The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-10-08
A NEW THEORY.
CONDITIONS NECESSARY TO THE Ogg-
EGHN AND EXISTENCE OFF
YELLOW FEVER.
Views of Prof. j. E. stiEle-Why the BIS
ease Ia "a Native of the Antanes~-An
Interesting Explanation.
Mobile Register !

Mobile Registerl
That yellow fever has its origin in the West
India Islands and other tropical locations Dor
deEing Immediately upon the Gulf of NJ xico is
fact well settled. =, Now, 1t US see If we can
| ance there and in no other ortion of the world.
A good physical map to which We can refer will
W. nd tba IBIS 9qt gTsz is barely
| within the torrid zone, as geographically laid
| down In ordinary maps, the northern line of
miles above tho island Of Cuba. So, you see.
| there appears to be nothing remarkable In its
location IS relates to latitude for many other
| lands where yellow fever never appears are
similarly located in this respect. The Sand
witch islands. in the Pacific, are located iden-
Cape Verde Islands. In the Atlantic. ore about
| on the same. This being the case. we may dis
miss the question of latitude without further
Next Ws may inquire into the atmospheric
tenn eratnre Of the location. The average tenn
renheit;; Now Let US see what Other, places are
similarly situated In this respect. Tracing the
isothermal line Of = eastward from Havana. we
| find 1t curving little to the south across the
Atlantic ocean, passing just below the, Cape
Verd Islands, AND striking Africa immnediately
comes nortbward through Fezzan and into
Egypt. crossing the Nile near Glrgeh and the
Red sea at Gogs9lr. From the Red so it passes
| southWard across the Persian guilt, and over
India by way Of, Calcutta; strikes the. Chinese
| II
through the Philippine Island group and
short distance south of the Sandwich Islands,
| reaching the American continent at Gonna, In
Mexico, and coming across to Cuba by way Of
Here, again. We have failed to find anything
| from from t The Gulf Of Mexico or its Immediate
shores has yellow fever over been known to ap-
| voring the scOurge to some other source than
any popularity of ATMOSPHERIC tenn perature.
Well, what about the enuattor2 The, geopraph-
Eeo1 t,aLr 9, rs ,L,
| and CON have no influence upon our fever
nursery, of course. And what about the $50
thHrma equator? Tha5 Is 50 far south as to
And tho Oceanic equator-what about that?
| Let us see:
Passing down the map to the geographical
equator. we trace eastward In search Of the
oceanic equator, or line Of the greatest warmth
in the ocean, which we find in the Gulf Of
begin our survey westward, At our starting
point the water shows q Temperature OF 80 do
h me o 1aRge ad bann
around the northern coast Of South America
At q point off Cayenne We find the temperature
has risen to so, and off Trinidad to 3d., From
this Toint the line bonds further northward,
making directly for the Gulf of Mexico. It hugs
around the southern boundary Of the Vest Ind a
from thence makes its way straight for the
mouth Of the Mississippi river, whore it curves
abruptly to the west and south following closely
around the, entire northwestern shore Of the
gulf, and striking the land about at the mouth
of River Osnmnsinta. And. what Is most re-
| markab1e, We find that since quitting the coast
Of South America the temtera' ure of this line
has baen rising With great rapidly, OF the
out from land. it shows tho astonishngly bieh
temp.eratnre OF SO degrees. only degrees below
Looking for the oceanic equator further west
ward, We strike it starting out into the Pacific
ocean from Panama, at @ Temperature Of s.
FrNm ~ 9sTe 1T an s3 he
: Greenwich, it shows temperature Of 80. From
thence It passes onw I'd with south curve. ttc
western point of which island the temperature
. bias again gone up to 80. But q short distance
further on it is down to a. and from Themes
coast of Africa at the mouth of the Red Sea-
In this last study, We have. it appears to me
sid W P
the Gulf of Mexico is tho warmest body O
water on the face OF the g1oP N As already Noted
the temperature Of the ocean runs up to the
same figures ass shown in the Gulf Of Mexico
Inc line While here in the gulf the high I'm Dera
ture not only con inues for @ long distance, bu
the, line curves around. the shores Of the guI
it came in. thus virtually giving us two lines 0
high tenn perature ustead of one. In no othe
! part Of the sea Is there any such condition o.
! this.
A discovery Of this character leads us to sus
pect .that the sea must have more to DO Wit
Thought Of The disease cannot owe much tt
:. any popularity of atmospheric ten Derature
Q as VIC have already seen. 1t cannot owe any
3 thing to the prevailing winds. for the West In
dies are within the northeast trades. conse
quently the air currents that roll over then
cannot be otherwise than Of the purest quality
p coming, as they do, Immediately from the broad
bosom OF the Atan IT, ocean, t Learned me me
: Is q mlasmatic disease. but when We hav
> studied the Antilles We are forced to conten'
on little
as are considered absolutely necessary to tn
generation of niasma. AS the sea, therefore
t Study, let US examine it o little further.
d We know that there are certain warm cur
rents In the oc t gomng up H on ae
o whore it sweeps around the north coast Q
South America, is called the Guiana Current
It makes its way directly into the Gulf Of Mex
leo, where it takes the name Of the Gulf Stream
% After washing the smaller islands Of the Yves
T indies it, forces itself with great lstrengt
% YucatAn and PUSHES all around the shores c
# the gull, taking Its turn towards the east. an
og the pon np Of Pnfs w nf5 he xa
emperature stands at from IS to 80 degrees, bu
soon after having passed Florida its tempIera
1t 81 and 50. Now, If we examine every part Of tn
n, sea. We shall find no other, spot where q war;
mdshsf h9 na zbb heYh b b9 f e.
n Of Mexico a .goodly portion of the time th
IN temperature Of the water stands entirely aboy
| That OF Inc hlT, Consequently DehVy iulSt
taken up; In other words, the atmosphere
com petely saturated with moisture to such a
~ extent as to render it 90 heavy to rise in ODE
~ dience to the usual laws governing evaDort
&c, 40 ton the high temperature Of the land proven
20 ing Condensation. AS result there lies upo
40 the surface Of the low country thin strait
al air so heavy and 80 damp as to tempt us stronl
N ~ into coming sub aqueous as a designation
al which to represent its condition. For pro-
~ that such conditions do arise in all cases Whe
the water stands at q emperature higher tina
that Of the air, we refer you to Fitchs Physic
Geography, page 142; and for proof that the
or exist in the West InGia Islands. see Humboldt
ed Island Of Cuba, page 172.
ne And here, In my humble judgment. We ha'
OF OF arrived at q knowledge Of the main condition
u necessary to the propagation of yellow fever !,
40 stratum of atm phere saturated with moi
u no 70, c,1ob an aa oar, nnovr III