The New Orleans daily Democrat., 1878-11-10
YELLOW FEVER.
,THHE DISEASE NOT ENDEMIC I'M THIS
COUNTRY.


and the Reasons For st--Vbe Views of
Certain Northern writers Hefuted.
tGalveston Newsl
In the preface to his great work, "Contlict
between Religion and Science" DR.. Draper
uses the following language: "As to science,
she has never sought to ally herself to civil
power. She has never attempted to throw
odium or inflict social ruin on any human
being She has never subiected any one to
mental torment. physical torture-least OF all,
to death, for the purpose OF upholding or pro-
noting her ideas" These words Of the great
phygioIogist chemist aid savan, forebly re-
Cured to the wri' or after perusing an article
on yellow fever in the October number of the
Popular Science Monthly for 1878, by Roger s.
Tracy, M. D. How different are the concep-
tions and aims of science as taught by
the great scientist himself from those
of the author Of that articlei With
o. careless indifference to or culpable
Ignorance Of facts, he has made
assertions which cannot be proved, but
which, II allowed to go undenied, may work
incalculable mischief and wrong to the peo-
pie of large number Of States Of our COM
mon country. A man who writes for the
information Of all the people on subject of
40 much interest to oil, should make no
statement unless founded on truth, and with
the proofs ready to be adduced This he has
not done. He most recklessly asserts that
yellow fever is endemic on the easterly coast
of the United States ns far north as Charles
ton, land breaks out on our gulf and south
Atlantic coasts at intervals, with no appear
ance Of periodicity." These are grave asser-
tions, and, II true. would carry incalculabe
hon, tn ha haa tc pf a nannIa
States, embracing South Carolina, Georgia,
Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and
Texas. II the idea prevailed among the peo-
pie OF the States named, and was allowed to
90 forth to the world uncontradicted, that
yellow fever Is endemic, or originates
In their borders the commercial and So
cial ruin of those States would soon
lie completed. Immigration into them would
cease, and thousands OF our countrymen OF
the North, who have moved into them to help
rebuild our waste places, would incontinently
return to the places from whence they came
and the native population would make such
an exodus from the South as has not been
known before in the history OF any country.
this disease in the South Atlantic and Gulf
States are not true. This disease appeared
for the first time in the United States In 1893
at Boston. 1t tappeared In Philadelphia and
Charleston In 1909. VIII DR. Tracy have the
cd into Philadelphia and was endemic
at Charleston In 1899? II yea; why? 1t
appeared for the first time in New
York. in 17o2,, and was said to have
been imported from St Thomas West In
1741, and In New York in l745. It was the uni
yersal opinion that these epidemics were due to
foreign Importation from the West Indies, and
no one thought of giving the disease local
pp 6o-61) The West India trade was destroy,
ed after the next epidemic in Philadelphia in
1863 by some acts of parliament called or
known as the commercial monopoly" and
by the subsequent war OF the revolution. With
the return Of peace, however, came a renewal
Of the West India traffic. and with it came
the yellow fever again, appearing In New York
in t791, and in Charleston and Philadelphia In
1903. wide "Quarantine on the Southern
Coasts"-a report to the Secretary Of War In
1872 BY Harvey - e. ;BIrown, assistant surgeon
y. =. Al Will DR.. Tracy again assert that the
disease was imported In Philadelphia and was
endemic iii Charleston in 1888? If yea; why2
"The college Of physicians in Philadelphia
gave 1t as their opinion, IN an official report
to the governor OF the State that the epidemic
West Indies in July. many vessels having ar
rived from infected ports in that month. Some,
however, OF the members uissented, declar-
ing now, for the first time the doctrine Of
wide Report on Quarantine on Southern
Coasts.l It prevailed again in Philadelphia
In 1904. and in New York in 1876, and In 1897 at
Providence, II, l., and severely at Philadelphia
again. The College of Physicians again traced
1t to two infected ships, which arrived in
July, one from Havana and one from Port
au-Prince. The same year it prevailed at
Baltimore, the first case occurring having
just arrived from Philadelphia. Quarantine
on the Southern Coasts, by Harvey e. Brown,
fatal epidemic occurred. It broke out in Bos-
ton. Philadelphia and New York, and ragged
with great mortality. In the two latter cities
it's introduction was most positively traced
to the arrival of infected ships from the West
Indies 1.-TWO points are worthy of note in
connection with this epidemic-one, that the
authorities Of Philadelphia had become fright
ened at the yearly appearance OF the disease,
and had placed the city in excellent sanitary
condition compared to what it had been pre-
yiously, by q careful and vigorous system Of
police. and yet entirely neglected any quar-
antine measures; and the other, that the au-
thorities Of Baltimore established O. quaran-
tine, not only against vessels coming from the
baggage from Philadelphia, and entirely es-
capped the disease" Brown on Quarantine
on the Southern and Gulf Coasts, PIP. 12 and
1877 From that time up to the present sum-
mer, yellow fever has appeared at longer or
shorter intervals, with more or less fatality,
in Philadelphia and New York, and OCCASION
ally at Baltimore and Norfolk. 1t has pre-
vailed In Quebec, Newhaven and Middletown,
OF; Brooklyn, Perth Amboy, New Jersey,
and In other cities and towns In the New Eng
land and Middle States. Now, yellow fever
ssfirst appeared in New Orleans in 1885, ex-
actly 103 years after it's "frst appearance" in
in Boston, and 81 years after its first appear
,ance In Philadelphia II it is only endemic
In the Gulf and South Atlantic cities, will DR..
Tracy explain why the disease appeared
In Boston and Philadelphia SO many years
before it appeared in New Orleans? In
Che interest of commerce DR.. Tracy has
sharnelessly perverted truth, and in a
journal devoted to the dissemination Of pop
uar science among the people he has Iibeled
every seaport from Charleston to Brazos
Santiago. by asserting that yellow fever is
endemic In them all, when thorough inves-
tigation of facts shows conclusively that this
disease is as much endemic in Philadelphia,
New York, Boston or Baltimore. Under a
resolution of Congress, approved June 6, 1872
"proyidng for a more effective system ol
quarantine on the Southern and gulf coasts, u
Assistant Surgeon Harvey E. Brown, U. s. A.,
was directed to make a thorough investiga.
tion of the systems OF quarantine practiced
from New York to the Western ports of the
Gulf of Mexico, and to ascertain all facts
having reference to the outbreaks. of yellow
fever In such ports or towns, and whether any
80, lie Eyay tn hn nffpnti i've