Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1878-09-19
A CREEPING PLAGUE.
A Few Facts In Relation to the ScOuge of
the South.
[From the St. Louis Republican.

the SOuCO.
[From the St. Louis Republican.
Yellow fever, Notwithstanding the degree
of public attention it attracts from time to
time, is nevertheless disease about which
the general public know very little, and many
of the phenomena of its termination and
spread are but imperfectly understood by
those who have studied it most. In view of
it's ravages on the lower Mississippi some
facts regarding it will be read with interest.
The home of the disease proper is in the West
Indies and neighboring coasts. 1t thrlves
only at low elevations, big gh temperatures and
humid atmospheres. 1t is indigenous at Vera
Cruz, where they are rarely ever without it.
It appears annually at various Atlantic coast
cities whittier it is brought on ships from the
West India islands, but is rarely communl-
Gated from those who bring it to others living
in those cities. The manner of its spread
where it becomes epidemic is mysterious. In
various cities observations taken show that 1t
is not contagious but terribly Infectious Still
the direction of the wind seems to have no
influence upon it. 1t progresses at the rate
of about forty feet per day from point OF
infection. The stratum or infected atmOs-
phere appears to lie close to the ground and a
high wall sometimes appears to arrest its pro-
gress. 1t is by knowledge OF these peculiar
tiles that the disease has often been mastered
and stamped out in New Orleans by the use
of disinfectants.
In interior cities, away from water courses,
the disease does not become infectious, unless
the sanitary conditions are execrable, nor has
it ever assumed an epidemic form in any
city in the United States at geater eleva-
ton than 49O feet above the sea level. 1t
nearly always happens that when the disease
prevails on the lower river occasional cases
find their way to this city, but in no instance
has it here attacked any who had not caught
the infection further south.
Yellow fever does not prevail in the East
Indies nor in China 1t has appeared in most
of the maritime cities of the Atlantic coast as
far north as Boston, Quebec and Halifax, but
has never extended far into the interior or
remote from water highways. - 1t has
been observed that its epidemical limits coin
eide very closely with the range or limit of the
growth of the live oak. the cypress and the
long moses. The northern limit OF the
growth of the cypress is not much it at all
north of Norfolk. Yellow fever has been
considered by nearly all writer's as distinct
disease from the autumnal remittent fevers of
the temperate zone. All agree that it is indi-
genous at Vera Cruz, on the Gulf of Mexico.
When weexamine into the climatic conditions
of this locality nothing special or satisfactory
as an explanation of the origin of the disease
can be discovered.
New Orleans Correspondence Detroit Free Press!]
SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENT.
Most generally the same symptoms are ex-
perienced by all attacked, and late in the
evening, or during the night usually, the time
of visitation. The indications are severe
headache, pain in the back, knee joints, and
sometimes sickness of the stomach. There
are also other symptoms as the attack be-
comes more serious, such as flushing of the
face, eye-balls become painful, etc. The
above are sufficient to cause person to seek
his bed and medical attendance without delay
in order to prevent the fever from reaching
the brain.
When the patient retires, if possible, no
one should be allowed in the apartment but
the nurse and physician, and until the arrival
of the physician give dose of castor oil or
citrate of magnesia; good foot-bath with a
liberal allowance of mustard in the water !;
let the feet remain in the tub fully half an
hour. The tub must be on the bed under the
blankets, and never mind wiping the feet
dry. The patient should not allow himself
to become alarmed, and should remember
that he has as many chances for recovery as
he would have in any other serious disease.
The nurse must be intelligent, experienced,
cheerful, but not talkative.