|
The Essex Hospital was a privately built smallpox inoculation hospital on Cat Island (now Children's Island) where many people were effectively inoculated against smallpox in 1773–1774. About a year after it opened, it was burned to the ground by paranoid and angry townspeople of Marblehead, Massachusetts. ==History== In June, 1773, Marblehead was stricken by an epidemic of smallpox. The typical response to an outbreak was undertaken by town officials, including daily surveillance of the inhabitants by a Committee of Inspection, fencing off of infected areas, moving infected people to pesthouses, inspecting cargo arriving into the town, and limiting out of town visitors. Some forward-thinking townspeople argued in favor of inoculation of the disease; diluted, contaminated material (pus) from a person with mild disease would be injected into a healthy person who would, with hope, develop a very mild case of the disease, fully recover, and then be immune. However, most people at the time were terrified of and vehemently opposed to the practice. On August 9, 1773, a Town Meeting in Marblehead was held to debate the construction of a public inoculation hospital on one of the nearby islands. The proposal was rejected, but the majority did agree to allow a private funding of a hospital as long as the Marblehead Selectmen could regulate it.〔Smith, Philip Chadwick Foster, ed. The Journals of Ashley Bowen(1728-1813) of Marblehead. 1973. Vol.II〕 On August 17 a petition to build a private inoculation hospital on an island was sent to Governor Hutchinson who approved the measure. The owners of the future Essex Hospital were four popular Marblehead political figures: John Glover, Jonathan Glover (John Glover's brother), Azor Orne, and Elbridge Gerry; they purchased Children's Island (Catt Island) on September 2, 1773. Despite having received permission from the town, their decision to inoculate remained contentious. Many Marbleheaders feared that the inoculation process would cause new outbreaks of the disease and that the hospital itself would scare off merchant ships arriving at Marblehead and Salem Harbors. Some opponents of the hospital also denigrated the plan as a get-rich scheme by the proprietors. In response to the fear the town selectmen prescribed strict rules to which the proprietors agreed. On October 5 to help alleviate some concerns "The Rules and Regulations of the Essex Hospital on Catt Island" were published in the local newspaper, The Essex Gazette. These rules required guards to be posted on the island to ensure no one would come ashore without a permit and no one would leave the island without a health clearance from a physician. No boat other than the hospitals' were to approach the island, and once returned to Marblehead were to dock only at approved locations within the harbor. People on the island were not to approach the island landing and a fence and trench would separate areas where supplies were dropped off from areas used by people on the island.〔Essex Gazette, Sept 28-Oct. 5, 1773.〕 By early October, the hospital and a shifting-house were completed. Upon arriving on a beach at the northwest part of the island the new patients would enter the clean room of the small, one-story shifting house where they left a clean set of clothes to be worn upon departing. Another room in the building, the shifting-room, as where at the end of their island stay they would strip, wash, and be fumigated before entering the clean-room and getting dressed in the previously left, uncontaminated clothes. The hospital itself was located on the southwestern section of the island, was three stories high, had ten rooms each with four beds, a kitchen, and accommodations for a steward, the physicians, nurses, and their assistants.〔 The proprietors of the hospital employed Dr. Hall Jackson from Portsmouth as hospital superintendent, and Dr. Ananias Randall from Long Island as assistant physician.〔Hall Jackson and the Purple Foxglove, p.26〕 The proprietors set a fee "for board, nursing, inoculation, etc., and for the poor which are considerably numerous, inoculation gratis one poor inhabitant for every ten others inoculated."〔Essex Gazette, Sept. 28-Oct 5, 1773〕 Two boats were employed, the Mercury Cruiser to transport people, and the Noah's Ark to transport cattle, sheep, deer, and animal feed.〔 On October 19, Among the first class of patients were Captain John Glover and his family, all of whom were inoculated and then remained as volunteers.〔 Ashley Bowen, exemplifying some of the bitter feelings toward the hospital, sarcastically noted in his journal on October 19: Since those exposed to smallpox (including recently inoculated) are not contagious for 10 days, visitors were allowed during this time.〔Hall Jackson p.28〕 A newspaper article at the time notes, the patients "are indeed confined to a strict regimen; but they may every day be seen walking the island, shooting wild fowl, playing at quoits, etc."〔Essex Gazette, October 29〕 On November 5, 1773 the patients and staff on the island celebrated Pope's Day (also known as Guy Fawkes Day) by lighting tar barrels "and a large fire displayed from the middle of the Island; the hospital was likewise illuminated, and made a most beautiful appearance here. Rockets were ordered from Boston...a number of gentlemen, who spent the evening in the assembly room, had them played off from their quarters, and spent the evening after very jovially, as did their friends and acquaintance under inoculation."〔Essex Gazette, 11/2-9/1773〕 Most of the first class of patients were able to leave the hospital from November 9-11th. On November 15, the second class of patients, numbering around 100, were inoculated at Essex Hospital. One of the members of this second group was Captain Lowell of Newburyport, who on December 4, 1773 was severely injured while loading a four-pound cannon on the island. Both arms were amputated, one eye was destroyed and the other severely injured, and his upper chest and neck were severely injured.〔Essex Gazette November 30-December 7, 1773〕 Dr. Jackson performed immediate surgery, and Captain Lowell was able to leave the hospital on January 16, 1774.〔 As of January 26, he was still alive.〔The Essex Journal and Merimak Packet January 26, 1774〕 The third class of patients was inoculated at the hospital on December 15, 1773. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Essex Hospital」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|