The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1878-08-23
YELLOW FEVER.
Causes, symptoms and Treatment.


As there is now alarm in all the
southern cities subject to its inroads
few facts from the best and latest author
ties who have had personal experience
with the disease may be of interest A
day OF two of lapguor and "bsd feel
ings" generally precede an attack OF
yellow fever Then comes chill much
like that of common ague, but accompa-
MED by pain in the head and spine.
The chill lasts fro n q few minutes to
few hours, and consti .utes the first
stage, or that wherein the moroific
causes are invading the system. The
next is the febrile stage which follows
the chill. Generally it is noted of
very high grade, the pulse being 100.
A distinctive symptom and char
acteristic of yellow fever is suppression
of the urine. Another symptom, which
can be readily recognized by any physi-
clan, nurse or other Person who has ever
been with a yellow-fever patient, is a
culiar odor or nasty smell from of the
patient, and which can ever be perceived
in the streets during an epidemic, IT Is
indescribable, and belongs to no other
fever, and with doctors experienced IN
yellow fever is of itself sufficient for
UlapnOSlS. ne DdblcuL sets lAt&S AAAN
poison has also struck the nervous sys-
tenn; he is tremulots, easily excited and
startled by the least noise. The fever
takes generally from twenty four to
forty-eight hours, the sufferer becoming
delirious and raving in large proper
tion of cases. II asked why he screams
he can give no adequate reason. Usually
on the third day the fever abates, and
there is a calm-the third stage-which
/ lasts from few hours to a day, and Is
the turning point of the disease.
/ This Gains ends either in cOnva-
/ Iescence or else in the fourth or
/ fatal stage, that of collapse or black
vomit, from which not one in fifty ever
RECEIVERS. The voDit, which seems to
come up without effort, looks life coffee
grounds, and is the death warrant of
THE PooR PATENT.
About the fourth or fifth day the eyes
/ turn yellow The skin also assumes 2
yellowness ike that of bruise, or q
4 bright iaundice yellow. However, the
/ patient does not turn yellow in more
/ than in one case in six. AS To the causes
! Of the scourge, the old atmospheric the
DRY has gone by the board, and the best
/ writers now seem to have settled down tC
/ the belief that the poison is of animalcu'
| lar origin, these animalcules generating
and spreading over surfaces like grssshop
pers and caterpillars. and being
introduced into the human blood
/ If they exist, the most powerful
microscope has hitherto beer
unable to discover them. One fact that
/ seems to point to their existence Is that
! the same extremes of heat and cold thai
! kill all other insects also kills yellow
| fever, whose contagiou cannot exist ano
/ becomes innocuUus at 80 and 2l20 Vel
/ low fever is always killed out after gOod
J freeze. Yellow fever never spreads above
| 800 feet above the level of the sea. Ac
f! climatizstion does not prevent, and nc
person has a Sc cond attack. The perio5
of incubation is generally four to nine
days, though persons have been known
to carry it in their system twenty three
days, and then take it. Without treat
ment seventy-fve out of every hun
dred will die. With treatment
and good nursing, however, about
one in three is the average mortality
In the great epidemic Of 1867, il
some Texas towns, one-half died who
took the fever. As to the cure, no rem.
edy has yet been found, and all treat
ment so far, even by the best physicians
is as empirical as the causes Of yellow
fever are unknown beyond conjecture.
HISTORY OF EPIDEMIcs IN NEW ORLEANS
According to the best writers, the
great epidemics that have scouTged New
Orleans in the past may be tabulated a.
follows, with the time of breaking out
and whole number of deaths: