Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1873-07-05
IS4S AND 1873.
The March of the Cholera in the South.
west in Both Years.
Interesting Comparative Statement
How the Disease Originated
and Spread.

: luSly caTfleu along Ine principal raj
;. roads. Both of them began in New o
i leans, and were thence distributed.
= lo4S the ship Gutenberg, with two hui
= = dred and fifty steerage passengers, sale
: from Hamburg, where cholera was pr
{ vailing; had seven deaths from cholel
: on board before she got out of the Elb,
! arrived at New Orleans, after a passag
= of ffty-five days, on the sixth of Decen
Der; was not subjected to quarantine
and soon after one of her passengel
died of cholera in the charity hospita
! What became of the other passengers {
I the Gutenberg no one knew or cared.
e Second-The bark Callao, from Brt
D men, with one hundred and fifty emi
5 grants, lost eighteen of her passenger
= on the vOyage-some from cholera, som
? from vomiting and purging, and other
with violent attacks of diarrhea. Tn
last death occurred On the eighth of No
, vember. She arrived at New Orlean
on the eighth of December, and was no
subjected to quarantine.
Third-The ship Swanton, from
Havre, had seventeen deaths from
; bowel complaints on the voyage. Sh,
arrived at New Orleans on the eleventh
of December, and on the twelfth a wo
man was carried from her to the charity
hospital in a state of complete cholers
collapse. One of the discharged passen
gers, who had diarrhea, walked about
the city ON the eleventh, went to 6
clearinghouse on the twelfth, from
whence he was carried to the charity
hospital in complete collapse, and died
on the thirteenth. Five other cases
were admitted to the hospital on the
thirteenth, showing that the passengers
of the Swanton were not subjected TO
quarantine. On the fourteenth, citi-
zens Of New Orleans began to be attack
ed; on the fifteenth there were
eight cases admitted to the charity hos
| pital and others were heard of in the pri-
vate practice of a number of physicians.
On the sixteenth there were eleven fresh
cases admitted into the hospital, and
the disease was evidently rapidly in
creasing in private practice, as might
well be the case, as over six hundred
persons from infected ships had been let
loose over the city. There were sixty
| seven deaths in the first ten days. Panic
prevailed throughout the city, and vast
numbers fled in every direction; yet the
leading newspapers hooted at the idea
that the disease was Asiatic cholera, and
the board of health still kept aloof.
From the twelfth of December, 1S4S, to
the twentieth Of January, 1S49, there
were near fourteen hundred and ninety
six deaths from cholera, of which five
hundred and ninety-six occurred in the
charity hospital.
The manner in which the disease
spread from New Orleans forms curious
problem, says Fenner. Almost every
vessel that left the city soon had cases
on board, and on some of the steamboats,
going up the Mississippi river there were
twenty or thirty cases and many deaths
Thus, persons having the disease and
dying of it were carried to all the land
ings, towns and cities up the river, as
high as Cincinnati. The cholera also
spread among the plantations along the
river, and also in the interior of Louisi-
ana, especially to ThibOdeau and La
fourche, where it now prevails.
The most remarkable mortality Oc-
CURED in the eighth United States infan-
try, a body of four hundred and fifty
soldiers who came down from Jefferson
barracks, near st. Louis, in high health, |
remaining in or near New Orleans for
twelve days, and then embarked for
Port Lavacca, in Texas. In nine davs
the disease broke out, and in four days
more one hundred and fifteen men, or |
of the command, perished in |
and about Lavacca. The disease soon
to prevail in Houston, Tex |
a.. At the charity hospital as many as
fifty cases occurred among the nurses,
servants and persons who had been ad- |
mitted for other complaints. Many |
were attacked after getting hun |
dreds Of miles away from New |
Orleans, and thus the disease was actu- |
ally spread in a very short time over |
a vast area of the southwestern |
country. A physician from Texas told
DR.. Booth, of LafOurche, that every case
Of cholera in his village was distinctly |
traceable from the person who came |
there with it to the three or four Others |
who were subsequently attacked. a |
similar fact was noticed in West Ten |
nessee. A gentleman visited Memphis |
during the epidemic, returned to the |
interior and died of the disease; three
or four of those who came in contact |
with him were attacked. In Mobile the |
first case occurred on December 30, IS4S, |
aud by the end of May, IS49, there had
been only one hundred and twenty-nine |
deaths. The first case was a boy en-
ployed on one of the boats plying |
between New Orleans and Mobile.
. The first case was brought to Natchez
on December %, lS4S, in the person of a
man on his way down from Vicksburg,
on tiatbOat. Later in the season the
steamer General Lowe arrived at New
Orleans from Louisville, having had |
four or i've cases of cholera on board
after passing Vicksburg. Cases occurred
on other steamboats, coming down the
river, especially en- the steamboat Bay
State. On the sixth and seventh of
January, 1S49, cases occurred in Match
exon the-Hill, and a few more among
fatboatmen living comfortably in their
boats. Then on several plantations
north of NatcheZ. The first case occur
red in Memphis December %, 1S4S. On
The thirtieth there gere six deaths
-four among the fiatboat popu-
alton, and two who had arrived
rom New Orleans q 9few days
previously. From December, l84S, to
July Is, lS49, there were only two hun
ired and ninety deaths reported from
,holera ia Memphis. DIR. Shanks SAYS
wO deaths occurred at the landing on
December 10th and 2lst, among the fire
men on the steamboat CouSoy, one of
he New Orleans and Memphis packets.
Two days previous to her arrival, cases
nd deaths were reported on the boats
nom New Orleans passing up the
iver. Although Memphis is eight
hundred miles by water from New
orleans, the steamboats, accomplished
he trip IN four days, and the first
ase of cholera occurred at Memphis
within ten days after the first reported
ase in New Orleans, and only twenty I,
OF hxv : |
S49; but many of these occurred at the
atboat landing, in persons living on
oats living in the channel Of the river,
ghere the inspected steamboats, passed !
aiIy close by them. The first fifteen !
avs after the cholera commenced al
most all the cases that originated in
femphis occurred in persons equally ex- j
osed to the disease by their contiguity !
D the steamboats,; and the inference, ;
avs DR.. Shanks, is reasonable that the
holera poison was transmitted to them .
rom the steamboats, through the short ,
istance of humid atmosphere interYen- ,
ng. For several days after January 5th, !
most of the deaths occurred at the land
ng and among draymen and others ,
Those business required them to go to
be river.
The gradual revolution which has
cen wrought by western culture on the |!
enizens of the Golden East was never
etter illustrated than it is at the Wen
ia exhibition. Taking the japanese as
n illustration the correspondent of the !
4aH NAL Gazette says: "They have
ONE in crowds, but they exhibit all thtic !
lational bent Of imitation. If you crit
cize their costume, the most you eau
ay is that their cutaway coats are gen.
rally size and a half too large fjr
hem, and that, in their oriental liking ,
or an easy fit, they have purveyed
themselves hats that come down over Z