An American Plague: Chapters 5-6

by Jim Murphy
Drawing on medical research, news articles, and firsthand accounts, Jim Murphy traces the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 in this gripping historical account.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Chapters 1-2, Chapters 3-4, Chapters 5-6, Chapters 7-9, Chapters 10-11

Here is a link to our lists for another work by Jim Murphy: The Great Fire
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. destitute
    poor enough to need help from others
    The Free African Society was founded in 1787, the first organization in America created by blacks for blacks. Its purpose was to help members who were destitute and to provide care for widows and fatherless children.
  2. antibody
    a protein that produces an immune response
    A small number of blacks who had grown up in either Africa or the West Indies had had the disease as children and survived. Through this encounter with the fever their blood automatically produced antibodies that either fought off the yellow fever virus entirely or reduced its impact on the individual significantly.
  3. immunity
    the condition in which an organism can resist disease
    Most blacks in Philadelphia didn’t have this natural immunity and would suffer the ravages of the fever along with whites.
  4. exorbitant
    greatly exceeding bounds of reason or moderation
    These complaints made their way to Clarkson, though he was misled to believe that the black nurses were going about town demanding exorbitant rates for their work.
  5. hemorrhage
    the flow of blood from a ruptured blood vessel
    Young Dr. Isaac Cathrall found these bodily discharges disgusting: “The matter ejected [from the stomach] was of a dark color, resembling coffee grounds, sometimes mixed with blood; great flatulency; hemorrhages from different parts of the body; tongue frequently covered over with blood...; urine very offensive.”
  6. loathsome
    highly offensive; arousing aversion or disgust
    Not only were these evacuations and odors loathsome, they were considered dangerous.
  7. stricken
    grievously affected especially by disease
    This battalion of heroes ventured out into the stricken city every day without fail.
  8. perceptible
    easily seen or detected
    “My body became highly impregnated with the contagion. My eyes were yellow, and sometimes a yellowness was perceptible in my face,” he noted.
  9. phlebotomy
    surgical incision into a vein to draw blood
    Bloodletting, or phlebotomy, was also practiced. In this procedure, a vein was opened and a small amount of blood was drawn off into a bowl. With a tad less blood, the theory went, the remaining blood would flow more freely and normally through the body.
  10. salve
    a preparation applied externally as a soothing remedy
    He tried to sweat the fever out of a patient by coating various parts of his or her body with a thick salve composed of herbs and chemicals.
  11. livid
    discolored by coagulation of blood beneath the skin
    These applications were called blisters, because they often irritated the skin enough to turn it a livid red.
  12. ineffectual
    not producing an intended consequence
    “Finding them all ineffectual, I attempted to rouse the system by wrapping the whole body...in blankets dipped in warm vinegar.”
  13. inflammation
    painful swelling of body tissues due to injury or irritation
    Rush next began experimenting with the amount of blood he would remove from the body in an effort to reduce inflammation.
  14. copious
    large in number or quantity
    Many doctors disputed Rush’s cure rate and felt his “Ten-and-Fifteen” purge and copious bleedings dangerous.
  15. recuperate
    get over an illness or shock
    From his upstate New York retreat where he and his wife were recuperating, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton wrote to praise the cure used by his doctor, who had openly rejected Rush’s cure.
Created on Tue Oct 31 12:38:14 EDT 2017 (updated Fri Aug 01 15:30:46 EDT 2025)

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