Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1855-08-30
THE YELLOW FEVER IN NORFOLK
AND PORTSMOUTH.


THE YELLOW FEVER IN NORFOLK
AND PORTSMOUTH.
The accounts from these cities continue TO be
of the most gloomy character.
Among the many deaths, is that Of Hunter
Woods, the mayor Of Norfolk He died on the
morning Of Goth instant, in the 34th year of his
age. A correspondent Of the Baltimore Sun
says:
"No man of his day had more warm personal
friends, or elected more general respect wherever
he went. To know him was to love him. His
appearance; the open and manly expression oil
his countenance; his full, rich voice; his mild and
gentle manner, indicating the warm heart and
open hand his brilliant intellect his truth and
honor; his bold and fearless spirit--all combined
to elicit the love and esteem of all who come in
contact with him. His loss will be deeply mourn
ed by thousands. To his wife and numerous de-
voted friends 1t will prove irreparable. His flu
neral was attended by the largest concourse o.
citizens have ever seen assembled together since
the pestilence broke out. No other mas among
us, be he high or low, rich or poor, could have
had such funeral, in times like these; and the
death of no other man among us could have add
ed SO much to the general gloom asd Distress {"
letter dated Norfolk, on Sunday last, says:
The weather is intensely hot and sultry, the
thermometer ranging as high as 95 degrees in the
shade.
The number of sick increases so fast that great
inconvenience is beginning to be felt on account
OF the want of room to accommodate them. New
quarters will have to be put up speedily
While cases die off, the new ones seem to be
more manageable, and yield more readily to medi
cine Nearly all of the recent new cases ar.
getting along as well as could be expected
1t seems to make difference, however, abou
the locality where the person contracts the
disease. Although the epidemic is general anc
wide spread, il is more malignant in some place.
than in others, and those who take fever down
town, on Main and Water streets, are attacked
much more violently than those in the northern
portionsIof the city.
The following from the Baltimore american
will be read with Interest,"
DR.. John Morris returned 10 this city Yesterday
morning from Norfolk, whittier he had been fol
several days, and represents the condition of the
city as deplorable in the extreme. There are
more physicians in Norfolk lie says than are ne
cessary, but there is great want of nurses
which it seems impossible to obtain All the
physicians OF the city arc attending to their bust
ness but there is now no one to direct the affairs
OF the city or to enforce sanitary regulations
Mayor Woods died on Sunday last, which lef
the city government without head; there is nc
quorum of the City Council, or Board of Health
nor is there any one to attend to anything, excep
the Howard Association, and the whole time Of
that body is absorbed in distributing food to
the population. The scenes witnessed by DIR
Morris while in Norfolk he says are indescrbable
The stores are all closed, the market houses de-
serted, and out of population of twenty thou
sand, there are only about eight thousand left, O
which number thore are only three thousa nd
whites. DIR. M. visited family on Sunday last
and found the wife lying in dying condition OF
the bed, and the husband with black vomit or
the floor, without u friend to attend them, or .
nurse to administer the necessary medicine. Ht
made an effort to. administer the necessary me
dicine. lie made an effort to procure a nurse fol
them, but could not, and when he left they were
both in the agonies of DEATH During the illness
of Mayor Woods there was not citizen of Nor
folk at his residence, and the last night of his
life two of the physicians remained with him. Sc
great has been and continues the mortality that
the people look at it and talk of it with apparen,
unconcern, and look as matter of course for the
death OF patient as surely as they are attacked
In the midst of this distress, those who own
vehicles for public use have taken advantage OF
the times, aud refuse to physicians their carriages
except at rates which the Howard Association
cannot pay.
DIR. M. states that the malaria is such that all
the people, even those who are apparently
healthy, look sallow, and their eyes partake OF
yellow hue. There are but few people to be
seen IN the streets, except those having charge OF
the hearses, and the physicians who are con-
stantly going 1t is impossible for any one TO
form any proper idea of the distress which pre-
walls, and even those in comfortable circumstances
are obliged to obtain their supplies from the
Howard Association, there being no other means
Of procuring them.
In Portsmouth there are better regulations, the
authorities standing at their posts and doing all
they can to relieve the afflicted The city has
been divided into seven districts, each of which
has its own physicians, and the patients are made
more comfortable than in Norfolk. The epidemic
RACES quite severely as ever, though it has as
sumed less malignant form and yields more
readily to medical treatment. The average num-
Der OF deaths IS about twenty per day, and the
number of new cases is as great per day as il
have been at any time since the epidemic broke
out. DIR. M. states that he left because there
were more physicians than are needed, but the
authorities cannot tell those who are constantly
arriving that they require no more medical help.
Many OF the physicians are young and inexperi-
enced, though they might be very effective as
nurses. All the people seem more or less indis-
posed, the malaria which fills the atmosphere pro-
ducing disagreeeable fever in the head. There
is now no hope of arresting the ravages of the
disease, and so thoroughly infected has become
the cities that it will continue to rage until dis
PEELED by frost, there being nothing else which
can stay its progress.
The latest accounts represent that the Norfolk
papers are all suspended. The number of deaths
in the last twenty-four hours was Is
PORTSMOUTH, Tuesday, clock, p. m.-The
whole number of deaths is 300, including l07 at
the Naval Hospital. Sixty.two new cases have
been reported since Saturday Deaths for the
week ending Tuesday, lis.
-Four physicians and ten nurses have arrived
from Charleston
Mayor Fiske 10 sick, but not Of the fever.
There were seven deaths during the last eight
hours, and twelve yesterday.
SLAVE CASE At CINCINNATI A few DAYS
ago as Mr. Thos. G. Lannan was passing through
Cincinnati, en- rontc Tor Montgomery county Nd.