The vital statistics of Boston : containing an abstract of the bills of mortality for the last twenty-nine years, and a general view of the population and health of the city at other periods of its history / by Lemuel Shattuck.

  • Shattuck, Lemuel, 1793-1859.
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The vital statistics of Boston : containing an abstract of the bills of mortality for the last twenty-nine years, and a general view of the population and health of the city at other periods of its history / by Lemuel Shattuck. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    The Small-Pox prevailed in Boston as an epidemic in 1649, 1666, 1678, 1690, and 1702. It is said to have been very fatal in 1678, but we have no particular account of the number of its victims. In 1702, 302 died of this dis- ease, being about 44 per 1000 of the inhabitants. In 1721, the disease broke out with great violence; and 5759 persons (more than half the inhabitants,) had it the natural way, of whom 844, or 1 in 7 died. Inoculation was then, for the first time, introduced, but not without great opposition. Two hundred and forty-seven were inoculated, of whom 6, or 1 in 42 died. Mather, who wrote an account of the epidemic at that time, says that Cats had a regu- lar small-pox, and died of it; and that pigeons and dunghill fowls did not lay nor hatch during the prevalence of the disorder! In 1730, it has been estimated that 4,000 cases occurred, of which about one-tenth were by inoc- ulation. Of these about 500 died. In 1752, the disease again appeared in Boston, and became very fatal. The town then contained 15,684 inhabitants; of these 5,998 were supposed to have had the disease. One thousand eight hundred and forty-three re- moved out of town. All the remainder, except 174, had the disease by inoculation, or the natural way. We have compiled the following statement, to illustrate the prevalence of the disease at this period:— Persons. Whites . Black . Both Natural. Inoculated. Cases. 5060 485 5545 Deaths. Ratio per 1000. Cases. Deaths. Ratio per 1000. 470 69 539 92 142 97 1985 139 2124 24 6 30 12 43 14 It appears from this statement, that the liability to death by this disease among the blacks, was about 50 per cent, greater than among the whites, when taken in the natural way; and more than three times as great, when taken by inoculation. The deaths took place in the different months of the year, as follows:— Natural. Inoculated. Month. Total. Whites. Blacks. Whites. Blacks. January 1 1 February 2 — — — 2 March 2 — — 2 April 20 1 20 6 47 May 205 39 4 — 248 June 2(13 20 — 223 July 31 8 — 39 August 5 1 — 6 September Total 1 — — — 1 470 69 24 6 569