New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-04-29
ARE WE TO HAVE AN EPIDEMIC7

1
Health has been remodeled by change
of officers comes the consideration o.
means to protect the city during the sum.
mer. For five years the means employed
by the board have steadily increased in
efficiency, no epidemic has occurred, the
causes of yellow fever become less and less
powerful, and confidence in the board
grown greater. The disinfectants EN-.
ployed have been improved, their use
better understood and opposition de.
creased. The cheapest and best agent
has been found to be carbolic acid. Its
success in combining yellow fever to the
locality where discovered has been demon
strated to all but very few. With the
experience Of past years it was desirable
to expect greater success in its applica-
ton this year.
1t now seems likely that this policy
will be abandoned. The newly elected
officers, President Gaudet and Secretary
Lemonnier, are generally believed to be
opponents of carbolic acid disinfection.
At meeting at the Opera House last
September, besides an unlimited quantity
of hard names, much bad grammar,
threats of shotguns, tar and feathers, and
an accusation that the board made money
by the use Of carbolic acid, which is i'm
possible under the system of purchase by
the city, one case of alleged death by its
effects on the nerves was cited. 1t was
afterward shown. that the patient could
not have SO died, because be had had
black vomit several hours before carboic
acid had been employed in the neighbor-
hood, and had been sown up in blanket
by the physician who cited the case. On
another occasion it was seriously said by
by a learned physician that it was
enough to cause the abandonment of
carbolic acid because the last words of
little boy had been stake away that SMELL"
1t was suggested by one of the most vio-
lent that list Of cases of such poisoning
should be made, and the board sued to
make them prove that carbolic acid was
Sucha list has not been made
yct.
1t should be remembered that it is i'm
possible to detect the poison Of yellow
fever, and it battles the tests of the chem
list. 1t has been discovered that it adheres
to surfaces, and is not gaseous. The dis
ease is one of extreme localization in its
nature, and any remedy should therefore
have a local application. 1t moves at the
rate of forty feet per day. The poison is
Known to have been in some force some
lays before the beginning of sickness. It |
s not essential to contagion that there |
should be only unacclimated persons
within its reach. DR.. Holt stated that of |
he seventeen cases in his district, eleven
we're born in Louisiana and seven in New
Orleans.
The system of disinfection has mainly
or its object the prevention of the spread
# the disease, and is therefore applied
'eyond the locality where it appears. A
ew facts in regard to its success are note
worthy, and destroy the theories against
as it checks the disease itsef. 1t was
in 1870. Since then we have
ad no epidemic. In 1870, by it's prac-
ice, the fever was confped to space, in
ne district only, twelve squares by four.
n 1872 it was in all districts, and in
ach was restrained to the spots where it
rst appeared. At all points where it
ppeared year since it grew to an
pidemic, but New Orleans had it under
ontrol
All this was accomplished by the use of
arbolic acid. Will the city prefer the
GLOW fever to it because it smells bad?