The early history of quarantine : origin of sanitary measures directed against yellow fever / by J.M. Eager.

  • Eager, J. M. (John Macauley), 1862-1916.
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The early history of quarantine : origin of sanitary measures directed against yellow fever / by J.M. Eager. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    During all this period land quarantines were in operation at times of pest. Offenses against quarantine, both land and maritime, were severely punished. Pietro FoUerio, a great Neapolitan jurisconsult of the sixteenth century, mentions whipping, the mill, exUe, and death as penalties for infringement of sanitary regulations. A quarantine proclamation and command made by Don Carlo d'Aragona imposes rigorous punishment for surreptitiously entering the cit}^ of Palermo during a prevalence of pest. Torture, long service in the galleys, and work among the sick in a pest hospital are named among the penalties. Even the nobles were subject to heavy fines and long imprisonment in the castle. BILLS OF HEALTH. Sanitary bulletins were incident to quarantines and cordons. They were so called because they were stamped with the '' boUo or seal of the authority issuing them. When the system of sanitary bulletins was fully developed these patients, in their connection with ships, were designated as clean, when beyond suspicion; touched, when from a noniufected place in active communication with infected places; sus- picious, without sickness aboard, but having received goods from places or from ships or caravans from places where pest prevailed; and dirty, when from a place where disease existed. Professor Bo, a member of the council of health of Genoa, in mak- ing researches relative to ordinances of sanitation proclaimed in France in 1850, found an interesting document in the archives of the Conservatori di Mare di Genoa, a body of officials to whom in mediaeval times was confided the vigilance over public health. This writing, dated 1300, makes mention of bulletins of health [hullettones sanitatis) with which ships from the littoral of Corsica and Sardinia were required to be provided. Prior to 1300 there is a record in a rubric of the statutes of the city of Urbino, Italy, in which, referring to precautions against pest, it is written that no person shall leave the gate of the cit}' without a proper bulletin, and that, to this end, watch shall be kept day and night at the city gates and walls. During the pest at Naples, in the year 1557, citizens, usually merchants, were stationed at the gates of the city to examine bills of health. Cor- ruption and lack of diligence on the part of these persons were pun- ishable by death. Sentinels, some on foot and some on horseback, made a patrol about the cit}' walls to prevent clandestine entrance. Bills of health to be acceptable had to be stamped with the seal of the university of the place from which the traveler came. They gave not only the day but the hour of departure, together with a description of the traveler. Sanitary bulletins were also issued to accompany mer- chandise, but in times of severe pest all articles except aromatics and medicaments were considered suspicious. The facts here given are