The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1878-10-30


authorities Of every kind, State, County
and Municipal, physicians and citizens
generally, .houlc take especial care to
extend the commission the most courte-
Gus attention and diligently strive 10
facilitate theis investigation and place
before them every circumstance connec-
ted with the origin and progress of the
disease, and the methods which by in
it, various phases, it has been treated.
The fever has been a tremendous
agency Of destruction of happiness, life
and material prosperity in the large scope
Of country which it has invaded. But
its effects have not been confined to these
localities. 1t has extended to the most
remote corners Of the Union, for the
interests of the various sections are so
interviewer that an injury to one is felt
Dy the whole. 1t has retarded trade,
paralyzed business, and closed up the
channels of Interstate commerce. 1T Is
now the first of November, and yet In
several Of the largest States Of the South,
the merchants have not purchased the
supplies needed for their customers.
Farmers have been seriously embarrassed
in gathering their crops and have not
commenced sending them to market.
Railroad communication has been almost
entirely broken up In some instances.
Towns within sound of each other ;
church bells have been quarantined
against each other County lines have
adjoining each other have said to
residents Of the other, thus far thou
shalt 90 but no farther. Tens Of thous-
ands Of human beings have been swept
almost without warning into eternity.
| Children have been made orphans,
wives have been bereft of husbands
and husbands of wives. Entire fami-
lies have been carried to untimely graves.
The visitation has been dreadful, view 1t
whatever light we may. The feeling Is
universal that whatever human skill can
do must be called into active exercise to
prevent a Recurrence of the epidemic.
We must not have such another scourge
if it can possibly be avoided and unless
we try to help ourselves Providence Will
not help US. He feeds the raven by
making it possible for the raven to OBJ
tain food if it goes out in search of It.
Human efforts will not be blessed by
Divine power unless they are made. To
be successful people must first deserve
success. The learning of scientists must
be brought into requisition and the OBJ
servalion and practice OF physicians must
be employed as means of discovering
how successfully to combat this terrible
enemy of the human family. There
must be better and more stringent State
laws for the protection Of public health.
Our Mississippi Legislature has done
what it deemed proper with the lights
then before it but it saw through a
glass darkly. Now, it sees clearly.
a great responsibility devoIves upon
the city of New Orleans. There are
truth and justice in the observations of
a contemporary, that "she must be held
accountable for the genesis of the pes
thence which has has devastated the
Mississippi valley and Frustrated Its
business activity. 1t is time for New
Orleans to rid itself Of the reputation Of
being a fever sore on the country. The
whole modern history of epidemics shows
that they are largely due to causes which
only become uncomfortable through neg
ligence at the start and the failure to eX
ercise unceasing sanitary vigilance to
prevent their introduction. 1t therefore
behooves the New Orleans medical fra
ternity and municipal authorities to lend
every aid to the scientific investigation
of their intimate enemy and pay heed
to its suggestions. The main business
now before that city, so bitterly taught
by experience and so greatly feared by
las neighbors, is to put an embargo on
yellow fever in the future, and relieve
itself of the imputation of being the
pest hole of the country. 1t may not be
able to overcome Yellow Jack in the first
round, but by persistence it will conquer
in the end. A virulent yellow fever cpl |
demic in New Orleans once or twice |
every decadeis a disgrace to capital
so large and so rich in resources.