The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1873-07-20

a high black prairie bluff Of Lavaca
bay, where clstern water only was used,
while Mr.. Brown resided ut lndlanola,
ten miles below, on u sondy shell for
nation, on the same bay, where nearly
all the people used well water, heavily
imprcgnatcd with lime. Most Of the
facts stated below are well remembered
by both of w, while q few were only
known Of the time to the one or the
other. hf !
We may incidentally remark that In
the year 1884,. when the cholera first
visited Texas, cistern water was no
where In use. 1t swept of some of the
best men In the country, as Colonel
John Austin, of Brnzoria, Don Martin
De Leon, Of Victoria, Governor Vcri-
mendl, of San Antonio, with his
daughthcr (the wife Of Colonel James
Bowie), and all of her family.
The next important case, and one
Immediately in point, occurred at
Lavaca, In December, lsl9. About the
18th Of that month, one hundred and
sixty odd United States soldiers arrived
there from New Orleans, commanded
by Major Pitcairn Morrison, with other
officers and their families, who had
come over on the same vessel. The
officers stopped Mt the hotels in town,
where, rs before said, clstern water
only was used. The soldiers were
camped over mile out, on n smau
bayou, and used well water, dug in
black hog-wallow soil. A tailor of the
town, with his wife and two or three
children, camped with them to sew for
them.
In q few days the cholera broke out
In the camp, and within a period of
three or four days, precisely one-half
of the soldiers, the tailor and his fami-
ly died Not u case had occurred or
did occur In the town. DIR. VIM. III.
Dallam, an able physician, as you
know, for he was afterwards your part
ner, attended on them. AT his instance
| the survivors were removed to town,
supplied with clstcrD water, and, as II
by magic, the disease ceased.
In the March following, (ls40, the
cholera appeared ut lndianola, and ina
few days number Of citizens died.
Mr.. Brown had the only ccmcnt"l els
tern In the plncr, hut u small nmhcr
of the citizens had large wooden ones.
To tho best Of hin recollection, not n
single death occurred among those who
used cistcrn water while the number
of deaths in the place was frightfully
large. So marked was the case in con
nection with the events at lavacn the
previous December that he called the
attention of physicians to the fact, IN n
letter to the New Orleans Picayune,
which arrested the attention of Dr.
Warren Stone, who published II note
on tho subject ny worthy OF medical
investigation, and in which he referred
to the fact that cholera in each prcvi'
Gus visitation had been 40 fatal in The
| limestone cities of st. Louis, Nash
vile, &C., while IL had never prevailed
in the plney woods or freestone regions
of Alabama, Georgia, &c.
In the same spring tof ls40) Captain
VIM. A. Hensley, father Of the under
signed, and lady died OF cholera IN
Ilavaca; but Captain III. had just mr.
rived from New Orleans, where the
disease prevailed, and the lady hat
been in the place from the interior but
few days. Yet not II single either
otherwise was attacked.
In the fall Of 1S40 the brig Water
witch, which arrived Mt Indianoli
from Mobile, having on board the fam
lilies of Messrs. Fleming and Lips
combc well known to you since) mt
over forty negroes. Several negroes
died of cholera on the voyage, ant
several after they landed, and wer,
placed in one large room, supplied only
with we'll water. DR.. j. Doff Brown
well know to YOU, having just reached
the place, was then called In. He hat
them removed to different quarters
and at the suggestion of Mr.. Brown
the undersigned, supplied with cisterl
water. Death ceased, though ten, Of
about one-fourth, had died.
Ofcourse, in all such cases, in othel
respects, medical treatment was re
sorted to. The only point designed t.
be made plain is that those persons
who habitually used pure cistern watel
appeared to have an immunity from
cholera, and this opinion is greatly
, strengthened by the fact believed by
: us TO DO true, that cholera, as an cpl
demic, has never prevailed in Calves
ton, though hundreds of transient case
have been carried there in the various
periods of epidemic by vessels. 1t wa
said, many years ago, that the sani'
/, facts were sustained at and near Savan
nah, Georgia, so far as cistern waite
. was used.
4 We ought to have stated, in it
proper place, that at each of the cpl
, denies referred to in Lavaca and In
dianola, the cholera prevailed more o
) less N the valleys of the Guadalup
: and San Antonio rivers, and was In it
4 most destructive form In the city o
e San Antonio, limestone water bein,
a exclusively used. In the latter city
l