Correspondence

Scope and Contents Chervin, 10 May 1821, requests Hartshorne to relate his experiences and opinion concerning the contagiousness of yellow fever. Hartshorne replies, 22 May 1821, that he can find no evidence for contagiousness and theorizes that yellow fever is tied to excessive summer heat in Philadelphia and mentions his trip to Batavia (1806-1807) where the disease is less violent due to sea breezes. Hartshorne then describes the outbreak of yellow fever in Philadelphia in 1820 and the evacuation of the Water...

Scope and Contents This collection consists of fifty-seven responses from fifty-six Philadelphia physicians to Chervin's 1821 survey concerning each physician's experiences with and beliefs regarding the contagious nature of yellow fever.