Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-07-23
YELLOW-FEYER
In Bro0klyn-Fatal Cases Strangely De-
yeloped ON the Vermont Lying in
Wallabout Bay-Where the In
lection Came From
A Mystery Of the Medical and
Health Board Authorities to Stamp
it 0ut-No New Cases Developed
for Several Days.

New York World: The report that yellow
fever was prevalent among the seamen on the
United States men-of-war Colorado and Yer
| mont and the employees of the navy-yard
startled the residents of Brooklyn yesterday.
| Sanitary Superintendent DR.. Raymond was
informed by Dr. S. +. Coues, medical director
OF the naval hospital, that one person had
died there Wednesday night of what the
staff surgeons had pronounced clear case OF
yellow-teyer. DR.. Crane, president OF the
board ossteAlth, and DR.. Raymond went to
tie hospital, and found that three men had
died of the same allment, and that three
more patients were undergoing treatment for
bilious remittent fever, which, 1t Is pretty
well settled is yellow-feVer. The matter then
began to look serious.
The first appearance of the disorder was on
Saturday last, when DR.. Holmes Wykof.
assistant surgeon on the Colorado, was over
come by what was supposed to be exhaustion,
heat and possible effects of malaria. He was
sent to the naval hospital at once and his
case diagnosed as bilious remittent fever. He
was conscious of his danger, but, as he was
debilitated from close application to his duties
on tee receiving ship Vermont, he could not
rally. and fingered until Wednesday, when
he died. The certificate of death described
his disease as bilious remlttent fever. His
remains were buried In the naval cemetery
yesterday. He had been six weeks on the
He returned from China a few months ago,
and while there suffered from the chagres
fever The effects OF this On his nervous san
guine temperament, combined with the fact
that while here he spent at least 6ve-sixths
of his time in the bay on the Vermont,
were reslstless when he was attacked by the
malaria in Wallabout bay. DIR. WykoH was
thirty four years old, and born at Cream
Ridge, near Trenton, New Jersey.
John Hanford, a nurse In the sick bay on
the Vermont, was attacked on Saturday also.
He was taken to the naval hospital that
night, and died on Sunday. HIS allment was
also diagnosed as bilious remlttent fever. de
was a stout, healthy man. Charles H Hines,
ships corporal on the Colorado. was taken to
the hospital on Monday suffering from the
same disorder, and he died on Wednesday
night. This was the case reported by DIR.
Coues to DR.. Raymond Late on Wednesday
night the staff surgeons of the hospital met
in consultation over the case, and their de-
alterations resulted in a decision that 1t was
d clear, strongly defined case of yellow-fever
The two previous cases prt sented various
symptoms OF the yellowfever, but Illness
case supplied the manifestations not seen IN
those. All the hospital surgeons, DIR. Coues,
DR.. Dearborne, Dr.. Bertoette and DR.. Wells,
agreed In the decision, after two hours delIb-
Grafton, that it was the real yellow fever.
Michael Flynn, a machlnlst, who was wait
ing on the Vermont for a detail to service,
had been admitted to the hospital on Friday,
but the fever did not manifest itself, and he
was not treated for it until after the death of
DR.. Wykoff and the nurse Hines. He Is low
convalescent, and will be discharged as soon
as he regans his strength. u. F. Olney,
landsman, and Michael Connell, seaman,
were also admitted to the hospital on Mon
day. Oiney Is convaiescent, but Council is
still in danger. He has the bilious remittent
fever, and is likely to die. DR.. Bertolette is
watching the case closely, and last night
could not speak positively on the symptoms.
These patients lived on the Vermont, and
we're taken sick there.
AS to the origin of this sudden fever on
the Vermont, no positive opinion has been
expressed by the surgeons and officers of the
navy-yard or the memb srs of the board of
health. Captain Gerard, of the Colorado,
spoke last night of possible causes, yet he was
puzzled to account for the sudden
appearance of the ailment on the old YER
mont, which has been moored in Wallabeut
bay for so long without similar expe-
rience. The navy-yard officers have been
dredging the narrow south entrance of the
bay just In rear of the Colorado and opposite
the Vermont, and the muck has been drawn
around and dumped on the flats just north of
where the Vermont lies. This might give
rise to malaria. but Captain Gerard is not
ready to believe this yet, since for ali the past
summer the prevailing wind has been from
the dumping ground toward the Vermont
and Colorado; and if there were malaria arts
ing from those fats the captain thinks IL would
have made itself felt among the ships crews
before this. There has been no sickness on
either of the ships of any consequence until
within the last ten days.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS cause suggested is
the fact that two city sewers empty their
contents in Wallabout bay. One, about four
feet in diameter, shows its mouth only few
yards above the stern of the Vermont; anoth-
er sewer is on the north side of the Vermont,
the mouth also exposed. OdIy one sugges-
ton 80 far has been made as TO the source of
the yellow-fever itself. This is the dumping
by foreign vessels on the point of made land
between the Colorado and the Vermont OF
soil, gravel and stone that had been used for
ballast. A short time ago ship from Ha
vana unloaded her ballast OF soil-powdery
earth from quarry-on the point next the
Colorado When read out it made very
thin layer. Since then six vessels from va
rious foreign ports have unloaded ballast
there-most of it being soil from the south CT
England-and the Havana soil was COM
pletely covered with layer eight inches deep
of earth. This dumping of ballast has been
gong on there for years, as foreign vessels
are anxious to get rid of 1t, and the officers Of
the navy yard are glad to get it to build up
the point of land at the entrance to the bay.
The sailors and employees there have been
experimenting with sowing seed on the soil
In order to make grass plots and cultivate
flower gardens. They have handled all sorts
of soil from all countries, have worked IN 1T
and on 1t, and none of them have been af-
fected with miasma. The yellow-fever cases
will, In all probability, be traced Immediately
to this or some other specific inn
portation of infected matter, aud while they
do not, according to past experience In New
York, threaten an extended epidemic, they
indicate necessity for stringent sanitary pre-
cautions. New York city itself has not suf-
fered from an epidemic of yellow-fever since
1922, although the fever has twice, at least,
since that year been epidemic on her borders,
and the New York health authorities have
long been confident that they will never have
another epidemic. In 1856 some seventy nine
infected vessels came here, and the fever broke
out In the Governors Island barracks, where
there were slxty-four cases, and spread to the
shores of Long Island and Staten Island,
where some hundreds of cases occurred. Gov
ernor's Island suffered again In 1870, where
the fever ragged for two months and thirteen
days. There were one hundred and fifty nine
cases, OF which hfty-two proved fatal. Eighty
three of the sick were taken to quarantine and
treated there. In that year eleven men who
had contracted the fever on the island came
to New \ ork and died here, but did not COM
municate the disease in a single instance.
Since that date the only cases in New York
have been occasional developments of import
ed disease, and the navy yard cases are prac-
tically new thing since 1922.
Officers of the board of health visited the
place yesterday and on Wednesday, and Cap
tain Gerard had good lot of Havana soil
dug up for inspection. The health officers
could discern nothing deleterious In IT. It is
reported that a city contractor who had the
work of removing the night soil of the city
permitted it to be dumped over at the offal
dock, and that this hoated down and, being
stemmed by the bows of the Colorado and
the Vermont, formed IN mass around the
vessels and the point The tide there is slack.
Captain Gerard ordered everybody out of
the Vermont on Saturday, thoroughly in
spected and disinfected every part of the old
hulk, and then went through his own ship,
the Colorado. No one Is permitted to re-