The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1878-08-15
YELLOW FEVER.
Causes, Symptoms and Treatment

GGuaess 81 nEptDD7a ana treatment
As there is now alarm in all the
southern cities subject to its inroads
few facts from the best and latest author
ties who have had personal experience
with the disease may be of interest. A
day or two of laDguor and bsd feel
ings" generally precede an attack OF
yellow fever Then comes a chill much
like that of common ague, but accompa-
MED by pain in the head and spine.
The chill lasts frC N a few minutes to
few hours, and consti .utes the first
stage, or that wherein the mOrbifc
causes are invading the system. The
next is the febrile stage which follows
the chill. Generally it is noted of
very high grade, the pulse being 100.
A distinctive symptom and a char
acteristic of yellow fever Is suppression
of the urine Another symptom, which
can be readily recognized by any physi-
clan, nurse or other person who has ever
been with a yellOw-fever patient, is
pc culiar odor or nasty smell from off the
patient, and which can ever be perceived
in the streets during an epidemic, 1t Is
| indescribable, and belongs to no other
! fever, and with doctors experienced In
| yellow fever is of itself sufficient for
| diagnosis. The patient sees that the
poison has also struck the nervous sys-
| tenn; he is tremulous, easily excited, and
| startled by the least noise. The fever
takes generally frem twenty four to
| forty-eight hours, the sufferer becoming
! delirious snd raviDg in a large proper
| tion of cases. If asked why he screams
| ne can give no adequate reason. Usually
on the third day the fever sbstes, and
| there is q caim-the third stage-which
! lasts from few hours to 4 day, and is
! the turning point OF the disease.
! This calms ends either in conVa-
| Iescence or else In the fourth or
! fatal stage, that of collapse or black
vOmit from which not one in fifty ever
RECEIVERS. The vomit, which seems to
come up without effort, looks life coffee
grounds, and is the death warrant OF
THE POOR PATIENT.
About the fourth or Rfth day the eyes
| turn yellow. The skin also assumes a
yellowness like that of bruise, or
| bright jaundice yellow. However, the
patient does not turn yellow in more
! than in one case in six. As to- the causes
of the scourge, the old atmospheric the
ory has gone by the board. and the best
writers now seem to have settled dewn to
| the belief that the poison Is of anlmalcu-
| lar origin, these animalcules generating
and spreading over surfaces like grasshOP-
| peTS anu cater pllidIH, siIlO DcliiE5
introduced into the human blood.
II they exist, the most powerful
microscope has hitherto been
unable to discover them. One fact that
seems to point to their existence is that
the same extremes of heat and cold that
ksli all other insects also kills yellow
| fever, whose contagioD cannot exist and
becomes innOCuUus at go and 2l2O. Hel-
low fever is always killed out after good
freeze. Yellow fever never spreads above
500 feet above the level of the sea. Ac-
c:imatization does not prevent, and no
person has q second attack. The period
Of incubation Is generally four to nine
days, though persons have been known
to carry it IN their system twenty three
days, and then take it. Without treat
ment seventy-fve out of every hun
drsd will die. With treatment
and good nursing, however, about
one in three Is the average mortality,
In the great epidemic Of 1867, in
some Texas towns, one-half died who
took the fever. As to the cure, no rem
edy has yet been found, and all treat
ment so far, even by the best physicians,
is as empirical as the causes OF yellow
fever are unknown beyond conjecture.
HISTORY OF EPIDEAnCs IN NEW ORLEANS.
According to the best writer's, the
, great epidemics that have scouTged New
Orleans in the past may be tabulated as
follows, with the time of breaking out
and whole number of deaths