Stranger's fever in Charleston, South Carolina: a mistaken diagnosis?
George Augustus Clough was a young Englishman who died in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1843. The cause of death, which unusually was given on his gravestone, was Stranger's fever, which is now known to be yellow fever. Stranger's fever first appeared in North America in Florida in 1649, and continued to cause both sporadic cases as well as serious epidemics, mainly in the South and along the Eastern seaboard of the US until the beginning of the twentieth century. It gained its name from its propensity to mainly afflict recent arrivals, and Clough had only been in Charleston for two years before his death. However, a re-examination of the evidence suggests that he may not in fact have died of yellow fever.
Cohen
J
J
Department of History, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA. j.cohen@bsms.ac.uk
Cohen
J
J
D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013022:South Carolina; D015004:Yellow Fever / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000266:history*