the severity of your judgment charge the fault 
to the inelegance of my composition, and the absence of all rhe- 
torical polish, rather than to the subject-matter of my address. 
The subject is one of magnitude, and possesses a world-wide 
interest. All civilized Europe and America have been willing 
to acknowledge its influence, and have adopted, in some form or 
other, its sanitary principles. It involves the preservation of the 26 
health and life of individuals, as well as nations. It deserves the 
attention and study of statesmen, of philosophers, physicians, and 
the humblest individual in society. If it has embarrassed com- 
merce, and wasted millions of dollars, it has kept disease from 
our dwellings, and saved thousands of lives. If it has oppressed 
the few, it has conferred blessings upon the masses ; and if it has 
failed to arrest the progress and spread of epidemics, it must be 
conceded that in numerous instances it has been useful by resist- 
ing the introduction of disease; hence it cannot be too highly ap- 
preciated, nor too thoroughly investigated. 
While the historical facts here presented have an inherent 
claim upon our attention as philanthropists, as members of the 
medical profession, we cannot fail to recognize them as holding 
an intimate relation to one of the most valuable of the sciences 
collateral to medicine-public hygiene-a department worthy of 
a large share of our study, but unfortunately too much neglected. 
I need scarcely remind you, gentlemen, that notwithstanding 
quarantine is one of the leading questions in this utilitarian age, 
more especially among those who have devoted their attention 
and talents to the sanitary police of sea-board cities, many intelli- 
gent scientific observers as to the character of its essential prin- 
ciples, have not only questioned its utility, but have recommended 
its entire abrogation. 
In England, the General Board of Health, after a close inves- 
tigation into all the facts within their reach, illustrating the 
system of quarantine, propose to discontinue entirely these 
sanative establishments, substituting for them a strict code of 
internal hygienic regulations. Nor do they hesitate to assert, 
without any mental reservation or qualification, that quarantines 
are no public securities, having failed to prevent the introduction 
and spread of epidemic diseases.* 
Unwilling as I am to commit my opinion to the extreme views 
embraced in this commission, or, on the other hand, to agree in 
sentiment with those ultraists, who, from a different standpoint, 
are disposed to regard the quarantine system as the only safe 
means to be relied upon for security from the invasion of pesti- 
lential and contagious diseases, nevertheless, I am deeply im- 
* Second Report of Quarantine. General Board of Health, London. 27 
pressed with the fact, that quarantine, as it now exists, and 
wherever enforced, in this or in foreign countries, is not only 
inefficient and oppressive, but calculated to entail upon com- 
merce unnecessary interruptions and unreasonable embarrass- 
ments. 
That in many instances they have failed to accomplish the 
laudable purpose for which they were originally instituted, 
history furnishes numerous melancholy examples. That the 
isolated means adopted to dissipate the morbific agent and 
preserve the crew and passengers of ships in a healthy state, 
have proved the cause of a foul atmosphere and the nourishment 
and development of the very evil it was designed to prevent, is 
alike true. The doctrine, too, of a specific contagion, or the 
spread of epidemic diseases by contagion, which was univer- 
sally received when quarantines were first instituted, has, within 
the present century, undergone almost an entire revolution, 
especially in relation to those epidemics which, for centuries, 
have occasionally made their appearance among the nations of 
the earth, depopulating their cities, and prostrating their com- 
mercial energies. 
A judicious modification of the present unsound, ill-advised 
and ancient code of quarantine laws is therefore not only called 
for, but absolutely necessary. In the domain of the science of 
hygiene, quarantine has already become a prominent subject of 
investigation. An apparent inconsistency exists in many of its 
leading features, truth being mixed up with the rubbish of error. 
It conflicts with the prevailing opinions of the best informed 
medical men of the present age, and stands in direct opposition to 
the almost universal belief in the laws which govern epidemics 
and determine the question of contagion, upon which false doc- 
trine the laws of quarantine were originally based. 
My experience as regards our own quarantine system, has long 
since convinced me of the entire propriety of such a modification, 
as shall place it upon an equality with the present improved state 
of the science of hygiene. The requirements of the law, as it 
now stands, are unnecessarily restrictive and burdensome when 
enforced, as well as embarrassing to the commercial prosperity of 
our city, and should be remodelled. In order to accomplish the 
desired reform, an intimate and comprehensive acquaintance with 28 
the principles of separation and isolation, upon which all external 
sanitary regulations are constructed, is highly essential. With- 
out this knowledge, the errors thrown around the entire machinery 
cannot be corrected. The details and their practical application 
involved in the proposed reformation will not be required of me 
now. It is enough, that I submit for your consideration the im- 
portance of bringing up this interesting field of inquiry to the 
present advanced state of the collateral sciences. In the depart- 
ment of Hygiene, as it relates to an internal police, most valua- 
ble and extensive improvements have of late been suggested, and 
in many instances carried out. But without a corresponding 
advance for the removal of the numerous evils co-existent with 
quarantine itself, these improvements will not be available, to the 
same extent as they would be otherwise. 
To accomplish this desirable change, and to enjoy, not only 
the benefits resulting from a reformed system of quarantine laws, 
which would protect our maritime cities from the introduction of 
disease through its commercial channels, while those channels of 
commerce would meet with but little interruption, and to have 
a uniform system throughout the United States, I have in another 
place suggested the calling of a deliberative scientific convention, 
composed of delegations from the various boards of health in 
those cities interested, and from respectable medical organizations. 
This conference to receive the sanction of the State legislatures, 
and in the end to have a national impress. Here, it is contem- 
plated, the whole subject would be thoroughly and dispassionately 
discussed ; the discordant points at issue investigated, false theo- 
ries exposed, truth separated from error, and a system adopted, 
at once uniform in its essential characters and modern in its prin- 
ciples, that would meet' the hearty co-operation of the States, and 
relieve commerce from the oppressive restrictions she too often 
suffers. 
In advancing my own opinion on the question of a reform in 
quarantine, I am free to acknowledge, that while I desire a 
thorough change in the existing systems, I am not an advocate 
for an entire repeal of these laws. My experience and observa- 
tion lead me to this conclusion, however widely it may differ 
from the results arrived at by many of my learned countrymen, 29 
and the investigations and conclusions of enlightened commissions 
in Europe. 
I am aware, moreover, that this doctrine of the entire abroga- 
tion of all quarantine restrictions upon commerce, at present so 
popular in England, is not new. Maclean and several of his 
countrymen taught it long since. In this western world, fifty 
years ago, Rush, Caldwell, Potter, and other distinguished writers 
advanced similar views. Maclean boldly asserted that " they 
have no quality or qualities capable of counterbalancing in any 
degree the enormous mischiefs which they occasion to society." 
Dr. Rush says of them, "they originated in error-millions of 
money have been wasted by them. Thousand of lives have been 
sacrificed by them." Caldwell, who was always a reformer and a 
learned sanitarian, was less ultra, for while he showed that in the 
face of the most stringent system of seclusion, the fever (yellow) 
had frequently appeared in our commercial cities, he believed that 
measures should be directed against impure vessels and cargoes, 
instead of persons or ports from whence they sailed. 
Potter proclaimed to the world " that quarantines never arrested 
any disease except the smallpoxand he insinuated, that the 
United States should set the example of doing away with all 
quarantine laws. He was so fully tinctured with the belief that 
quarantines were useless appendages to health enactments, as to 
assert, that he " anticipated the era when our government would 
make it a national concern; when a consular convention, at least 
with the nations commercially connected with us, will put a period 
to a system which is a reflection upon our philosophical character."* 
Mor was this interesting, yet embarrassing question, entirely 
lost sight of by our American statesmen. The immortal Jeffer- 
son, in 1804, while in the executive chair, in a communication to 
Congress on the state of the Union, protested against the pre- 
valence of a code of laws to prevent the introduction of yellow 
fever. 
Notwithstanding the weight of these authorities, added to a 
host of others that could be named did time permit, I am not in 
the least shaken in my faith as to the importance of a judicious 
code of quarantine restrictions. In this view, I am happy to 
* Potter on Contagion, p. 116. 30 
have the concurrent testimony of our distinguished townsman 
and fellow-member, Dr. R. La Roche, whose admirable and learned 
work on Yellow Fever has won for him a world-wide renown. 
On p. 545, vol. ii., he says, alluding to the subject of quarantine: 
" I am not willing to be understood as ignoring altogether the 
utility of restrictive measures." 
But, gentlemen, this deeply interesting topic presents a wider 
and still wider range of thought as I proceed, and as I have 
already exceeded the time usually allotted for an annual address, 
I shall be obliged to conclude. 
The whole subject of Quarantine involves important interests. 
While the great commercial claims of our city demand protec- 
tion against the rigid enforcement of an unnecessary and oppres- 
sive code of restrictive regulations, which impose a vexatious 
system of taxation upon the merchant and mariner, involving a 
loss to the city both of capital and industry, at the same time, it 
is of paramount importance that the community be protected 
against the introduction of pestilential and contagious diseases, 
through the channels of commerce. This can only be done by 
an efficient system of quarantine laws-laws which, sufficiently 
restrictive in their operation, when properly enforced, to guard 
against the admission of disease, will not infringe unneces- 
sarily upon the interests and rights of the owners, underwriters, 
or crews of vessels, when unfortunately detained, either by delays, 
expenses, or exposure and destruction of property-laws which 
will in nowise impede an active commerce, whose interests thus 
jeoparded, have always been antagonistic to quarantine establish- 
ments. APPENDIX. 
The following are all the laws relating to Quarantine, passed in the 
18th century by the Legislature of Pennsylvania:- 
1700. The first law on record, passed by the Assembly of this common- 
wealth, for preventing the introduction of pestilential and 
infectious diseases being brought into the State, or port of 
Philadelphia from abroad, was an act passed 1700, entitled 
"An Act to prevent sickly vessels coming into this Government." 
1743. The next was passed February 3, 1743, and is entitled "An Act 
for vesting Province Island, and the buildings thereon erected, 
in Trustees, for providing Hospitals for such passengers as shall 
be imported into this province, and to prevent the spreading of 
infectious distempers." 
1750. Another law was enacted, January 27, 1750, entitled "An Act 
for prohibiting the importation of German or other passengers 
in too great numbers in any one vessel." 
1765. Then follows "A Supplement (May 18, 1765) to an Act entitled 
An Act for prohibiting the importation of German or other 
passengers in too great numbers in any one vessel." 
1774. The fifth was enacted January 22, 1774, and was entitled "An 
Act to prevent infectious diseases being brought into this pro- 
vince." 
1793. Nineteen years after this, April 11, 1793, there was a law passed 
empowering the Master Warden to act as Health Officer, and 
is entitled "An Act to establish a Board of Wardens for the 
port of Philadelphia, and for other purposes therein mentioned." 
1793. In the same year, September 5, 1793, there was also passed "A 
Supplement to an Act, entitled An Act to prevent infectious 
diseases being brought into this province." 32 
1*794. On the 22d of April, the following year (1*794), the first law 
establishing a Health Office was enacted, and is in the following 
words, to wit: "An Act for establishing an Health Office, for 
otherwise securing the City and Port of Philadelphia from the 
introduction of pestilential and contagious diseases, and for 
regulating the importation of German and other passengers."