Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 September 1905 — FIGHTING THE FEVER [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FIGHTING THE FEVER

YELLOW JACK AS IT 13 KNOWN TO MODERN SCIENCE. \ Combat Against the Dreaded Southern Scourge Is No Longer the Unequal Straggle It Once Proved to Be—Some . Yellow Fever History. - ST ,—. f Fortunately the combat against yellOW fever, the most dreaded of summer visitors, Is no longer the unequal struggift It once proved to be. Modern research and improved methods of sanitation have, robbed the ancient terror of much of its grewsomeness, writes Everett Lawton, but too much that is reminiscent of its horrors etill remains. Medical men have never left off theorising about the cause of yellow fever they began to treat it. It was be|lftved by many that it was infections, a specific miasm carried in the air, Others taught that it was contagious, contracted only by actual contact 'with substances which had been contaminated by a fever patient After the search for micro-organisms became the fad there were many announcements of the discovery of the fever bacillus, but conservative physicians were inclined to be skeptical, in the summer of 1900 came the first Inkling of the true solution. The United States government had undertaken to free Havana from its unsavory reputation for unhealthfulness, and as a preliminary Surgeon General Sternberg (now retired) appointed a board to investigate the yellow feve% The preliminary observation disclosed several significant facts. It was found that non-immune nurses did not often contract the disease. That seemed to controvert the idea of con-

tagion and infection. Repeated examinations of tho blood and excreta of patients showed no signs of the presence of bacteria. That disposed of the microbe theory. Ten years earlier .a Cuban physician, Dr. Carlos Finlay, of Havana, had propounded the theory that the fever could be carried by a mosquito, the culex (now stegomyia) fasciatus. The board began to experiment with this insect. Eleven persons were permitted to be bitten by these contaminated mosquitoes. From nine there was no result; two had yellow fever. This proved conclusively that the disease could be communicated in that way. The American board then undertook the test which has become famous. Two experiment houses were built at Quemndo, Cuba, one of them called the “Infected mosquito building” and

the other the “Infected clothing building." The former was screened and well ventilated; the other was screened and unventllnted. In the former, patients were bitten by Infected mosquitoes; In the latter, no mosquitoes were admitted, but the persons submitting themselves to the experiment slept with soiled bedding and clothing direct from the yellow fever hospitals. In thirteen cases where non-lm-munes were bitten by mosquitoes which had bitten a fevqr patient, ten contracted the disease. In the other house, although an equal number had slept there several nights, no one became 111. This discovery, which has since bnen verllied repeatedly, at once worked a revolution In the management of the dreaded fever. At Havana a war of extermination against the culex was begun. If the death-carrying pest could be abolished, It was evident that the scourge would disappear. If complete extermination were not possible, them still remained the salutary expedient of screening both the patient and the non-iromune person from the presence of the mosquito. This Is practically the modern way of dealing with

yellow lack. That It has been effectual is proved by the fact that within a few months after mosquito extermination began at Havana the fever disappeared—for the first time in a century and a half. It is a well-authenticated fact that yellow fever has prevailed endemically throughout the West Indies and in certain regions on the Spanish main ever since the discovery of America. Barbados, Jamaica and Cuba suffered epidemics before the middle of the seventeenth century. There were outbreaks of the pest in Philadelphia, Charleston and Boston as early as 1092, and for a hundred years afterward there were occasional eruptions, culminating in the famous Philadelphia epidemic of 1793. Most Northern Cities were able by extraordinary sanitary and quarantine measures to prevent great epidemics, at least after the beginning of the nineteenth century, but the disease crept in from the West Indies how and theh and raged epidemically in the Southern towns. Although it has been the habit of certain medical authorities,* especially those of foreign countries, to describe yellow fever as a disease which originated on the Western continent, there is excellent ground for dissent It is well known to medical historians that at the time when the plague first appeared in the West Indies and at various points in South and Central America a similar disease raged violently on the wiest coast of Africa, in the countries bordering on the Mediterranean and In India. Of course its wide distribution at the time it was first classified as a distinct disease would not militate against the theory of ,lts American origin, but it is also an undeniable fact that outbreaks of the disorder occurred in the lagoons of Africa long before the discovery of the American continent. Once accepting the theory that yel-

low fever is of African origin, it is not difficult to explain its transplantation to America. It is one of baneful legacies bequeathed by the slaVe trade. The slave dealers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries often lost from one-half to two-thirds of their cargo during the voyage from a mysterious fever which broke out suddenly in the filthy holds of the overcrowded ships, and this complaint, formerly denominated African, or ship, fever, is now believed to have been yellow fever. Whenever it appeared among the hapless and terrified wretches packed in the middle decks of the slavers it made the most frightful ravages, and, as a rule, the crews of the vessels suffered equally with the slaves. More than once in the history of the slave trade ships were found adrift at sea, the holds filled with dead blacks, while the white crews were either dead or stricken with the fever. Even in those remote days it was suspected that the plague was in some way connected with yellow fever. It was observed that the latter sickness occurred almost always at port 3 In which a returned slaver had Just discharged her cargo. It is not difficult in the light of present knowledge to trace the course of yellow fever in Jtropical countries, and whenever sufficient and unprejudiced investigation has been made it has been found that the disease has followed the slave trade. In the interior towns of Mexico, Central America and in the Spanish settlements oh the South African continent it not infrequently prevailed after the arrival of a shipload of African slaves, and its appearance in subtropical Europe may be referred to the same cause. Its earliest recorded appearance as a pestilence on the continent of Eurspe was in the Spanish ports of the Mediterranean, whence it spread to the cities of the Levant, along the Red Sea and finally to India. In the latter country it found congenial surroundings and obtained so firm a foothold that It is still well established in the crowded Hindoo cities. In the seventeenth century the slave trade was regarded as a perfectly legitimate business, followed by the ship owners of every maritime nation, but especially by the Spanish, then the leading seafaring people. Wherever the slavers went they spread slavery and pestilence, and, since they sailed as far east as Calcutta, the disease became established In the equatorial zone around the entire globe. Confined to the torrid *pne, the evil would still havo been bad enough, but it soon made Its way to other quarters of the

world. In 1590 a vessel which had landed a cargo of slaves on the Virginia coast went on to Philadelphia to refit. While there the ship was cleaned thoroughly, ft large quantity of very offensive bilge water which was in the hold being pumped into the stagnant pool in which the vessel was lying. Three days later several carpenters employed in the shipyard adjacent were taken violently ill. Soon afterward nearly every sailor on the ship and mpst of those who worked

in the shipyard near by were prostrated by a complaint which was recognized by competent physicians as identical with the fever prevalent on slave ships. Within a week the pestilence was epidemic In the city. Philadelphia’s prominence as a part led to several subsequent scourges of the pest, and In every case it seemed to originate either from a slave ship or from a vessel coming direct from a southern port. In 1762 several thousand persons died during an epidemic of yellow fever in the Quaker City, and there were subsequent destructive visitations in 1793, 1797 and 1802. The great plague of 1793 really began in New York and spread over most of the United States during that and the following season. The worst experience southern Europe ever had with the fever began at Gibraltar in. 1804. A slave ship with the disease on board was encountered by a Brltsh merchantman at sea off the Gibraltar strait, and as there were not enough well men on board to manage the ship the captain of the English vessel sent several sailors aboard the slaver and advised its master to put in at Gibraltar. The slaver did so. The slaves were landed, the ship was cleaned, and a few days later the fever was in full blast among the soldiers of the garrison. Over a thousand soldiers died of the complaint and thrice that number of civilians. Many fled, and the contagion was spread among the Spanish ports of the Mediterranean. In the following summer it made its appearance at Genoa and a few weeks later at Naples, where over 7,000 fatal cases occurred. Thence the malady made its way along the Italian and Grecian coasts to Constantinople, where it found congenial soil. The ports of the ori«nt were each stricken in turn, and the scourge followed the pilgrim route down the Red Sea to Mecca. Returning pilgrims bore It with them to India, and the great epidemic followed. During the past century the visits of tjie dreaded disease to the United States were numerous. New Orleans has been the chief sufferer. Epidemics of yellOw fever prevailed there in 1847, 1853, 1855, 1858, 1867, 1878 and 1879. The visitation of 1853 was the most deadly, over 8,000 victims having fallen. The experience of Memphis in 1878 and 1&79 is still recalled with horror. During the first season of the pest there were 5,100 deaths, and during the second, although the town was almost deserted, there were several hundred more. This pestilence of 1879 was the most destructive of any ever experienced in the United States, 65,976 cases having been reported and 14,800 deaths. During the Civil War there was scarcely a case among the Union troops in the South, although It was freely predicted that the forces in the Gulf region would be annihilated by the disease. When New Orleans R as occupied by General Butler many persons regarded the destruction of his army as practically certain. He began immediately to put the city in a good sanitary condition, detailing squads of his men to clean the streets and sewers. As a result there was not a single case of well marked yellow fever in New Orleans during the Union occupation.

BLACK SHOWS DISTRIBUTION OF FEVER MOSQUITO.

SCREENED HOSPITAL ENTRANCE.

MARINE HOSPITAL. KEY WEST.

A YELLOW FEVER WARD.