Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 | The Great Debate | 4

American History Tellers

Wondery

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, History, Education For Kids

4.7 • 18.3K Ratings

🗓️ 30 November 2022

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The yellow fever epidemic of 1793 posed one of the greatest threats to the young United States. Doctors and scientists couldn’t agree on the cause or the treatment. They split into factions and debated their theories publicly. On today’s show, Thomas Apel, historian and author of Feverish Bodies, Enlightened Minds: Science and the Yellow Fever Controversy in the Early American Republic, joins host Lindsay Graham to discuss how science, religion and politics were intertwined in the controversy surrounding the epidemic.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to American History Tellers add free on Amazon Music,
0:05.6	download the app today.
0:09.4	Imagine it's July 1795.
0:20.2	You're the health inspector for the port of New York, and you're standing on the main
0:24.7	deck of a merchant brig, the Zeffer, docked at South Street Seaport.
0:28.9	The ship arrived late last night from Saundaming, and you're here to examine its crew to determine
0:34.0	whether any of them are carrying contagious diseases that might endanger the city.
0:38.4	The Zeffer's grizzled captain stands beside you as you gaze down at a young and sweaty
0:43.0	assistant engineer, slumped over on a wooden stool.
0:46.3	Oh, this is the last of them, Doc.
0:49.0	You hold a hand to the engineer's forehead.
0:50.8	Oh, you're burning up.
0:52.7	And he headaches.
0:53.7	The man nods as he presses two fingers to his wrist, and your heart rate feels slow.
0:59.0	When he rests and lots of it, captain packs the engineer's shoulder.
1:03.2	It's nothing that an extra drama rum won't fix.
1:05.8	You'll be fine in no time, won't you?
1:07.9	The engineer smiles weekly.
1:09.7	I'm sure he will be captain.
1:11.2	But what's this I hear about?
1:12.5	A death you had on board.
1:14.5	A captain scratches his beard.
	...

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