Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-08-16
FRIDAY AUGUST 16. 1878

outbreak of the disease in Savannah a year
or two ago, laid it down as fundamental
rule of yellow-fever practice, that the efforts
I of all physicians wherever the lever appears,
should be directed. first. to the discovery OF
the treatment to which, 10 that particular
Z city, at that particular time, the fever most
I readily yields; acd every observer of this
I plague knows that the ratio of deaths to
! cases always decreases after this point has
been determined. J. Savannah 1t was found
! to be necessary t. administer heroic doses of
/ quinine, and the writer Of this article re-
members an outbreak Of the fever in VIII Ia
/ qulnlne, except as preventive, was found
to be nearly useless American physicians
employ sparkling wines freely the treat
ment of the disease, while IN some parts of
! the West Indies this practice Is so sharply
condemned that a Brooslyn physician on
| his travels there, having used champagne IN
treating . patient on Sblpboard, was warned
not to go ashore under penalty OF death ,at
the hands OF au outraged mob. SO, too. ply
slcians are greatly perplexed at the variation
Ct the disease IN different patients-a varia-
ton due to the tendency of the disease to be-
come complicated with dangerous symptoms
OF other maladles. notwithstanding these
peculiar difficulties, science has made very
important advances, both 10 preventing and
treating yellowfever. About half dozen
years ago the disease appeared in Charleston,
South Carolina and, having warning in time,
port from the authorities, succeeded not only
IN restricting it to the district In which
it first appeared, but in stamping 1t
out of that district without the
aid of frost; and wherever sanitary
conditions have been tolerably good, efforts to
check the disease have been much more sue
cessful recently than they were of old. In
Savannah the work of medical men was of
little avail, because OF the malariOus nature
OF the surrounding country, and because the
sewers OF the city emptled into an open ditch,
the exhalations from which poisoned tie at
mosphere beyond the power of disinfectants
to sweeten 1t. Memphis, In like manner, at
the time of its last visitation, was in a bad
sanitary condition, with a stagnant creek at
hand, into which much of the offal of the
city had been thrown Two facts of the high
est Importance are now firmly established,
namely: That vigllant quarantine supervision
effectually prevents the entrance of the dis
ease into a city to which it is not native, and
that the disease, even if patients suffering
from it come into city, will not spread if
the condition of the city does not invite it to
spread. It does not spread in a pure atmos-
phere, aad the lower the tempera-
tpre the less likely is it to spread.
There Is so much uncertainty
as to its contagiousness that when the pres
ent writer questioned two physicians, both
specialists in the treatment of this maady, On
that point, one replied: 1T is the most conta-
gious disease known to man, aud the other
said: 1T is not more contagious than a
STUN ped-toe;' but there is little danger In
either case that yellow-fever introduced from
without into city with wholesome air viii
propagate itself by contagion, because IN
every such case TIE utmost pains are taken to
secure the absolute isolation of the patient,
and the efficacy of this precaution is demon
strated nearly every year in New York and
Brooklyn, into which cases are introduced
during almost every summer"
Citizens Meeting To-Day.
The undersigned citizens, who intend to
remain in the city during the prevalence of
the fever, invite all of our people similarly
inclined TO meet at the Greenlaw Operhouse,
at eleven o'clock, for consultation and action
with regard to assisting each other through
the scOurge. and providing ways and means
for removing from the city to place of safe
ty such of cur people as are pecuniarily una
bic to do so without assistance. 1t is expected
that answers to kilograms sent to President
HAYES will be placed before the meeting