The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-08-09
MALARIA.
example.

MAuhhlhs
It has been very common habit Of
ascribing every fever or other ailment,
with which person may be Athlete in
this country, to the effect OF malaria.
He has been somewhere and breathed
some atmosphere which was loaded
with malarial poisonl Hence his fever,
his chill, and consequent large con-
sumption OF quinine to get rid OF them.
Ii Is always malaria, wherever he may
| be, width ersoever he may have moved,
and under whatever circumstances the
visitation may have happened.
This Is the invariable resource of
| doctors when called to diagnose fever.
It is not popular nor agreeable to the
patient to ascribe the fever to his own
habits. his sitting Ia a draught in per-
SEPARATION, his irregular habits, too much
champagne or whisky, too little sleep,
excessive and inflammatory food and
too little exercise, or any other human
indiscretion, but all is fathered on that
invisible and irrepressible enemy, of
whom the doctors and everybody else
are quite Independently malaria. No
dtibi will avail the accused, for ma laria
is everywhere at times, and according
to the general theory, which involves a
gross calumny, always prevails in New
Orleans. Everybody here is bound to
imbibe 1t with every inspiration, and
to carry 1t whithersoever he may go.
1t Is In vain we call attention to our
health reports and mortality statistics,
and show that in no other community
of the same size are there 30 few cases
of those diseases which are attributed
to the inspiration OF malaria; that no.
where else on this continent, out of d
population NJ 100000, are there SO few
cases Of those intermittent and remit
tent fevers, and diseases which the doc
tors trace to malarial poison. That, |
further, those of our people who travel
North and West generally bring back
with them diseases Of malarial origin,
from which they are entirely free as |
long as they remain at home. Persons |
who have lived in this city thirty years
without acquiring the most distant ac-
quaintance with chills and intermittent
fever first realize Tie nature and effects
of such maladies, whilst cooling them
selves In the mountains Of Virginia or
New Hampshire, or on the shores Of the
great lakes Of the Northwest, or in the
blue grass villages OF Kentucky and
Tennessee.
We humbly beg pardon of the disci-
pies of Esculapius, but we feel bound |
to suggest that there is some uncertain
ty In their science Oh this subject, and
so far as our locality is concerned we
beg that our faculty will see to 1t, that
our city Is vindicated from the defama-
ton of being the centre and source Of
ell the malaria that pervades this con-
tinent. Thus we find In an editorial
description of the recent visitation
Of our old friend. Ben DeBar, whose
is paralysis Of the brain, the
st. Louis Globe Democrat states that
the unhappy gentleman had contracted
a malarial fever in New Orleans, which
created the predisposition to paralysis.
And this is stated Of poor old Ben,
VINO lelJ ILLS Guy Ill Vie LuluSo VI Wluools
here evident marks Of the
ravages Of an old chronic disorder &C.
uuired at the North, and returning to
st. Louis greatly relieved and improved
In his sanitary condition and who for the
twenty years he lived here was model
Of robustitude and efflorescent health.
Now, no doubt, the newspaper giving
currency to this statement is not re-
sponsible for it, and it may be traced to
some Of these malarial saw Gradleys"
who take refuge in their ignorance be-
hind this malarial theory, but it is
nevertheless calumny and ought not
to be put in circulation by respectable
journals, who ought to be better in
formed on sanitary subjects and statis-
tics, than to ascribe to the healthiest
city in the Union the origination and
source of so potent a cause OF disease as