The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-09-07
THE IDEA AND ITS CARICATURE.
y The Editor Of The Dem ,crat:

IN the Etlii3I ~ mo b5LI fClde.
NV object to-day consists In reviewing the
,oport OF tho Sanitary Commission Of 1873;
d examine the proceedings Of that body In
recording the history and exploring the causes
If the epidemic of that memorable year, TO
find where the truth was lying" and may
atate here, In advance that 1T will re my pam
FIJI duty 70 point out not merely gross errors
and illogical deductions, but to reverse the
most essentiak part OF the conclusions the
commission has arrived at apparently Win
so much qualification and conteutrneh''
Regarding the origin of the Ever, l'le COLI
missioner argued, 1T is alleged ana Rehei-
nlly believed that our recent peSt 'ose'
was importea from Rio dc Janeiro INC Jnct
or NE trdpaportabiHtU 81 me fcN1' re * To-"
,fispttes and lhe current cre,sts " taat summer
iboge fnauy sey2cd H." The most dillgent In
nnires however. and tho whole tenor OF the
evidence unite Id acquitting Rio Of all agency
In the origination of our yellow fever cpl
demlc LII no solitary instance has case OF
4he fever been traceable to any vessel from
that port. Rio has been toward us no plague
centre Az q retort and as n proof OF what
nullc opinion Ia often worth we might men
fiOn mere bIIHb Ill lopo LILO l'hpLNocAoh Wt~'
nreyaent In Rio that tho fatal scourge which
Ind devastated that unhappy city had been
Imported from the United States. Such de-
lusiye notions become often naturalized, and
the people will find d certain qualification In
believing every social or physical evil which
visits them as the growth Of foreign soil.
In propounding the question: Was our pes
tilepce then seIf-orglnatlnR one, Indigenous
TO our soil, climate Or population, or was 1t
imported2 The commission arrived at the
remarkable conclusion TO give the collected
facts and leave 1t to the reader to strike the
balance between them" Yet 1t did not abide
by Its promise. ID beginning TO take testi-
mony we encounter, In one OF It's principal
witnesses, q man who should not have been
admitted, or after admission been dismissed
from farther consideration. Though this
mans testimony was afterWard rebuked,
and he himself, us witness, totally rebutted,
he, nevertheless played so imp ortant part
a. to utterly confuse the commission. Singu-
lar as It may appear, yet 1t cannot to be denied
tAat the commission permitted itself to be
befooled BY this witness to such degree that
the veritable origin of the fever has remained
up to this day ID doubt and darkness.
"The first death mark, not the first sick
ness,) from yellow fever" the report Or the
commission says, Happened on the twenty
eighth OF May, 1853, at the Charity Hospital,
according to our minutes Of evidence. The
subject was one Sam McGuigan, an Irish
immigrant, who arrived here on the ninth OF
May, 1868, on the ship Northampton from
Liverpool direct. The man was sick four days
before he entered the hospital on the twenty
seventh OF May. The ship Northampton
called from Liverpool in the latter part OF
March with 81 emigrants and was forty-five
days on her voyage. She passed fifty miles
to the north OF Cuba The ship was moored
on the ninth Of May at the foot of Josephine
street. On the tenth gang Of hands was sent
on board by Mr.. Pashley to clean her.
Pashley says: This work was arrested by
discovering mhat then supposed 70 DC black
veasu ID the hospital of the ship. (Black vomit
on an immigrant ship direct from Liverpool at
. time no fever was suspectedD It was I'M
derstood that several persons had died on the
voyage and one man In coming up the river.
Nothing remarkable on an immigrant ship
carrying go many passengers.) Oh. LaRnes,
one Of the gang, was taken sick with yellow
fever two or three days afterward." IAN evil
dent falsehood. This should have happened
or the twelfth or thirteenth OF May, but no.
body but Pashley ever mentioned this or
similar accident, and the commission passed
over 1t without paying any attention to 1t.
''SaE McGuigan one Of the passengers, alsol
took the fever and died at the Charity Hosp-
tai las already end which happened
on the twenty-eighth Of Mayl The boy OF
the ship was taken sick, and the remark of
Or. ahorp wos that the case, had 1t hap
pened later Ia the season would be consd-
cred yellow foyer undoubtedly." I'VE will
return to this case, which, besides, happened
In june "The hold of the ship was very
filthy, SO that several others took sick" 30
much OF that remarkable statement OF the
man Fashley, every particle Of which was re-
butted and potntedly denied w others, among
whom Was the captain of tais ship. Capt.
Reed, OF the northampton, said: During the
voyage sir or seven children Gied from bowel
complaint Had carried immigrants for seven
years; haG less sickness on this voyage than
usual. he said he was well acquainted with
yellow fevegs having seen much OF 1t in Fla
yana and at various other parts Of the world.
Had sot single cCse of the .foaer on bo0sd
during the toydge. Z German died t,ff Abaeo
OF some chronic disease who was also frs-
quently subject to Bleeding from Ills nose
The boy Richardson, referred to by l,sashIey,
was the only fever case he had here dur
Ing his entire stay, and that boy WEE at tackled
on The testth Of June, end was attended by
Doctors Thorp and Austin. The Two rooms
called the hosrital, in which PashleV's gaug
detected the black vOmit, had not been III use
at all, but were filled during the voyage with
square rigging, stores, ETC., and the
ship had always been In q clean coledi-
ton" This wiz be proved, besides, by
the next witness. At the ships feturn
the same captain being on board, stated:
The ship Northampton left here Oh the
fourteenth OF June, and during her voyage
the mate died from yellow fever on the eigh-
teentti." The captain thought that he also
nag nag q slight tousn, bat was not confined TO
0ed. for this lucid and exhaustive statement
tn II OF fj,ya hIA "