The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1878-09-14
Not Yet So bad As before.

The telegraph continues to bring appalling
accounts OF the suffering and death the
yellow fever pestilencc is working in the
Mississippi Valley. The new cases in New
Orleans still keep up to between two and
three hundred day, and the daily death
roll contains from eighty 10 ninety names.
Vicksburg, in the words of the acting
Mayor, is n vast hospital, and forgetting
all other business, the inhabitants who are
still alive and shut in there, are either con-
tending with the disease in themselves or
striving to alleviate the sunerings 1t Is
causing to others.
Four more of the physicians have died.
and Of two doctors and ten nurses
sent TO the relief Of the city from
Chattanooga, all the nurses but one are sick
OF the fever, and both the doctors are dead
Mr. BECK. the acting Mayor, and Mr.. Rock
WOOD, the President of the Howard Asso-
citation, telegraph that four thousand dollars
daily are needed to relieve the urgent neccs-
stiles o. the afflicted people, and they draw
a gloomy picture Of the want which must
certainly succeed the staying OF the pcsti-
lence. Already the fever is on the decrease
simply because there are so few people left
who have not taken it. At Memphis, the
supply OF collins having run out, orders have
been sent by telegraph to Cincinnati for IA
thousand more. At Baton Rouge. La, and
Port Gibson, Holly Springs, Grenada, and
Canton, Miss, the epidemic still rages, and
at Hickman, Ky. the inhabitants are
alarmed at its appearance. Nashville.
however, which was very much frightened
by the occurrence Of few cases OF fever
among refugees, is now in better frame o;
mind, the dreaded disease not having spread
in the city.
But terrible as this visitation OF the pes
tilence is, il is not so widespread as that OF
1858, nor is it so fatal in its effects. The
fever began in New Orleans as an epidemic
in July of this year During that month
there were, however only 80 deaths from IL
The deaths in August numbered SSG. and So
far in September they have reached about
$50, or a total OF about 1875. This Is an
appalling mortality for population Of less
than two hundred thousand, considerably
decreased. too, by the flight of those who
could run away from the pcstilence; but it
is far behind that OF 1888, when the number
OF deaths in July was LOG, in August 55l6,
and in September Ito. So far it is not
sven up to the mortality in 1858.
when the epidemic was less extern
sive and less virulcnt for IN July
Of that year 1872 people died in New Orleans
LAO in August, l,s24 in September l,5l7 in
October, and 22i in November. Tho pesti.
lence, however, has about month yet in
which TO run its course the experience of
past visitations showing taat the epidemic
usually begins to subside rapidly after
ninety days-and during this time it is very
probable that the number Of deaths will
equal that recorded in 1858. But il we take
the mortality from yellow fever the country
through, the epidemic of this summer and
autumn grows still smaller in proportion to
that OF 1858, which swept over many South
ern cities, as the present Is sweeping over
few. Though medical science has not yet
been able TO cope with the disease when it has
once become a pestilence, 1t has proved its
ability to ward of its approach and keep 1t
confined within restricted region, and that
one where the great and continuous heat
promotes the spread of the spores of the
malady.
From the beginning Of the century until
now New Orleans has been periodically
cursed with this fever which, imported from
the tropics has found a favorlte home In
that hot, marshy, and dirty city. As far
back as 1917, 800 people died OF it there and
in 1919 the deaths reached 2,l9l; In lsl7,
2.259; in 1853, Sill; in 1854, 2,4l0; in 1855,
3,O73; 1858, 1893; 1867. 2972
1t will thus be seen that the awful oxpe-
flence through which New Orleans is pass
Ing is not one to which that city Is new, and
that 1t is by no means the worst she has
been called upon to endure.