OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND.
 

373
 

CHAPTER KVlll
 

town
tion.
 

OWARDS the close of 1849, people be¬
gan to fear another visitation of the
cholera. In July a public meeting was
held in Hagerstown to see that the
vv-as clean and in a healthy condi-
Hagerstown escaped, but, as on a previous
occasion, the disease was fatal in Williamsport.
In the early months of the summer of 1853 there
were thirty-nine deaths from cholera in and
around AVilliamsport; thirty-two of them were in
the town. The symptoms characterizing the dis¬
ease made many of the physicians deny that it
was true Asiatic cholera.

"The first fatal cases were attended by the
symptoms of cholera morbus alone. Subsequent
attacks were attended by more strongly marked
peculiarities of cholera; 3'et there yvas still an ab¬
sence of many of its prominent features., AVhere
diarrhoea, sickness of the stomach and cramps
were the first symptoms, successful treatment was
not difficult; yet a bilious condition succeeded
whicli left the system—already exhausted—to un¬
dergo a second treatment, .different in its char¬
acter, yet none the less rigorous than the first.
So, in instances where a bilious derangement was
the first symptom, and readily yielded to medical
care, the peculiarities of cholera developed them¬
selves, generally in their worst form. Since the
first few cases, too, the disease assumed an en¬
tirely different phase. There was an almost en¬
tire absence of cramps and retchings—the patient
sinking almost immediately into a collapse—cold¬
ness succeeding, "with a constant watery discharge.
 

which soon proved fatal, without any apparent
pain or suff'ering. Of these latter cases, death
in some instances resulted in a few hours."*

The next week, after there had been a cessa¬
tion of the disease, the weather became cooler;
the mortality immediately increased, and there
were five or six deaths in a few days and a dozen
violent cases. In the families of the Alessrs.
Beatty, who resided in the vicnity of the town, the
fatahty was terrible, some eight persons, w-hite
and colored, having died in five days, one or two
C(dored boys died below the town, and Air. Nei-
kirk some miles above it; there were several cases
at Letter's A till on the Conococheague, but no
deaths. AAdlliam G. Van Lear, a native of AAdl-
liamsport, who had settled in Cumberland, died
in that town of cholera during the summer. The
College of St. James, although the health of the
students remained good, yet as a precautionery
measure, was closed for the summer vacation two
weeks earlier than usual. In Hagerstown, prob¬
ably by reason of the thorough cleansing wliich
the town had received, there was not a single case,
and all through the epidemic at Williamsport, the
health of Hagerstown was remarkably good. A
victim of cholera in 1854 was Capt. John D.
Hart, of Hancock. He was passing through Wood
Co., Ohio, and there he and his brother were
taken with cholera and died in a few hours. Capt.
Hart fought the Britisii in 1812 on the northern
frontier. In 1844, he was a member of the As¬
sembly, and had held other offices. At the time
of his death he was sixt3'-six years of age.
 

♦Williamsport Journal of the Times.