Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-08-14

the DILL Top, as hOuiilg- MILL allls OF on Ln6
low valley of Sandy Bottom, the heights of
New Bethel or the fats Of Trestletown.
But The truth is, the high hill selected for
fort by Union Generals during the war, on
Tunnel street or Granny White pike, in the
neighborhood of Mr.. Ament, being thor
oughly drained, but with misersele colored
population suffered ten times more than any
village of shanties in the low grounds. Says
Mr.. Ament, in a letter to ex-Mayor Yer
beke, of Harrisburg, Penn, published in
the Patriot of that city, In my neighbor-
hood, more than two hundred have died
since the dread angel of death first spread
his dark wings over it. 2
"Since the above was written, have Wis
| tied New Bethel and adjacent villages of
| sbanties. The ground is higher than the
heights occupied by the reservoir or the
State capitol, and consists of about two
hundred acres Of as finely drained highland
as exists in the State or out Of it. visited
it with DR.. Currey, of this city, among the
most distinguished of our physicians. He
| was born on the sEot occupied by Fort
| Morton, two hundred and ninety-five feet
above Cumberland river, and the territory
of New Bethel was the play ground Of his
childhood. he never so much as heard of
| q 4lll Snd tCNCA OA4 bit1b SlOoO CiOt6tlOn 0nu
adjacent highlands, and yet nearly, if not
quite, half of its population died of cholera
| from the 10Th of June last to the 10Th of
July, or in tlcenty days. We visited the
| residence of the venerable Col. Ament, who
gave us chapter and verse for his published
account of the two hundred deaths in bis
immediate neighborhood. Let this we'll
verified mortality, ia locality where mala-
ria was never heard of, settle forever the
sntegonism of the Gauges of cholera and
intermittent fever. This number is about
one-fourth of the entire mortality.
"We have taken the pains to have the
mortality of regions subject to Intermittent
fever definitely ascertained by reputable
| physicians, by repeated visits to the locali-
| ties since the subsistence of the epidemic.
"Cedar street, from the foot of Capitol
| Hill to where it ends on the Charlotte pike,
where Cockrill's creek crosses it, a distance
of three-fourths of mile, lies on the bot
tom land of and parallel with the creek.
The street Is not provided with sidewalks,
but was once Oh arlotte pike, and is Mead
amiz d. Both sides of it make very re-
| specialize show of family resdeLc es and
store houses, or family grocery houses,
many of them well built and slightly; many
upon it the present and past season. The
upper portion of this street is to q greater
extent infected with intermittent fever than
any portion of Nashville; the lower part, as
| 1t approaches Capitol Hill, less so. There
were four cholera deaths on this street, but
upon that portion of it most subject to in
termittent fever, not a single death occur
red.
"The street parallel With Cedar, on the
other side of the creek, Gay street, having
handsome, well built village upon it, was
not afflicted with a single cholera death.
The case reported for Gay street ard so
marked, sscerta ned myself, neither lived
nor died upon that street, but did die some
where on the low grounds not far off.
"The next place most subject to inter-
mittent fever is Fillmore street, beyond the
reservoir. This street reports two deaths
from cholera.
"Rol.ipg-Mill Hill lies between Fillmore
street and the prec pitous bluff of the river,
q rocky hill densely populated with oolored
people in shanties. DR.. Bailey, who was
long hospital physician in the neighborhood,
tells ME be was familiar with what sickness
they had in this village during a period of
four years, and that he had meyer known
case of intermittent there. During our late
epidemic, this hamlet was K own as Rolling
Mill village. Twenty-one died of cholera
there, in a population of three hundred. 4
fine residence fronts this village, on the
west side of Fillmore street, on an emf
hence higher than Rolling Mill village-nay,
higher than the reservoir. Two died of
cholera at this house, who could not have
contracted 1t anywhere else.
"Thls it is shown that those localities
subject to intermittent fever, our epidemic
avoided in striking and unmiStakable
manner, ss was the case of all he cholera
which preceded it here. Indeed this, after
the first visitation here, ought TO nave teen
looked for ever after.
sOf all the Towns, from the lakes CT the
North to the Gulf Ct Mexico, Nashville is
undoubtedly freeat from malaria; and of all
the towrs in the same area, demonstrated |
the greatest aptitude for cholera at its first
visitation. No wonder that this exalted |
aptitude should have been referred TO dirt, !
to springs, ETC., but how any one should |
look 10 malaria as cause, surpasses all Un-
derst andiDg.
"Columbia, forty miles south Of Us, upon |
the Duck river, with its annual chills and |
fevers, was never visited by cholera, while |
Lebanon, amid her majestic cedars, aud as
Innocent of chills and fevers as the heights |
of Kamskatka, is terribly scourged by it.
s'When it is remembered that cholera |
shuns the country, where malaria ab0unds, |
TO prey upon cities that suffer but little from
malaria; and again, that those cities most
exposed TO malaria, as Louisville and |
GAINESVILLE, enjoy the greatest exemption
from cholera, together with facts recorded
above, going to prove that it has ever
lodged mslarious districts here, the conclu-
sion is logical had almost said indispu-
table-that the absence of malaria here ex.
plains the ravages of our fair city by this
pestilence that wasteth at MONDAY. q.
"Cbolera infantum is :earfully like chole-
"a in its symptomatology and fatality. Il
exists almost exclusively in large towns,
where there is no malaria, unless generated
there By that sum of all follies, under
ground sewerage. In a slower form, under
the name of 'summer-complaint,' all
writers and practical observers agree that
there Is no remedy for it like country air
that is malarious air. 1t acts like charm,
This truth, to say the le2sf, must be regard
ed as suggestive.
ave have mentioned above that McGav-
ock's Spring branch is aravine that parIisliy
divides McGaVock Hill. This is not at pre-
sent in the corporation. We have attended
several families near this branch with chills
ONE family last year with five members of
1t down at once, and another of six mem
bers, all of whom have suffered with chills.
We believe, out Of the few houses fronting
this branch, though some of them are hun
dred yards from it, and sixty feet above it,
not one has escaped intermittent fever
among its inhabitants any year since it was
built. In this valley, commencing st the
barracks aud ending at the Horticultural
Gardens, its entire extent, not one died OF
cholera during the late epidemic. But
reaching the brow of the valley, aud de
Scending the slope on the north side, which
has natural drainage that secures it from
inter- ittent fever, you pass over a region
In which the death-rate from cholera in
June last was appalling.
ave have shown that the terrific NOR
,al;ty in the hamlet of New Bethel, which
carried off nearly half of its inhabitants,
in high AMI dry region, thor
1ughly drained, and no branch or run in
mile of it, Also that of Roling-Mil Hill,
with no branch or run near it, except the
Cumberland river, and that separated from
he village by bluff Ct rock two hun
ired feet high. Lick branch Generally