Page:Early History of Medicine in Philadelphia - George W Norris.djvu/116



ENNSYLVANIA was the first of the Provinces to adopt a system of regulations for the protection of the community against sickly vessels, as well as for the erection of a hospital to prevent the spread of contagious diseases. The earliest epidemic of which any account has come down to us after the settlement of Philadelphia was in 1699, when yellow fever prevailed, and proved exceedingly fatal— "six, seven, and sometimes eight dying in a day, for several weeks together, and few, if any, houses being free of the sickness." The disease was believed to have been introduced here, and its occurrence led in the following year to the passage of an Act by the Assembly "to prevent sickly vessels suddenly coming to this port." How far the measures then adopted were carried into effect we have no means of judging, for from this date till 1720 there is nothing noted in regard to sanitary measures, though it may be inferred from the