The New Orleans daily Democrat., 1878-11-25
THE YELLOW FEVER COMMITTEE.
REPORTS UPON TEHE LATE EPIDEMIC
In GRENADA ANBp BATON ROUGE.
baltimore Sun

baltimore SUM-
RICHMOND Va. Nov 19.-Among the reports
of the members of the yellow fever commission
that BY DR.. Cochran. on the epidemic at Gren-
ada. Miss, is one of profound interest. The
following Is an extract:
THE GRENADA EPIDEMIC
| The town of Grenada stands on an elevated
plateau on the south bank of the Tallahusha
re TIE Of he the tfrgat 3wa is
cutters clean. It is said that many of the back
yards were very filthy. and that the privy vaults
dug in the ground and walled up with boards or
bricks, and easily pervious to water. are very
rarely 9mPte4 haa The am2us ~ about Which
Which meanders diaeonally across the town, Of
weather 1t dries up completely throughout its
whole extent. and during heavy rain It runs
It is open to the air and the sun from its source
| to its mouth, distance of about mile except
that about the middle of Its course it Is Walled
distance Of something like Il hundred and fifty
yards
diagonally across one Of the streets The next
| fourth passes diagonally under livery stable.
There Is then short open portion through the
under stone house. and thence diag0nalIy
street 1t is impossible thht any part OF this
drain should become very filthy or noxous ex-
cept that part of it which is covered over, and I
cannot believe that even this part Of It could
become SO loaded with filth as to constitute an
| sickness. A considerable part of tho wooden
walls and cover of this portion of the drain had
decayed and Il the q cover was failing H. SO IN that It
| pairs the decaying timber " s removed, and
the filth that had accumulated in the bottom was
dug out and thrown upon the street, Some
thing like fifty yards were perhaps renovated
in this way, and the excaYated material thus
exposed to tester IN the sun and exhale its i'm.
purlties into the atmosphere. to be waited about
by the winds. is said to be extremely offensive.
Whatever bad influence these emanations5
that they had nothing in the world to do with
the generation of the yellow fever poison, which
spread desoatton through the community q
and the fever did not make its appearance until
the last Of July and the heath OF the place un-
demic had remained good. The population Of
Grenada before the outbreak of the fever num-
bered about 25oo, of whom about 1900 were
whites. and about 1900 blacks and mulattoes
whites and about 1000 blacks. Of the whites
who remained and who were not projected by
The total number OF caaesS count up 1o4o. The
total Of deaths is 326; white deaths about, 22o,
case. although it was not at the time acknowl..
edged to be such occurred with the person of
Mrs. Capt. Fields, formerly Of Oklahoma. Miss,
who lived on the corner Of First street, at the
depot. The history OF the Field family will be
given In detail presently.
The second case was Mr.. r. A. Young, clerk
for Bryant & Davis. who kept variety store.
dry goods, groceries. ete, on First street ia
barroom, which he visited Of evenings. He
was taken on the third of August, had black
vomit, suppression of urine. in short a malig-
ant case OF yellow fever. and died ON the
seventh of August. No EXPOSURE to infeotion
could be traced in this case. It was pronounced
and iaundice, but was subsequently admitted
by them to have been yellow fever. From these
two cases the fever spread like conhagration
1t is said that only five white persons of those
Who remained @ a IN the e. stricken city escaped
willing to admit that the earlier cases were
yellow fever. Notwithstanding the rapid oc-
scurrence Of new cases and deaths 1t vas not
until the ninth Of August. nine days after the
death Of Mrs. Fields. that the physi-
clans -, annonnc9a -,, 70 ;, the community
that the dsoa tbo FOWL Which had So t5 ysoE9ny
epidemic Immediately the whole population
was seized with panic, and everybody who was
They fled into the adjacent country and TO dis
tant cities. and carried the seeds Of the pesti-
Holly Springs, Grand Junction, etc. about one
housapd Of them went into camps located three
miles from town, and although some of them
occasionally visited town the camps escaped
infection. considerable number Of negroes
went out to the camps IN the beginning Of the
epidemic, but most Of them returned before it
was over. AS q rule the negroes took the dis
, ease later in the season than the whites and the
s9nthTeser1In aqar,9r q +, ie town. wniet I is
almost wholly inhabited by DiHEkS. was the last
to be invaded. The disease amongst them was
of q much miller character than with the
whites, and their percentages Of mortality very
much smaller. Nothing cau show the tremen-
, dous energy Of the epidemic moro than the
simple statement that during its prevalence
there was only Il single death from any other
| cause than the usual fever.
THE BATON ROUGE EPIDEMIC.
RICHMOND Nov. 2o-Dr E. Lloyd Howard. in
his report read before, the American Public
L Health Association to- day, says: The course
ndped dtfnrod little fTom nda that + Of ny col
rs cases beer in the Smaller I0 than ft in arget
communities. So starting from Baton Rouge
| went along the Mississippi taking ia Napo-
} leon and other points, to locate the point OF
origin and first ease n each place endeavoriug
to trace first, second and third gases until
different towns, and the different foct of cont-
gion. SO that the course Of the disease might be
, shown. In pursuance of this plan ascertained
likewise the sanitary condition, drainage, etc
Of each place. The work commenced on the
twenty second of October and lasted until the
fifteenth of November but was continually in
, terrupted from many causes.
Baton Rouge, in tho parish of East Baton
! Rouge, is town Of about 5000 population
, situated on the east bank Of the Mississippi
{ The sanitary surroundings are generally good
, with the exception Of some low grounds in the
and a cause of .1nalarial diseases. The drainage
, Of the town is partly toward the river and
I partly toward the bayons and swhmDs in the
rear It is not so good as the natural adyant-
ages Of location would seem to demand In
other respects the sanitary features Of Baton
Rouge do not materially differ from those Of
May last the drains and streets were we'll
, cleaned and put In order
AS soon as the yellow fever was declared to be
in New Orleans a nominal" quarantine was de-
ciared In Baton Rouge; but. from all the eVi-
dence. 1t appears to have been of no effeciyenese
whatever: and. as will be seen shortly. every
principle of quarantine WAS openly violated.
On the fifth Of August the Democratic State
convention was permitted to assemble in the
, | consisting ff f0nr or five hundred