In midsummer of 1817, the blaze of fever was over the entire country.

It had burst forth in almost a thousand different points.

Within the short space of a month, in the summer of 1817, the epidemic sprung forth in Tramore, Youghal, Kinsale, Tralee, and Clonmel, in Carrick-on-Suir, Iloscrea, Ballina, Castlebar, Belfast, Armagh, Omagh, Londonderry, Monasterevan, Tullamore and Slane.

This simultaneous break-out shows that there must have been some universal cause." Again: "The poor were deprived of employment and were driven from the doors where before they had always received relief, lest they should introduce disease with them.
Thus, destitution and fever continued in a vicious circle, each impelling the other, while want of presence of mind aggravated a thousandfold the terrible infliction.

Of the miseries that attend a visitation of epidemic fever, few can form a conception.