The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1855-08-23
Origin of Yellow Fever.

Some OF the New Orleans papers as
sert that the experience of the present
season has conclusively established the
fact that yellow fever is "a disease of in
digenous character and not to be preven-
ted by the most stringent system of non
intercourse with infected places This is
the language of the New Orleans Bee
The same paper notices particularly each
individual case which occurred at the first
manifestation of the disease, and concludes
as follows:
"This brief statement is seloquentindeed
Here we have dozen cases, most of them
fatal; the very earliest noticed in the city
received in that great thermometer ofpub
lie health, the Charity Hospital. Not one
of them had come from an infected port
not one was ascertained to have had any
distinct connexion with the shipping; no
one was a seafaring man. Some were
employed on steamboats, in the rivers
others were mechanics working in the
heart of the city; some had been three
weeks, others six months in our city;somt
lived in the centre, others at the extremi
ties of the town; all were unacclima ated
nearly all foreigners, and none had pass
ed single summer in New Orleans. l
those who preach the doctrine of the i'm
portation of yellow fever can find in these
cases a single crutch to support them the,
must be more ingenious than the philoso
pher who extracted sunbeams from Gu
cumbers."
Similar proof is adduced by the New
Orleans Bulletin. The existing quaran
tine law was passed by the Louisiana Leg
iglature at its last session, with view t.
ascertaining whether the disease be i'm
ported or of local character; and tn
stringent pr07;;ssiicc22ss Ct this law have beel
rigidly enforced since the first of Jun
against all vessels going to New Orlean
from places affected with yellow fever
The Bulletin says:
at may with confidence be asserted
that no foul vessel from any infected dis
trict has been suffered to approach th'
city and scatter the seeds of pestilence a
mong our resident population. In con
sequence Of the rigid scrutiny that ha
been observed by the officers of the Boar'
of Health the embargo upon foreign i'm
portations of yellow fever has been equiv
alent to a complete prohibition, and th
fever we have is strictly and undeniabl.
of domestic production"
The Bulletin further adduces, in proc
of this conclusion, the results of the in
vestigations made this season at the Char
ity Hospital, whittier the cases of yellov
fever are conveyed. These show that, u
to the 25th of June, all the cases of vel
low fever received at the hospital wer
persons who did not come from infected
parts, and who bad not been in contrac
with the shipping from such places. The.
were nearly all unacclimated German
and Irish DR.. FENNER, in an articl
published in the New Orleans Medica
News and Hospital Gazette, maintain
that the epidemic fevers of the plac
gradually run into yellow fever, and tha
the latter is only one of the types of en-
demic fever common to the region, anC
not separate, distinct, and specific di
sease. He gives statistics to show that il
the summer and autumnal months tn,
several types of fever get so confouEdec
that tney become one and the same di
sease.
There are, nevertheless, at New Or
leans, as well as elsewhere, many intelli
gent persons who adhere to the importa
ton theory.