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.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    Orleans Commission of 1853, and of Bell, although these, as ■v\ill be shown later on, are fully sustained by a weight of authority at least equal to that of the Commission, and by the fact that yellow fever has become nat- uralized in the West Indies,* in Mexico, in Brazil, and in New Orleans. They declare that yellow fever is not domiciled in the United States, and that every epidemic that has occurred has been in chronological sequence to the countries south of us, with which we are in communication. They deny that it has ever originated indigenously in this country, and assert that it is always the result of importation, and invariably prevails in some sea-port before attacking the interior. Yet they say cases have occurred here where the specific poison, when hidden from the cold in sheltered places, has given rise the succeeding summer to scattered cases. It is transmitted, they also contend, by steam and sailing vessels, barges, per- sonal clothing, baggage, ordinary merchandise; also by yellow fever patients, who are responsible for more epidemics, they say, than all other causes, though instances are not wanting where they failed to occasion other cases. The yellow fever is a fever of one paroxysm continuoush' from 24 to 72 and and sometimes 96 hours. According to Dr. Faget, of the faculty of Paris, V>'ho, during a residence of 2b years in NeAV Orleans, has closely observed it, it is strongly individual in its characteristics. For, whereas, in paludal fevers there are generally two or more paroxysms, sometimes a continued series of them, j^ellow fever has but one single parox3'sra. And, whereas, in the former the period of defervescence, during which the temperature regains its normal degree, is only from 30 to 48 hours, in the latter it averaged 96 hours. In 2)aludal fevers there is a perfect concord between the line of the pulse and that of tlie temperature, while in yellow fever the line of the jiulse descends, but that of the temperature maintains itself or rises. According to the observa- tions of Dr. Faget and othere, made during the epidemic of 1870, in New Orleans, it should be six or seven days (6 X 24 = 144 hours). In summing up the march of the temperature. Dr. Faget says, the fever is characterized by a unique paroxysm, with an effervescence of one to three days, followed by a defervescence of four to seven days, without any stationary stage. The duration of the yellow fever is stated by Dr. La Roche to be three days—a febrile stage of about seventy hours' duration, more or less, is succeeded by a period of complete cessation of fever. Dowler declares it to be non-contagious and to result fi-om an antecedent Avholly unknown. And Dupuy de Chamberry, whom he quotes, states positively that the yellow fever of this place (New Orleans) is a disease sui r/eneris, the product of local cavises, find is never contagious or exportable. Dr. Dowell, the latest medical writer on yellow fever, describes it as an eruptive or exanthe- matous fever, infectious or contagious from persons or clothes under circum- stances not yet known. The medical experts appointed by Congress in De- cember, 1878, declare it to be a specific disease produced by the introduction into the human organism of a specific poison, and that, though this specific If it did not originate there or in Mexico.