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 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69
* They have always been characteristic of it. All the medical and newspaper records treat of them.
18
A HISTORY OF THE YELLOW FEVER.
reproduction of the seeds in the bowels of patients, and by their direct dissemination through the vapors of the excrements, which deposit them on articles of food, or in the mouth of new victims, thence to be carried. with the food, into the digestive tube." Dr. Chopin, Health Officer of New Orleans, a medical authority of high repute and yellow fever expert, describes yellow fever Inost nearly in accordance with the general experience in Memphis in leid. He says " it is an exotic, and that its germ is a living organism capable of rapid reproduction under given conditions ; that it multiplies itself, first on surfaces and then in the atmosphere, until it becomes epidemie. It is a self-limited dis- case, like all specifie diseases; that it must run its course, and nothing that we know of can stop its progress. Like scarlet fever, measles, small-pox, and cholera, it will go on unchecked as long as the poison is in the system. Then, through the influence on the nervous system, tissue changes occur, which produce disorganization and death, unless it is checked." Dr. J. M. Clements, of Louis- ville, attributes the yellow fever poison to some order of fungus plants indigenous to the tropics, but as yet undiscovered, and says " that the germs or spores are transported by strips, and finding in the place attacked the conditions of filth. heat and moisture breeds in such numbers as to poison the air and lay human life under contribution." He rests his theory upon the experiments of Prof. J. H. Salis bury, of Cleveland, Ohio, who claims to have ascertained that intermittent and remittent fevers are caused by the introduction into the system of cells or spores emanating from certain species of algoid plants, called Palmelke, which belong to the lowest known vegetable organism. To these species of plants he applies the generic name, Seminsma, signifying earth miasm, and he also calls them ague plants. Prof. Salisbury claims that this discovery is based on the follow- ing facts : "A microscopical examination of the salivary secretions and mucous expectoration, in the morning, of persons living in a malarious region showed cells of an algoid type, resembling strongly those of the palmella, to be the only bodies constantly present; and these bodies were invariably absent from the same secretions examined from persons residing above the summit plane of ague. The palmelloid cells were obtained by suspending plates of glass, over night, near broken ground, in places whence malarions emanations were known to arise. The so-called ague plants were invariably found in numerous localities in which intermittent fever prevailed, and in no instance were they found where this disease did not occur. Cakes of surface soil from a malarious locality, which were covered with the palmelke, were carried to a high, hilly district, situated five miles from any malarious locality, where a case of malarial fever had never been known to exist. These cakes were exposed on the sill of an open second- story window, opening into the sleeping apartment of two young men. A plate of glass suspended over them during the night was found to be covered with pal- nelloid cells and spores. Both the young men had intermittent fever, one on the 12th day, the other on the 14th. No other members of the family were affected." The theory of Prof. Salisbury, accounting for the origin of remittent and in- termittent fevers, and which is thus advanced by Dr. Clements, of Louisville. to account for the origin of yellow fever. is sustained by the experiments of Dr. Emil Querner, of Philadelphia, whose investigations into the causes of
19
A HISTORY OF THE YELLOW FEVER.
diphtheria leads him to the following conclusions: "After a laborious and seru- tinizing investigation into the cause of a large number of cases of diphtheria that have come under my care during several years past, I have almost arrived at the conclusion that the primary infection of an individual comes from the fungi which are found as spots of different colors on the exterior of fruits, par- ricwariy appis. As far as the power of my imeroscope has shown, these fungi seem identical with the fungi from a diphtheritic ulcer, and last autumn I traced a number of cases, at one time five together in one family, back to the eating of apples picked from the ground in orchards. without previously clean- ing the fruit by rubbing or washing. The prevalence of this dreadful discase in the last three decades may be well accounted for by the fact that the appear- ance and flourishing of lower vegetable and animal organisms is periodical, of which we bave examples in the potato-disease, the disease of the grape-vine, and cholera, which latter has been ascribed to a fungus growing on the ears of rice in East India, and carried in the human body as a contagion all over the globe, and in many other cases. Of course, any person infected with the disease from the primary cause may be the center of infection for others. Why many per- sons eat fruit with fungi on them with impunity is explainable simply on the ground that the susceptibility for disease differs greatly in individuals, and that. for instance, for the propagation of fungi upon the mucous membrane upon the pharynx there may exist a previous catarrhalie affection. with a spongy condition of the same. It is my opinion that in times of epidemie diseases almost every one takes the contagion into his system, but that for the develop ment of the disease a certain predisposition, or some additional cause, is neces- sary. Thus, cholera breaks out in an individual only after the cooling off of the abdomen; and small-pox attacks timid persons often after being frightened by the sight of a pitted face of a convalescent patient from a distance. Thus, also, the impunity of physicians who treat such diseases with a zealous and investigating mind, and with a fearless interest in every case, may be accounted for; their nervous energy resisting the tendency of their vital power to succumb to the contagion. By this. I wish only to give a hint for further investigation in this matter, for certainly it is time that the medical profession should discover more of the hidden causes of zymotie diseases, which bring so much havoc among the human race."
Dr. J. P. Davidson, of New Orleans, very emphatically agrees with the ex- perts appointed by Congress. He says "that yellow fever is exotic, and never originates locally except under peculiar circumstances of limited domestica- tion, as when an epidemic has prevailed, or in certain years when a few cases have occurred, and periodically, after importation, the ensuing winter has been so mild that the mercury has not fallen repeatedly below 329 -- the special cause. germs, if you will, survive the winter, and when the summer heat attains its maximum, they multiply sufficiently to impart the disease." He also holds " that it is due to a living, organized microscopicentity, vege- table or animal, which generated out of pre-existing germs under favorable circumstances, propagates itself indefinitely when these peculiar and essential conditions exist." Dr. Gaillard, of Louisville, is of opinion that yellow fever
20
A HISTORY OF THE YELLOW FEVER.
will not originate out of its zone; that carried beyond it and introduced into filthy cities, its favorite, if not essential nidus, it will spread and decimate. and will bring ruin and desolation in its train. Dr. Happholdt, who was conspicuous as a volunteer physician in Memphis during the epidemic of 1873, and who had previously had an extended experience with yellow fever as Health Officer of Charleston, in a pamphlet history of that visitation, de- clares that " yellow fever is peculiarly a discase of cities, where large mim- bers of persons are crowded together, and effete animal matters are allowed to putrefy in the atmosphere; but it is not proved that filth, garbage or nox- ious gases from rotting animal or vegetable matter can any more produce yellow fever than they can small-pox ; though it is almost certain that they do so vitiate the atmosphere as to render it a proper nidus for the reception and proliferation of the essential epidemic germ, be it what it may ; whether of fungoid growths, or germinal masses derived from normal cells, or analo- gous to yeast or other ferment, which, by virtue of catalytic action, is capa -. ble of producing deleterious changes in the constituents of the body. Assum- ing that all the destructive changes which the blood undergoes in yellow fever are due to the contact of certain infinitesimal partieles, it may be read- ily conceived that after entering the organism and affecting its vital constitu- ents, they may reproduce themselves, and, from their extreme minutene>", permeate the tissues and escape from it by the skin, the breath, and the ex- cretions. When without the body, they may continue to multiply them- selves indefinitely if the surrounding atmosphere be in a favorable condition ; and floating about the air, impregnate water and food, and attach them- selves to clothing, bedding, or other material, and so admit of transportation, and gaining access to the bodies of persons suitable for their reception; or these particles may lose a portion of their contagious vitality and be no longer capable of originating other germs that can propagate the disease, or being introduced into localities not favorable to their development, occasion only a few sporadic cases. But we are not assured that all the germs perish, after the cessation of their action, by the intervention of cold weather. Many may but hibernate in sheltering situations to be revivified and aroused into action by warm weather and other favoring circumstances." Assistant Surgeon Harvey E. Brown, of the United States Army, holds that the vel- low fever is an acute, infectious disease, which originated in Africa, and has become naturalized in the West Indies, and that it never has had an exist- ence in the United States except in consequence of the importation and sub- sequent development and production of its active or germinal principle. The nature of the germ is unknown, and he says that "the transmission of yel- low fever is not effected by means of a contagion or exhalation given off from the bodies of the sick, as is the case with small-pox, erysipelas, and the eruptive fevers, but the unknown poisonous principle probably exists in ex- tremely minute partieles or germs which impregnate and render noxious the
* He does not say when or in what part of Africa, and in that regard is as vague and indefinite as the majority of his brethren.
21
A HISTORY OF THE YELLOW FEVER.
discharges from the stomach, bowels, and skin of any person undergoing an attack of the disease. These germs may attach themselves to clothing, bed- ding, carpets, and furniture in a siek-room ; they may penetrate the walls and wood-work of a house, or the hold of a ship; when, by the general preva- lence of the disease they become numerous, they may poison the atmosphere of a street or even of a whole town; they may contaminate and render. dan- gerous drinking water, cess-pools, privy-vaults, and all places where the offal of houses is thrown. They have the power of self-production outside of the human body; hence but an infinitesimally small quantity of the original virus need be imported to produce a widespread epidemie. They are killed or rendered innocuous by certain substances known as disinfectants, among which may be mentioned a high degree of heat, carbolic acid, sulphate of' iron (commercial copperas), nitrous and sulphurous acid gases, etc. A tem- perature of 32º Fahrenheit destroys their vitality. Should any of these germs hibernate and survive through a winter, it is found that on the return of warm weather they are revivified, but have parted with a portion of their vitality, and are no longer capable of self-reproduction ; hence in the second season they only give rise to isolated or sporadic cases, and do not produce an epidemic. It has been found by actual experience that those cities and towns exposed to the disease, which are neglectful of sanitary laws, those localities in towns which are the filthiest, and those individuals who are the most careless or indifferent in their moral and physical habits are the greatest sufferers." It follows from the foregoing that while neglected streets, alleys, and yards, and defective drains and sewers, vaults, sinks, and cess-pools, rotten vegetable matter, or filth of any kind, can no more originate yellow fever than they can small-pox, yet their presence in the vicinity of human habitations affords a richly-manured soil for the imported- germ to arrive at its fullest malignancy. The danger to a community cognizant of and having a due regard for the well-known laws of modern sanitation is reduced to a minimum, that to one ignorant or indifferent to them is intensified to a max- imum. Dr. Hughes, of St. Louis, also contends for the germ theory and that an atmosphere below 32° kills. Dr. Mitchell, of Memphis, and nearly the whole corps of medical experts under him during the epidemic of 1878 took the same view.
Dr. Ford, of St. Louis, believes, on the contrary, in the principle of fer- mentation-that yellow fever was existent in the form of dry particles of dust everywhere it had been once, but that the cold would repress their activity-in that cold would render the person less receptive, and his body would not be in a condition to induce the fermentation of the dry dust. He says that " a person might go into a cold climate with the dry dust or active principle of yellow fever upon him, and while he remained in that cold climate he would not be afflicted with the disease, but if he went to a warm, malarial climate, he would be very apt to be stricken down. In other words, cold did not kill the vitality of yellow fever, but simply repressed it." He, however, admitted the efficacy of proper sanitary regulations to prevent a man's system from getting into the condition necessary to fermentation of the particles.
22
A HISTORY OF THE YELLOW FEVER.
Professor P. Stille, of Mobile, differs from all the preceding authorities. and advances a novel theory to account for the origin of yellow fever. He attributes it to the Gulf Stream. Calling attention to the eqnable atmospheric conditions of the tropical lands of both hemispheres, he says : " Coming up the south-east, across the torrid zone, is an ocean current which, where it sweeps around the north coast of South America, is called the Gui- ana Current. It makes its way directly into the Gulf of Mexico, where it takes the name of the Gulf Stream. After washing the smaller islands of the West Indies, it forces itself with great strength through the narrow chan- nel between Cuba and Yucatan, and rushes all around the shores of the gulf, taking its turn toward the east, and quitting the land immediately after pas -- ing the southern point of Florida. Within the gulf its temperature stands at from 85° to 89º, but soon after having passed Florida its temperature goes suddenly down to 65°, and finally to 54° and 50°. Now, if we examine every part of the sea we shall find no other spot where a warm current washes the land at any thing like so high a temperature as is exhibited in the Gulf of Mexico. A goodly portion of the time the temperature of the water stands entirely above that of the air, consequently a heavy mist is taken up. In other words, the atmosphere is completely saturated with moisture to such an extent as to render it too heavy to rise in obedience to the usual laws governing evaporation, the high temperature of the land pre- venting condensation. As a result, there lies upon the surface of the low country a thin stratum of air so heavy and so damp as to temipt us strongly into coining subuqueons as a designation by which to represent its condition. For proof that such conditions do arise in all cases where the water stands at a temperature higher than that of the air, we refer you to Fitch's Piusical Geography, page 142; and for proof that they exist in the West India Islands. see Humboldt's Island of Cuba, page 172. And here, in my humble judgment, we have arrived at a knowledge of the main conditions necessary to the propagation of the yellow fever: A stratum of atmosphere saturated with moisture to such an extent as can only occur under like circumstances as exist in the West Indies, and a tropical clime such as prevails there, and is every now and then, as I contend, carried into regions far above its natural lines. This thin stratum of heavy atmosphere is carried from the ocean equator and thrown upon our shores from the gulf breezes, so called, but in ordinary seasons the low temperature of the earth condenses the moisture per- manently before it has passed far inland. In seasons like the present, how- ever, when there have been two summers together, as it were, the earth with us is too warm to admit of permanent condensation. A portion of the moist- ure may fall as heavy as dew, but the rising temperature of the morning will take it up again, and hence it will be carried on, wave after wave, as it were, until it has reached its final stopping point, possibly many degrees above the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. The immediate agent working in yellow fever (be it living atom or fungus) is semi-aquatie in its nature, perhaps, and there- fore always finds itself at home in this peculiar character of heavy and wet atmosphere; hence it flourishes wherever a footing can be secured in it. and
23
A HISTORY OF THE YELLOW FEVER.
fattens upon its human victims the more the further it gets from its nursery bed and finds them the less acclimated against its effects. This heavy atmos- phere theory would explain why yellow fever is mainly confined to the low grounds-in all cases waves of heavy atmosphere, like currents of water, find their ways through the depressions upon the surface of the earth. If our Gulf breezes should drive them inland, they would very naturally roll up the valleys of our rivers." Dowler quotes a similar theory advanced by the Fac- ulty of Paris, in 1665, to account for the ravages of the black plague* now threatening the world in southern Russia and northern Brazil. . He says : " In France, the medical faculty of Paris assembled in order to find out the causes and devise sanitary measures to arrest the progress of the epidemic. The doctors. after due deliberation, in a solemn official manifesto, or medical bull, decided in the most positive manner that the epidemic was 'owing to the constellations which combatted the rays of the sun, and the warmth of the heavenly fire which struggled violently with the waters of the sea, origi- uating a vapor in the great eastern sea of India. corrupted with fish, envelop- ing itself with fog. Should the same thing continue not a man would be left alive, except the grace of Christ preserve him. We are of opinion that the constellations, with the aid of nature, strive, by virtue of their divine right, to protect and heal the human race, and to this end, in union with the rays of the sun, acting through the power of fire, endeavor to break through the mist.' The faculty at the same time predicted, in the most oracular manner, the future movements of the aforesaid constellations: 'Accordingly, within the next ten days, until the 17th of the ensuing month of July, this mist will be converted into a stinking, deleterious rain, whereby the air will be much pu- rified. Now as soon as this rain announces itself by thunder or hail, every one of you should protect yourself from the air; and as well as after the rain, kindle a large fire of vine wood, green laurel, wormwood, chamomile, etc., until the earth is again completely dry, and three days afterwards no one ought to go about; only small river fish should be used; rain-water must be avoided in cooking; bathing is most hurtful, and the least departure from chastity fatal '"
Dr. Labadie, in his report of the epidemic of 1864, at Galveston, reviewing the existing theories as to the origin and means of propagation of yellow fever, rather favors the explosive theory. He says: " What causes the rise and prog- ress of this disease is a question hard to answer. Some say it is caused by a marsh miasm, under an atmosphere of over 90° Fahrenheit. Others contend that it is a peculiar subtle poison that explodes in the air, like an infla !- mable substance, communicates itself to certain points; and those who may happen to inhale or swallow more or less of it come under its influence after a certain number of hours-to as long as twenty-four days-which, when exploded in the stomach. or is absorbed by the blood from the lungs, finds its seat of infection in the stomach, which it first inflames to such a degree as to cause those violent pains witnessed ; leaving its impress there, it soon
* Which, Dowell says, appears to resemble yellow fever in many respects.
-
A
24
A HISTORY OF THE YELLOW FEVER.
leaves to do its work. The system becomes so depressed, so exhausted, that all the muscular force is gone. The walls of the stomach, no longer pro- tected by the muscular fibres, a degree of relaxation follows; the capillary vessels relaxed soon bleed; this blood, mixing with a rank acid of the stomach or bowels, they neutralize cach other, hence chocolate-colored vomit; but if this blood meets a strong acid, it becomes black, and, perhaps. car- bonizes at times in small particles, hence black vomit more or less profuse."
Dr. Warren Stone, an authority held in as high esteem as any other, and a physician whose name in New Orleans was, for more than thirty years, as a household word, in the course of a lecture, delivered in Bellevue Hos- pital in the winter of 1867, sustained the wave or cycle theory, but as to other points agreed with Dowler and Dowell. He says: "It is a disease peculiar to warm latitudes, but its limits could not be defined by any exact temperature or climatic conditions, for exceptions would frequently occur to falsify any such restrictions. Nothing more definite can be said than that it is a disease incident to warm climates, and induced by a pecu- liar poison, totally intangible, and disconnected from any known causes of disease. There is no combination of filth, no combination of circumstances caleulated to deteriorate health and excite typhoid or typhus fevers that had any thing to do with the generation of yellow fever. This remark- able fact is not generally known. Some Federal officers have taken credit to themselves for keeping yellow fever out of New Orleans during their occupation of that city; but it is a notorious fact that the city was not cleaner then (1862) in the suburbs and lower districts than it had often been before. The weather happened to be cooler, and there was less rain : but there was no material difference in any other respect. The city of New Orleans had been exempt from the fever for some years previously. when there was no quarantine whatever. Yellow fever has existed upon high and healthy latitudes, and proved as virulent there as in low regions. The Magnolia ridge, back of New Orleans, is one of the healthiest regions in the world, yet the yellow fever has proved quite as destructive there as in less favored regions. Indeed, the disease has always been more violent in the country, when it once prevails there, than in cities. . In regard to the cetiology or causes of yellow fever, there has always been much dispute. It has been a question whether it is imported or is of local origin. It certainly has not been imported in ships. The epidemic influence is wafted through the atmosphere in waves or cycles, and always made grad- ual and regular approaches; so that in New Orleans we know when it is coming by its prevalence in the islands of the gulf and places south of us. In the year 1851 it began in Brazil. and after passing over the northern part of South America and the West India Islands, it reached New Orleans in 1853. In 1855 it had traveled as far as Memphis, and was severe in many of the interior towns. Its history in New Orleans the present year is remarkable. It first appeared in a mill form, and in several places at once, in the month of June. and, although the weather was favorable to its spread, it did not increase in intensity, and only about nine cases
25
A HISTORY OF THE YELLOW FEVER.
occurred per week. These cases evidently originated in the city. But later in the season a fresh wave approached from the direction of Mexico, appearing in a violent form in Indianola, Galveston, and New Iberia, and, lastly, in New Orleans, where it appeared in a severe form and in increas- ing ratio, although the weather was of the kind considered unfavorable to its propagation. This was the general history of the disease. It fixed upon a place and ran its course, increasing in a definite ratio, declining in the same way; and finally disappearing, but, for the time being, affecting all who were subject to attack and exposed to its influence. Debility and other reasons render some persons more susceptible than others to the pecu- liar poison ; but this is the case with all diseases." Dr. P. V. Schenck, of St. Louis, in an exhaustive treatise, published during the epidemic of 1878, also upholds the wave theory. He says: "Yellow fever is an infec- tious disease, but it is neither miasmatic. nor contagious. The poison of yellow fever is not generated in the human system; it is generated exter- nally; it attacks persons, and may be carried in vessels and trunks; for the presence of the disease an imported germ, or descendant of an imported germ, is necessary. The old discussions which have so long disturbed the profession are at an end, and the mind will be no longer swayed like a pendulum be- yond the point of a stable equilibrium. Even when the Royal Academy of Medicine were undergoing a lively debate; and when Dr. Chevrin was on his six years' journey of investigation; and when Drs. Pym and Bryson, of England, were quarreling over the facts in the Bann and Eclair cases ; while the stupid Health Board of England were trying to break down quarantine ; while old Dr. Hosack, of this country, was venting his wrath on those who believed in non-contagion, 'as juniors in knowledge and in years, and as the unfledged opinion and speculations of men of the closet, who have had but few opportunities to test them at the bedside,'-even then, if you will carefully examine the facts, you will find it to be impossible, out of the many old epidemics, to affirm of any one of them that it had been intro- duced by contagion. Bancroft has brought a mass of testimony and fact upon this subject. Dr. Porter, with his vessels, meets in mid-ocean with an infected vessel: his officers and crew intermingle, and they leave unharmed. A vessel lying at Havana, surrounded by infected vessels, in front of an infected city. is unbarmed. The fourteen men who went to New York from Governor's Island, visited in the most thiekly and filthy portions of that city; nine of them died, yet none of the citizens took the disease-indeed, so far as known, no case is on record in which a person having the disease in a pre- viously healthy quarter, has become the starting point of a local epidemic. In yellow fever we meet with a non-contagious disease; the living person. thoughi sick, will not propagate it-it is not reproduced in his system; the disease is of exotic origin, and, in order to become epidemic. it must be carried by the wave. It has its periods of rest and of activity. It travels three times as fast in tropical regions as it does higher up. It may liber- nate, and resume its march the summer following; it may take one-ha a city this, and finish its work the next summer. It travels at the rate c
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.