Chapter Eleven: A Modern-Day Time Bomb Summary and Analysis

September 1, 1858. Yellow fever epidemics had struck Manhattan and surrounding areas during the early to mid 1700s and then every year from 1791 through 1821. After a gap of thirty-seven years, it struck again. The medical experts in New York knew little more than the doctors did in Philadelphia in 1793. However, New York had established stricter quarantine regulations for the sick. Just as in Philadelphia, most New Yorkers looked at the disease as imported from a foreign country. New Yorkers blamed the Irish for the disease.

The Quarantine Hospital in New York was considered the country's foremost facility for treating yellow fever. It was praised for its attention to hygiene and general cleanliness. A gang of masked vigilantes attacked the hospital on September 1, 1858. The mob pulled the sick from their beds and dragged them...