Charles Brockden Brown's novel, Arthur Mervyn, has been read by people across America from the late eighteenth century up until today. Brown targeted many audiences in this novel but there is one in particular that not only had an impact on people then, but can still captivate many in today's society. That specific group involves people who are fighting an incurable illness, such as the Yellow Fever, as described in the book. Although it was written in the late 1700's, people in the twenty-first century can still relate to the characters in the book, and understand what they were feeling at that time. The goal of this paper is to show that Brown's main intended audience was towards the incurably sick and that even over two hundred years later, our society is still being faced with some of the same problems.
In the summer and fall months of 1793, an epidemic was sweeping the city of Philadelphia. The Yellow Fever sent a wave of panic through the city, as "magistrates and citizens [fled] to the country" in order to try and escape the disease (129). The people at this time didn't know how the disease had come about or how it was being spread. Their only thought was to get as far away from it as possible. "Every farm house was filled with supernumerary tenants; fugitives from home and haunting the skirts of the road, eager to detain every passenger with inquiries after the news...some were on foot...few had secured to themselves an asylum" (138). The people at this time didn't know that the disease would also spread to the country, taking over four thousand lives over the course of just a few short months.
Physicians at this time had no idea what was the cause of the epidemic. Today, it is known that the cause was ...
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...iladelphia and the surrounding country. Although over four thousand people died over those months, there were many, such as the character of Arthur Mervyn, that were nursed back to health from caring citizens. These survivors may have read Brown's novel and been appreciative for the compassion he showed towards those that became ill from the fever. Today, someone with Hepatitis or AIDS can read this novel and understand what it is like to be plagued with a disease that they can't do anything about. Charles Brockden Brown was alive during the Yellow Fever epidemic and he wanted to leave a lasting impression not just on the people who lived then, but also those that were to come in the future, in case an outbreak like this was to occur again. Brown did a superb job in this novel of portraying the way that the sick felt and what they had to go through that year.
Despite all, their love was not strong enough to fight against the plague. They had prayed every night for help for Alice, but shortly they all fell ill. Together they experienced nausea and violently vomited. They began to swell; hard, painful, burning lumps on their neck, arms and thighs then appeared. Their bumps had turned black, split open and began to ooze yellow, thick puss and blood. They were decaying on the inside; anything that would come out of their bodies would contain blood and soon puddles of blood formed under their skin. They slowing withered away together. The home became repulsing; the flowers in their yard could no longer mask the smells of their rotting bodies and revolting bodily fluids. Alice was the first to leave, then John, Mama, and Papa followed. Together they all fell victim to the Black Plague.
At some point in a person's life, they must make the transition from childhood to adulthood. Many of a persons early life experiences can contribute to this transition, even if it is the simplest of things. Yellow Fever hit Philadelphia hard in 1793. It also hit hard in the book Fever: 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson. In this book, fourteen year-old Mattie Cook?s life gets turned upside-down when Yellow Fever strikes Philadelphia. In her adventure, Mattie must show responsibility, and experience the pain of death before she matures into an adult.
The book jumps to a distressing story about Peter Los in 1970 in West Germany who became ill due to smallpox. After ten days he was hospitalized but medical staff did not realize he had smallpox, which is highly contagious. Preston gives vivid descriptions of the disease and how it ravages the body. Los survived his illness, but caused an epidemic that killed many others that had become exposed to him. “Today, the people who plan for a smallpox emergency can’t get the image of the Meschede hospital out of their minds.
the biomedical crisis, later known as The Black Death, or bubonic plague, that attacked Europe during the fourteenth century. Cantor later tells about how the people came in contact with the plague and the symptoms that later occurred. The people who had been affected by the plague would first experience flu like symptoms, which usually included a high fever, in the second stage they would get buboes, which...
Blackbird's book, like many similar autoethnographic texts, is a combination of autobiography, history, ethnography, and polemic. He opens with a conventional reference to inaccuracy in current histories. In the course of correcting the record he relates the story, preserved by elders of his nation, of a smallpox epidemic during the height of the French and Indian War, about 1757. Blackbird's story is unique because of the unusual disease vector.
This lead to the demise of the population when the disease was transported through the heart of an infected man. Once the doctors completed the heart transplant, the man came to life with the generic grey blood and he was much more hostile.... ... middle of paper ... ...
One of the most striking and devastating of these was the smallpox epidemic that struck the colonies. At this time vaccines were yet to be invented, but there was a new gruesome technique to combat the deadly smallpox virus. This technique utilized an infected individuals pustules (boils on smallpox victims skin) to inoculate patients. In a particularly striking scene Abigale Adams sends for a doctor to inoculate her family. The doctor brings a live patient who is dying of the disease to the house and uses the wounds to rub pus into cuts made in the family’s arms. This graphic scene elicits a feeling of sympathy for the colonists and was important to add into the series because it was such a huge cause of death at that
Glasner, Joyce. “Yellow Fever.” Canada’s History 91.3 (2011): 46-47. Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.
the first sign. What was worse about the plague was that the physicians at the time couldn 't find a cure
Physicians were baffled by the disease, and needed to establish better knowledge, prevention, and treatment for their patients.
If the problems involving the quick spread of the disease could have been foreseen, it would have been wise to take precautions concerning the close quarters in the major port town of Boston. There may have been a way to separate people to a greater degree and not allow them to be on such close terms that they could have passed the virus so quickly from one to another. A larger number of available places to board, though impractical, would have been helpful because the disease would have had more difficulty spreading than in the close confines that existed.
Researchers were unable to identify what caused Polio to spread. It seemed to be more common in cleaner environments, unlike other diseases. Polio was found more often in the middle class rather than the poor. One reason that the polio virus was so difficult to discover, was because it wasn’t a bacteria and because most microscopes couldn’t detect the microbial agent. Another problem that created difficulties for scientists, was that the researchers couldn’t discover how the virus got
Illness has been a major part of humankind’s lives almost since the beginning of time. Throughout history, illnesses caused fatal epidemics that caused deaths between young and old, and brought fear upon all for the absence of a cure. Having an illness throughout most of history was considered an inevitable death sentence, as the majority of causes of death (Offit). Vaccinations have been experimented in China and Turkey in the 15th century, with methods such as inhaling or rubbing grounded up smallpox scabs against open cuts (Clem). Then in 1700s, the first form of modern vaccination was invented by Edward Jenner with the cowpox virus acting against smallpox, giving immunity against it (Offit).
Johnson’s story follows the journeys of characters we come to know well and their reactions to the cholera outbreak. Our interest is kept by the ongoing revelation of important information, and the developing conflict between a major character and his view of the epidemic versus that of majority of others, both in the scientific community and the population at large. He keeps us guessing about how and if the mystery will be solved and at the same time recreates a world that is completely unknown to us.
The illness was called the Yellow Fever Epidemic. Although it seemed like a terrible thing, it was actually like a godsend, in a very crude manner, to bring the many different races of Philadelphia together. When the fatal epidemic hit the white people of Philadelphia, the blacks and other immigrants who were shut out were given immunity, or so they were told, and the chance to return back to the city. As Wideman wrote, “I was commandeered to rise and go forth to the general task of saving the city, forced to leave this neighborhood where my skills were sorely needed. I nursed those who hated me, deserted the ones I loved, who loved me.” This is said by a black doctor named Dr. Rush, who is speaking of his extreme discomfort in leaving his community where he knows he is needed and appreciated to go and help a city full of people that will pretend to like him, so that in turn he will he try to save them. The people who were shunned out of the city were now returning to essentially save the city of Philadelphia.