The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-09-07
A CONSOLATORY VIEW OF THE EPI-
DEMICAL VIsITATIONs.

DR.. I. Reilly of that city, which enunciates
certain conclusions and propositions in regard
to tho effects Of epidemics, which, we be-
lieve, are consistent with the uniform eXpe-
rience Of persons long resident in this city
One of these conclusions is, that epidemlcs,
like yellow fever and cholera do not increase
the average death rate in the localities visited
by them. In other words, were there no yell
low fever OF other epidemic, the death rate in
the South during the period of say twenty
years would be just as great as 1t is with them.
Dr. Reilly was for some time connected
with the medical department of the Federal
government and made several yoluminous
reports on yellow fever. His examination
was thorough, even to the extent of having
the disease himself, and thus, as it were, per-
fecting his knowledge by actual personal
experience. "It was shown says the Chi
cago Times, ''by these Investigations extend
ing over long space Of time, and including
every section which has been visited by the
yellow fever, that Immediately after an cpl
denic there invariably comes a period in
which the death rate falls below what it was
before the advent Of the disease. For q long
time men are healthier, fewer die, and hence
bll6 lOSSeS ny lbNcI ttHu cElOl6Ld are SDMpSu-
stated for by this economy In human life"
This, we believe, will have the acquiescence
Of all observing and experienced old residents
in this city as an undeniably truthful state
ment of the facts of our sanitary history.
There will not however, be the same con-
currence in the reasons given by the Times.
for these results to wit, the improved SAM
tary measures and vigilance which an cpl
delnical visitation enforces upon COM
that the yellow fever invariably selects the
bulk of It's victims from the weak; that
people who are enfeebled by excuses in living
or by residing in filthy localities, or who are
weak hereditarily, are carried off; "only the
robust. the negroes escape
Neither OF these assumptions is supported
by the experience of this city in regard to
yellow fever. It's visitations and the death
rate have not been affected by sanitary i'm
provements and vigilance. Nothing ap-
preaching to evidence has yet been produced
to show that this disease has ever originated
In or has been promoted by the lack of sani-
tary expedients and vigilance. It has defied
all such causes, raging with great virulence
employed to exclude or modify it's violence
and sparing the city when all sanitary pre-
cautions had been neglected.; and even now
the evidence is patent to our whole population
that localities reeking with filth and imagined
miasm are comparatively free from mortality
while in the best built and paved portions Of
the city, where none reside but the most
clearly. well conditioned of our people,
there is not q square in which there have been
less than eight or ten deaths.
Take the squares on Magazine, Camp,
Carondelet and the intersecting streets from
Poydras to jackson, where not single SAM
tary precaution has been neglected, and where
reside people provided with every comfort
and convenience, with physicians always on
hand and friends and nurses to attend and
care for the sick, it Is in this locality the
fever has found it's largest number of victims.
On the other hand look at such localities as
those crowded and filthy squares on Upper
street above St. Therese From
the report OF the sergeant of police Of that
district we learn that in that region, where
every sanitary rule is utterly neglected by the
and ignorant people who there
the years when the city was exempt from
yellow fever. In truth this police sergeant
informs us that in one of the most crowded of
these squares there have been to date twenty
cases of fever reported, chiefly children, and
not single death!
The other proposition Of this writer, as to
the mortality of the fever being limited
chiefly to the weak, the sickly, and to those
by excess, 1t is one of the most sor-
sowful pecuIiarities of this disease, that the
great majority of it's victims are of the
robust, the temperate; of those with vigorous
free from hereditary diseases,
or such as have been brought on by self-in-
diligence and excess. So remarkable is this
that there are more persons who
believe that weak constitutions have been in
vigorated by all attack of the fever, than
there are of those who believe that it spares
the robust and vigorous and healthfully Or
ganized. Alas! Alas! Who of us cannot re-
call the names of q large number of our
healthiest, most temperate and prudent
friends who have been sent to the tomb
within the past few weeks. and an equal num-
Der with weak constitutions prone to strong
and are now exulting in improved vigor and
health.
These, therefore, are not the true reasons
for the facts stated by DR.. Reilly. A far
more scientific and truthful reason may be
found in the well known effects of this disease
in purifying and ORIGINATING those who have
passed through it. Those who are thus &C
climated Or vaccinated are not only rendered
impervious to the disease in future, but are
actually improved and invigorated In their
general health during the prevalence of the
epidemic. The air which proves so fatal
poison to the unacclimated operates as
tonic and strengthened to the acclimated
The latter invariably have better health,
more vigor, are less troubled with the Or
binary ailments of the summer season, when
the epidemic prevails than when it is absent
It would be vain and presumptuous in us to
undertake to expound the causes of this re-
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