Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1873-10-02
LETTER FROM A CUBAN PHYSICIAN.

NEW ORLEANS, September ..
EDITORS APPEAL-A feeling of SYM
pathy for the afflicted people of yonr
city Induces me to address you the fol-
lowing communication, which, l trust,
will merit the consideration of your
health authorities and the attention OF
your citizens:
From a close observation Of yellow
fever in the West Indies during an ex-
tended practice, | was often led to sus-
meet that the spread of the disease was
due in great part, If not wholly, to the
usual disposition of eXcrementitious
matter Of patients by depOsiting 1t in
privies, thus exposing the inmates OF
dwellings using a common receptacle
TO the exhalatiOns of the decomposed
ercrefd, the effiuvia from which, with
cut doubt, is the active principle IN the
propagation of the Infection. How often
have We seen the sickness Of one MEM
her followed. one after another, by all
the other members using the same privy
into which the urine and fReal matter
of The first attacked were THROWN
and who were exposed day by
day TO their poisonous exhalations.
What principle can be so active IN the
spread of this infection as the gases
arising from the discharges of those
oisoned with the disease itself-are they
not the acme of infectiOn2 How notice
able is the fact also of the gradual spread
Of yellOw-fever from common center
from the house or locality IN which
the first case occurs-which IS alone
traceable to the increasing volume OF
these infectious gases. If sporadic cases
occur it will be found that these persons
have come within the influence of these
exhalations from other parts Of the city.
Now, / have several times demonstrated
that the spread of yellow-fever can be
arrested in families, and the same happy
result, by a concert of action between
citizens, physicians and authorities, may
be achieved for community. The
method is simply to convey the urine
and tiTcdi evacuatiOns of patients in
closed vessels from the bedside, and IN
stead Of throwing them down privies, 10
/ bury them under ground. need not
here explain the action of the soil 10
rendering perfectly harmless such de-
/ posits.
So satisfied am / of the effectiveness
/ of what | suggest, that L assert I'M
/ hesitatingly if your authorities, ply,
( sicians and citizens sin infected
D AOCailAitH NElC AAALlANaAatNAI - 6AfN
[ practical effect to the measure by al
once purgiug well, underground, all
/ excrementitious matter of yellOw-fever
/ patients, and thoroughly disinfeetine
I all privies into which such matter has
slready been thrown, that the disease
| would be arrested in your city within
/ forty-eight hours. / am the more pos
/ tive that if I could have laid my sug-
/ gestions before you at the beginning Of
| the fever in your city, and had you
| adopted them, that the disease would
! have been checked in its incipieney.
/ ! would also add, that from micro
| scopie experiments with drinkingwater
/ taken from localities infected with yell
low-fever, and critically compared with
/ that of other localities in the same city
not so infected, have become satisfied
/ that all water for drinking purposes
should be purified by fire, by being boil
/ ed and strained.
1t is time that the ravages of this
monster were checked, and it is within
! the scope of human effort to do it. Res
I pectfully, JNO. AREvIR, N. d.