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
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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![iinate, iiotwitlistanding the exposures liis patients were necessarily subjected to, not to have even one case of relapse, furnished, by request, the following as his method of practice : To deal iu the various theories advanced by men who have spent years of devotional industry in the attempt to explain the nature of the insidious matris niorbi of yellow fever, is beyond the intention of this paper; the object is to prove that whatsoever has been administered to the sick as a curative agent, based either on scientific principles rr emp^•rical notions, have all alike been barren of fruit. The sanitarian and scientist, assisted by the charity and generosity of the educated masses, have failed to check its fearful ravages, even under favorable meteorological conditions. The inhabitants of Camp Joe Williams were composed in the m;iiu (,f citizens of what was then known as the infected district (Poplar, Yv'ashir.gto;), Adams, etc.), who were removed by a detailed j)olice force, under the vigilant supervision of the Citizens' Relief Committee, to the cam}). (Jn their arrival, every article of clothing or bedding which favoj-cil the propagation of the dis- ease, was, by order of the surgeon iu charge, consumed by fire. Of course, among so many hundred people, cases were soon developed, and most of them run that fatal course which is so characteristic of the dis- ease. The remarkable and favorable feature of Camp AVilliams was that the disease did not spread among the inhabitants, i;or did those who visited the camp from the surrounding country contract the disease. Those who visited the city soon died, or were quite ill f )r a time, while he or she who feared the place of death steered clvar. Parties from the infected district joined those from the non-infectetl, living in common, occupying at niglit a small A tent—the former die, the latter escape. Every case which happened substantiated these facts. The details of several cases may not be out of place. The first case that happened was i\Ir. E., a pninter; the di.-ease run the usual fatal course, and on the fourth day l;e died. He was cared f ir assiduously Ity two friends, a lady and gentleman. Neither of these took the disease. Mrs. D. arrived at camp from the iirfected portion of the city. She took the fever a few days after her arrival. She and her husband occupied a small, close tent, during her illness, even sleeping together in the same bed. She recovered; he escaped the fever entirely. Another striking illustration of the non-contagious character of the disease is the following: INIrs. S., aged 40, the mother of four children, developed a case of fever. She was ordeied to the hospital, her chil- dren to be cared for some distance from the hos])ifal, in tents. One day these children took advantage of a favorable opportunity, stole away to the hospitid, in which their mother lay sick of the fever, and in \\ liich several had died. Dur- ing my evening visit to the mother, I found them gathered around her bed. My first intention was to have them immediately removed to their isolated quarters. But the children wept and entreated that they might be permitted to remain with their mother, while she argued that she could not survive, and begged that I would let them remain with her. The mother recovered; none of the children were attacked. In the wards of the male hospital were employed eight male nurses, five of whom, after nursing for three or four weeks among fifteen or twenty patients in all stages of the fever, thinking themselves proof against](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21354017_0061.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
