The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-09-17
A CONVENTION OF PHE PHYSICIANS
OF THE WORLD,

| Soon after the great epidemic OF 1858, g dis
tingushed physician Of this city, declaring
the absolute ignorance of the cause of yellow
fever, observed: 'It is better to acknowledge
ignorance than to advocate error.
TO know ignorance is preferable to ignorance
of ignorance. To know that, as yet, we
do not know, Is the first step to be taken.
| Despair is not philosophical If the
cause of yellow fever has not been discovered,
1t may yet be- A few weeks ago another
eminent physician Of our city presented sub
stantially the same views and they have been
concurred in by all the faculty of New Or
leans.
The physicians of New Orleans have had
large experience In the treatment of this fever,
and they have been, without doubt, as sue
cessful In its treatment as those of any coun-
try in which the pestilence has ever pre-
vailed It is not, therefore, so much new and
improved methods of treatment that are
required as the discovery of the cause of the
fever and means to check its spread One of
our physicians, DR.. Austin, observed q few
days ago that the yellow fever was as tracta-
BILE as any Of the fevers which prevail In the
country Perhaps this may be correct. There
have been over twenty Thousand cases of yell
low fever In New Orleans and only 2114
deaths from the disease or about one death
| to every ten cases. Were our bilious and
malarial fevers to attack our population so
generally as yellow fever, invading every
nook and corner of : the city, striking down
whole families, and thus impose q demand
upon our physicians, nurses and resources
Impossible adequately to meet, we have little
! n hot tlaxyr
amongst us as the prevailing fever.
The fearful difference between the yell
low fever and all other fevers which
prevail amongst us u.s. that the lat
ter attack comparatively few people,
while the former spreads from house to
house, from street to street. from neighbour
hood to neighborhood, until 1t pervades the
whole city, attacking every human being who
is not impervous to it, It then follows the
| lines of travel by railroads, steamboats, and
stage lines, carrying death and desolation In
| its path and developing its horrid presence
not unfrequently in the most distant, unap-
proachable and secluded localities. No more
deadly perhaps than other fevers, 1t attacks
thousands where other fevers attack tens, and
it thus becomes a terrible and relentless pes
| thence.
| That the physicians have found methods of
treating bilious and malarial fevers which,
in the majority of cases prove successful,
may be satisfactory; but that they have
found methods Of treating yellow fever which
save nine out Of ten who are stricken, Is not
satisfactory; because, while other fevers at
tack tens or even hundreds, the yellow fever
attacks Unfortunately many thousands,
and travels with q mysterious but irressti-
BILE march over States and kingdoms, reaping
rich harvests Of misery and death, destroy
ing commerce, paralyzing industry and filling
the wide world with wretchedness and lamen-
tation.
Thus yellow fever is a scourge of humanity
not because the mortality in that disease is
one in ten, but because it covers so wide a
| field and pursues It's course so relentlessly.
| It is for this reason that the discovery of
its cause is a matter Of the vastest import
ance to mankind. 1t has prevailed in Boston,
New York and Philadelphia; it has ravaged
nearly every town and city in the South; it
! iIas swept ever Spain and Italy and the
shadow Of it's ominous wing has hung over
Central and South America, the West Indies
and Africa.
! The discovery of it's true cause and the
means of protecting humanity from its raw
ages, therefore, is a matter of Importance to
the whole civilized world. The plague de-
vastated Florence and London for several
centuries, and retired to the shot and filthy
East" The cholera, like a thunderbolt of
death, has time and again smitteEz the
East, Europe and America, and then for
long series of years disappeared. That their
causes were never discovered is not singular
But in this age OF science and observation it
will be remarkable indeed il our savans and
| physicians do not inaugurate an 1nvestiga-
ton into the cause or causes Of yellow fever
| which will be in the end successful.
In the furtherance of this Investigation it
| has occurred to us that the President of the
United States should invite q council OF all
the most illustrious physicians and savans
of the world to assemble in New Orleans this
winter to discuss this question so deeply in
teresting to humanity. In every respect New
Orleans is the proper place for the assembling
of such q congress, council OF convention.
Our physicians, among them some of the
most learned and distinguished in the Union,
have had unparalleled opportunities of OBJ
serving the disease and they have accu-
mulated a vast multitude of important
facts. From this city the whole field over
which the pestilence has travelled may be
observed, and the peculiarities of the climate,
soil and vegetation of the so-called yellow
fever belt examined.
This may seem like a visionary scheme.
But every rejecting and humane man must
concede the Importance to humanity of dis
covering the cause of a disease which has
swept like destroying angel over so vast a
section of country, and which has so often
scourged many other parts Of the world. If
yellow fever has desolated Spain, Italy, the
Northern and Southern States Of the Union,