The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-08-25
Fever Theories.

L
can and does originate in the Southern
States, while the standard old doctrine OF
importation is as popularity sustained as
ever. AS to propagation, some claim that
the disease 10 contagious, others that 1t is
infectious also, and others, again, that it
is epidemic, or "iu the air." as they term
it. As to treatment, we have everything
from the oliver pad" to the ice jacket, and
from the tisame and blanket treatment up
to the old heroic style of calomel and lam
Get. One man will tell you that any med
icine at all will kill you, while another
will gravely state, and confirm it by his
affidavit, If necessary, that nothing but
salvation can save patient. Some per-
sons maintain that cleanliness is certain
guarantee against the fever, while others
argue that the claanest places have 1t the
worst. Carbolic acid lie regarded by many
as great disinfectant and protective,
while others contend that it kills the chill
dren and gives ladies the headache.
Strange to say, men of science and
experience will be found advocating each
side of all these coz hictipg theories. And
not only do they advocate them, they
actually grow wild over them. Where
everything is involved in SO much doubt,
where all, or nearly all, is as yet conjec-
ture, where the wisest man can do but
little more than experiment modestly.
certain enthusiasts mount certain habbies
and ride them around under whip and
spur, resentiDg Indignantly any imputa-
ton upon the wisdom of their course.
So far as we can observe, popular in
stinct among us generally sanctions the
theories adopted by our Board of Health.
That is, it holds that the fever is infec-
tious, and, therefore, properly subject to
quarantine, that the sweating treatment
without strong medicine is the proper one,
unless under express orders from an
experienced physician, and that carbolic
acid can be 30 applied as to materially
check the march of the disease.
But if we concede the correctness of
these positions, are We not forced to doubt
the sincerity of our Board of Health in
promulgating them. Do they not publicly
maintain views which privately they scout
and dismiss Let us zee.
The Board of Health established quar-
antine away down at Fort jackson and
will hot allow bag of coffee to pass there
without disinfection if it comes from
Havana or Rio Janeiro or any infected
port. And why7 Just because they sus
pect that bag of secreting the Infection
among its threads. And yet the bag has
certainly not been lying on the bed of q
man dying with black vomit, nor leaning
over his bed, nor even in his room at all.
The prudence of the doctors is, however,
applauded by everybody except come of
the hobby riders.
Now look at the other side. Somebody
from come panicky interior place writes
to the President of our Board, begging
information on certain points categorically
set out. Among other things, he wants to
know what is done or recommended as to
the disinfecrion of persons coming out of
fever rooms, or as to their change of cloth
ing. To this the learned president of the
quarantine system answers with the word ::
nothing.
That is, nothing is done, or required or
recommended. There is no system on the
subject. Doctor and nurse and priest and
visitor may freely come and go. They
may be for hours in contact with the bed
of "bad case" and then issue from the
front door and step into street car among
a crowd of children, and thence into the
parlor or the nursery of an unacclimated
family. This is not prohibited it is not
protested against, nor even ddCised
against.
But THE BAG OF COFFEE MUST BE FUMI-
GATED.
The question comes in here, if this is
giving carbolic acid fair chance. You
put Gordon of it around an infected place
the poison cannot pass through an atmos-
phere which destroys it, but is safely carried
out in the folds ofa nurses dress, the wooden
garments of a doctor or the bushy whis-
kers of a cheerful friend who "don't care
cent for the fever" because he has had
49, Al