The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1878-09-12
CLEANLINESS.
Dr.. Rodman Of the Kentucky State
Beard Of Health Gives some
Good and Urgent Advice.

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From the Couner-Jo ournal.
The excretions and exhalations
from a yellow-fever patient are not
capable of producing yellow fever
In a sound person. Therefore, the
disease is not contagious; neither
can any degree of sola temperature,
acting upon any amount of mois-
ture or muck of any kind, produce
yellow fever. Therefore the dis
ease is not miasmatic or malarial.
But the secretions and ezhaiations of
yelLoO fever patients coming in contact
sOith t0oolens, tie cargo or 6ilge tOater
Of a vessel, Bat more eSeecidiy Uith tie
aOharf mud, tie contents Of drains, gut
terS, SewerS, prtvies, muck or gfal about
a city or tosOH, may and do undergo a
Development sufficient to produce tie dis
ease, proVided there is sufficient sofa
temperature. These are the true and
only conditions under which yellow
fever can exist.
IL luO - uAlCA oAalGb AllG HGlAOh
fever poisen is not indigenous. 1t
is of foreign birth. Now to pro
duce an epidemic of yellow fever
the seed or germs of the disease
must be brought To some city or
town by an infected person, ship.
cargo or lot of baggage, etc.; the
seed must be sown in good soil, VIZ:
The accumulated filth and ofal of
the pace, or among wooden goods,
and must have certain degree of
temperature to make it grow and
come effective. These conditions
existing, an epidemic of yellow fe.
yer is inevitable unless checked by
precautionary mea. > es.
AS. DIR. Woodwork has suggest
ed that the yellow fever germ has
the same vitality as the banana
plant, he cannot expect to raise a
crop, no matter how favorable the
soil or temperature. If he has the
seed and temperature and not the
soil, his crop will be a failure. If
he has the seed and soil, and the
temperature is not sufficient, his
plant will amount to nothing. No
matter then how filthy or hot a city
may be, no yellow fever will result
until the germs of the disease have
been imported and sown. Hence
the value of strict, well regulated
quarantine. If the seed be present
and the temperature sufficient, yet
a city be perfectly clean the dis
ease will not appear Hence the
value Of strict sanitary regulations
and ordinances. If the seed be
present and the city dirty, and tenn
perature be insufficient, no fears
need be entertained. Hence the adj
vantage Of living as far north as
as Louisville. BY way of paren-
thesis, let me say that if it is
true that part of the crew of the
Porter shipped at Louisville had the
yellow fever, it can be accounted
for not by direct contagion, but
from the fact that the poison devel
oped in the wooden blankets, DC,
on board, by reason Of a high tenn
perature, which one would expect
to find on a river steamer at this
season.
U=der the theory advocated by
me all the facts connected with the
present and past epidemics can be
explained, or at least more easily
harmonized than under any other
theory.
/ believe that an unusually hot
summer has intensified the virulence
of the present epidemic in the South,
so that Creoles and negroes, hereto
fore comparatively exempt, have
fallen victims to the scourge. In
the same way may be explained the
extension of the disease 10 Hick-
man, in our own State, place much
further north than yellow fever ap-
peared before in the MiSsissiPpi val-
leg.
If this theory be true, what les
sons are we taHght2 We cannot
keep the germs of yellow fever from
our midst, even If we 50 desired. A
quarantine by sea and river seems |
successful land quaran-
tine is an utter impossibility. We |
cannot control solar temperature;
but we certainly can remove or rem
der innocuous that which might |
otherwise become a hot-bed of In
fection and death. CleaDliness and
then are 20 be our
All streets, alleys,
commons and private premises
should be thoroughly cleansed, spe-
sial attention being paid 70 sewers,
lrains, cutters, ofal and filth Of iIl
kinds; lime, solutions Of copperas,
acid and other disinfec-
.ants being used literally.
These precautions will certainly
diminish the liability Of our Ken
lucky towns 10 yellow fever (pro-
gided they are made liable by an
unusual hot summer); and II we
IRE not actually threatened by this
disease, much good may be done in
other diseases 10 which
We owe their development 10 the
neglect OF sanitary ordinances. ]
earnestly hope that the local boards
IF health in the different counties
viii carry out the suggestions con
aimed berein.
w. b. RoDMAN, NJ. ID.
Member State 3oard Of Health.
FRANKFoRT, KY, Sept 4, rs.
A RICH GIFT.