Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-09-21

Four citizens of this thriving
young village have recently died,
and some of them with symptoms
that have alarmed the survivors
moreover, since the village is only
six miles distant from GAINESVILLE,
some of that alarm disturbed our
own people. With a view to get
ting the most authentic information
possible, we visited st. Bethlehem
on Thursday, and had a personal
interview with DIR. Sypert, who
was attending physician in three
out of the four cases attended with
death. The four deaths mot five,
as enormously stated in the Tobacco
Leaf are those of Mrs. Bell and
child, Mrs. H. M. Dudley and Mr..
Collier. The symptoms in the case
of Mrs. Bell and child, who live
close to the railroad, are designated
by DIR. Sypert as closely resembling
those of yellow fever as described
by medical writers. With COM
mendable mOdesty he does not I'M
dertake to say that they were actual
cases of that disease, but that such
were their symptoms.
The case of Mrs. Dudley stands on
different ground. 1t was reported
here as heart-disease, and we should
have passed it by as such but for an
interview with DIR. McReynolds on
Wednesday, who saw her a few
hours before her death and failed on
auscultatiOn to detect any of the
physical signs of heart-disease. We
have great confidence in DIR. Nc
Reynolds diagnOstic judgment, and
when he declares those sounds to be
absent we have no doubt that they
were absent, and as we have come
to the conclusion on careful con-
sideratiOn that the lady did die of
heart-disease, we think it right to
state our reasons, apOlOgising for
the discussion of details which, I'M
der ordinary circumstances, ought
to be reserved for the medical journ-
ais.
Mrs. Dudley has for some years
been subject to attacks of heart dis
ease and we deem this a case (Of
course we are writing for our medi-
cal readers) where disease of the
heart was attended with jaundice,
i'm consequence of congestion of the
liver, which again results from OBJ
structiOn in the circulation of that
organ from the defective action of
the heart. We would here refer
our medical readers to two cases de-
tailed in the second chapter of
"Stokes on the Heart and AOrta,"
pages DID and 224. After reading
these cases we think it will be adj
mitted that the symptoms of Mrs.
DIS attack are in accordance with
these and not with those of yellow
fever. Mrs. d. is reported to us
as having become gradually jaun-
diced three days before she had any
fever at all. Both the physicians
we have mentioned concur in this
statement. Now this state isspOken
of by DIR. Stokes In the work quoted
as a symptom of liver congestion
from heart-disease; it IL nowhere
described as a symptom of yellow
fever, and, taken with the fact that
the patient has long been subject to
heart-disease. the evidence is
strongly In favor of that being her
malady. 1t is true that fever super
Vened three days before her death,
preceded by chill on Wednesday,
which gave way on Sunday, leaving
her in a very PROSTATE condition.
1t was while in this condition that
DIR. McReynolds saw her and failed
To detect audible signs of heart
disease. We think there are two
excellent reasons why he should so
have failed: The action of the heart
was very feeble at this time from
prostration, which would make the
ordinary sounds less distinguish
able, and the patient was moreover
very cOrpulent, a condition well
known to present great obstacles to
the auscultatOr.
We do not consider that there is
any controversy between DIR. McR.
and ourselves, as that gentleman
does not deny that the lady
heart-disease, but simply says that
he failed to detect the sounds. We
have given reasons why he should
so fail without any imputation upon
the accuracy of his observation he