Mobile (Ala.). Committee on Causes and Extent of the Late Extraordinary Sickness and Mortality in the Town

This author credit refers not to a single writer, but to a committee formed in Mobile, Alabama, to examine a severe episode of sickness and mortality in the town. Surviving catalog records and digital editions identify the group as the creator of Report of the committee appointed to investigate the causes and extent of the late extraordinary sickness and mortality in the town of Mobile, first published in Mobile in 1819 and issued in a Philadelphia edition in 1820.

The report is an early American public-health document focused on epidemic disease, commonly cataloged under yellow fever and epidemics. Library records note that it was signed by members of the committee, including Jacob Ludlow, suggesting a collaborative civic effort rather than an individual literary career.

Because this was a municipal committee rather than a person, there is no single author portrait to use here. What remains most interesting is the document itself: a concise, firsthand investigation into disease, sanitation, and urban life in the Gulf South at a time when communities were still struggling to explain and contain deadly outbreaks.