Excerpt from The Early History of Quarantine: Origin of Sanitary Measures Directed Against Yellow Fever
The story of the beginnings of quarantine is associated particularly with the epidemiology of leprosy, pest, and syphilis. Cholera and yellow fever were later considerations. The first reported prevalence of yellow fever was at Bridgetown, Barbados, in 1647, the year before the great pest of Habana. At this time quarantine measures had been practiced against other malignant contagious diseases, a maritime quarantine station having been in operation at Venice in 1403, nearly a century before the discovery of America. It was only necessary to include yellow fever in the category of contagious exotic diseases and apply against the malady the procedures already in vogue. The first appearance of yellow fever in Europe occurred at Lisbon in 1723, and is described in the article "Yellow fever in Portugal" (Bulletin No.4, Yellow Fever Institute, United States Public Health and Marine Hospital Service). It was not, however, until 1821, following an extensive epidemic in Spain, that quarantine was applied in Europe against yellow fever. The Spanish academies were interpellated as to the nature of the disease, and as a result of their replies yellow fever was declared quarantinable. Inquiry in England in 1823 and 1824 was followed by an act of Parliament directing quarantine against yellow fever in the same way as against plague. Quarantine theory and practice have from the beginning followed medical dogma. Religion, astrology, and crude or false doctrines of etiology extended their influence. Like most branches of practical medicine, the practice of quarantine passed from the hands of priests into those of empiricists. It took ages for public sanitation to establish itself on a scientific basis.
Leprosy And Land Quarantines.
The first quarantines of which any mention is made in literature were land quarantines used as a protection against leprosy. The ancients regarded this disease as of African origin, and Lucretius states positively that it first came from Egypt. In the Old Testament the first indications are found of precautions taken against contagious maladies. Leviticus, Numbers, and the First Book of Samuel give directions for the sequestration of lepers, first in the desert, then outside the camp, and afterwards without the walls of Jerusalem. In these books the inspection of persons for the detection of leprosy is detailed. Persons afflicted with skin diseases were directed to present themselves before the priests. An observation of each case was made, and, according to minutely described symptoms, isolation of the patients was ordered for a prescribed period.
The crusaders on their arrival outside the walls of Jerusalem found lazarettoes still in existence, and after taking the city from the Mussulmans sent all contagious maladies to these isolated places. The name Hospital of St. Lazarus was given to the place of sequestration.
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