The yellow fever epidemic of 1878 in Memphis, Tenn. : embracing a complete list of the dead, the names of the doctors and nurses employed, names of all who contributed money or means, and the names and history of the Howards, together with other data, and lists of the dead elsewhere / by J.M. Keating.

  • Keating, John McLeod, 1830-1906
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The yellow fever epidemic of 1878 in Memphis, Tenn. : embracing a complete list of the dead, the names of the doctors and nurses employed, names of all who contributed money or means, and the names and history of the Howards, together with other data, and lists of the dead elsewhere / by J.M. Keating. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tivity. That although vitiated or infectious air may be conveyed in goods and in various ways to distant places, ventilation speedily dissipates it; and that if disease results, where it is much concentrated, or with very susceptible in- dividuals, it extends no farther, except under the conditions above specified.* But further than this, the commission—after most careful scrutiny into the actual occurrences of the first irruption of the fever, its spread, the character of its localization, the persons most liable and suffering, from whatever class and country—have converted presumptive proof into positive certainty, that the fever originated with us; that its fatal malignity and spread were justly attributable to a very remarkable concurrence and combination of atmos- pheric and terrine causes, always particularly fatal to human health and life, Dowler strengthens this indigenous theory by the citation of another instance of epidemic yellow fever which could not otherwise be accounted for. It occurred in 1797, at New^ Design, a small town fifteen miles from the Mississippi River and twenty from St. Louis. It carried oflT one-fourtli of the inhabitants. Not even one person had visited the place from places where the fever prevailed. Still another instance is furnished by the same distinguished author. Ho says ••■ Dr. Drake, of Nashville, at a meeting of the Davidson County Medical Society, on the loth of March, of this year, 1879, in a speech wortliy of the subject and of tlie dis- tinguislied body before whicli it was made, sustains the position taken by the New Orleans Commission of 1853, and fortifies it by facts as follows: The testimony of Dr. Wilkes and others suggest some very important deductions. Dr. Webb returned from Memphis [in 1878] to his liome carrying the germs of yellow fever about his clothing. His wife and chil- dren took the disease and died, and yet he escaped. How was this ? His duties kept him in the open air, more or less, while the female inmates of his family were more or less confined to the house, where the germs found a lodgment from his cast-ofF clothing. In this room the poison evidently existed in the greatest quantity; and the constant oc- cupants were the first to suffer. At Jackson, a gentleman who had been to Memphis [1878] hung up his clothes in a wardrobe, the weather being warm. After several days his wife opened the door and took the garments out. We would suppose that in a close, hot room the i^oison would multiply itself in this lime until the air would be heavy with it; and so it seemed in this case, for the lady took the yellow fever and died, followed in due time by the rest of the family. Why was not the importer of the disease the first to take it ? He had the germs with him most certainly. Evidently, the poisoned atmosphere around him while en route was too much diluted by fresh air to affect him beyond his powers of ordinary resistance. The inmates of his house were differently situated; con- fined in-doors, they breathed the poisoned atmosphere generated in unwholesome quanti- ties, and so were the first victims, while his habits led him out into the open air, and he only took the disease when he was confined at home ministering to the sick. Again: the inhabitants of the tents in the neighborhood of Memphis principally escaped for the same reason, namely, that they were not exposed to an atmosphere sufficiently charged with the poison to produce morbific effects. This seems to be the only solution; for, if the active malific cause was general in its operations—atmospheric, and not specific—then those people would surely have suffered and died as they did at the city a few miles away. So it seems, from all this, that the danger from yellow fever grows in proportion to the stagnation and confinement of the air in a given quarter. Infected rooms become dangerous in proportion to the want of ventilation; and cellars, for obvious reasons, would be charged to saturation. The holds of vessels and the apartments of freight cars would become particularly dangerous.