The Astronomical Tables Of Giovanni Bianchini Illustrated Jos Chabs

The Astronomical Tables Of Giovanni Bianchini Illustrated Jos Chabs
The Astronomical Tables Of Giovanni Bianchini Illustrated Jos Chabs
The Astronomical Tables Of Giovanni Bianchini Illustrated Jos Chabs

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6. Th e Astronomical Tables
of Giovanni Bianchini

7. History of Science
and Medicine Library
VOLUME 12
Medieval and
Early Modern Science
Editors
J.M.M.H. Th ijssen, Radboud University Nijmegen
C.H. Lüthy, Radboud University Nijmegen
Editorial Consultants
Joël Biard, University of Tours
Simo Knuuttila, University of Helsinki
John E. Murdoch, Harvard University
Jürgen Renn, Max-Planck-Institute for the History of Science
Th eo Verbeek, University of Utrecht
VOLUME 10

8. Th e Astronomical Tables
of Giovanni Bianchini
By
José Chabás and Bernard R. Goldstein

LEIDEN • BOSTON
2009

9. ISSN 1872-0684
ISBN 978 90 04 17615 7
Copyright 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, Th e Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing,
IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission
from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by
Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to
Th e Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910,
Danvers, MA 01923, USA.
Fees are subject to change.
printed in the netherlands
On the cover: Bianchini presents his Tables to Emperor Frederick III (Ferrara,
Biblioteca Comunale Ariostea, MS I.147, f. 1r); detail from the frontispiece.
See also Chapter One, p. 15.
Th is book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Chabás, José, 1948–
Th e astronomical tables of Giovanni Bianchini / by José Chabás and Bernard R.
Goldstein.
p. cm. — (History of science and medicine library, ISSN 1872-0684 ; v. 12)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-17615-7 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. Ephemerides—Europe—History—15th century. 2. Alphonsine Tables.
3. Bianchini, Giovanni, 15th cent. 4. Astronomy, Medieval. I. Goldstein, Bernard R.
II. Title. III. Series.
QB7.C43 2009
528—dc22
2009010199

10. CONTENTS
Preface .................................................................................................. vii
List of Illustrations ............................................................................. ix
Introduction ........................................................................................ 1
Chapter One. Giovanni Bianchini: Life and Work ....................... 13
Chapter Two. Analysis of the tables ............................................... 23
1. Introduction ............................................................................... 23
2. Tables in ed. 1495 ...................................................................... 28
3. Other tables in the manuscripts and ed. 1526 that are not
included in ed. 1495 ................................................................. 93
4. Other tables in ed. 1526 or in MS Nu that are not
included in ed. 1495 or in MS Na .......................................... 114
Notation ............................................................................................... 133
References ........................................................................................... 135
Index .................................................................................................... 139

12. PREFACE
Astronomical tables abound in medieval manuscripts and early modern
printed texts. Moreover, many of these documents, commonly found in
libraries around the world, are restricted to tables, normally containing
few words other than those in the titles and the headings of the tables.
And it is not unusual to fi nd manuscripts and printed texts with hun-
dreds of pages composed of vast quantities of numbers, in the thousands,
or even in the hundreds of thousands. Of course, the sizes of the tables
vary substantially from short tables consisting of just two columns and
a few rows, to monumental tables requiring tens of pages to reproduce
them. Not only were certain sets of astronomical tables copied again
and again by patient scribes or typesetters in the early days of print-
ing, or by the astronomers themselves, but many of their users found
ingenious ways to ameliorate them, generating new tables based on new
approaches, new parameters, or that were just more user-friendly. Th e
number of diff erent sets of astronomical tables extant in manuscripts,
produced in the Middle Ages and the early modern period, has never
been evaluated but it would not be surprising that it is well beyond a
thousand. Clearly, during this long period of time astronomical tables
were a major way to convey astronomical ideas.
Th e authors of the present monograph have invested much time
and eff ort in understanding and explaining astronomical tables that
were produced in many countries, written in a variety of languages,
and dealing with a great number of diff erent astronomical issues. We
are convinced that “cracking” an astronomical table, by bringing to the
surface the model on which it is based and the parameters on which it
relies, is a way to gain deep insight into how astronomy was conceived
and practiced at the time and how it was transmitted to subsequent
generations.
In examining hundreds of astronomical tables we have found some
that greatly impressed us for the cleverness of their authors in grasp-
ing a problem that had been addressed by many previous astronomers
and giving innovative solutions. We have also found tables that limited
themselves to reproducing the astronomical tradition of their time with
little innovation, and others where the main contribution consisted in
facilitating the work of astronomical practitioners. And yet in many

13. cases the innovation was not in the models or the parameters under-
lying them, but in the approach to the various astronomical problems
to be solved.
Th e tables of Giovanni Bianchini (d. aft er 1469) are certainly volumi-
nous; indeed, they are the largest set of astronomical tables produced
in the West before modern times, as far as we know. For many years
we cherished the idea of “cracking” these tables, but the task seemed
daunting, given their volume. Today we have reached our goal, and
our respect for Bianchini has shift ed from volume to value. Although
not innovative in their building blocks, his tables refl ect a well defi ned
approach to astronomy, a practical way to present it, and a solid com-
puting ability. Now we can understand why the wealthy and powerful
d’Este family in 15th-century Ferrara engaged him to keep track of
their fi nances.
We thank the Biblioteca Comunale Ariostea of Ferrara for giving us
permission to reproduce an image in MS I.147, and all other libraries
that have made available to us the manuscripts and printed editions
mentioned in this monograph.
José Chabás – Bernard R. Goldstein
Rome – Pittsburgh
May 2008
viii preface

14. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Frontispiece (opposite the title page). Presentation of Bianchini’s tables
to the Emperor, Frederick III (Ferrara, Biblioteca Comunale Ariostea,
MS I.147, f. 1r)
Fig. 1. Components of precession for 7000 years, beginning
with the radix ........................................................................ 30
Fig. 2. Position of the Moon on July 18, 1447 at 12;30h ............ 58
Fig. 3. Position of Mars on November 17, 1447 at 18;40h ........ 78
Fig. 4. Equation of time ................................................................... 102
Fig. 5. Domifi cation .......................................................................... 107

16. INTRODUCTION
One of the characteristics of an exact science is to explain theoretically
the processes addressed by that discipline and to treat them precisely in
a quantitative way. As an exact science, astronomy makes extensive use
of numerical computations. In early astronomy, this is best exemplifi ed
by astronomical tables in the tradition of Ptolemy’s Almagest that dates
to the 2nd century, A.D. Th roughout the Middle Ages, astronomers
compiled a great variety of astronomical tables to help computers
determine the positions and other circumstances of the celestial bod-
ies and to help them solve astronomical problems related to the daily
rotation, the determination of the times of eclipses, etc. Th e simplest
astronomical table consists of two columns of numbers, such that for
each value in the fi rst column there corresponds one and only one entry,
representing what nowadays is called a function. Th e fi rst column gives
the successive values of the argument, currently called the independent
variable. Th e information contained in such a table can be represented
as a two-dimensional graph, although it was not done so at the time.
Astronomical tables in the Almagest were not all of the simplest kind,
for many of them had more than two columns, such that the entries
in each column depended on a single argument. In the Latin West a
special form of astronomical tables, introduced in the 14th century, is
called a ‘double argument table’, that is, a table with two arguments,
one set at the head of each column and another set at the head of each
row, corresponding (in modern terms) to a function of two variables.
Th is ingenious type of table can be represented as a three-dimensional
graph. Th e advantage of double argument tables is that they reduce the
number of steps in the computation of a planetary position, etc. But
this meant that the table maker had to produce many more entries in
the tables, which required him to perform a large number of computa-
tions. As far as we know, the earliest sets of double argument tables in
the West were due to John of Murs (c. 1321), John of Lignères in Paris
(c. 1325), and William Batecombe in Oxford (1348), all of whom based
their tables on the Parisian Alfonsine Tables that began to circulate in
the 1320s.

17. 2 introduction
Astronomers addressing a variety of problems put together diff er-
ent tables and compiled ‘sets of tables’, that is, consistent collections
of astronomical tables embracing all or some aspects of mathematical
astronomy and usually accompanied by a text, called ‘canons’, explain-
ing their use. Most sets of tables compiled in western Europe in the
Middle Ages followed the structure of those composed in Arabic, that
is, handbooks called zijes (from the Arabic zīj, plural zījāt).
1
In the Renaissance the mathematical sciences played an important
role in humanistic culture, and they were highly appreciated at vari-
ous social levels.
2
Mathematical astronomy was regarded as especially
valuable, for it was associated with cosmology and philosophy, as well
as with astrology and astrological medicine. In other words, there was
a considerable market for publications that included almanacs, eph-
emerides, and lunaria, several of them ranking among the best sellers
in scientifi c publications,
3
as well as sets of astronomical tables. Th e
investment of time and money by the printer in producing these sets
of tables was signifi cant, and the fact that more than one edition of
the same set appeared is an indication of the popularity of this genre.
In particular, Bianchini’s tables were printed three times between 1495
and 1553.
By the time Bianchini compiled his tables (c. 1442), European astrono-
mers had access to several variants of the Parisian Alfonsine Tables, that
is, a set of tables which was recast beginning in the 1320s by a group of
notable scholars working in Paris, all of them sharing the name, John
( John of Murs, John of Lignères, and John of Saxony), and based on
the work done by the astronomers in the service of King Alfonso X of
Castile in the second half of the 13th century. Unfortunately, only the
canons of the original Castilian Alfonsine Tables are extant, not the
tables themselves.
4
All these sets of astronomical tables are in the tradition of Arabic
zijes: they contain a great many tables and, at their core, are those for
the determination of the positions and motions of the fi ve planets and
the luminaries. Th e position of a planet in longitude (along the ecliptic),
1
See, e.g., Kennedy, Survey.
2
See, e.g., Rose, Renaissance of Mathematics.
3
See Chabás, Granollachs.
4
Chabás and Goldstein, Alfonsine Tables of Toledo.

18. introduction 3
as well as the Sun and the Moon, is computed from tabulated values
for mean motions and equations, that is
λ = λ
0 + ∆λ̅ + c,
where λ
0 is the initial mean longitude of a planet at some epoch, ∆λ̅ is
the increment in mean motion from epoch, t
0, to another time, t, and
c is the equation, i.e., the deviation from mean motion to be computed
from a model for planetary motion. In turn,
∆λ̅ is a linear function of
time,
∆λ̅ = μ · (t – t
0),
where μ is the mean motion per day (or some other unit of time). In
the case of the fi ve planets, c depends on two variables,
λ and α, the
argument of anomaly, and
α = α
0 + ∆α̅ + c′,
where α
0 is the argument of anomaly at epoch, ∆α̅ is the increment in
the argument of anomaly from t
0 to t, and c′ is the equation of anomaly.
To compute a position of one of the 5 planets using the tables, one fi rst
needs to fi nd 3 quantities:
λ̅ = λ
0 + ∆λ̅,
κ̅ = λ
A – λ̅,
where λ̅ is the mean position of the planet and κ̅, the mean argument
of center, is the distance of
λ̅ from the planet’s apogee, λ
A, and
α̅ = α
0 + ∆α̅.
Th en, with κ̅ and α̅ as arguments in one or more tables,
λ = λ̅ + c(κ̅, α̅).
Note the both c and c′ can be positive or negative. Th ese rules are
common to all sets of astronomical tables in the Ptolemaic tradition,
and they have generated a large number of tables based on various
ingenious procedures. For worked examples of Bianchini’s procedure
for fi nding the true longitude of the Moon and of Mars, see Tables 17
and 41, below.
Th e Alfonsine tradition lies within the Ptolemaic tradition, having
a set of parameters in common as well as the same underlying model.
Nevertheless, we fi nd a great variety of tables in this tradition, and

19. 4 introduction
among them are those of Bianchini, the subject of this monograph. As
we shall see below, in addition to tables for planetary longitude, there
are tables for eclipses, planetary latitudes (the distance of a planet north
or south of the ecliptic at any given time), etc. But let us fi rst consider
some of the sets of tables produced in the 14th century.
Th e Parisian astronomers drew up tables and wrote their correspond-
ing canons, based on the earlier Castilian material. One characteristic
feature of the resulting Parisian Alfonsine Tables is the division of a
circle into 6 physical signs of 60°, although in many cases the circle is
divided into 12 zodiacal signs of 30°, as was the case in almost all previ-
ous sets of tables. Th ese tables rapidly superseded the Toledan Tables,
compiled at the end of the 11th century, also in Toledo, and extant in
hundreds of manuscripts.
5
Among the collections of tables ascribed to the Johns are (i) the
tables of 1321, with a short canon, by John of Murs; (ii) the so-called
Tabule magne, by John of Lignères; and (iii) the tables of 1322, with
canons, also by John of Lignères. Unfortunately, a thorough study of
these tables is still lacking.
(i) John of Murs compiled a set of tables to compute the positions
of the planets and the luminaries which are extant in two MSS in
Oxford and Lisbon.
6
In both of them physical signs of 60°, rather
than zodiacal signs of 30°, are used. Th e tables are accompanied by
a short text beginning Si vera loca planetarum per presentes tabulas
volueris invenire a tempore incarnationis domini dato perfecto deme
1320 . . . Th e presentation given to the tables of the planets is indeed
original, because the organizational principle is a succession of mean
conjunctions of each planet with the Sun. For each of the planets
and the Moon we are given several tables: the fi rst lists a number
of mean conjunctions with the Sun, where the radix is 1321 (1320
completed); the second is a double argument table (30 × 30) to fi nd
the true positions of the planet, or the Moon, at times between two
successive conjunctions; the third displays the mean longitude and the
mean argument of center of the planet; the fourth lists the equation of
center (the correction to be applied to the mean argument of center
to obtain the true argument of center); and the fi ft h is a reduced
5
Pedersen, Toledan Tables.
6
Poulle, “John of Murs,” 133.

20. introduction 5
double argument table (16 × 7) for the latitude of the planet. For
Mercury and Venus, there is another column for the 3rd component
of latitude (see Tables 73 and 74, below). All the parameters used
here will later be found in the Parisian Alfonsine Tables (e.g., the
maximum equations of center for Jupiter and Venus are 5;57° and
2;10°, respectively, thus departing from the parameters used in the
Toledan Tables). It is most noteworthy that the titles of all tables
other than those with double argument indicate that they were
computed for Toledo, adding that it is 0;48h distant from Paris,
and use the radices given by King Alfonso of Castile.
(ii) In 1322 (a date that appears in the colophon of the manuscripts)
John of Lignères compiled another set of tables with canons in
44 chapters for the prime mover (Cujuslibet arcus propositi sinum
rectum . . .), i.e., problems of trigonometry, the daily rotation, etc.,
and canons in 46 chapters for the motions of the planets and the
determination of eclipses (Priores astrologi motus corporum celes-
tium . . .). Th ese canons have been edited, but not published.
7
Both
canons describe one set of tables computed for the meridian of Paris
which have December 31, 1320 as epoch; these canons and tables
are extant in many manuscripts and the latter are oft en referred
to as ‘Alfonsine tables’.
(iii) Th e Tabule magne by John of Lignères were compiled in about 1325
and depend on the tables for 1322 by the same author, according to
Poulle.
8
Th ey are associated with the incipit, Multiplicis philosophie
variis radiis . . ., and seem to be extant in only a few MSS. Curiously
enough, the tables in Erfurt, MS F.388, use zodiacal signs of 30°
whereas those in Lisbon, MS Ajuda 52–XII–35, ff . 67r–92v, use
physical signs of 60°. Th ere are four types of tables. Th e fi rst gives
the daily mean motions for a year for Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars
(mean motions in longitude and mean arguments of anomaly);
mean arguments of anomaly for Venus and Mercury; mean motions
of the Sun, Venus, and Mercury, and the lunar nodes; mean motions
in longitudes and mean argument of anomaly of the Moon. Th e
Erfurt MS gives radices for the planets without indicating the place
for which they are valid, but the values in the text indicate that the
place is Paris and the epoch, the Incarnation (i.e., Jan. 1, 1 A.D.).
7
Saby, Jean de Lignères.
8
Poulle, “Alfonsine Tables and Alfonso X,” 103.

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MEDICAL INQUIRIES
AND

28. OBSERVATIONS.
BY BENJAMIN RUSH, M. D.
PROFESSOR OF THE INSTITUTES AND PRACTICE OF MEDICINE,
AND OF CLINICAL PRACTICE, IN THE UNIVERSITY OF
PENNSYLVANIA.
IN FOUR VOLUMES.
VOL. IV.
THE SECOND EDITION,
REVISED AND ENLARGED BY THE AUTHOR.
PHILADELPHIA,
PUBLISHED BY J. CONRAD & CO. CHESNUT-STREET, PHILADELPHIA;
M. & J. CONRAD & CO. MARKET-STREET, BALTIMORE; RAPIN,
CONRAD, & CO. WASHINGTON; SOMERVELL & CONRAD,
PETERSBURG; AND BONSAL, CONRAD, & CO. NORFOLK.
PRINTED BY T. & G. PALMER, 116, HIGH-STREET.
1805.

29. CONTENTS OF VOLUME IV.
  page
An account of the bilious yellow fever, as it appeared in
Philadelphia in 1797 1
An account of the bilious yellow fever, as it appeared in
Philadelphia in 1798 63
An account of the bilious yellow fever, as it appeared in
Philadelphia in 1799 89
An account of sporadic cases of yellow fever, as they appeared
in Philadelphia in 1800 101
An account of sporadic cases of yellow fever, as they appeared
in Philadelphia in 1801 109
An account of the measles, as they appeared in Philadelphia in
1801 115
An account of the yellow fever, as it appeared in 1802121
An account of the yellow fever, as it appeared in 1803131
An account of sporadic cases of yellow fever, as they appeared
in 1804 145
An account of the yellow fever, as it appeared in 1805151
An inquiry into the various sources of the usual forms of the
summer and autumnal disease in the United States, and
the means of preventing them 161
Facts, intended to prove the yellow fever not to be contagious221
Defence of blood-letting, as a remedy in certain diseases273
An inquiry into the comparative states of medicine in
Philadelphia, between the years 1760 and 1766, and 1805363

30. AN ACCOUNT
OF THE
BILIOUS REMITTING AND INTERMITTING
YELLOW FEVER.
AS IT
APPEARED IN PHILADELPHIA,
IN 1797.
The winter of 1797 was in general healthy. During the spring,
which was cold and wet, no diseases of any consequence occurred.
The spring vegetables were late in coming to maturity, and there
were every where in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia scanty crops
of hay. In June and July there fell but little rain. Dysenteries,
choleras, scarlatina, and mumps, appeared in the suburbs in the
latter month. On the 8th of July I visited Mr. Frisk, and on the 25th
of the same month I visited Mr. Charles Burrel in the yellow fever, in
consultation with Dr. Physick. They both recovered by the use of
plentiful depleting remedies.
The weather from the 2d to the 9th of August was rainy. On the
1st of this month I was called to visit Mr. Nathaniel Lewis, in a
malignant bilious fever. On the 3d I visited Mr. Elisha Hall, with the
same disease. He had been ill several days before I saw him. Both
these gentlemen died on the 6th of the month. They were both very
yellow after death. Mr. Hall had a black vomiting on the day he died.
The news of the death of these two citizens, with unequivocal
symptoms of yellow fever, excited a general alarm in the city.
Attempts were made to trace it to importation, but a little

31. investigation soon proved that it was derived from the foul air of a
ship which had just arrived from Marseilles, and which discharged
her cargo at Pinestreet wharf, near the stores occupied by Mr. Lewis
and Mr. Hall. Many other persons about the same time were affected
with the fever from the same cause, in Water and Penn-streets.
About the middle of the month, a ship from Hamburgh
communicated the disease, by means of her foul air, to the village of
Kensington. It prevailed, moreover, in many instances in the
suburbs, and in Kensington, from putrid exhalations from gutters
and marshy grounds, at a distance from the Delaware, and from the
foul ships which have been mentioned. Proofs of the truth of each of
these assertions were afterwards laid before the public.
The disease was confined chiefly to the district of Southwark and
the village of Kensington, for several weeks. In September and
October, many cases occurred in the city, but most of them were
easily traced to the above sources.
The following account of the weather, during the months of
August, September, and October was obtained from Mr. Thomas
Pryor. It is different from the weather in 1793. It is of consequence
to attend to this fact, inasmuch as it shows that an inflammatory
constitution of the atmosphere can exist under different
circumstances of the weather. It likewise accounts for the variety in
the symptoms of the fever in different years and countries. Such is
the influence of season and climate upon the symptoms of this fever,
that it led Dr. M'Kitterick to suppose that the yellow fever of
Charleston, so accurately described by Dr. Lining, in the second
volume of the Physical and Literary Essays of Edinburgh, was a
different disease from the yellow fever of the West-Indies
[1]
.
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS,
MADE IN PHILADELPHIA.
AUGUST, 1797.
D.Ther.Barom. Winds and Weather.

32.  
1
7375300S. E. E. Rain in the forenoon and afternoon.
 
2
7276300
N. E. by E. Cloudy, with rain in the afternoon and
night. Wind E. by N.
 
3
7278306E. ½ N. Rain in the morning, and all day and night.
 
4
7278304E. Rain hard all day and at night.
 
5
74792984
Wind light, S. W. Cloudy. Rain this morning. The air
extremely damp; wind shifted to N. W. This evening
heavy showers, with thunder.
 
6
73763086W. N. W. Cloudy.
 
7
7076304
N. W. Close day. Rain in the evening and all night.
Wind to E.
 
8
72762995E. Rain this morning.
 
9
72762986S. W. Cloudy morning.
1069733016N. W. Clear.
1170743025N. W. Clear. Rain all night.
127174305
S. W. Cloudy. Rain in the morning. Cloudy all day.
Rain at night.
1373752987S. W. Cloudy. Rain all day.
147074299N. W. Clear fine morning.
1556603015N. W. Clear fine morning.
1660643024N. W. Clear fine morning.
1760653024N. W. Air damp.
186875304
S. W. Cloudy. Rain, with thunder at night: a fine
shower.
197278297N. W. Clear. Cloudy in the evening, with thunder.
207077298W. N. W. Fine clear morning.
217476299N. W. Clear to E.

33. 226876  
E. Small shower this morning. Hard shower at 11, A.
M. Wind N. E.
2371762992E. Cloudy. At noon calm.
2471752995Calm morning and clear.
257075305N. E. Clear. Rain in the afternoon, with thunder.
267075305
S. E. Rain in the morning. Rained hard in the night,
with thunder, N. W.
276876299N. W. Fine clear morning.
2864752996N. W. Clear.
295970300E. Clear.
307076301E. by S. Rain in the morning.
3168743014S. E. Cloudy. Damp air and sultry.
SEPTEMBER, 1797.
D.Ther.Barom. Winds and Weather.
 
1
7380306S. W. Cloudy. Damp air. Rain in the morning.
 
2
7980299
N. W. Clear. Cloudy in the evening, with lightning to
the southward.
 
3
6874300N. by W. Cloudy. Clear in the afternoon and night.
 
4
6674307W. N. W. Clear fine morning.
 
5
5873301N. W. Clear. Cloudy in the evening.
 
6
58723013Fresh at E. Clear. Rain in the evening.
 
7
56763028E. Clear. Cloudy in the evening.
 
8
5465301N. E. Clear and cool morning. Flying clouds at noon.
 
9
5665301E. N. E. Clear.
1058633026N. E. Clear fine morning. Wind fresh at N. E. all day.

34. 1153643013N. to E. with flying clouds.
125162306W. N. W. Clear cool morning.
135667303S. W. Cloudy. Clear in the afternoon.
1464702998S. W. Clear.
1566732985S. W. Rain in the morning. Cloudy in the afternoon.
1662702995N. W. Clear.
175667300N. W. Clear.
1858632988
E. Cloudy. Rained all day, and thunder. Rained very
heavy at night.
1955632975W. N. W. Clear fine morning.
204763308
W. N. W. Clear fine morning. New moon at 9 50
morning.
214660300
N. E. Clear fine morning; to S. E. in the evening.
Cloudy at night.
225665304N. W. Rain in the morning. Rain at night.
235666300N. N. E. Cloudy.
245266299E. by S. Clear fine morning. Cloudy at night.
2556682937W. N. W. Clear fine morning; clear all day.
2658682995E. In the morning flying clouds.
274863302N. W. Clear fine morning; clear all day.
284863302W. N. W. Clear fine morning; clear all day.
2954633015E. Clear fine morning.
3060653026E. Fresh. Cloudy morning. Rain in the night.
OCTOBER, 1797.
D.Ther.Barom. Winds and Weather.
 
1
55653016N. E. Rain this morning, and great, part of the day.
 
2
5566300N. W. Clear.
 
3
6070299S. E. Clear. Air damp.

35.  
4
6070295W. N. W. Rain this morning.
 
5
4660300
W. N. W. to S. by W. in the evening. Clear all day.
White frost this morning.
 
6
5565300S. W. Clear fine morning. White frost.
 
7
5676300S. W. Cloudy. Rain in the night.
 
8
56703029
S. Cloudy this morning; air damp. Wind shifted to
W. N. W. Blows fresh.
 
9
50602985
W. N. W. Clear morning. Fresh at N. W. in the
evening.
104058301W. N. W. Clear. Frost this morning.
113856302W. N. W. Cloudy.
1234523038W. N. W. Clear. Ice this morning.
133555305N. Clear fine morning. Ice this morning.
1440603028N. E. Cloudy.
1550653016W. N. W. Clear.
163656302W. N. W. Clear fine morning.
1737563018W. N. W. Clear fine morning.
1847602986W. N. W. Clear fine weather.
194860306W. N. W. Clear fine day.
204255308
N. E. Cloudy. Rain in the afternoon and night. Blows
fresh at N. E.
2142502992
N. E. Blows fresh (with a little rain). Thunder in the
night, with rain.
2244562957N. W. Rain in the morning.
2344562995S. W. Clear fine morning.
244254305N. E. Cloudy. A great deal of rain in the night.
2540523015N. E. Clear fine morning.
2636483029W. N. W. Clear.
2734463023Fresh at S. W. Clear.
2840522995W. N. W. Cloudy.

36. 2934462982W. Cloudy.
3032422993N. W. Clear. Hard frost this morning.
3138483018
W. S. W. Cloudy part of this day; clear the
remainder.
In addition to the register of the weather it may not be improper
to add, that moschetoes were more numerous during the prevalence
of the fever than in 1793. An unusual number of ants and
cockroaches were likewise observed; and it was said that the
martins and swallows disappeared, for a while, from the city and its
neighbourhood.
A disease prevailed among the cats some weeks before the yellow
fever appeared in the city. It excited a belief in an unwholesome
state of the atmosphere, and apprehensions of a sickly fall. It
generally proved fatal to them.
After the first week in September there were no diseases to be
seen but yellow fever. In that part of the town which is between
Walnut and Vine-streets it was uncommonly healthy. A similar retreat
of inferior diseases has been observed to take place during the
prevalence of the plague in London, Holland, and Germany,
according to the histories of that disease by Sydenham,
Diemerbroeck, Sennertus, and Hildanus. It appears, from the
register of the weather, that it rained during the greatest part of the
day on the 1st of October. The effects of this rain upon the disease
shall be mentioned hereafter. On the 10th the weather became cool,
and on the nights of the 12th and 13th of the month there was a
frost accompanied with ice, which appeared to give a sudden and
complete check to the disease.
The reader will probably expect an account of the effects of this
distressing epidemic upon the public mind. The terror of the citizens
for a while was very great. Rumours of an opposite and
contradictory nature of the increase and mortality of the fever were
in constant circulation. A stoppage was put to business, and it was
computed that about two thirds of the inhabitants left the city.

37. The legislature of the state early passed a law, granting 10,000
dollars for the relief of the sufferers by the fever. The citizens in and
out of town, as also many of the citizens of our sister states,
contributed more than that sum for the same charitable purpose.
This money was issued by a committee appointed by the governor of
the state. An hospital for the reception of the poor was established
on the east side of the river Schuylkill, and amply provided with
every thing necessary for the accommodation of the sick. Tents were
likewise pitched on the east side of Schuylkill, to which all those
people were invited who were exposed to the danger of taking the
disease, and who had not means to provide a more comfortable
retreat for themselves in the country.
I am sorry to add that the moral effects of the fever upon the
minds of our citizens were confined chiefly to these acts of
benevolence. Many of the publications in the newspapers upon its
existence, mode of cure, and origin partook of a virulent spirit, which
ill accorded with the distresses of the city. It was a cause of
lamentation likewise to many serious people, that the citizens in
general were less disposed, than in 1793, to acknowledge the
agency of a divine hand in their afflictions. In some a levity of mind
appeared upon this solemn occasion. A worthy bookseller gave me a
melancholy proof of this assertion, by informing me, that he had
never been asked for playing cards so often, in the same time, as he
had been during the prevalence of the fever.
Philadelphia was not the only place in the United States which
suffered by the yellow fever. It prevailed, at the same time, at
Providence, in Rhode-Island, at Norfolk, in Virginia, at Baltimore, and
in many of the country towns of New-England, New-Jersey, and
Pennsylvania.
The influenza followed the yellow fever, as it did in the year 1793.
It made its appearance in the latter end of October, and affected
chiefly those citizens who had been out of town.
The predisposing causes of the yellow fever, in the year 1797,
were the same as in the year 1793. Strangers were as usual most

38. subject to it. The heat of the body in such persons, in the West-
Indies, has been found to be between three and four degrees above
that of the temperature of the natives. This fact is taken notice of by
Dr. M'Kitterick, and to this he ascribes, in part, the predisposition of
new comers to the yellow fever.
In addition to the common exciting causes of this disease formerly
enumerated, I have only to add, that it was induced in one of my
patients by smoking a segar. He had not been accustomed to the
use of tobacco.
I saw no new premonitory symptoms of this fever except a tooth-
ach. It occurred in Dr. Physick, Dr. Caldwell, and in my pupil, Mr.
Bellenger. In Miss Elliot there was such a soreness in her teeth, that
she could hardly close her mouth on the day in which she was
attacked by the fever. Neither of these persons had taken mercury to
obviate the disease.
I shall now deliver a short account of the symptoms of the yellow
fever, as they appeared in several of the different systems of the
body.
I. There was but little difference in the state of the pulse in this
epidemic from what has been recorded in the fevers of 1793 and
1794. I perceived a pulse, in several cases, which felt like a soft quill
which had been shattered by being trodden upon. It occurred in Dr.
Jones and Dr. Dobell, and in several other persons who had been
worn down by great fatigue, and it was, in every instance, followed
by a fatal issue of the fever. In Dr. Jones this state of the pulse was
accompanied with such a difficulty of breathing, that every breath he
drew, on the day of his attack, he informed me, was the effort of a
sigh. He died on the 17th of September, and on the sixth day of his
fever.
The action of the arteries was, as usual, very irregular in many
cases. In some there was a distressing throbbing of the vessels in
the brain, and in one of my patients a similar sensation in the

39. bowels, but without pain. Many people had issues of blood from
their blisters in this fever.
I saw nothing new in the effects of the fever upon the liver, lungs,
brain, nor upon the stomach and bowels.
II. The excretions were distinguished by no unusual marks. I met
with no recoveries where there were not black stools. They
excoriated the rectum in Dr. Way. It was a happy circumstance
where morbid bilious matter came away in the beginning of the
disease. But it frequently resisted the most powerful cathartics until
the 5th or 7th day of the fever, at which time it appeared rather to
yield to the disorganization of the liver than to medicine. Where
sufficient blood-letting had been previously used, the patient
frequently recovered, even after the black discharges from the
bowels took place in a late stage of the disease.
Dr. Coxe informed me, that he attended a child of seventeen
months old which had white stools for several days. Towards the
close of its disease it had black stools, and soon afterwards died.
Several of my patients discharged worms during the fever. In one
instance they were discharged from the mouth.
A preternatural frequency in making pale water attended the first
attack of the disease in Mr. Joseph Fisher.
A discharge of an unusual quantity of urine preceded, a few hours,
the death of the daughter of Mrs. Read.
In two of my patients there was a total suppression of urine. In
one of them it continued five days without exciting any pain.
There was no disposition to sweat after the first and second days
of the fever. Even in those states of the fever, in which the
intermissions were most complete, there was seldom any moisture,
or even softness on the skin. This was so characteristic of malignity
in the bilious fever, that where I found the opposite state of the skin,
towards the close of a paroxysm, I did not hesitate to encourage my

40. patient, by assuring him that his fever was of a mild nature, and
would most probably be safe in its issue.
III. I saw no unusual marks of the disease in the nervous system.
The mind was seldom affected by delirium after the loss of blood.
There was a disposition to shed tears in two of my patients. One of
them wept during the whole time of a paroxysm of the fever. In one
case I observed an uncommon dulness of apprehension, with no
other mark of a diseased state of the mind. It was in a man whose
faculties, in ordinary health, acted with celerity and vigour.
Dr. Caldwell informed me of a singular change which took place in
the operations of his mind during his recovery from the fever. His
imagination carried him back to an early period of his life, and
engaged him, for a day or two, in playing with a bow and arrow, and
in amusements of which he had been fond when a boy. A similar
change occurred in the mind of my former pupil, Dr. Fisher, during
his convalescence from the yellow fever in 1793. He amused himself
for two days in looking over the pictures of a family Bible which lay
in his room, and declared that he found the same kind of pleasure in
this employment that he did when a child. However uninteresting
these facts may now appear, the time will come when they may
probably furnish useful hints for completing the physiology and
pathology of the mind.
Where blood-letting had not been used, patients frequently died of
convulsions.
IV. The senses of seeing and feeling were impaired in several
cases. Mrs. Bradford's vision was so weak that she hardly knew her
friends at her bed-side. I had great pleasure in observing this
alarming symptom suddenly yield to the loss of four ounces of blood.
Several persons who died of this fever did not, from the beginning
to the end of the disease, feel any pain. I shall hereafter endeavour
to explain the cause of this insensible state of the nerves.
The appetite for food was unimpaired for three days in Mr. Andrew
Brown, at a time when his pulse indicated a high grade of the fever.

41. I heard of several persons who ate with avidity just before they died.
V. Glandular swellings were very uncommon in this fever. I should
have ascribed their absence to the copious use of depleting
remedies in my practice, had I not been informed that morbid
affections of the lymphatic glands were unknown in the city hospital,
where blood-letting was seldom used, and where the patients, in
many instances, died before they had time to take medicine of any
kind.
VI. The skin was cool, dry, smooth, and even shining in some
cases. Yellowness was not universal. Those small red spots, which
have been compared to moscheto bites, occurred in several of my
patients. Dr. John Duffield, who acted as house surgeon and
apothecary at the city hospital, informed me that he saw vibices on
the skin in many cases, and that they were all more or less sore to
the touch.
VII. The blood was dissolved in a few cases. That appearance of
the blood, which has been compared to the washings of flesh, was
very common. It was more or less sizy towards the close of the
disease in most cases. I have suspected, from this circumstance,
that this mark of ordinary morbid action or inflammation was in part
the effect of the mercury acting upon the blood-vessels. It is well
known that sizy blood generally accompanies a salivation. If this
conjecture be well founded, it will not militate against the use of
mercury in malignant fevers, for it shows that this valuable medicine
possesses a power of changing an extraordinary and dangerous
degree of morbid action in the blood-vessels to that which is more
common and safe. I have seldom seen a yellow fever terminate
fatally after the appearance of sizy blood.
Dr. Stewart informed me, that in those cases in which the serum
of the blood had a yellow colour, it imparted a saline taste only to his
tongue. He was the more struck with this fact, as he perceived a
strong bitter state upon his skin, in a severe attack of the yellow
fever in 1793.

42. I proceed next to take notice of the type of the fever.
In many cases, it appeared in the form of a remitting and
intermitting fever. The quotidian and tertian forms were most
common. In Mr. Robert Wharton, it appeared in the form of a
quartan. But it frequently assumed the character which is given of
the same fever in Charleston, by Dr. Lining. It came on without
chills, and continued without any remission for three days, after
which the patient believed himself to be well, and sometimes rose
from his bed, and applied to business. On the fourth or fifth day, the
fever returned, and unless copious evacuations had been used in the
early stage of the disease, it generally proved fatal. Sometimes the
powers of the system were depressed below the return of active
fever, and the patient sunk away by an easy death, without pain,
heat, or a quick pulse. I have been much puzzled to distinguish a
crisis of the fever on the third or fourth day, from the insidious
appearance which has been described. It deceived me in 1793. It
may be known by a preternatural coolness in the skin, and languor
in the pulse, by an inability to sit up long without fatigue or
faintness, by a dull eye, and by great depression of mind, or such a
flow of spirits as sometimes to produce a declaration from the
patient that “he feels too well.” Where these symptoms appear, the
patient should be informed of his danger, and urged to the
continuance of such remedies as are proper for him.
The following states or forms were observable in the fever:
1. In a few cases, the miasmata produced death in four and
twenty hours, with convulsions, coma, or apoplexy.
2. There were open cases, in which the pulse was full and tense
as in a pleurisy or rheumatism, from the beginning to the end of the
fever. They were generally attended with a good deal of pain.
3. There were depressed or locked cases, in which there were a
sense of great debility, but little or no pain, a depressed and slow
pulse, a cool skin, cold hands and feet, and obstructed excretions.

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