Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1873-10-15
HOW THEELLOw FEVER GOT 70 MEM.
PHIS.
A ronrLnI pic,mre I'D penlh AND Snncring

A Fearful Picture of Death and suffering.
A correspondent of the Appeal, on the
5th tells of how yellow fever reached the
city. His story isas follows .. I
Six weeks ago, workmen that were EN-
ploved on the Little Rock railroad, and the
paducah railroad, were taken sick with
swamp fever, many Of them living in
Happy Hollow and Front Row. Going to
their homes with the disease, their families
were soon taken with the same disease.
Applications were made to Superintend-
ent Belts, who sent them out to the hos
pital, and he contracted the disease from
these parties. A large number had been
sent to the hospital for three weeks before
the declaration of yellow fever in the city.
The sickness was principally confined to
Happy Hollow and that vicinity. These
localities were in a favorable condition to
spread the disease, owing TO the condition
Of the soil, being of an alluvial formation,
and submerged during high water, after
the water subsidized leaving a deposit of
several inches of alluvial matter.
The bluffs In front of the Exchange
building on up to Market street, were used
by everybody who had some filth to get
rid Of, as the hollow was so handy TO dump
it in. Many parties have been arrested for
so doing. The summer rains have carried
this filth into the bottom, spreading all
over it, and the hot suns of summer have
caused fungus to grow which spread
through the atmosphere; and diseased
persons breathing this fungus, caused fe-
yer: and other persons breathing the poi
son while nursing the sick in the infected
district, became sick also. Having TO pass
through the infected district during the
summer, its odor was unbearable. A friend
of mine passing through this locality last
spring prophesied yellow fever. All that
was wanted was some one who had the
fever to poison the atmosphere. The
only way to destroy this poison is in the
free use of carbolic acid, it being The most
powerful destroyer of miasma we have.
My plan is, for the mayor to send to the
st. Louis chemical works, where crude
carbolic acid can be obtained at about thir-
ty or forty cents per gallon, hire Davis's
water-carts, pour two gallons of acid in the
watering-barrels, fill up with water, and
sprinkle the streets in the infected districts
twice day with this solution as long as
the fever lasts. Many houses in Pinch are
closed up, all the members of the families
having died, the vomit laying on the floor.
Thoroughly cleanse these houses, burn up
all that is of little value, and in two
weeks we will have no fever. | would be
willing TO take contract to do it in that
time.
FROM SHREVEPORT.
Appearances indicate that the epidemic
is on the decrease. We have conversed
with most of the New Orleans physicians,
as we'll as our own, and they give it as
their opinion that there are fewer cases
and of a less virulent type. OF the new
cases in the city within the last two days
we have not heard of any that have not
fair prospects of recovery. In other words
none of them were fatally stricken at the
start, as was the case with some few days
since