The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1873-10-03
EPIDEMICS.

We have been told very often that
man is q social animal. It is true that
tho highest civilization is dependent
| upon q certain community OF effort,
but there are attendant disadvantages
of the most alarming extent. In tho
first place, the necessity of some form
of government always operates injuri-
ously to the minority, or to that party
who from whatever cause fail to receive
a due share of representation. Then,
there are vices peculiar to multit1des
from whose baleful consequences the
solitary life is extempt. Finally there
are physical infections and contagious
to whose infliction the social animal is
ever liable.
Certain diseases arc duo to local
causes, to special combinations of CHI
matte conditions. These are technical
ly termed endemic. From their nature
they may be always expected to recur.
Other diseases, of more mysterious
origin, appear unexpectedly, ravage
for series Of years particular races and
localities, and pass away to give place
to now modes of attack. These arc
styled epitlenaic-that is "upon the
people,"
In connection with these scourges of
mankind are several apparently mex
plkCdUlc AoNS AoA III
stance, that we'll known disease, which
SO often reaches an epidemic prevalence,
the yellos0 tever.
This fever, known in French and
Spanish as tho .fev,e. fame tho coup dc
barre, vomito negro, and a'onaitO 2'''ieto,
is of comparatively recent origin, haV-
ing been first distinctly noticed about
tho middle of tho seventeenth century.
| Why for so many years the world cs-
capped it's infections, what special con-
ditions led to it's occurrence at last, why
certain localities were first subject to it
and afterwards escaped it, are questions
rs yet unanswered.
The yellow foyer is considered en-
demic ON certain parts of the African
coast, in the West Indies and tropical
America. New York which formally
suffered greatly from it, has not been
visited by it in an epidemic form for
fifty years. Leghorn, in Italy, and
various points on the coast of Spain
and Portugal have boon afflicted with
it !; but strange to say it is unknown in
tho Indian Ocean and China.
| The prevalent opinion is that the
disease is confined to towns near the
sea and the banks of navigahlc rivers !;
but of late years inland towns have
boen frequently visited by it. Tho
time was when New Orleans was re-
garded as almost Liable to tho attacks
of Yellow fever as HAVANA or Vera
Cruz, and her reputation in this respect
has operated greatly to her commercial
detriment but it has been long since
our people suffered very seriously from
it's presence, and wc may hope that,
like Now York, it may soon escape it
altogether.
This year the fever has fallen heavily
upon tho people of Memphis and
Shreveport. In the latter place it has
been particularly virulcnt. While the
visitation has been in every sense de-
plorablo and disastrous, it has served
to bring out some of tho finest traits of
human nature. Distant cities have
heard tho cry for help and have gen
ero,,sly responded. Nurses and physi-
clans of experience have volunteered
their services, and the bitterness of
sectional luminosity has been forgotten
in tho presence OF Il common enemy
". O. Iiccy,nac.
"A flrst-class tenor in New York re-
=, 49, Nv lot