The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1857-05-19
THE NATIONAL. HOTEL MALADY.

DR.. Mott informed the meeting that DIR.
Wynne, from Baltimore. was present. who
would communicate certain interesting in
formation to the Academy concerning the
sickness at the National Hotel, Washing
ton. He (Dr. M felt great interest in the
subject, and was very desirous to hear DIR.
Wynne. He was sure all the members en-
tertained the same feeling. He was not at all
satisfied with The reports and explanations
that had heretofore been offered. We at a
distance hardly knew what judgment to
form upon this interesting subject. Facts
and information, therefore, would be very
acceptable; by which they might come to
some definite conclusion.
DR.. Wynne was cordially received by the
Academy, and occupied their attention for
nearly an hour, in first briefly detailing the
facts as they have already been stated by
the press, and then upon these deduced a
theory referring the cause of the disease to
the offensive efiuvia arising from the sewer,
house was subjected, especially in cold
weather. Several examples given by DR..
Wynne, from medical history, proved that
precisely such a disease has often been pro-
duced in establishments, hospitals, armies,
&C., from putrid effiuvia. He stated that
DIR. C. T. Jackson, of Boston, who was at
Washington during the prevalence of the
disease, very justly remarks that ''no chem
l.
been adduced to prove that any one of the
persons who were sick with this disease had
taken poison of any kind into their stom-
achs.'' Now the question arises, can dis
ease, presenting the characteristics Of the
one just described, be produced by putrid
exhalations arising from deficient yentila-
ton If so, without the abduction of new
evidence, the endemic must be attributed
to this cause.
Doctor, afterwards Sir John Pringle, the
president of the Royal Society, than whom
no man of his day was more acute obser-
yer, in his observations on the diseases
of the English troops in Flanders, says that
whenever the marsh, near which the army
was stationed, was foul with animal impur-
tiles, the soldiers were invariably seized
with bowel irritation, amounting even to
dysentery. This observation made by this
distinguished army surgeon, has been COR
roborated by the experience of every one
having the medical care of bodies of garri-
soned or field troops since his day. The
oynnrianno nf in ElnviAa md
more recently in Mexico, shows the great
prevalence and malignity of bowel affec-
tions among those who are subjected to pu-
trid exhalations. Nor is this confined to
those who are confined to the wretched
quarters of the soldiers of an army in the
time of war, or to the i'll ventilated apart
ments of the more wretched in populous
towns, but often invaded the luxurious dwell
ings of the more opulent classes.
DR.. Rigby, in his evidence before the
health board of town commissions, says'that
he has often been enable to detect, by the
sense of smell, the poisonous exhalations
of London. He considers the sense of
smell as very important to physician. A
crafty nurse, says he, may hide much from
the eye, but she can conceal but little from
perienced in these matters. He is clear in
attributing an attack of puerperal fever
which seized the inmates of the Lying in
Hospital under his charge of defective sew
erage and ventilation. DR.. Dray, of Kings
College, is equally positive in tracing con-
sumption to the same cause, and DR.. South
wood Smith bears ample testimony Of its
powers to produce fever.
There are instances in which the attacks
from this cause assume each one or the
other of these forms, and others in which
two or more are conjoined. This was espe-
cially the case in the Croydon epidemic
which occurred in 1852. Mr. Granger, who
was sent by the board of Health to investi
gate the cause of the outbreak and who,
among other like causes, attrib uted the
epidemic to the eff1uvia which escaped from
the gully holes of the old sewers, says: Be
sides the attacks Of fever, there was large
amount of diarrhea. Mr. Thompson had
fifty cases in his practice, all evidently at
tributable to and forming part of the cpl
demic. In the Croydon epidemic, lead
ing characteristic of all the cases of fever
was diarrbea. and DR. Granger says that.
in this outbreak, gastric disturbance, trace
able to putrid efHuyia, was uniformly pres
ent. A case. nearly allied to this, is that
quoted by Christison, in his work on poi
sons, of the school of Clapham.
% We gather from the Chapel, Hill
Gazette that the following named gentlemen
will graduate in June next with the first
distinction, viz: A. c. Avery, of Burke,
Robert Bingham, of Orange, Benjamin F.
Grady, jr., of Duplin, Joseph Venable, of
Granville, JAS L. A. Webb, of Tennessee,
j. E. Wharton, of Guilford.
1t has been decided that J. L. A. Webb
shall speak the Salutatory; B. F. Grady, jr.,
the Greek Grafton; Jos. Venable, the French