EPIDEMICS

Cholera Epidemic of 1834

ROYAL GAZETTE, CHARLOTTETOWN, TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1834

In consequence of the prevalence of a rumour that several cases of Cholera had occurred at a place called Black Bush, on the North Shore, near to where the John Wallace, from Quebec, was lately wrecked, and also that a person of the name of Wallace had died of it in the neighbourhood of St. Andrew's, Drs. De St. Croix and Mackieson were dispatched by His Honor the President on Thursday last, to make the necessary inquiries into the truth of the rumour. Their Report, which is subjoined, was communicated by his Honor to the Central Board of Health, who directed it to be published, for the purpose of suppressing any alarm that may have arisen on the subject of Cholera, of which disease there seems not to exist the smallest trace in the Island.

Charlottetown, Aug. 16th, 1834.

SIR - In obedience to your Honor's commands, on Thursday the 14th inst., as soon as the necessary conveyance could be procured, we left town and proceeded to St. Margaret's, Lot 45, for the purpose of ascertaining the nature of a disease reported to be prevalent in that district, supposed to be malignant Asiatic Cholera, and to have been communicated from the John Wallace, a vessel from Quebec lately wrecked in that neighbourhood, on board of which we have reason to fear that four cases of the disease had actually occurred.

Smallpox Outbreak of 1849

THE ISLANDER OR PRINCE EDWARD WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER, FRIDAY, JANUARY 26, 1849

Rumours having reached Charlottetown that the Small Pox introduced into the Eastern part of the Island, from St. John's, Newfoundland, was spreading to an alarming extent among the inhabitants. His Excellency Sir Donald Campbell, with that promptitude and benevolence of purpose which have characterized every act of his administration, wherever the welfare of the people is concerned, determined to visit in person the scene of the disease, in order, in the first place, to ascertain if precautionary measures had been adopted by the local authorities to arrest its progress; and secondly, to see that its unfortunate victims were properly attended to.

With these views, His Excellency, accompanied by the Hon. Mr. Haviland, left town for Souris on Monday last; from whence he returned on Tuesday evening; and from the information with which we have been favoured, our apprehensions of the disease extending itself beyond its present locality, are greatly allayed. We are glad to learn that it is as yet confined to the passengers and crew of the Schr. Damsel, in which vessel the disease was brought to Grand River; among these, twenty-three in number, fourteen cases have occurred, seven of which have proved fatal.