Lower East Side Tenement Museum

Health and Disease

Contents
Health and Disease >> Childbirth in the late 19th Century >> Cholera >> Marasmus and Scrofula >> Hydrocephalus >> Byssinosis >> Typhus Fever >> Typhoid Fever >> Polio >> Infant Mortality >> Combating Epidemics at the Turn of the Century >> Tuberculosis

Typhoid Fever
Typhoid fever, commonly confused with typhus fever, is caused by different bacteria and has somewhat differing symptoms. Victims are beset with fever, headache, malaise, loss of appetite, spots on the body and constipation. Exposure comes from water or food contaminated with the feces or urine of a typhoid victim or carrier. There was about a 20 percent mortality rate among those who showed symptoms in the outbreak of 1906. Today, modern antibiotics have brought that figure down to less than one percent.

About 3,500 cases were reported in New York City in 1906. Most of the victims were immigrants, and several of them were hired help for wealthy New Yorkers. Medical investigators for these well-to-do families traced one source of the sickness to an Irish cook named Mary Mallon. Nicknamed "Typhoid Mary" by public health officials and picked up by the media, this 40-year old, feisty woman was forcibly removed to North Brother Island for testing and seclusion. Miraculously, she manifested no symptoms, but tests revealed that she carried the typhoid bacteria in her body.

As the quarantine of "Typhoid Mary" became big news, letters from sympathizers poured in, and she was able to gain the support of a defense lawyer. She was released on her own recognizance after a lengthy trial in February 1910, promising never to handle food again. Mallon subsequently went underground, assumed several aliases, and continued to prepare food for others. She was linked to an outbreak in New Jersey in 1914, and finally captured in 1915 after 20 cases of typhoid were traced to the kitchen where she worked in New York's Sloane Hospital for Women. Mallon remained in detention on North Brother Island for the rest of her life.

The story of "Typhoid Mary" is noteworthy because Mary Mallon's Irish heritage did not fuel anti-Irish sentiment in New York. As a lone young, bright, seemingly healthy woman, she became a romantic, sympathetic figure to many. Also, by 1906, Irish Catholics were increasingly assimilated into larger society, taking on powerful role in the local government of New York City's Tammany Hall.

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