The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-09-15
BEAST BUTLER AND THE YELLOW
.M. FEVER.

'@..- EhN Tin,
we ain cerely regret to find the following
editorial In o late Issue OF the Natchez, Miss.
Democrat
Tho New Orleans DEMOCRAT of the third
Instant makes All effort to take from Zen
Butler the only merit we have ever heard al
tributed TO him. that Of keeping the yellow
fever out Of the Crescent City whilst no was
its dictator The DEMOCRAT enters into
long argument to show that old Ben's drain
age and sweeping Of the streets and quaran-
timing, and other sanitary measures. were
not the cause Of the exemption Of New Or
leans from epidemic during his possession OF
The city. II even goes So for as to dig up
DIR. Netherlands famous theory that
dirt was not conducive to dis
aaso, that n little filth was even
wholesome The DEMOCRAT has recently had
a great penchant for opposition. and from its
general con'rarine5s, and its remarkable
tpDsurinus disposition, we are inclined to
think the writer Of its editorials Ia Il little
bilious. Ben Butler has but this ono redeem
ing trait, aud we think our New Orleans
neighbour, although he might not "be to bis
faults IA little blind, he could certainly afford
TO "he to this virtue ever kind" We have no
great love for Massachusetts obliuue-eyed
snn and there Ia but one office for which we
think we could he persuaded to vote for him.
and that would be for Mayor Of New Orleans
iY1 An epidemic year.
We feel no resentment toward the Nntche2
journal for it's somewhat unclvil estimate
nj the temper Of the DEMOCRAT: but we ven
lure TO suggest that, a little less arrogance on
its part might be more seemely In the dis
QUESTION Of q question on which the most
eminent physicians and scientists havo diff
Eored end etll differ.
IL yellow fever had never before 1869 Jailed
To soourge this city, and New Orleans had
t,,f,, I,ni mi nd
would be some ground for the partisane Of
Beast Butler 10 hold that he had excluded The
Eever that year from our midst. There are
mo such grounds, however, for his proten-
sions. Before the advent of the Beast into
our midst, and since his exit, there have been
periods embracing years in which New Or
leans has been rs free Of the fever as any
Northern city. The sanitary condition Of the
city has been, in number of epidemic years,
~ well as In non-epidemic years, Ne good and
better than under Butler, and such sanitary
eonditions were established and maintained
by and through the proper and unoppressive
instlumcntality OF civic government, and not
by the millions stolen or extorted from the
people by brutal military violence
The Natchez Democrat Is much exercised
mot generated by filth, and yet it is gen
erally conceded that he series Of facts
have yet been gathered competent to e5tgb
fish, in the remotest degree. any connection
between filth. bad drainage and bad vcntla-
SION, and the origin and spread Of yellow
4sver. The disease has It's home in some Of
the cleanest and best drained cities in the
world. Vera Cruz, fur instance. terrible
epidemic once prevailed among the troops at
Gibraltar, and another on Governors Island,
New York, while The first appearance OF the
Elestilence in Louisiana was in 1905, among
She colonists located at what Is now known as
Ocean Springs perhaps the dryest and most
essluhrious point on our Gulf coast. So fire.
4yuentlv, when the fever was a yisitant of
staly and Spain, did IL prevail in the cleauest
and best built localities of the cities Of these
Countries. that theory was widely enter
e1ssined that filth and the putrefying bodies of
dead animals were preVonuVos OF the fever.
I'm New Orleans the fever has often taken root
and prevailed with the greatest viruicncc in
She cleanost and best ventilated localities,
while the tilthieSt and worst drained portions
nf the town, reeking with the foul odors of
~4eaaviDr vegetable and animal matter have,
an great measure. escaped.
Recent Investigations seem to connect dlph-
liberia with filthy sewerage, and it is an cs-
S,ahlished fact, we believe, that typhus is
often caused by filth in connection with the
mad ventilation of crowded tonemcntS. But
surely there has been no sufficient facts es
4ablishel by which to connect the origin of
yellow fever. or cholera with filth, detective
slrainape OF bad ventilation. Indeed all the
7nnarent facts tend to prove that the origin
and spread Of these diseases are absolutely
sndenendent Of these things person sick
nj either OF these diseases, occupying an Ill
ventilated filthy hole, will certainly be more
apt to die than il he be tenderly cared for in
comfortable quarters; but SO will he be more
ant to die If. instead OF being we'll nursed and
wisely treated, he be struck over the head
xs,ith q club. But the filth and bad Vcntila-
zion which may kill him seem to have no
mora to do with the origin Of the disease than
she Climb with which he may be brutally bat
4ered.
What then, is the cause Of the origin and
znread OF yellow lever? We do not know,
.,r,5 nohodv else does. Some weeks ago our
.ayninonf feIIow-citizen, DR.. Chopin. in It
-~,aatiny Of the Board OF Health, declared that
science and observation had so far failed TO
discover the origin and nature OF this disease.
None hn+ a pharIatan would, in the present
e*sga OF our knowledge, say otherwise ana
-wza NAV safely assume that the knowledge OF
s.n,r IGNORANCE of the real cause and nature OF
So, ssx,er is one of the most luminous ana I'M