The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1878-09-06

medical men found that the disease wa
indeed yellow fever, but Of such a,terri-,
BILE sort that It was something practically
new to them. They think that the foul
ness OF Grenada lent to il malarial ele-
ment, making it resist the treatment
that ordinarily is in some degree effica-
cious. Those who did not die remained
sick, not one patient recovering. Com
monty, yellow fever is abrupt in its at
tack, there being no preliminary symp-
toms. There is, first, chill; then fever
OF more or less intensity, accom- panied
by pain in the legs and loins,
and continuing from few hours to
three days. Next, if ever, GONZALES
cence ensues. None of the cases in
Grenada ended at that stage. Some OF
the patients were simply loft in prostra.
ton from which they have not yet re-
covered; but in most instances the dis
tinctive yellowness of the skin came on
followed by the vomiting of blood, called
black vomit, and exhaustion. All the
physicians sent from Memphis were al.
lopathic. They adhered to the usual
treatment, which does r OF embrace any
specially curative remedies, but consists
OF complete rest, induced by opiates.
Alcoholic stimulant is given in the stage
OF exhaustion. One physician says that
the Grenada patients are evidently much
affected by fright. They have no hope
of recovery, and their lack of courage
is a serious hindrance of recovery. They
suffer mental as we'll as physical col
lapse. Especially is this true of the ne
groes, to whom the disease is a horrify-
ing surprise. Negroes had been re-
garded as almost invulnerable to yellow
fever. and rarely died of it. The Gre,
NADIA negroes were fearless, and, during
the first week of the pestilence, not one
was stricken. The first among them to
fall Ill, according to DIR. Spencer, who
attended him, was slow to believe that
he really had yellow fever, and, when he
was convinced, he said that it was en-
tirely unnatural, being a special punish
ment for his robbery of white patient.
He died, and terror seized upon all the
blacks in the place. They had done
much of the nursing without hesitation,
but now they deserted their posts in dis
may.
One of the few living witnesses of the
later scenes in Grenada has arrived in
Cincinnati. He says that the little vii
lage is utterly desolate. Everybody
who remains is either sick or is kept
there by duty. All the rest have fed or
died. Entire families have been blotted
out in day by the disease. There, as
in New Orleans, women and children
are almost disproportionately numerous
among the victims, their organizations
being generally less able than those of
men to withstand the exhaustion of the
disease. At night walk through the
streets is terrifying. The means and
cries of delirious patients can be heard
at every turn. Nor are all the outcries
those of delirium. The negroes give up
all hope on falling sick. and excitedly
call on God and man for help, using
their needed strength in doing so. They
will not be controlled by physicians or
nurses. The white women, on the con-
trary, are the most quiet and obedient
of the patients as long as they retain
their reason. The dead bodies are
buried as soon as possible after death,
and, In some instanC es, this informant
believes, persons are started for their
graves before they are really dead. The
burying is done by two relays of negroes,
one working by night and the other by
day.
The fever turned on its track on tie
10Th, going back from Grenada toward
New Orleans as far as Canton, but the
inhabitants, numbering about 400, dis
persed hurriedly, leaving seven patients,
one physician, and a few nurses. In
otte r directions the disease is spread
ing, and, as the contemplating time is
at hand, great financial losses must en-
sue through the cessation of labor. The
villages are in special danger from the
scourge, because they are rarely well
drained, the water is often bad, and all
the conditions are favorable to the dis
ease, if once introduced. The panic is
widespread, for the stoppage of mails
deprives the people of newspapers, and
therefore the news that they do get is
exaggerated, giving them ideas of the
plague that exceed the terrible truth.
On the river front in Memphis are
many combined lunch and bar-rooms,
in which boatmen and 'longshoremen
eat, drink, and sometimes sleep. In one
of them drunken steamboat hand was
taken sick. A physician on sight pro-
nounced his disease genuine yellow fever.
In spite of an attempt to shut out travellers
from further South, the scourge had got
into the city. On northern-bound trains,
within four hours after the case became
generally known, over 1900 residents
fled to safer places. The patient was
taken out to hospital outside the city,
his clothing and the bedding on which
he had slept were burned, and the house
was thoroughly fumigated. 1t was
hoped that the pestilence had been
bafiied at that point; but the officials
had hardly completed the work before
their attention was called to Prof.
Decker, a well-known citizen, who was
i'll with what his family physician
thought was yellow fever. 1t was. Next
door to his residence some visitors from
out of town had been staying nearly two
weeks. Investigation brought out the
fact that they had come in the steamboat
Golden Grown, which had run the quar-
antine blockade, landing her passengers
The Professor died on
the day that he was taken sick, and his
son died soon afterward Within twen-
ty-four hours more there were seventeen
additional cases in the city, and five
deaths. The stampede of frightened
rs sidents continued and the ron,lat;on