The cause and prevention of yellow fever at New Orleans and other cities in America / by E.H. Barton.
- Barton, Edward H.
- Date:
- 1857
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The cause and prevention of yellow fever at New Orleans and other cities in America / by E.H. Barton. Source: Wellcome Collection.
26/440 page 18
![shape. We regard it as one of the most important contributions to medicine of the present day. The testimonials which Dr. B. has received, to its excellbnce from the highest sources in our courtry, show the favor with which it has been received. That yellow fever is 9.preventable dis- ease is a proposition full of encouragement, and one which Dr. Barton believes to be very satisfactorily sustained by his observations at New Orleans. [Prom the New Orleans Creole.] REPORT OP THE SANITARY COMMISSION. This most important volume has been placed in our hands by the kindness of Dr. Barton. It contains a fund of information on the inter- esting subject of the public health of New Orleans which is invaluable. It manifests vast labor and long research, and from a cursory glance at its contents we are led to believe that no views ave expressed not sus- tained by an astonishing array of facts. Of one thing we are convinced that this work will demonstrate the fearful mortality occasionally witnessed in this city to be the result of gross neglect of sanitary laws by our public authorities. We have presented the singular spectacle of a great commercial city, with interests, vast and growing in magnitude each year, to a great de- gree dependent upon the prevalence of health, without taking a single step to prevent the prevalence of epidemics. Experience should have long ere this, taught wisdom, but we seem, with stoicism of the Orien- tal fatalist, to have patiently borne whatever fate presented, without at- tempting to avert its bloAV or enquire into its cause. ^ That there are laws governing the appearance of yellow fever in th>i city must be evident to all: for nature never works by chanee. Whew our population had been repeatedly almost decimated in a few months, bsuiness arrested and the prospects of the future blasted by this terrible scourge, it was the dictate of reason to have inquired into the cause ; to have brought all the powers of observation and reflection to a solu- tion of the question, how the health of New Orleans could be preserv- ed—the fearful visitation averted. _ And yet the public authority has virtually done nothing. With dith- culty was means obtained from the treasury to put into durable form the result of the long and careful labors of the profession best qualified to investigate the facts presented and deduce conclusions from them. The views contained in this volume are so important, and the conclu- sions reached furnish such unmistakeable evidence that human means may ameliorate, perhaps absolutely prevent, the recurrence of epidem- ics, that we must take the liberty on a future occasion to condense and popularize them in the hope of inducing a more enlightened attoniion to the subject! of public health. [From the Philadelphia Medical Examiner.] If the calamitous invasion of the pestilence of 1853 had produ.;ed^_no ■better ultimate effect upon the sanitary fortunes of the Crescent City than the development of this voluminous and most elaborate Keport, there would be reason for material consolation in the vitally important](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20402521_0026.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
