The Planters' banner. [volume] (Franklin, Attakapas Co., Lou.) 1849-1872, 1853-09-22


such places. Having ice here and in
Mobile and Charleston every winter, we
need no other fact to satisfy US that yel-
low fever is an exotic in those places,
transported thither on the wings OF COM
merce, and that when it appears in
either or all of them, the circumstance
is always traceable to an intertropical
origin. Charleston having recently
taken some steps to guard her citizens
from yellow fever, New Orleans and
Mobile are the only important ports on
our Atlantic seaboard which are left en-
tirely unguarded against the introduce
ton of the disease, aud in consequence,
they are the only ones which. suffer
from such Visitations.
Yellow fever, then, is regarded as a
specific disease, and as purely and
simply an intertropical one. alt pre-
vslls,' says Dr. Carpenter, "almost
perpetually near the equator, where
the temperature of water is rarely low
enough to destroy the infection; and ii
is carried by commerce to the eonn-
tries lying north during the portion of
the year between February and No
vember. and to the regions to the south
ward from August to May. Thus in
Surinam and Demerara it is different
as to the seasons; in Campeachy, Vera
Cruz and Havana it begins from Feb
ruary to May, in the United States from
June 10 October, while at Pernambuco
and Rio Janeiro it prevails generally
from November to May"
All the efforts which have hitherto
been made within the tropics to check
the progress have proved unavailing-
But every such well directed effort.
made at places North and South of this
region, has been attended with COM
plete success.
In view of what appears TO me to be
the irresistible array of facts that force
themselves upon the notice of any one
who even cursorily examines the SUBJ
ject, sometimes doubt that those most
prominent in the advocacy of the doc
trine of ''local origin" in the United
States, are sincere believers in It's truth.
Let me not be understood as charging
such with the unqualified wickedness
which this suspicion, taken in its broad
est sense, would imply. | mean that,
like the great father of this doctrine,
Dr. Rush, they believe that the evil is
unavoidable, and that correct knowl-
edge of its nature and attributes by
the people, would render them, on oc-
caslons of It's occurrence, deaf 10 the
appeals Of humanity, in an absorbing
regard for their personal safety. Con-
troversies on this subject often shadow
forth these opinions in a manner more
or less distinct. Occasionally, however,
they are openly avowed The most re-
cent instance of this kind that caught
my notice, is furnished in page % of
work entitled Hastings on Yellow Fe-
ver," published III 1913, with the re-
Communications of distinguished men,
bers Of the medical profession, in which
the author, having rather vaguely
given in his adhesion 10 the ~non-con-
closes paragraph with the
declaration:
Humanity even demands that the
idea of contaoion should be eschewed
by the profession, in euery epidemic DIS
order, unless it be SO beyond the shad-
ow of doubt; since it calls forth the
worst features of the human heart in
its ungoyernable terror, ard causes
even the mother to desert her dying
child, and the sick to languish uncared
for and shunnedn.
| am no admirer of 'pious frauds"
nor a believer in the propriety of doing
evil in the expectation of good result.
Such articles seldom fail Of producing
the reverse of those in
tended, and the case in point is
illustration of the fact. The
doctrine of local origin" inducing
belief that yellow fever is not imported
here, nor communicable, leads people
to disregard all precautions against its
and unnecessarily 10 ex-
pose themselves to its Influence, and
thus to extend the area of its destructive
operations.
| moreover regard the views express
ed in the sentences quoted as doing
great injustice 10 human nature. Let
as, in illustration of this, take New Or
Ieans as the source of our reflections !: |
and where could we find a field more
appropriate for the purpose-embracing
IS it does, people of every degree of |
condition and inlelligence-of every |
lind of pursuit, and from almost every |
part of the globe-whose benevolence |
md fortitude are constantly subjected |
% She most fearful tests that pestilence
IAN present. In spite of the inculca-
ions of the Faculty here, the mass of
he unacclimated instinctively feel
hat yellow fever is communicable, or
Chiefly, if not entirely from
his cause, a large proportion of our un-
lcclimated people never pass summer
lere; and on the approach of an cpl
iemic, all the rest, not compelled by
controlling considerations TO remain,
Immediately leave the city. But where
lmong those of our macclimated citi-
ems who witnessed the destructive ca
eer of this and previous epidemics,
we're the g worst feelings of the human
leart," or that I" uugovernable terror"
displayed? What mother in our midst