Memoirs of Georgia; containing historical accounts of the state's civil, military, industrial and professional interests, and personal sketches of many of its people. Vol. II, Part 15

Author:
Publication date: 1859
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association
Number of Pages: 1166

USA > Georgia > Memoirs of Georgia; containing historical accounts of the state's civil, military, industrial and professional interests, and personal sketches of many of its people. Vol. II > Part 15

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What was the source of these cases of yellow fever in 1839 among the residents of Savannah? Importation. From whence? Both Augusta and Charleston. Dr. R. D. Arnold, who stoutly adhered to the local origin theory, says: "From 1830 to 1839 I never saw a case of yellow fever in the city. For fifteen consecutive summers I was the attending physician of the city hospital, whither the worst cases of our ordinary climate fevers were conveyed. In 1839 the city of Augusta was ravaged by this scourge; it was denied at the time that yellow fever pre- vailed there. In the last of August a patient fresh from Augusta entered the city hospital and died in a couple of days. The diagnosis was verified by post-mortem examination. A short time afterward a patient from Charleston entered and died of yellow fever, also verified by post-mortem section. These cases were placed in the wards filled with bilious fever patients. There was no propagation. Later in the season I did meet with several cases of yellow fever, but they were so few in number that I did not consider them as entitled to be considered epidemic. They were isolated, occurred in different parts of the city, and had not the slightest connection with the cases of the hospital." Here then are two separate and distinct introductions of yellow fever within a week or two from Augusta and Charleston, into Savannah, where no case had existed from 1828 to 1839-Savannah abso- lutely free of yellow fever until these cases were imported. If yellow fever origi- nated in Savannah in 1839 from local causes, is it not indeed strange that the disease appeared only after introduction of cases from Augusta and Charleston? Dr. Arnold says of the health of Savannah in 1839: "I still look back upon the year 1839 as the sickliest season I have ever experienced in Savannah, with the

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exception of the terrible epidemic of 1854. Old inhabitants will recollect it as the dryest summer on record, when turnips were planted in the bed of the Savannah river opposite Augusta. It was also a hot summer. Bilious fever prevailed over the whole country in a malignant form. Contrary to what would seem the fact at first view, such a season was peculiarly calculated to generate the malaria, which is the generally acknowledged cause of bilious fever. It is conceded that mere moisture will not produce malaria, but mix vegetable matter with water, and subject it to heat, and the most malignant malaria will be generated. That year swamps and ponds which had been covered with water since they had been known to the white man were dried up and the vegetable debris which had been precipitating to their bottom for years and years were exposed to the action of the sun and air, and consequently decomposed and generated malaria. Now bilious fever prevailed with great violence in our city from early in July. I can- not imagine more favorable circumstances for the spread of yellow fever than accompanied the introduction of those two cases in our city.".

Why did not the disease become epidemic? If local conditions could origi- nate yellow fever in Georgia, certainly here, according to the theories of the believ- ers in local origin, is the one time and place when the disease must of necessity have prevailed in giant proportions as to malignancy and extent. But it did not. Let the believers in the local origin theory explain it. Here, too, is a magnificent opportunity for those who claim that "malarial poison and the effects of extra- ordinary heat produce yellow fever" to explain why a frightful epidemic of yellow fever did not occur in Savannah in 1839. Here were both extreme heat and extreme malarial poison of the atmosphere of the entire city, yet no epidemic of yellow fever. To show the extensive prevalence and malignancy of malarial fevers in Savannah in 1839, I cite the fact that during the year there were 152 deaths from fevers in a population of 7,773. Of the epidemic of 1854, Hon. John E. Ward, then mayor of Savannah, says: "After an exemption of epidemics unknown to any other city, and the enjoyment of unexampled health for almost half a cen- tury, in the month of August last our citizens were startled with the announce- ment that the yellow fever had made its appearance as an epidemic. The first case of yellow fever occurred on Aug. 5 in a house situated at the southwest corner of Lincoln and Broughton streets. Regarded as merely a sporadic case it was not reported as yellow fever. Between that date and the middle of the month a few more cases occurred, but nothing to excite any alarm or create any apprehen- sion of an epidemic among us. About that date it manifested itself in an epidemic form, and swept with a fearful desolation over our city." The mortality from this epidemic was 639, -- whites 626, colored 13. The first case occurred Aug. 3, the last case Nov. 27. Mayor Ward's reports says: "The disease was exhibited in its greatest violence from Aug. 20 to Sept. 20 in the northeastern part of the city; it advanced directly to the southwest, spreading north and south until its influence was felt in every part of the city."

Causation .- On this point I quote the following from Mayor Ward's report: "One of the causes assigned was the removal of the mud in the dredging of the Savannah river, and depositing the same on the eastern wharves. I respectfully submit to you two letters, one from Licut. John Newton, the engineer in charge of the work, and the other from Francis Cercopely, the superintendent of the same, which, clearly establishing the fact that the mud was not placed on the eastern wharves, or in any manner exposed to the atmosphere, destroys the theory of those who had traced the existence of the fever to that causc.

"Another cause assigned has been the condition of the rice lands in the iinme- diate vicinity of our city. These lands at the time of the commencement of the

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fever, and during its greatcst violence were in good order and never healthier. Vegetation was not decaying, and there was no adequate cause for the disease to be found in them. After the banks had been broken by the storm-with vege- tation decaying, the lands overflowcd, and everything tending to increase the disease if it had originated from that source-it commenced to decrease, and before the middle of October, without frost or any other agency to which we had looked for its removal, it ceased to exist among us as an epidemic."

It was ascertained that the discase was introduced into Savannah by the Danish brig "Charlotte Hague"- three patients with yellow fever having been taken from this vessel and placed in a hospital in the city. In response to an official request of Mayor Ward, Dr. Mackall, the health officer, and Dr. Wragg submitted the following statement: "On June 30 last I was called to visit a vessel at Tybee reported as having sickness on board. I answered the call. Before reaching the vessel (which proved to be the Danish brig 'Charlotte Hague,' Capt. Buck), I found the captain and one seaman requiring medical services. The captain, how- ever, had no fever and was evidently recovering from a mild attack of remittent fever, at least such was my opinion. The seaman I found sick with bilious remittent fever. I prescribed for my patients and returned to the city, reporting them to you in accordance with the above facts. On July 2 I was again called on a visit to the 'Charlotte Hague.' The captain mct me on deck-the seaman was also on deck, and much better. Another seaman was called to me for exami- nation (a similar case). I prescribed for them. Seeing that those patients would probably require more medical attention (which at Tybee was oncrously expen- sive to thé owners) I gave the captain permission to bring his sick to the city; this he did the following day (July 3) and entered with them into the Savannah infirmary, where I visited them in connection with my partner, Dr. J. A. Wragg, until July 5, on which day, being compelled to leave for the north on account of my own health, Dr. W. A. Chartres took my place and continued to visit them with Wragg. I have only to add that the symptoms these cases exhibitcd up to the time I left them, differed in no respect from a number of other cases of remit- tent fever under treatment in the infirmary at the same time, and showed no symptoms of yellow fever .- R. A. Mackall." Thc statement of Dr. Wragg is: "The Danish brig 'Charlotte Hague' put into Cockspur roads about June 29 or 30, 1854, and was visited on June 30 by the port physician. On July 3 two of the seamen were brought to the Savannah infirmary, where they remained until July 7, and were discharged cured. They had not the least symptom of yellow fever. The captain was also admitted to the infirmary and discharged cured. He had not the least symptom of yellow fever. On July 7 they returned to the brig and she went to sea. The brig never came up to the city and the men brought up nothing but the clothing they had on .- John Ashby Wragg."

Dr. Hume of Charleston, S. C., in the "Charleston Medical Journal and Review," January, 1855, gives additional facts as to the part the "Charlotte Hague" played in introducing yellow fever into Savannah in 1854. He says: "We have obtained the following narrative of the introduction of yellow fever into Savannah in 1854 from Capt. King, commander of the Savannah pilot boat 'John R. Wilder.' On July 29, 1854, while cruising off Tybee, he fell in with the Bremen brig 'Charlotte Hague,' from Havana, in distress, with the captain and two of the crew sick with fever. He took the brig into Cockspur inlet. On the next day, the health officer, Dr. Mackall, visited the vessel. Finding it inconvenient to repeat his visits as often as necessary, he determined to carry the sick to Savannah, which he did on Aug. 3, and placed them in a private hospital in East Broad street. Capt. King never heard whether they lived or died, after their arrival in the city.

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The sick were seen also by Dr. Caruthers. It is scarcely necessary to remind our readers that East Broad street was the first locality reported by the board of health of Savannah as infected with the disease; and from what we have observed from the behavior of the disease in Charleston, there is no reason to doubt that if introduced as related above, its progress would have been such as described by the Savannah papers, and exactly similar to what occurred in Charleston. There is no reason to apprehend that the narration of Capt. King is untrue. It contains nothing injurious to the character of anyone, and also saves Savannah from the imputation of being the unnatural mother who destroys her own children. Capt. King was one of the few engaged in the transaction, and the general impression so engrafted in the minds of the inhabitants of all the southern cities that yellow fever is indigenous to all, and that foreign importation is impossible, is a sufficient acquittal of Dr. Mackall of any part he may have acted, in providing a comfortable accommodation for the seamen of the distressed vessel under his charge. Capt. King has proved himself worthy of the highest commendation; he has seen his error, has confessed his sin, such as it was, and deserves forgive- ness for the dreadful calamity he helped to inflict upon his cherished city. May the citizens profit by his confession, and prepare an appropriate place for the reception of sick seamen beyond the limits of the city, especially such as trade from the Havana to northern ports."

Here is the positive evidence of a vessel arriving on June 29 or. July (Drs. Mackall and Hume differ as to date of arrival of the sick seamen), from the infected port of Havana, and sending three of her crew into the section of the city first infected. All the facts point to yellow fever as the disease prostrating the three members of the crew of the "Charlotte Hague." Drs. Mackall and Wragg, diagnosticated their disease as remittent fever, but no proposition in medicine is better established than that mild cases of yellow fever-which are by no means infrequent even in this day-are very likely to be mistaken for remittent fever even by an expert. Dr. Arnold, a yellow fever veteran, said: "I do not deny that when no suspicion is aroused the first notice the physician has that he is treating a case of yellow fever, is the appearance of fatal black vomit. Nor must it be supposed that all cases of genuine yellow fever appeared in one stereotyped edition. There was every variety of grade and intensity, from the ephemeral attack of twelve hours of fever, followed by speedy convalescence, to the more prolonged paroxysm of seventy-two hours, ushering in a malignant or fatal case. Yellow fever is essentially a fever of one paroxysm; but that paroxysm is of very unequal duration. If the access of fever should not be marked, it could not be distinguished at first." All of the facts justify the conclusion that these three patients were ill with yellow fever when they were landed in Savannah, and also that they introduced the disease into the city. If it be objected that these three seamen with only the clothing they wore upon their persons were received into Savannah from the Hague, and for this reason could not have infected the city, I answer that the books are full of instances wherein towns and cities were infected under circumstances identical with that of the three seamen from the Hague infecting Savannah. I can fill a large octavo volume with the details of such occurrences. The next epidemic of yellow fever in Savannah was in 1858. I have endeavored to obtain data for a brief history of this epidemic but the effort failed. The mortuary record of Savannah discloses the fact that this epidemic caused 114 deaths.

SAVANNAH IN 1876.

The next epidemic of yellow fever in Savannah was in 1876. In the examina- tion of the state board of health relative to the origin of the disease in Savannah in 1876, it was officially established:

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*"First. That yellow fever was epidemic in Havana, Matanzas, Cienfuegos, Trinidad and Santiago de Cuba, during the months of June, July and August, 1876. That vessels directly from these infected ports did arrive at the port of Savannah immediately prior to and during the early development of the epidemic, is shown by the records obtained from the custom house authorities. The list demonstrates the fact, that in the month of July, 1876, three (3) Spanish vessels arrived at Savannah from Cuban ports, which were infected with yellow fever prior to their departure. One of these vessels discharged Ioc tons of ballast at the Central railroad wharf, and her crew of fifteen men, with their mattresses, blankets and clothing, went into lodging houses in the western portion of the city. Two of these vessels discharged 190 tons of ballast at the Atlantic & Gulf railroad wharf, and their crews, consisting of twenty-four men, with their mattresses, blankets and clothing, went into the lodging house of Mrs. Redgate, which is but one square from the block first infected in the city. During the month of August, 1876, between the second and twenty-eighth of the month, four Spanish vessels arrived at Savannah from Havana, at which port, at the time of their departure, yellow fever was epidemic. One of these vessels discharged fifty tons of ballast at the Central railroad wharf, and her crew of ten men went, with their mattresses, blankets and clothing, to sailor boarding houses in the western portion of the city. Three of the vessels discharged 500 tons of ballast at the Atlantic & Gulf railroad wharf, and their crew of forty men, with their mattresses, blankets and clothing, went into sailor boarding houses in the eastern part of the city. But the inmates of these boarding houses did not take yellow fever for many days after other sections of the city were infected."

These data as to the length of time these vessels were quarantined are taken from the published report of Dr. Geo. H. Stone of the Marine hospital service. "As to the quarantine upon the Savannah river, the health officer of Savannah, testified that the quarantine station was at Tybee island, about seventeen miles below the city. Vessels from infected ports are there stopped until he can visit them, when he examines their papers, musters the crew and institutes especial inquiries as to any who may be missing. That the usual detention is ten days from port to port, if the vessel has a clean bill of health; any greater length of detention rests entirely with the health officer. At the quarantine station there is absolutely no means of enforcing sanitary orders. The crews of vessels can communicate with the city if willing to take the risk. The testimony of the health officer as to quarantine regulations is fully corroborated by that of his honor, the mayor of the city, and Dr. J. C. Habersham, who was for many years health officer of the port. Were either of these vessels infected with yellow fever, is a question which at this time assumes important proportions. The health officer testifies that the first vessel which arrived in the city to which suspicion of yellow fever was directed was the bark 'Maria.' In mustering the crew one man was missing, and it was reported that he had fallen from the masthead and been killed. Being satisfied that the statement was true, the vessel was permitted to pass up to the city. It is not stated, however, what caused the suspicion of yellow fever to be attached to the 'Maria.' The second case was of the bark 'Maria Carlina.' Again one man was missing, reported to have died of cholera morbus; one man was taken sick three days after arrival at Tybee. Of what? The health officer does not statc, although he says: 'I expressed the opinion to the mayor that the man did not have the yellow fever. He afterward recovered. This vessel was thoroughly fumigated.' From the bark 'Olympia,' upon which vessel a case of yellow fever was known to have occurred, infection could have reached the city only by *Copied from report of health of the state of Georgia, 1876.

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unauthorized communication with the vessel. The fact connected with these vessels, of interest to epidemiologists, which is at present absolute, is that they cleared from a port infected with yellow fever, and that prior to their arrival at the port of Savannah no authenticated cases of the disease had occurred in that city. The Cuban history of these vessels is absolutely unknown. They may have been infected with the disease while at anchor, before or after taking in ballast. What epidemic influences had their crews been subjected to? Were any of them convalescents from the Havana Marine hospital? It seems an absolute fact, that no case of yellow fever arrived at Savannah upon any of these vessels, unless it may be that the man taken sick at Tybee was a case of the disease; nor can this case be absolutely rejected from all consideration, although he was, upon October 9, admitted to the Marine hospital with that disease. The necessity of obtaining: information as to the crews of these vessels is evident from the testimony of Mr .. Angus McAlpine, who informed the board that he had been informed, when on board vessels at the Atlantic & Gulf wharf, in his official capacity as inspector of lumber, 'that the captain of the "Maria Carlina" had died at Havana of yellow fever; that the mate was also taken sick, but started for his home in Spain. The captain died on shore in Havana, the mate was sick at the Havana Marine hospital. The captain in command of the vessel on her arrival, was put in charge of her at Havana. The baggage of the first captain was on board; none was, to his knowledge, brought off the vessel.'"

None of the first cases at Savannah could be traced to absolute contact with these vessels. The first case, Schull, of the schooner "Severs," was not known to have gone on board of either the "Ynez" or the "Maria," but he was taken sick after the "Severs" had been for some days at the same wharf with them. The boy Thomas Cleary positively denies that he or any of his comrades ever went on board any of these vessels. But Cleary was taken with the disease only after he had gone many times to dig among the ballast discharged from these vessels, and his comrades in this, with but few exceptions, all had the disease about the same time. Again, the locality in which the first group of yellow fever cases occurred, was the nearest block of tenements to the Atlantic & Gulf railroad wharf, and was directly in the line of communication between the city and vessels taking in cargo at that point. It is also a matter of significance that at this identical point. all former epidemics of yellow fever originated. It is also demonstrated that two of these vessels discharged ballast and that their crews of twenty-five men, with mattresses, blankets and clothing, went upon shore and into boarding houses in the northwestern portion of the city. This fact certainly furnishes a clew by which the cases which occurred in that portion of the city may be traced.

The character of the ballast discharged at the Atlantic & Gulf railroad wharf is a matter of much interest. An examination of the custom house records at Savannah shows that in 1876 2,130 tons of this ballast were unloaded at the Atlantic & Gulf wharf. It has already been shown in this report that the board has taken cognizance of this view of the epidemic, and that it is fully aware of the intense malarial influences to which the inhabitants of that city are subjected. A tabu- lar statement of the mortuary reports for six years has been presented, in which it is shown that the percentage of deaths from miasmatic disorders is very great. This becomes strikingly suggestive when it is shown that the deaths from such diseases in Savannah, with her less than 30,000 inhabitants, rival the death record from the same diseases in the city of New York with her 1,200,000 inhabitants, which she draws from all quarters of the globe.

That an epidemic of malarial disorders of an exceedingly acute grade was prevalent in the city of Savannah prior to and subsequent to the month of Aug-

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ust, 1876, is shown by the testimony of Dr. J. C. Le Hardy and others, and the board is strongly of the opinion that to the excessive malarial charging of the atmosphere, the miserable sanitary condition of the city and its surroundings is to be attributed the intensity of the epidemic influences. But they fail to find any evidence which does away with or invalidates the circumstantial evidence in favor of the importation of the disease. Had there been no virulent outbreak of the disease at Havana, had there been no arrival of vessels open to the sus- picion of infection prior to the Savannah outbreak, had the disease originated in, or during the early weeks of the epidemic shown its malignancy in those districts of the city most exposed to malarial influences there could be no decided question on the subject. But the epidemic of 1876 at Savannah can be found to differ in no essential from all other epidemics known in this country-so far as relates to its inception-since 1693. In view of all the evidence obtained, although it can- not be proved that any cases of yellow fever were carried into the city of Savannalı by vessels from Cuba-while it cannot be proved that any of the early cases of the epidemic had personal contact with such vessels-still the fact remains that no cases of the disease occurred at Savannah until after the arrival of vessels open to suspicion of infection-that the outbreak of the disease did not occur at a point far removed from these vessels, but it did occur in the nearest inhabited block of the city to the wharf at which said vessels lay; and further, that the two first cases of the disease had been in the immediate vicinity of the suspected vessels.

THE EPIDEMIC AT OTHER LOCALITIES.

The Isle of Hope, ten miles below Savannah, was considered a point of refuge to the inhabitants of the city. Dr. S. F. Dupont states that at least 3,000 indi- viduals were added to the resident population. The disease did not, at this point, occur until after the epidemic was fully established in the city. It is a fact of great significance that Bethesda school, which is situated but a short distance from the Isle of Hope, was entirely free from the disease. Dr. Wm. Duncan remarks: "If local cause gave rise to the disease at the Isle of Hope, the same cause would have given rise to it at Bethesda."

The first recognized case of yellow fever in the Savannah epidemic of 1876 was that of a man named Schull, who was admitted to the Marine hospital on July 28, from the American schooner "Severs."- He had previously been treated for a fever of one paroxysm, which was followed by congestion of the lungs. When admitted to the hospital he had no fever. Previous to admission a blister had been applied to his back, the cuticle was removed, and the tissues were discolored and bleeding. On July 30, whilst sitting up in bed calm and cheerful, he was taken with sudden hemorrhage. The blood escaped from his mouth in quan- tities, was red and frothy, and death ensued almost immediately. Autopsy four hours after death. Skin yellow, lungs infiltrated and filled with blood, traces of incipient tubercles in lungs, ulcers on exterior surface of the same, liver of com- plete boxwood color. This record is taken from the official report of Dr. George H. Stone, assistant surgeon, Marine hospital service.

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Memoirs of Georgia; containing historical accounts of the state's civil, military, industrial and professional interests, and personal sketches of many of its people. Vol. II, Part 15

Author: Publication date: 1859 Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association Number of Pages: 1166

Author:
Publication date: 1859
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga., The Southern historicl association
Number of Pages: 1166