The New Orleans daily Democrat., 1878-11-10

municipal authority, lack that uniformity
which is absolutely necessary to their eff.
cheney, and are generally defective in theil
administration, and that consequently, q
system Of q different character must be
adopted to attain the end desired
He also believes that the history Of, the
| epjdemics warrants the conclusions to which
he has arrived, and that o very decided change
has taken place OF late years In the minds OF
the medical profession on the subject of the
portability OF the yellow fever poison and the
consequent !Tnl value OF quarantine measures.
The Increased value OF quarantine measures
properly enforced the history of the present
epidemic OF 1873 will show before this article
Is concluded. The evidence Of q medical Off
Ger OF the United States army having been
given in favor OF quarantine and against its
local origin, we return to the article Of Dr.
Tracy, in the Popular Science Monthly. This
learned scientist says s.it rarely occurs i'll
lanths but follows water-courses and lines OF
ocean travel, and SO usually appears In com
wharves." Surely this is singular Ian
guage for q scientific man to write In
o scientific journal for ths diffusion of use
ful knowledge. He endows yellow fever, one
of the evil forces Of nature, with sense and
thought and power of locomotOn; and speaks
OF it's following water courses and lines OF
ocean travel" and beginning its s'march' at
wharves OF commercial cities, as ii 1T were
under marching orders like D soldier. Scen-
Of nature. Science is nothing but trained
and organized common sense; and Its meth
DDS differ from those OF common sense only
SO far as the guardsman's cut and thrust dill
fer from the manner in which savage wtelds
his club 70 talk about yellow fever fol
lowing lines Of ocean travel" or beginning
its march" is nonsense. Yellow fever Is one
of the blind forces OF nature. which acknowl-
edges no obligations, but obeys liked laws.
Instead of aying, "it follows water courses
urI nf travail
to mystify the unthinking public, the truly
scientific physician would say, yellow fever,
or Its germs Orfomites, is carried by the agen-
cy of man, through Ignorance, carelessness
with their passengers, freight Or baggage, to
almost any part or place on earth. but that,
owing to some hidden cause or law, not yet
quite understood, when carried to some lati-
tudes and attitudes where the air is cold, it
or It's germs fail to affect man deleteriously
and become innocuous; just as vaccine mat
ter, when carried and kept In very hot eli
mate, loses its power to produce the effects OF
vaccination In the human body. DR.: Tracy
writes that it rarely occurs inland. This
mates inland, though not literally, only par
TALLY true, for 1t never originates In any in
land town in the United States, nor can 1t be
proved that it originates anywhere in the
this season on all the railroads running out
of New Orleans, as far north as Memphis
Louisville Cincinnati and Philadelphia as far
east as Mobile, and as far west as Morgan City,
Is q truth as patent to all as that the cars have
run at all. Surely the evidence of eminent
medical men in New Orleans, where the disease
was first developed this season, in the United
States, as an epidemic, should enter as All i'm
portant factor In the elucidation OF this prob
lem, if problem it be, as to its originating in
New Orleans. Dr. Austin, member of the
Board of Health of that city, and DIR. Samuel
Choppin the distinguished president of the
board, have both declared that the disease
was imported into New Orleans by the steam
ship Emily B. Souder, from Havana, in the
latter part Of May, her purser and engineer
both having 1t on arrival, one of whom died.
DR.. Chopin expressed himself unqualtiedly,
and gave forth no uncertain sound when he
said: II believe that yellow fever Is exotic
it Is a fever OF one paroxysm, and must run
its course. The medical profession know no
remedy for it, at least do not A candid
confession from q great man. A small
minded man would never have acknowledged
his impotence to deal with the disease. But
scientific men are always the first to ad-
NIT that there are secrets in nature which
they have yet failed to discover. 1t Is
only the ignorant who are higoted. Now, the
article of DR.. Tracy, in which he makes his
unkind filings at the South, by asserting that
yellow fever originates, Or is endemic in all
her seaports, was evidently dictated in the
interest of the commerce OF the Northern
ports, with view not only to injure Southern
commerce. by pretending that yellow fever is
endemic in Southern seapurts, and thus try
ing to induce foreign trade away from them
to their own cities, but also to forestall pub
lie opinion against any predictions that may
have been in process OF formation in favor Of
a rigid quarantine by the national govern
ment against foreign ports where it is known
that fever does originate. The same spirit
has inspired the New York Tribune and other
influential papers of the great metropolis to
espouse the side of local sanitation as the
only remedy and preventive, and to decry
all quarantine measures as foolish, and
denounce them as barbarous and the
relics Of barbarism. Relying upon
their geographical position and their local
quarantine authorities, backed by vast means
and wealth, to contine the infection should it
be introduced, ut their quarantine stations for
immunity from the disease, they deprecate
any interference by the national govern
ment to protect the poorer and less fol tunate
cities and the people of the whole South and
West. But the time has come when the Presi-
dent and Congress must be made to feel that
much importance as the question Of national
or local commerce. They must be made to
feel that the lives aud health Of the people
must be protected, and it is the duty Of the
fever as vigorously as the invasion Of any
other foreign enemy. The question should be
agitated, and the people should demand pro-
lection. It Is due to them from the gov
ernment, and should no longer be with
held. Medical science has failed to find
a remedy for the the disease. The old id
cured must be endured, but the new should
be, what cannot be cured mtst be prevented. -
The prevention should be furnished by the
general government, and should consist of a
general quarantine law, enforced, # necessary,
by all the navy, that between the first Of May
and first of November, no vessel coming from
any port south of 25o north in the western
hemispheres should enter any port of the
United States, and coming from any other
port infected with yellow fever or cholera
should be detained fifteen days at the govern,
ment quarantine This, it is believed, would
give the whole country immunity from these
terrible diseases; and an epidemic Of yellow
fever would be q thing of the past.
The efficacy of rigid quarantine has beer
plainly exhibited to the people of the whole
country by the city OF Galveston during the
present epidemic. AS soon as her board o
health learned Of the existence of yellow fe.
yer in New Orleans, they stopped all commu'
nication by sea and land. AS the fever was
carried to Grenada, Vicksburg, Memphis
and other places. the board of health extend
ed their restrictions to each and all infected