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.
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![all events, requiring but a brief duration to produce its influence, in- stead of months of preparation. The foundation of all scientific prediction is, that an occurrence once happening, dependent upon certain well ascertained contingencies, may be foretold upon the basis of their repetition; thus it is known that a certain flower will bloom when the sum of the squares of the daily mean of temperatures reaches a certain point from the last freeze of winter; for instance, the common lilac blooms, when this sum reaches 7607° Fahrenheit; and again, the result will follow, if cer- tain causes known to be the productive of the disease, (with the addition- al element—constitutional liability) unite in the requisite proportions. The prediction of the epidemic yellow fever of 1853, was not and could not be on meteorological grounds alone, for the reasons above stated— they were not and could not be known with sufficient definiteness beforehand; the contingency of i^ej?* happening was the only doubt entertained—for nearly all my grounds were based on the presence of the other blade of the shears—the terrene, and such had not failed in the preceding sixty years. It was upon this that I was enabled also to announce, before-hand, the expectation of the epidemics of 1854 and '55.* * I make the following extract from the great work on yellow fever of my friend Dr. La Eoche, ii., p. 405: To the credit of Dr. Barton it may be stated that so early as the 6th of June [last week in May] of that momentous year, he predicted the forthcoming fearful mortality of 1853. At a meeting of the New Orleans Academy of Sciences held that day, he exhibited a chart of the mortality of the city since 1787. Among many other interesting facts developed by the chart, [vide chart A], he called attention to some recorded above; ' and to the inquiry as to the probability of an epidemic during the coming season, he replied, that judging from the past, if the facts exhibited by the chart were not merely coincidences, he was compelled to appre- hend that the present year would be masked by a great augmentation of disease. The sim- ultaneous construction of four railroads in and around the city—the digging of a new basin of vast extent in the rear of the city—the enlargement of the canal Carondelet—the open sewers —scarcity of water—insuificient drainage, and the practice of spreading over the streets the horrible filth of the gutters to fester and reek in the sun—if all these are continued during the hot months, with the proper meteorological condition, our exemption from a SKviatK kpidkmio would almost seem MiBAOtrLous.' * Here let it be remembered, is an epidemic predicted on data of a positive kind by an experienced and observant physician ; and when that epidemic arrives, some are found to at- tribute it to importation from abroad, and quarantine measures are suggested to guard against the further introduction of the disease. * Published proceedings of the New Orleans Academy of Sciences, i: p. 11.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20402521_0050.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
