USA > Tennessee > Shelby County > Memphis > A history of the yellow fever : the yellow fever epidemic of 1878, in Memphis, Tenn., embracing a complete list of the dead, the names of the doctors and nurses employed, names of all who contributed money or means, and the names and history of the Howards, together with other data, and lists of the dead elsewhere > Part 1
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Gc 976.802 M52k 1686807
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01713 4351
E
WHAT IS TO BE DONE WITH THE PROFITS FROM THE SALE OF THIS BOOK.
Resolved, That the Howard Association of Memphis thanks Mr. J. M. Keating for the very generous gift of his work, entitled: " 1 History of the Yellow Fever," the copyright, and all rights, title to, or profits in which he has transferred to the Howard Association of Memphis ; and,
Resolved, That the proceeds of the sale of such work, after the first edition of five hundred copies, which are hereby reserved for free distribution by the Association, shall, as he requests, be applied to the building of a Monument to the Physicians, Nurses, Members of the Howard Association and Citizens' Relief Committee, who died in Memphis during the epidemic of 1878.
Adopted unanimously, January 6, 1879.
.
A HISTORY OF THE YELLOW FEVER.
:
THE
YELLOW FEVER EPIDEMIC
OF 1878,
IN MEMPHIS, TENN.
EMBRACING A COMPLETE LIST OF THE DEAD, THE NAMES OF THE DOCTORS AND NURSES EMPLOYED, NAMES OF ALL WHO CONTRIBUTED MONEY OR MEANS. AND THE NAMES AND HISTORY OF THE HOWARD3, TOGETHER WITH OTHER DATA, AND LISTS OF THE DEAD ELSEWHERE:
BY J. M. KEATING.
"God is pleased with no music below so much as the thanksgiving songs of relieved widows, of supported orphans, of rejoicing, and comforted, and thankful persons."-JEREMY TAYLOR.
MEMPHIS, TENN .: PRINTED FOR THE HOWARD ASSOCIATION. 1879.
1686807
COPYRIGHTED, 1879, BY THE HOWARD ASSOCIATION OF MEMPHIS.
ELECTROTYPED AT FRANKLIN TYPE FOUNDRY, CINCINNATI, OHIO.
WRIGHTSON, & ()) .. PRINTERS AND BINDERS, CINCINNATI, OHIO.
DEDICATION.
TO THE MEN AND WOMEN
WHO VOLUNTEERED THEIR LIVES FOR THE FEVER-STRICKEN CITIZENS OF MEMPHIS IN 1878; TO ALL WHO CONTRIBUTED FOOD, CLOTHING, OR MONEY TO SUCCOR THE SICK, RELIEVE THE DESTITUTE, AND BURY THE DEAD,
THIS HISTORY OF A TERRIBLE SCOURGE AND RECORD OF A GREAT
:
PUBLIC CALAMITY, IS GRATEFULLY AND RESPECTFULLY
DEDICATED,
BY J. M. KEATING.
(iii) V
GRATEFUL AND HEARTFELT THANKS.
TOWARDS the close of the epidemic of 1878, the Howard Association and the Citizens' Relief Committee, in the name and in behalf of the dead, of the sick, the convalescent, and the suffering citizens of Memphis, thanked the people of the world in terms of heartfelt gratitude for the kind consideration, sympathy, and generous charity of which, in common with their fellow-citizens of other cities and towns of the South, they had been the objects and recipients during the awful visitation. On the 28th of November, 1878, being Thanksgiving Day, at an immense mass-meeting composed of representatives of all classes of the lately returned people of Memphis, the following preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted :
WHEREAS, We, the citizens of Memphis, who were absent during the recent pestilence, mindful of the individual heroism displayed in behalf of our deeply- afflicted people, and of the generosity, consideration, and aid extended to them by a sympathetic world, desire to testify our appreciation in a manner which will not only prove acceptable, but in a way by which it will be sure to reach all those to whom we owe so much ; therefore, on this the 28th day of Novem- ber, 1878 -- a day set apart by the President of the United States, and by the Governor of this State, as one of thanksgiving and prayer -- we, deeming such day and such time most appropriate, and being in solemn mass-meeting assem- bled, do hereby publicly express our gratitude -
First,-To the President of the United States, the Secretary of War, and other members of his cabinet.
Second,-To the Governor and Treasurer of the State of Tennessee.
Third,-To the municipal authorities, merchants' exchanges, chambers of commerce, cotton exchanges, bankers and underwriters of the United States and Canada.
Fourth, -To the commercial bodies of Europe, and the representatives abroad of the American Government.
Fifth,-To the churches, Sunday-schools, and benevolent associations in all sections of the Union.
Sixth, -To the press of the United States.
Seventh,-To the theatrical managers and members of the dramatic and musical professions.
Eighth, -To the officers, members, nurses, and employes of the Memphis Howard Association.
Ninth, -To the Howard Medical Corps, its officers and members.
Tenth,-To the volunteer physicians and nurses from other sections.
Eleventh,-To the officers, members, and employes of the Citizens' Relief Association.
Twelfth, -To the officers and employes of the commissary department of the Citizens' Relief Association.
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vi
GRATEFUL AND HEARTFELT THANKS.
Thirteenth,-To the clergy and religious orders of Memphis, and volunteers from abroad.
Fourteenth, -To the eminloves in the Memphis post-officc.
Fifteenth, -To the Memphis daily press.
Sixteenth, -To the working committees of the Odd Fellows, Masons, Knights of Man, In the of Mathias, Ancient Order of Workingmen, Independent Order of Mutual Aiders, and other benevolent organizations.
Screnteenth, -To the mayor and other city officials, and to the police and fire departments of Memphis.
Eighteenth,-To the military companies, white and colored, who remained on duty during the pestilence.
Nineteenth, -To the Memphis and Louisville, the Memphis and Charleston, the Mississippi and Tennessee, and other railway lines; and to the Memphis and Ohio River and the Anchor Line Packet Companies.
Twentieth,-To the officers and employes of the Memphis banks, of the South- ern Express Company, and of the Western Union Telegraph Company.
Twenty- first,-To the charitable of the known and unknown people not con- nected with any charitable or philanthropic association - persons from every walk and station in life, both lofty and humble; and to the many who, sacri- ficing interest, safety, the ties of kindred and the comforts of home, risked all in the humanitarian mission to which they had dedicated their lives.
Twenty - second,-To the women of America, whose hearts went out towards the sick and afflicted of the land.
Twenty- third,-To the martyred dead, we feel but can not express our grati- tude; yet, in all the days to come, their memories shall be kept green, and their names go down in the annals of our city, honored, revered, and blessed. It would be a pleasing though melancholy task to call the roll of our illustrious dead, and let our grateful hearts respond in fitting tribute to their many vir- tues; but to a list so long, where every virtue is conspicuous, your Committee believes this to be not the time nor the place to mention individual merit. To do justice to the memory of any one of a hundred whose names might be sug- gested, would occupy more time than is now at your disposal; hence it is we restrain our inclination to mention names, and leave to each of you the sacred privilege of recalling the pleasant memories which cluster around our hallowed dead.
PREFACE.
THIS history of the yellow fever, and record of the epidemic of 1878, in Memphis, had its origin in the wish expressed by a large number of intelli- gent citizens, at home and abroad, who desired that the origin, progress, and results of the recent epidemic, especially, might be rescued from the evanes- cent columns of the daily press and put in an enduring form - a monument testifying to the sufferings of the people of Memphis, the unparalleled losses of life, to the humanity and overflowing charity of their fellow-countrymen of all the States, and the people of many of the nations of Europe; and, above all, to the heroism of the women and the men who illustrated, as physicians and nurses, with a sublime self-abnegation, the first and chiefest of Christian virtues.
All the known and well authenticated sources of information have been freely availed of, and it is believed that nothing has been omitted that could increase the value of the book as a history of the yellow fever and complete record of the epidemic of 1878, from the occurrence of the first to the date of the last known case.
The author has, it will be seen, confined himself to facts, and has not in- dulged, as he could wish, and they deserve, in extended panegyrics of those who so nobly perished at the post of duty, or of those who, doing their duty, survived the ordeal of death. Want of space forbade. The nature of their employment will sufficiently speak the added danger, if any, encountered by each, whether Howard or citizen ; and the official station they filled will mark those for special remembrance by the world, who, by their courage, zeal, and efficiency, were the life and inspiration of the comparative few who performed what, to them, was a sacred duty.
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viii
PREFACE.
All cause of jealousy, complaint, or offense has been studiously avoided, while nothing has been omitted that was deemed essential to the "truth of history." The time allowed for the work has been brief, but it is hoped it will be found worthy anke of the living and the dead; a record of duty done, a history of those who have passed away, leaving us a lesson of" gentle minis- trations, of heroic warfare, of strained endurance, of patient resignation, of cool, calm courage, and of Christian fortitude.
The epidemic of 1878, when the numbers exposed, the numbers who sick- ened, and those who died, are taken into account, must be set down as one of the greatest calamities of modern times, marking an epoch in our history and expressing a period memorable for all time.
Trusting that the lesson it teaches will not be lost upon those whom it most immediately concerns, the author commits his work to the considerate judg- ment of his readers, praying their indulgence for such demerits as to them may appear.
MEMPHIS, May, 1879.
·
:
CONTENTS.
--
PAGE
HISTORY OF THE YELLOW FEVER
11-73
CHRONOLOGY OF YELLOW FEVER 75-98
EPIDEMIC IN MEMPHIS, 1878.
99-144
INCIDENTS OF THE EPIDEMIC 145-194
METEOROLOGICAL 195-206
THE DEATHS OF 1878 207-266.
QUARANTINE AND SANITATION 267-326
APPENDIX (REPORTS OF HOWARDS, ETC.) 327-443
INDEX 445-454
(ix) · x
HISTORY OF THE YELLOW FEVER.
(xi) q X
A HISTORY OF THE YELLOW FEVER.
I.
THE Yellow Fever, or, as Dowell prefers to term it, febris typhus icterodes, or febris cum nigro vomito, the fievre jaune of the French, and negro romito of the Spanish, was known to the Caribs, according to Bretou, who wrote in 1655, by the French equivalent of coup de barre, expressive of the muscular pains of the fever, as if produced by blows from a stick. Like Asiatic chol- era and the small-pox, it is assigned to that class of diseases known as rymctic (from ryma, the Greek word for yeast). These diseases are produced by in- visible germs floating in the atmosphere, which, taken into the blood through the lungs, are afterward propagated by the excreta and invisible emanations of the patients. The yellow fever is claimed by some to have originated and to have prevailed epidemically * in Africa, though Cortez found it prevailing in Mexico, to whose people it was known by the name of matzlazahuatl; and the Indians of San Domingo and other West India Islands were decimated by it before and soon after the discovery of America. It is unknown in Asia, Australia, or the islands of the Pacific; and it was unknown to Europe until after the discovery of America by Columbus. Dowell says that "it was un- doubtedly introduced from Africa to America [he does not say when, nor does he tell us why, if it is an African fever, the negroes in this country are so largely exempt from it]; that it existed in Africa, eastern Asia, and southern Europe, long before the establishment of the Greek and Roman empires, is generally well established by Hertado, even running back a thou- sand years before Christ; that it has now become endemic along the coasts of Africa-both east and west-as well as in the West Indies and northern coast of South America, no one doubts [and he ought to have added the
* Epidemic diseases are those which attack at the same time a great number of peo- ple, depending on some temporary accidental and generally inappreciable cause: differ- ing, in this respect, from endemic diseases, or those developed under the influence of some constant or periodic cause. Many diseases, ordinarily sporadic, may become epi- demic (as yellow fever) under certain ill-understood conditions; or some new disease, introduced by contagion or other favorable circumstances, may spread epidemically.
OK- (13)
1
14
A HISTORY OF THE YELLOW FEVER.
coast of Mexico and Gulf and south Atlantic coasts of North America]; and that in all these districts its has its epidemic years and its years of nearly entire exemption is also well known." Dowler, on whose authority Dowell in other respects lays great stress, states that, on the contrary, "The slightest notice of yellow fever is nowhere found among ancient writers, although they have not failed to record. incidentally or directly, the time, place, and progress of numerous epidemics with more or less particularity, so that these characteristics may now, after the lapse of so many centuries, be ascertained. It is now nearly 3,000 years since the first temple arose in honor of Esculapius; four or five centuries later, he was worshiped at Rome, where epidemics became both frequent and fatal. Homer opens his great poem by alluding to an epidemie that destroyed dogs, mules, and men ; another, 430 years before Christ, most destructive at Athens, was very minutely described by Thucydides, himself having suffered by it. An epi- demic also fell under the observation of Hippocrates, whose treatment of it was reckoned so successful, that he was presented with a massive crown of gold and the highest public honors. Five years later, Athens was again visited. Many epidemics prevailed at Rome before our era. In 263 and 212 (at the siege of Syracuse), and in 131 before Christ, the Roman and many other nations suffered from pestilential visitations, as mentioned directly or indirectly by ancient authors. Near the commencement of the Christian era, Celsus, and in the next century, Galen, gave the world their learned works on medicine. In the sixth century the plague was general; and. in A. D. 565, small-pox was first described in France, as it was in the tenth century by the Arabian physicians, Rhazes and Avicenna. Before the mid- dle of the 13th century, medical schools existed at Montpelier and Damas- cus. The Parisian College of Surgery soon followed. Descriptions of scurvy and plica were soon after recorded. Books on medicine, too, appeared in greater number; and some new discases were described in the 14th and 15th centuries, such as whooping-cough, the sweating sickness, and St. Vitus' dance, which later was epidemic on the Rhine. During this long period, so briefly sketched, yellow fever does not appear to have been noticed until the discovery of America by Columbus. Had it prevailed in ancient times, its prominent features, so very remarkable, at least in its advanced stages, would, doubtless, have been recorded."* It is said to have made its first appearance on this side of the Atlantic in the West Indies, in 1647; but the late Noah Webster has shown that it prevailed among the Indians of New England in 1618, and again in 1746, and at other periods. It is also said to have scourged Mexico many years before the Spanish conquest. It cer- tainly prevailed in Central America in 1596. Epidemics of it have occurred as far north as Quebec, as far south as Montevideo, as far east as Spain, and as far west as Mexico. It is endemic in Brazil, the West Indies, Venezuela, New Grenada, Mexico, the Gulf coast, and along the south Atlantic coast of
* The weight of evidence is with Dowler, and yellow fever would seem to be an Amer- ican, and not an African fever.
15
A HISTORY OF THE YELLOW FEVER.
the United States, as far north as Charleston. It is uncommon in elevated regions, but deaths have occurred from it at New Castle, Jamaica. at the height of 4,000 feet; and, if the statement be true that ancient Mexico was visited by it, then it has been epidemic at a height of between 7,000. and 8,000 feet above the level of the sea. Dowell says, "That along the sea courts and in the islands of the copies it has never occurred above 5,000 feet, while under the equator it has occurred at 4,000 feet." Since 1668 it has many times prevailed epidemically in the New England, the Middle, the Western, and the Southern States of the Union, at a fearful sacrifice of life and cost of money. Dowell. writing in the first part of 1878, before the dreadful visitation of that year, which cost the country more than 25.000 lives and $200,000,000, says, "That yellow fever had [up to 1877] visited 228 cities and towns and 28 States of the Union, appearing 741 times, and causing 65,311 deaths" [of which we have record, and as many more. per- haps, of which we have not]. Dr. Bell, of Louisville, declares it an indispita- ble truth that, beyond 45º north latitude and 23º south latitude. the disease is but rarely or never felt, and it is rigidly confined between 20° east longi- tude and 30' north. In the West India Islands, on the west coast of Africa. and the continent of America the ravages of yellow fever are most fre- quently felt. The conspicuous zones for it are Barbadoes on the east, Tampico on the west. Rio Janeiro on the south, and Charleston on the- north. Within this area the disease is perpetually present at some point." Dowell says. "That it ean not live in a temperature above 212º nor below 32º Fahrenheit. or 100° centegrade; consequently, no patient will take the disease where the temperature is below freezing [see contradiction a few lines below]. and you may steam a ship to boiling, and kill out all contagion, and make it clean and healthy, by raising the heat to 212º [or, as some others insist, by freezing it by the new refrigerating process of Gamgee]; that he has known non-inter- course to prevent it ; but, after a slight frost or two, the men were permitted to come to town, and there occurred several cases and one death. in 1865, January 5th [and yet he says no patient will take the disease at a temperature below freez- ing point]; and that the cause is increased by meteorologieal changes of months' duration; and this is the cause of the belief of some that it comes in the air. It develops in from two to nine days, but eases have been known where patients have had it in them 23 days. The true cause is an animal- culæ, so small that we have been unable yet to develop it, though there are some efforts being made in that direction, which foreshadow success." But they have not yet made their appearance. Dr. Bennett Dowler. an authority who shares the esteem of all students of the subject with Stone, Flaget. Bell, and many others, declares positively that it has originated spontane- ously in more than one instance in the United States: and. so originating. has raged epidemieally. The Commission appointed by the Board of Health of New Orleans in 1853, to inquire into the causes of the epidemic of that year, declared positively that it originated there, and was aggravated to a fearful intensity by the filthy condition of the city. The medical experts recently appointed by Congress, deny the position of Dowler, of the New 2
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A HISTORY OF THE YELLOW FEVER.
Orleans Commission of 1853, and of Bell, although these, as will be shown later on, are fully sustained by a weight of authority at least equal to that of the Commission, and by the fact that yellow fever has become nat- uralized in the West Indies,* in Mexico, in Brazil, and in New Orleans. They declare that " yellow fever is not domiciled in the United States, and that every epidemic that bas referred has been in chronological sequence to the countries south of us, with which we are in communication." They deny that it has ever originated indigenously in this country, and assert that it is always the result of importation, and invariably prevails in some sea-port before attacking the interior. Yet they say cases have occurred here where the specific poison, when hidden from the cold in sheltered places, has given rise the succeeding summer to scattered cases. It is transmitted, they also contend, by steam and sailing vessels, barges, per- sonal clothing, baggage, ordinary merchandise; also by yellow fever patients, who are responsible for more epidemics, they say, than all other causes, though instances are not wanting where they failed to occasion other cases.
The yellow fever is a fever of one paroxysm continuously from 24 to 72 and and sometimes 96 hours. According to Dr. Faget, of the faculty of Paris, who, during a residence of 25 years in New Orleans, has closely observed it, "it is strongly individual in its characteristics. For, whereas, in paludal fevers there are generally two or more paroxysms, sometimes a continued series of them, yellow fever has but one single paroxysm. And, whereas, in the former the period of defervescence, during which the temperature regains its normal degree, is only from 30 to 48 hours, in the latter it averaged 96 hours. In paludal fevers there is a perfect concord between the line of the pulse and that of the temperature, while in yellow fever the line of the pulse descends, but that of the temperature maintains itself or rises." According to the observa- tions of Dr. Faget and others, made during the epidemic of 1870, in New Orleans, "it should be six or seven days (6 > 24=144 hours)." In summing up the march of the temperature, Dr. Faget says, the fever "is characterized by a unique paroxysm, with an effervescence of one to three days, followed by a defervescence of four to seven days, without any stationary stage." The duration of the yellow fever is stated by Dr. La Roche to be three days -- "a febrile stage of about seventy hours' duration, more or less, is succeeded by a period of complete cessation of fever."
Duwler declares it to be non-contagious and to result from an antecedent wholly unknown. And Dupuy de Chamberry, whom he quotes, states positively that "the yellow fever of this place (New Orleans) is a disease sui generis, the product of local causes, and is never contagious or exportable." Dr. Dowell, the latest medical writer on yellow fever, describes it "as an eruptive or exanthe- matous fever, infectious or contagious from persons or clothes under circum- stances not yet known." The medical experts appointed by Congress in De- cember, 1878, declare it to be a specific disease produced by the introduction into the human organism of a specific poison, and that, though this specific
$ If it did not originate there or in Mexico.
17
A HISTORY OF THE YELLOW FEVER.
poison has never been chemically or microscopically demonstrated, nor in any way made evident to the human sense, they deem it safe to assume that it is material and particular, is endowed with ordinary properties, and is subject to the ordinary laws of material substances. They also hold that it is organic - is endowed with the vital properties of growth and reproduction; that it is not maiarial; but the concurrence of local conditions favorable to the evolution of it seems to be necessary to the evolution of yellow fever epidemics. Atmospheric air, they admit, is the usual medium through which the infection is received into the human system; it is not carried by atmospheric currents, they say, nor by any modes or vehicles of conveyance other than those connected with human traffic and travel. The white race is most susceptible to it, and all colors inter- niediary between that and the negro less and less in degree as they approach the African, who suffers least of all from it. The period of incubation, they hold, varies from two to five days-second attacks are of rare occurrence - and it can be destroyed by extreme heat and cold and by chemical disinfectants where they can be concentrated. Dr. L. S. Tracey, in the Popular Science Monthly, a publication of the highest scientific character, regards the germ and development theory with favor. He says: " Yellow fever occupies a singular position between the contagious and non-contagious diseases. The poison is not, like that of small-pox, directly communicable from a sick person to a well one ; but, although the emanations of the sick are connected with the spread of the disease, they seem to require an appropriate nidus in which to germinate and develop. This nidus must be warm and moist, and there the germs, what- ever they are, lie and grow or, in some way, develop until they are able to mi- grate. The germs are portable, and may be conveyed in baggage or merchan- dise (fomites) for hundreds or thousands of miles. If not so conveyed, its progress is very slow. In 1822, in New York, when it gained a foothold in Rector Street, it appeared to travel about 40 feet a day until killed by the frost. It often leaves a house or a block intact, going around it and attacking those be- yond, with no assignable reason. A thin board partition seems to have stopped it on Governor's Island in 1856, and an instance is related where it attacked the sailors in all the berths of one side of a ship before crossing to the other. Such apparent vagaries are, in the present state of our knowledge, inexplica- ble."* Dr. William Schmoele, of Philadelphia, in an essay on the cause, the fusion, localization, prevention, and cure of cholera and yellow fever, holds to the same theory, but lays particular stress on propagation by the patient. He says: "The parasites causing the yellow fever, although also of exclusively tropical origin, appear somewhat capable to be reproduced, during the heat of summer, wherever the thermometer of Fahrenheit ranges above 86 degrees, in more northern latitudes, outside of the human alimentary tube, especially if imported by patients, and deposited with their excrements, in warm, damp, and filthy localities, presenting all the additional conditions of development of minute vermin. Their chief diffusion, however, in northern climes, is effected by
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