The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1873-10-31
THE SHREVEPORT EPIDEMIC.

we extract the following relative to tho
origin, causes and character of the
Shreveport epidemic:
| the right bank Of Red River, and is
estimated to contain about ten or twelve
| thousand inhabitants. The business
portion Of the city, consisting of COM
pact blocks of stores and warehouses,
chiefly of brick, fronts the river on u
bluff considerably elevated above high
water mark, and sloping downwartts
for n few hundred yards, rises, with oc-
csssional undulations, into semi-circle
of hills, deeply ravined, around which
Is scattered large suburban popula-
tion.
The natural advantages for drainage
are excellent; but these have been
utterly neglected, and rain of Il few
hours converts the town into u morass.
Most Of the blocks in the heart Of the
city are bisected by alleys, into which
| the ordure and garbage of the houses
arc thrown. a sanitary police is un-
| known, and tho only scavengers arc
hogs, which roam tho streets ut will,
| turning them into cess pools, destroying
| tho pavements, and exposing fresh
surfaces of earth everywhere to air and
sun.
| During the summer malariul tevers
had prevailed to an unusual extent.
The heat of June and July had been
severe, and in August the type of fever
was notably more malignant. Repeat
| ed appeals had boon made to the author
itics, by medical men and others, call
ing attention to tho filthy condition of
the town and asking for relief; but
these were unheeded, and, passing
from bad to worse, the stencil in many
of the streets and alleys became positive
ly noisome.
In such indus tho germs of yellow
fever were dropped, and, developing
with extraordinary rapidity and viru-
lence, soon spread into plague which
has swept away tho Inhabitants by
hundreds, scattered its baleful seeds for
many league, and struck blow ut
the growing prosterity of Shreveport,
which she will not recover from for
years.
The details Of origination have not
yet been made out. This subject is in
the hands Of an able committee appoint
ed by tho Medical Society OF Shreve-
port, and will doubtless be satisfncto-
rily dealt with by them. This is ccr-
tain: that tho removal of the Obstruc-
tions known as the Red River Raft had
nothing to do with the epidemic of
yellow fever; nor was it brought thither
by the International Circus Company,
which came from Kansas, via Dallas
| and Houston, touched no infected point,
| left no trail OF disease ofany sort what
ever, and had not n member of its
troupe sick on Its arrival.
We arc confident, ourselves, that the
fever was carried from New Orleans
by one or more OF tho Red River line
| IN atnO ,1,n0fS rl, u
sons. Tho evidence already accumu-
lated, points clearly to this avenues; but
| the investigation Is much embarrassed
by the natural reluctance on the part of
officers and owners OF boats to admit
that they were tho unfortunate, if ig-
norant and innocent, agents in the dis
semination OF Il disease which has
wrought SO dreadful a calamity.
or tho nature OF tho disease there is
no question. The first case which at
tracted attention, but which may be set
aside as doubtful, died on the 18th of
August; second, certainly yellow
fever, died on the 22d, and in Il few
days the rapid spread of the malndy,
and its terrible mortality, convinced
the physicians OF the town that Il now
and more deadly foo than any they
had previously met was upon them.
At tho first alarm the inhabitants
began to flee, and in Il fortnight, or littlo
moro, tho city had been depopulutcd
by onc-half. This number continued
to diminish, and estimates OF the per-
ccntagc of mortality ought TO be bnscd
on a similar figure. Up to the date OF
our departure, October 9th, six hundred
persons had fallen victims to the pla.
que, and, by the best calculation posi-
bic mt the time, at least fifty per cent. of
those attacked had died.
1t seems unnecessary to add that the
disease was yellow fever; the fcrc jaime
OF tho French West Indians; the rOnito
7,,icto OF the Spanish; the better named
hncn,ttYnSf'ic 7,cstI,7icc Of Copeland. Its
medical history proper will be hereafter
made public through the Legitimate
channels, but we may note in passing
that hrmOrragcs from tho mucous sur
faces were very rare, black vOnit, i'm
fatal cases less common than usual, and
tho rccovcrics after IT moro nuincroIs.
The special determination OF the poison
was to the kidneys; the large majority
dying with suppression of urine; and
81 hum inurn apcptlily rplIo>yrl tIr.rtpi,