The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-09-11

lMemPn1s Appeal
The following report by one of the most
eminent British medical commissions is gwen
as conclusive testimony from a very nigh,
the highest, source as to the origin aud causes
of epidemic yellow fever. 1t very sigDifi-
cantiy lays stress in filth and dirt as the
means by which the fever takes hold and IS
prolonged in places like Memphis, and ought
to convey warning to our citizens OF what
is necessary and what must be done IN the
future If we are to avoid recurrence of the
epidemic which has made charnel house of
Memphis for the fourth time:
1. That yellow fever epIdemics break out
simultaneously in different and distant
towns, and In different and distants parts of
the same town, often under circumstances
IN which communication with infected per-
sons is impossible.
,. That yellow fever epidemics are usually
preceded by the occurrence of individual or
sporadic cases of the disease, which sporadic
cases are likewise common in seasons when
no epidemic prevails.
8. That the yellow fever epidemics, though
occasionally extending over large tracts of
country, are more frequently limited as to
the space over which they spread, often not
involving the whole of a town, and some
times not even any considerable district
of it.
spread from district to district by any rule OF
gradual progression, but often ravage certain
localities, while they spare entirely, or visit
very lightly, others in the immediate neigh
borhood with which the inhabitants are in
constant REORGANIZATION.
). That yellow fever epidemics, when they
invade district, do not spread from houses
first infected to the next, an thence to the
adjoining, and thus extend as from center,
but on the contrary are often strictly con-
fined to particular houses on one side OF
street. TO particular rooms in the same house,
and often even to particular rooms in the
same story.
8. That in general, when yellow fever
breaks out In a family, only one or two in
dividuals are attacked; commonly the atten-
dantS on the sick escape; and when several
members of family are successfully attack
ed or the attendants on the sick suffer, either
the epidemic was general in the locality
or the individual had gone into an infected
district.
:. That when yellow fever is prevalent in
a locality, the most rigid seclusion in that
locality affords no protection from the dis
ease.
8. That on the other hand, so great is the
success attending the removal from an in
fected locality, and the dispersion of the sick
in a healthy district that by this measure
alone the further progress of an epidemic is
often arrested at once.
Q. That such dispersion of the sick is fol-
lowed by no transmission of the disease, not
of a hospital, among patients laboring under
other maladies.
10. That no one OF the preceding facts can
De reconciled with any other conclusion than
that, whatever may be the exciting cause of
yellow fever, it is local or epidemic In its
origin, and the evidence of this conclusion
is therefore cumulative.
II. That the conditions which influence
the localization of yellow fever are known,
definite, and, to great extent, removable,
and are substantially the same as the local
izing causes Of cholera and all other epidemic
diseases.
II That, as in the case of all other cpl
demic diseases in proportion as these local.
izing causes are removed or diminished. yell
low fever ceases to appear, or recurs at more
distant intervals and in milder forms.
10. That, besides the common external
localizing causes, there is one constitutional
predispoSing cause OF paramount import
ance, namely: non-acslimation-i. e., the
state of the system produced by residence in
cold climate; in other words European
blood exposed to the action of tropical heat:
the practical lesson being that the utmost
care should be taken to prevent individuals
or bodies of men recently arrived from the
yellow fever zone from going into district
in which the disease actually exists or has
recently been present.
IA. That there is no evidence to prove
that yellow fever has ever been imported.
10. That consequently the means of pro-
lection from yellow fever are not quarantine
restrictions and sanitary cordons, but sani-
tary works and operations having for their
object the removal ana prevention of the
several localizing conditions. and when such
permanent works are impracticable, the
temporary removal, as far as may be posi-
bic, of the population from the infected
localities.
We deem it our duty to state, in con-
clusion, that from the most careful examin-
alton which we have been able to make of
the mass of the evidence submitted to us,
from which the foregoing conclusions have
been deduced, we have not found a single
fact or observation clearly sscertained or au-
thentically recorded opposed to the general
tenor of such evidence. We have met with
noexceptional cases. We have. indeed, found
the opinions of some authorities, for whom
we entertain great respect, not in accordance
on some points, but these have reference, for
the most part, 10 matters of purely profess
sioDal and scientific nature. On the great
practical question. whether, whatever may
be the nature and mode of propagation of
yellow fever. guarantees and sanitary cor
dons can afford any real protection against
its introduction and spread, we believe there
Is now very general unaDimity of opinion,
in accordance with the evidence we have
submitted, that they can not We believe
that there is the like general agreement
this practical conclusion that the substitu-
quarantine, isolation and restriction would
afford more certain and effectual protection.
All of which we humbly certify to your
majesty. SHAFTEsBURY
EDWIN CHADWICK,
IT, SOUTHWOOD SMITH,