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 / by J.M. Keating.

  • Keating, John McLeod, 1830-1906.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: 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 / by J.M. Keating. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    sensible lavman us well as physician must endorse, as follows: For indi- viduals who are obliged to remain in an infected locality, there is no pre- ventive so effectual as keeping the system in a general state of good health. Lot a man breathe fresh air as much as possible, eat nutritious food mod- erately and regularly, take plenty of sleep at seasonable hours, bathe freely, and above all avoid the use of stimulants; by so doing he will reduce the danger to a minimum and be likely 'to escape, while strong men of irreg- ular habits are stricken down by his side. An equable mind, which comes of a firm trust in God and an implicit reliance on His providence, is not the least valuable preventive of this as of every other disease. II. Sporadic or epidemic yellow fever is not alwa3'3 to be attributed to the same causes, notwithstanding Dr. Dowell, of Galveston, says that in nineteen cases out of twenty it Avill be found to have been introduced or imported. Dr. Bennett Dowler, in his excellent pamphlet, The Epidemic in New Orleans, tells of an outbreak of it in Gallipolis, Ohio, in 1796, which killed one- half the army and the inhabitants in ten days. This place, which also suffered in 1878, was at that time a new settlement, quite in the wilderness, and isolated from all others, having communication with the Atlantic cities only at long intervals and under favoring conditions of weather and of roads. Mr. A. Elliott, in his journal of a voyage down the Ohio in that year, refei-red to in the report O'f the surgeon-general of the army, says the dis- ease raged violently, the fatal cases being generally attended with black vomit. The fever, he says, could not have been taken there from the Atlantic States, as my boat Avas the first that descended the river in the spring. Neither could it have been taken from New Orleans, as there is no com- munication up the river at that season of the year. In the fall of 1823, yellow fever of a high grade suddenly appeared at Fort Smith, Arkansas, and prevailed epidemically, without so much as a suspicion of exposure to conta- gion, according to the official report on file in the office of the surgeon-general of the army. The theory here suggested, that this disease, if not localized or indigenous to this cotintry, may originate under favoring conditions, is borne out to some extent by a tabulated statement furnished in an article that ap- peared in De Bow's Review for December, 1853, immediately after what was, until last year's experience in Memphis, considered the most dreadful of its visitations in this country. The table shows the number of cases and deaths, from the year 1822 to 1849, inclusive, which occurred in the Charity Hospital. The figures are perfectly authentic, having been taken from the official rec- ords. These figures bear very significantly upon the proposition with which the writer pre&ces his remarks, to wit: That the yellow fever originates here, •