The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-10-05
Will Cleanliness Prevent the Spread OF
Yellow Fever!

There is something very disouietinp
and unsettling in the facts reported
from New Orleans as to the local
phenomena attending the presence of
the pestilence. 1t has been assumed
heretofore, perhaps too hastily, that I'M
cleanliness and defective drainage in
the Southern cities were the secondary
causes OF the spread of the yellow fever.
1t was taken for granted that NEGLECT
and filthy streets furnished the hotbeds
in which the spores of the disease were
generated. 1t now appears that this
assumption must be modified. 1t has
been observed that the cleanest and
best kept portions of New Orleans have
suffered most, while other localities
distinguished for uncleanliness have
escaped. 1t is reported also that across
the river from New Orleans, over in
"Algiers, most filthy part of the city,
the people have escaped thus far the
ravages of the pest. There it is re-
ported, pools of stagnant water, vege-
table refuse, dead dogs and cats, poison
the air, and yet the yellow fever passes
1t over to attack the cleaner portions of
New Orleans. If these reports can be
accepted as facts, they show that our
conceptions of the conditions favorable
to the spread of yellow fever require
revision. While cleanliness has a bet
ter chance of escape than uncleanliness,
still it is not a complete protection; and
while uncleanliness is in danger, yet
there is something else which, added
to uncleanliness, prepares the soil for
the termination for the seeds of the
disease. Now, what is that something
elseP Here is a problem which invites
the study of the men of true science.
1t is hardly to be expected that biolo-
gistS and microscopes from this
climate will rush to certain death by
going now to the seat of the disease to
study the phenomena Of the spread of
yellow fever and its peculiar local types
and yet these things cannot be properly
studied anywhere else or at any other
time. 1t would seem to be worth while,
however, as soon as the frost has fallen
and the disease killed to make thor
ough investigation of the facts so as to
furnish material for working hypo-
| theses. The man who could discover
precisely the conditions essential to
the diffusion of germs of yellow fever
would be more entitled to the gratitude
of humanity than Leverrier, who cal
culated the whereabouts of an unknown
planet many times larger than our
whole earth. That yellow fever is the
product of a living organism, animal
or vegetable, is pretty well established
by the facts that water and organic
matter in solution and certain degree
of heat are necessary to their existence
as to the germs of fermentation and
putrefaction. When the temperature
falls below certain point they all die,
and die instantly. We thus know some
thing about these germs. What is
needed is to know all about them, or
at least as much as we know about
bacteria or cells of vinous fermenta-
ton or yeast cells. When that is
known, it may be possible to prevent
their generation or to kill them in some
artificial way as frost kills them. Who
knows that these germs may not
breed as well or better in the sewers
of well-drained cities as in the open
pools of stagnant water? If this be so,
drainage is not complete protection
We cannot be sure that even the
measures taken to disinfect locality
do not furnish the conditions of their
generation. -BGttin10re Gazette.