Sunday, August 28, 2011

Eliza Esdaile's Burial Record

My great grandfather, Louis Albert Thomas, wrote that Eliza Esdaile was buried in Chichester Cathedral. We descendants have been bothering them for generations about her grave, in person and by mail. Now the personnel at the Cathedral can put their feet up. Familysearch.com has posted  her burial record: New Fishbourne, Sussex, 9 January 1835. Look out New Fishbourne!

Bishop's transcripts for New Fishbourne, 1591-1911, Church of England. Parish of New Fishbourne (Sussex). Salt Lake City, Utah: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1981. FHL BRITISH Film 1041593 Item 1



New Fishbourne not far from Chichester

Still Waiting for Carlos Finlay

Adult Yellow Fever Mosquito

Cousins, our ancestor William Grant's death was evidence in the heated debate over whether yellow fever was spread by contagion or by miasma. The argument was fueled by economic interest as well as by medicos defending their dogma. Where the contagion faction prevailed, quarantines and consequent trade disruption followed. One expert arguing for miasma was Dr. Musgrave of Angtigua in the West Indies.

To bolster his argument (and unwittingly to flesh out our family story) Dr. Musgrave includes an appendix with the report of Dr. Hartle, the Navy medical officer on shore in Antigua when the Pyramus landed with its crew of yellow fever victims early on the first of November 1821.

“I immediately went on board, and was surprised to find that an officer (lieutenant) had died the day before with only a few hours illness—that the purser [Eliza Esdaile's son-in-law William Grant, though he is never named in this article] and six men lay dangerously ill. . .”

The ship’s surgeon was ill himself, so a loblolly boy had attended them. “He had bled them, and given them some cathartic medicine, but it did not appear to me that the bleeding had been either to a sufficient extent or from a proper orifice, and unfortunately , the time for its repetition was passed as the disease was in its second stage. To this, therefore I attribute the misfortune of losing the three first attacked, (purser and two of the men) for organic derangement had already taken place.”

“The purser had nausea but no vomiting; he bled profusely from the nose, and, a little before he died, he passed, involuntarily, a large quantity of black fetid blood, per anum.”

People by the dozens kept getting yellow fever on the Pyramus.  On inspection, the Pyramus looked like a nice clean ship, but Dr. Hartel, suspecting miasma, had the limber boards pulled up. Underneath was rotting wood debris from a refitting job done at Portsmouth just before the ship left port. The wood scraps mixed with coal tar had clogged the limber holes, leaving nine inches of stagnant water and muck that couldn’t reach the pump wells. The stench was horrific, not possible to describe. Everyone involved in the inspection and subsequent clean up, including  Dr. Hartel and, remarkably, even some black men, became ill. Yet nobody on shore caught yellow fever. This proved that miasma caused yellow fever. At least it proved it to Dr. Musgrave of Antigua. 

You can follow the yellow fever controversy as it unfolded using Google Books.  This blog post is from:
Musgrave, Anthony.  Facts and Observations in Refutation of Sir Gilbert Blane’s  Doctrines as to the contagious Nature of Yellow Fever. The Medico-Chirurgical Review, and Journal of Medical Science Quarterly , Volume IV, No 16  (March 1824) p. 979. (Available on Google Books)

Friday, August 19, 2011

Yellow Fever on the Pyramus

Eliza Esdaile's daughter Louisa Green first married William Grant, a purser in the Royal Navy (December 1816). My great-grandfather wrote that William Grant died of yellow fever in Antigua. William Grant's will was proved 16 December 1822, but it doesn't say where he died. The Navy List shows William Grant to be the purser on the Pyramus in December 1821 and J Jones to be the purser by March 1822. Between December 1821 and March 1822 the Pyramus was indeed in the West Indies. While not proving anything, this google book deals specifically with the terrible outbreak of yellow fever on the Pyramus in 1822: The Medico-chirurgical review, Volume 6 by James Johnson.