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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    A low temperature is doubtless an efficient disinfectant so long as it continues to be present. ]^ew cases cease to appear and old cases improve, as a rule, as soon as the temperature of the air falls below 72°. Furthermore, it has happened that ships (the Jamestown, for example*) have become infected, gone to a cold climate, and, having been there broken out, cleaned, and exposed to a freezing temperature for some months, have returned to the yellow-fever zone without suffering from a return of the disease. A bill has lately (1879) received the approval of Congress for the construction, at a cost not to ex- ceed 1200,000, of a refrigerating-ship, for the sole purpose of inducing a low temperature in infected vessels. On the other hand, even prolonged exposure to a temperature below the freezing point has not always secured infected ves- sels against a return of yellow fever when again subjected to favorable conditions. The experience of the Plymouth is here in point, and that of the Susquehanna is still more apposite. The following published letter from Medical Director E. T. Maccount gives a concise statement of the facts: A severe epidemic of yellow fever occurred on board the U. S. S. Susquehanna, at Grey Town, Central America, in 1858. The Susquehanna came direct from England and the Mediter- ranean, a few months before, with a perfectly healthy crew, and yellow fever was unknown at Grey Town. As soon as the fever showed itself the vessel went to sea, bound north, but in the course of a few days so many firemen and coalheavers were pros- trated by the disease that she was obliged to touch at Jamaica, en route, to procure men to work the ship. By kind permission of the authorities, nearly one hundred cases were landed at the Eoyal Naval Hospital, Kingston, and the ship proceeded on her way north, the disease still continuing its ravages; and on her arrival at New York, one hundred additional cases were landed at the quarantine hospital. Yellow fever had prevailed on board the Susquehanna on a previous cruise; but in the interim she had been exposed to the cold climate of the north, and as there was no fever at *Mecl. Essays, 1873; Dr. Bloodgoocl's report, already cited. tN. Y. Med. Record, October 26, 1878.