Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1874-02-13
The HOt-Bed Of Malarial Poison, and
Home of Epidemics-It Must
be Cleaned and thorough
ly DislBf0eted.
Facts and Figures Of Past Years, and
from Other SOurces-The TX.
perieHces Of Lending Ply
sicians and SaHita-
rians.
Suggestions 10 Our City Authorities
Now is the Time to Put the
City in 0rder-Healih
will Insure Wealth.

/ Will 1uSuIO W tdilHs
EDITORS APPEAL-Shall Memphis be
! free from epidemics in future? This seems to
/ me 10 be the leading and al-abSOrbing queS-
| tiOn 10 be settled. A good deal has been said
| through the papers on the subject of sewerage
! and the expenditures of large sums OF money
! that we have not got, nor cannot get Without
/ ruinous discount on promise to pay city
| bonds, and consequent ruinOus taxation. One
| thing is certain, II we had the means, we have
] not the time before spring TO more than COM
/ mence operations on system of sewerage
! such as has been proposed by some. Even If we
| had them already constructed, 1 cannot see
what better of we would be in a sanitary
| point of view-t. E. underground sewers. As
| one OF the ableSt professors of Nashville says
of them, "they are the sum OF all fOlIes."
With the natural drainage Memphis has, what
! do we need better than gooG surface cutters,
such as we have on some of the streets? The
I bayou needs strengthening and otherwise i'm
proving to some extent, which could be dom
! at comparatively small cost. The natural
be desired as a means of
DRAINAGE.
| With good open cutters, there would be no
necessity for underground sewers, which
would be hidden sources of uncleanIiuesS
| and infection. Even If we had them, there
| would have TO be surface cutters to empty the
| filth at the street corners into them, where
/ they would send forth contagion and death.
| Should the city decide in favor of this piece
| OF folly; that is, constructing underground
sewers lat ru1nous expense) at the present
| time, and proceed with the work, we may
] look forward to epidemic visitation, with al
most prophetic certainty, so long as such
| work is under progress TO any great extent,
I more especially If conducted in hot weather.
I will cite New Orleans as an example. Every
season, whenever any amount Of public I'M
proVements were made, such as constructing
canals, basins, paving of streets, laying water
or gas-pipes, TO any great extent, have almost
invariably been followed by epidemics, gen.
orally in proportion to such improvements.
These are historical facts. This does not ap-
ply to New Orleans alone. The late DR.. A. p.
Merrill, many years ago in public address, re-
marked, 4" that If the grading Of the streets in
Memphis was not followed by epidemics, il
would be because of heavy rains and early
frosts" His prophetic remarks came true.
The same result followed the grading
of Nicksourg every time 1t was undertaken;
the same may be said Of many other places.
During the past season there was considerable
EXCAVATING
done in northwest Memphis, including the
railroad and waterworkS, 1 cannot saw To
what extent such influences may have been
felt in our recent epidemic; so it is, epidemics
are partial TO fresh -upturned earth and exca-
vations. The idea OF attempting to cover or
arch over Bayou Gayoso, as proposed by some,
seems 10 me 10 be pTeposterous in the extreme
under our present financial embarrassment
even If possible and practicable, am unable
to see how much would be gained, in a hygie-
mic point OF view. So far as running wateTin
the bayou is concerned, there need be no
great cause for alarm, or fear, in health
stagnant water in the bayou, provided no filth
be allowed TO accumulate. Our cisterns con-
tain stagnant water only. Admitting the feas-
tbility of covering over the bayou down TO
some point near the gasworks, at the termi-
nus there would be a pestilential point that
would annually infect all that portion OF the
city. IL must be borne in mind that the ex-
tremes OF high and low water at the gasworks
are the same as the Mississippi river the fiuc-
tuRtions being from foTty-five to fifty feet aud
any arch over the bayou at that point would
have to be high enough to accommodate such
extremes, which would simply be wholly i'm
practicable. A writer in one of the papers,
some time since, estimated the surface drained
into the bayou at from fifteen to twenty
square miles, which at times during heavy
rains rapidly 'swells the bayou TO the top Of
its banks, teaching us the imInensity of the
Improvements proposed. In New Orleans
SEWERS ARE SURFACE SEWERS:
every gutter in the city contains more or less
stagnant, filthy water, ali the year round.
covered with green scum. The principal
canals for carrying the water to the draining
machines are broad, deep, Stagnant, filthy
reservoirs, reminding us OF gun-powder and
rotten eggs: still these stagnant drains are not
much dreaded by the inhabitants. Nothing
in Memphis is at all comparable to them, ex-
cept these filthy, stagnant ponds up in Happy
Hollow and vicinity: 1t is contended by
with all of the filth, yellow-fever never
originates there in an epidemic form, and if
at all, only endemically or sporadically; they
maintain the exotic origin of sll these cpl
denies, as a rule, there being exceptions TO
this belief. II is evident To any competent OBJ
server who is familiar with both cities, that
the existing cases OF epidemics in the two
must at least be as fve to one, if not more,
taking latitude, attitude and topography into
account. So far as filth is concerned, Mem
phis has decidedly the advantage over New
Orleans, with few local exceptions, leaving
the mud out OF the question. The Nicolson
pavement is an incubus, not so readily dis
posed of, and is a problem of very serious iEn-
port. Memphis must be exempt and free
from epldemics IN the future. Neither can
Memphis afford TO increase her present debt,
as taxation now hangs over her destinies like
dark pail keeping away
CAPITAL AND ENTERPRISE.
Cities and countries have been ruined by op-
preSsive taxation, as effectually as by cpl
demic, wars, or any other cause. Personal
property may be carried beyond the reach OF
oppressive taxation; real estate cannot. But
vacant lots may be suffered to remain vacant .
and manufactures Will keep away and seek
other points. What can Memphis boast OF in |
the way OF ofsubstantial internal i'm provements /
for her enormous expenditures in the past? /
On the subject of epidemics in Memphis, it |
will be necessary to state that since the plsce /
was incorporated there have been four epi-
denies, all OF which were more or less 4
violent, and our recent one stands prominent /
amongst the most violent epidemcs of other \
cities. Old Memphis proper, or "Pinch," has \
been the theater of two out of the four, and |
shared 10 some extent in the third, being
wholly exempt from the second epidemic. In /
1898, when the population numbered only |
two hundred and fifty or three hundred per-
sons only, the yellOW-fever broke out, and out
OF forty cases half OF them died. Memphis
y
fever at that time was prevailing at New Or
leans. though not violent; was sporadic in
Mobile. II was not brought up the river on
boats, but was believed TO have originated
here. This was the next year after the city
was incorporated. .'-Dr. Drake on Tours Of the
Mississippi Valley. l nave been informed by
one OF the early settlers OF Memphis "who
obtained his information from the Chickasaw
Indians" that the Spanish garrison had the
yello fever, under the bluff at Fort Picker
ing about the close of the revolutionary war,
and that they moved up to the mouth of Wolf
river, into the woods, and got well. The his
tory OF the last three epldemlcs Is famlIlar 10
the present population, and they are gene
rally believed 10 be of erOttc origin, and
NOT HOME INSTITUTIONS.
though a mooted question in each case were
the yoci OF radiation, and chung 70 those
points with tenacity peculiar TO that disease
alone. II is not the fact that our recent cpl
demic was general throughout the city, but so
only in northwest M,emPhlsi az M hTsI 4e1ng
ing east, north and south 10 the bayou and
Washington street as the dead tines at the ell
max OF the disease, aud more or less scattered
over the city. The disease, probably, would
have become general, or epidemic, through
out the city had the hot weather continued
scattered over the city by too free
intercourse with the infected dis
trict, The two previous epidemics were more
localized than the last, and were attracted
more or less 10 points of internal improve
ments. As rule yellow fever epidemics, cit
ing TO or are confined 10 bodies Of water, sell
dom ever originating remotely from the
water, even in tropical countries. Our first
and last epidemies were chiefly confined to
the Mississippi, Wolf and the bayou. the re-
glon OF aqueous evaporation and humidity:
just what's needed TO foster epidemics, com,
bined with high solar heat and organic de-
composition. In 1928 the Mississippi rose to
aus hlSlesI water mark. In 1873
lh6 FFef nearly reached that
point, and in the Iah Feesded nearly TO ifs
lowest limits. These causes coIabined with
protracted hot and dry weather, were peca-
fiarly favorable to
THE ADVENT OF THE FEVER
in that portion of the city where IL prevailed
&C an ebidcmic. There is no safety Tor Mem I
pbis so long as Happy Hollow lso-called) re-
Tr1ains as il is, with Stagnant, shallow pond |
allied with all manner of organic Nth, with |
an oil.factory on its northern border, this
oee,151e eltIttga dd ndUSeGDa being the 0Hlntttn
aaf9 9ertSn OF the factory and all that portion