9205. YELLOW FEVER, Cities and.—
[As to] the town which you have done me the
honor to name after me, and to lay out according
to an idea I had formerly expressed to you,
I am thoroughly persuaded that it will be found
handsome and pleasant, and I do believe it
to be the best means of preserving the cities
of America from the scourge of the yellow
fever, which being peculiar to our country, must
be derived from some peculiarity in it. That
peculiarity I take to be our cloudless skies. In
Europe, where the sun does not shine more
than half the number of days in the year which
it does in America, they can build their town
in a solid block with impunity; but here a
constant sun produces too great an accumulation
of heat to admit that. Ventilation is indispensably
necessary. Experience has taught
us that in the open air of the country the
yellow fever is not only not generated, but
ceases to be infectious.—
To Governor Harrison. Washington ed. iv, 471.
(W.
1803)
