Report on yellow fever in the U.S.S. Plymouth in 1878-'9 / prepared under the direction of Philip S. Wales.

  • Bureau of Medicine and Surgery
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on yellow fever in the U.S.S. Plymouth in 1878-'9 / prepared under the direction of Philip S. Wales. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    causes of dry rot, and coiitaiiiiug many places impossible to be exposed to the benign influences of air and light, she seems to have rapidly degenerated almost from the day of her launching into premature decaj'. In such a shi]3 the sound condition of the vessel and of the crew she carries are alike imperiled. In her inaccessible recesses masses of organic matter unavoidably accumulate and remain putrescent, unseen, unsuspected, but constantly poisoning the air and inviting disease. The second consideration which presents itself is that she was provided with stores brought from a place long known to be dangerously infected with the poison of yellow fever. Many of the packages examined by the board bore the mark of the naval store-house on the isle of Enchados in the harbor of Eio de Janeiro, where many fatal cases of yellow fever have been engendered. Some of these packages were of a nature well calculated to hold and carry the germs of the disease even through a cold climate. The third i3oint to be noted is that just before the appearance of the fever on board, the Plymouth had taken a great quantity of coal from St. Thomas, a dreaded source of yellow fever, and where the disease was prevailing at the time. From one or both of these causes of infection came the germ or seed which found a most congenial soil for its fructification in the decayed ship, which had been cruising for years in the yellow fever zone, and which contained beneath the flooring of her holds and store-rooms the putrefying materials which are almost invariably found associated with outbreaks of this disease. Under these highly favorable conditions the fever naturally became epidemic, as the flame follows the spark falling among inflammable materials. Once lodged in such a nidus it is easy to understand how difficult it would be to destroy these germs by methods of dis- infection ordinarily efficient. Finally, at the risk of prolixity and tiresome repetition, the board would earnestly call attention to the important lesson to be learned from the experience with the Plymouth. The ships of the ISTavy, to be safe from epidemic disease, must be built of timber completely seasoned and prepared, by some