The native American., 1838-12-15

Cause of the yelloo teper at Charleston, s. C-Mayor
Pinckney enters into elaborate report this subject
and falls into the common and exploded of animal
putacon and the exposure of the cellars and sinks in
the district laid waste by the late dreadful fire accelera
ting this decomposition He asks why Charleston and no
other part Of the coast of South Carolina has yellow e
ve and answersthe accumulation Of vegetable putre
faction is there only better is, Charleston is
the only port it may be said in constant intercourse with
Havana and with other West India cities and from
whence the black vomit imported into the State The
same existed 100 years ago in the yellow fevers
which ravagc6 Charleston, and which have been gra
pheay described by their own admirable physician of
that day, DR.. Liner. Was there any burnt district then
or vast accumulation of animal materials! Mr. Pnckney
wishes also to bring in Craze yards auxiliary, and
recommends Pere ~ Chase out of the city. The last
is well and the occasion opportune, but animal matter
his honor may rest assured from mmemoria and every
day experience has nothing do whatever with the pro-
ducon Of yellow fever which is foreign imported con-
tageous disease, beyond all questlon-Eue. Star.
The opinion that ''animal putrefaction," or that
'the exposure Of the cellars and sinks in the Dis
trict laid waste by the dreadful fire." was the
cause of the yellow fever in Charleston, does not
appear to be supported by facts. There is high
authority for the opinion that ''animal matter"
never generates yello,c or any other bilious fe-
yer, in any stage of putrefaction. But had such
material existed in that locality, it is reasonable to
be supposed that it would have been consumed or
rendered innoxious by that great purifying and
corrective agent, fire. Moreover, there must have
resulted from the fire large quantity of ashes and
charcoal, both of which are reputed to possess
neutralizing qualities, adequate, we should think,
to counteract whatever morbid exhalations might
be produced within the space covered by them,
or rather to have prevented the generation of such
exhalations altogether.
Nor do we agree with the Star as to the origin
and nature ofthe yellow fever. That it is indi-
genous and non-contagous, we believe is almost
uniformly admitted by the best medical authorities
of this country; some of whom we know, both in
their writings and lectures, maintain that bilious
fever land this is only another name for the same
disease, which in its most malignant form receives
the name of yellow fever), is always the offspring
of vegetable putrefaction and decomposition. The
arguments adduced in its support are, in our OPT
Mon, powerful and convincing, ifnot irrefutable.
The disease arising from this cause is always of a
bilious character, and may be an intermittent or a
yellow fever, according to the less or greater con-
centration of the morbifc effuva. As to grave
yards, the idea that they, under ordinary circum-
stances at least, can possibly be the cause offever
by any efluvia emitted from the graves Of the
mouldering dead and waited through the air, is
unreasonable, if not absurd. Whatever may be
the nature of that quality, which impregnates the
human body with the seeds of bilious disease,
floats in the atmosphere, and is said to be insen-
III - bo c,,bt,1a rn,1tor,hla -,
its properties than the more sensible quality Of
fetor arising from the putrifacton of animal flesh.
1t would suffice to inter corpse little below the
surface of the earthto conceal it from sight, if this
were all that was required But, if it were thus
contiguous to the surface, the fetor from the
corpse would be emitted, and carniverous beasts,
allured by the smell, would despoil the grave OF