Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-09-07
The Epidemic.

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of pestilence throughout the South.
western country are more eloquent
than any high-wrOught description
of horrors that a sensational writer
could compose. Suffice it that al
ready the havoc surpasses anything
recorded in the history of nations,
unless it be the plague of London as
described by Defoe, or taat of Flor
ence, as may be read of in the
graphic pages of BOccaciO. We de-
sire, however, to call attention to
the fact that the three cities which
figure most largely in the annals of
this years epidemic all contain
within their limits physical features
which any one who has studied the
laws of hygiene would pronounce
before hand a certain medium for
the spread of any epidemic that
might be started in them. Two
things are essential to all great cpl
denies, the specific infection which
is imported and may be considered
the seed, and a soil well prepared
for it to terminate in. This soil
consists of decomposing animal and
vegetable matter and the emana-
tions from it which pervade the
atmosphere. These conditions are
to be sought in open sewers, privies,
stables and other receptacles for
filth and refuse.
Now let us consider the physical
features of New Orleans, Memphis
and Grenada. New Orleans has
canal running through large pOr-
ton of the city, which is, to all in
tents and purposes an open sewer,
receiving a large portion of the filth
and refuse of the city. In addition
to this, the low level on which the
city is built, rendering drainage
very difficult, causes all sorts of NOR
bific material to accumulate through
out the city. That which is not
artifcialIy thrown into the canal
and the river remains where it is
first deposited.
Memphis has better opportunities
for drainage if they were taken adj
vantage of, but in the Bayou GayosO
and its outlet at the mouth of Wolf
river has an open sewer permeating
the whole town, which, during
high-water, has no escape at all, and
then at lOw-water leaves vast space
of mud which had been overlooked
and is now saturated with the filthy
burden which had been carried by
the Bayou while it was filled with
water, The pestilent mOrass which
at low-water forms at the confluence
of the Bayou, Wolf river and the
Mississippi and spreads its fetid
surface to the heated atmosphere is
a field for the culture of the germs
of pestilence which is bound to give
a crop such as the unhappy Mem
phis people are now reaping.
Grenada has exactly similar means
for the germi4ation Of plague-germs.
The COurier-J Journal of Wednesday
gives a map of the town, from which
it appears that slOw-fiOwing, filthy
creek, Of a character exactly similar
to the New Orleans canal and the
Bayou GayOsO, traverses the center
of the city to empty into the slug
gish stream Of the YallObusha, and
that the spot where the pestilence
first broke out was close to the point
where this creek receives the refuse
of a livery stable.
We give these local descriptions
to show that great pestilences result
neither from a blind fatality nor
from the special wrath Of God, but
may be invited or averted according
as we obey OF defy the laws of ma
ture, to the violation of which their
divine author has affixed such ter
rife penalties.
GAINESVILLE has no such natural
feature as these described, but will
do well to observe the course by
which her splendid natural drain
age carries her Off-scourings 10 the
river. This is a work in which the
Sanitary Board just appointed is
actively engaged; but we ought
never to be without a Sanitary
Board,