Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1857-06-16
NATIONAL HOTEL DISEASE,
IFrOm the New York Herald


the middle Of March, and who came under INV
care during relapse in New York about the
nrst OF May, to publish my views Of the malady
have thought it might be of some service pos
slbly to do so, as L have been in a position to
obtain information not only from facts coming
under my own observation, but from scientific
men on the spot, who were personally familiar
with the whole history of things from the begin
ming up to the present time
Having lived in the midst of the most mala-
rial districts Of the South for great portion of
my life, opportunities have been afforded for
becoming familiar with diseases of that nature
and their various symptoms. NV opinion is,
that bad air malaria will account for all the
phenomena observed, and that no other suppo-
sitiOn can.
Some five or six years since diarrhpa was
very prevalent at that hotel.
One gentleman was seized at the National
last October
An eminent physician of Washington saws
The FIRST case of the diarrhea I met with at
the National was in the latter part Of Janu-
ary."
1t cannot be denied that several persons who
never ate anything at that house were attacked
by the disease. There were many who took all
their meals there through the whole season and
remained well.
1t is not in proof that there were any cases in
the neighborhOOd. A wide street bounds the
house on three sides
lug suffered less than men who were absent a
good part OF the time, thus eating at the house
less often than the women
There was every grade Of intensity in the
symptoms in different persons.
Ihe symptoms themselves were much varied
Ihe attacks usually came on early in the morn
ing and suddenly, with eOpious and repeated
discharge from the bowels of n light coIored
frothy, sOurish fluid of custard consistency
without pain, gripping, strainlng, tenderness,
chillness, or fever
In most cases the stomach was not affected at
all IN the beginning, and the appetite would re-
main good
Ii the disease went on for a few days the
stomach became irritated and the food only was
thrown up, especially if the bowels had been
checked by Opiates and astringents
sometimes very violent pains would be felt
In the bowels, seemingly due to spasm and fat
ulence.
At later period, Inflammation. soreness.
tenderness, and fever would manifest them
selves, with loss Of appetite, great thirst and in
very few cases cramps
eopious rash appeared in a gouty patient
Ihere were few, If any, cases Of bloody or
mucous stools
The best results generally followed the use
OF absorbents and antiacids such as charcoal
and magnesia.
The best diet seemed to be rice, farina starch
and the like.
Quiet and confinement were less beneficial
than eourageously keeping out and about
Relapses most frequently occurred from i'm
prudence IN eating, especially meat
Inc stomach was only secondarily affected
and sometimes not at all
One man would eat a SINGLE meal in the
house, leave it, be taken sick and remain 80 for
weeks; another would eat and live in the house
Tor days and weeks and escape altogether.
Several persons who remained in the house
and procured their own food and water did not
escape an attack.
Many parts Of the house were filed with a
most offensive OdOr, some parts were compare
lively exempt
No practical chemist haseritically examined
body dead from the National Hotel disease
and declared under his own name that there
was any trace of mineral poison Examina-
tions Of the dead body have been critically
made without the discovery Of arsenic or of
any other mineral poison, as in the case Of Mr.
Petriken, of Harrisburg, Pa. In epidemics
from bad air, this bad air including miasma,
that Is decaying vegetation, as we'll as malaria
In general, such as chill and fever. fever and
ague, diarrhOea, dysentery. cholera. yellow
fever and the like, half the people escape alto
gether. Ii mineral poison is in the food on the
table IN sufficient quantities to affect single
person decidedly, such effects will be observed
within a very few hours and not one in ten
can possibly escape altogether.
In large doses arsenic kills in FIVE or six
hours, before Inflammation takes place
In moderate doses there is Inflammation and
irritation Of the bowels, and death occurs in
three or four days.
In q third class of cases there is a nervous
irritation causing kind of palsy or lockjaw
Mysteries, mania and the like. If death does
not take place in few hours from arsenic
there Is Inflammation of the stomach, as well
when IL is applied to a fresh wound as when in
the stomach.
For hundred persons to sit down to a table
Art Ia Of 81
causing death in some instances or severe sick
ness within few hours, and yet the greater
number TO escape, is chemical and physiOlogi-
cal impossibility
Heat destroys the effects of malaria as TO the
human body by rarifying it, and carrying il
above the breathing point. Cold brings ii near
er the foor or earth, and in u more condensed
and Vlrulent form Hence women sitting in
IN warmer rooms with the larger supplies of air
from without through window crevices suffered
less than men who were in colder rooms with a
supply OF new air from frequently opening doors
from the Passages in the hotel, the outer doors
being kept closed
Mineral pOisons affect the stomach almost in
stantly if in large doses, causing fearful vomit-
lngs or excessive burning or pains in throat
stomach or bowels
A person entering q house in n tired and
wearied condition and breathing concentrated
malaria while eating single meal and then
leaving the house, may very e9siy imbibe a
fatal disease in that short time from the opera
ton Of two causes-his debilitated state and
the empty stomach drinking in the poison from
every swallow Of saliva, until he eats, and then
the yigor Of the system being expended on the
digestion Of the food in the stJma h. leaves
other parts Of the system proportionably weak
against disease engendering agencies
Anomalous secondary symptoms and pheno-
mena would attend the disease, from the fact OF
the extraordinary combination Of simple mias-
INA, with the more general malaria. and the ex-
traordInary concentration Of the gases from
sewers, eessPOOls, kitchen offal noisome cellar,
and the heat Of cooking washing and ironing
IN the vicinity Of the lower rooms of the build
ing, not very accessible TO the outdoor air.
Ii IL believed that not single statement has
been made in the preceding article that cannot
be literally substantiated in a court of Justice
by the testimony of personal observers of the
lActs OF the case-the testimony of scientific
men fayOrably known to fame. The aim has