A letter on the cholera as it occurred in Cincinnati, Ohio, in October 1832 : addressed to Dr. Short of Lexington, Ky. / by John F. Henry.

  • Henry, J. (John), 1793-1873.
Date:
[1832?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter on the cholera as it occurred in Cincinnati, Ohio, in October 1832 : addressed to Dr. Short of Lexington, Ky. / by John F. Henry. 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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    nition which the animal kingdom presented of the threaten- ed pestilence, if we except the poor and lean and lank con- dition of the poultry brought to our market—a condition which no process of feeding and care could, to any extent, remove. 3rd. The alterations and improvements which have been made during the present year, are not, perhaps, greatly dif- ferent from those which have been effected in preceding years; but owing to the high temperature of the summer, there can be no question of their deleterious influence. They have consisted in the alterations of the grading of many of the streets, and particularly of some of those which run to the river, viz. Main, Walnut and Vine; the elevation of Co- lumbia, from Sycamore to Walnut; and the establishment of a sewer, from the intersection of Columbia and Main, so as to discharge directly into the river, at the lower end of the wharf, the waters which heretofore have found their way a- long the channel of Columbia street. These changes must ultimately conduce as much to the health, as they now do, unquestionably, to the beauty and value of that part of the city. But I conceive that for this season, at least, they have been prejudicial, not merely by exposing such an amount of new earth and offal from a thousand sources to the action of the sun; but by their elevation they have converted many of the adjoining squares into the condition of basins, the com- mon receptacles of all the water that falls and runs into them. The grading and filling up of streets, and the construction of roads, in which much excavation is necessary, have prov- ed highly prejudicial to the health of those who were thus em- ployed. From what can this arise, unless it be, from the effluvia generated by the exposure of new surfaces to the action of the sun? The road hands who have, this season, been employ- ed in constructing a road leading along the side of the hill directly north of the city, elevated many hundred feet above the level of the river, have been notoriously the subjects of the pestilence; and such I understand has been the occupa- tion of those victims of the disease in your neighborhood.