The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-08-07
THE IDEA AND IT'S CARICATUREs.
New ORLEANS, August G. 1879.

There are men who. though they may have
attained certain reputation Id scientific
matters, In overstepping the limits of theil
abilities will occasionally utter opinions by
which they will not only fail to produce TIE
desired impression upon the common sense
OF mankind but will render themselves liable
to become the object Of ridieule. 1t is often
difficult to detect the leading motive 81 such
men-why they should have chosen to ACT as
they did. Be 1t all advertising exped1ent, OF
uenii de III reclame, which drives them 20
become the muse of the newspapers, they
will on every occasion rush into print, II
but to prove that they have mace asses ol
themselves. Ideas are toll free. Every man
is at liberty to make q Ounce 81 himself; put
when he becomes q persona pn6hcd and be-
gins to harrass the community with his abb
stract and absurd opinions, he will invoke
censure and expose himself to be lampooned
for his crude and revolving IDEAS
Though cannot Ia general grant to the
public the right to be Judge or umpire in
questions exclusively medical, there are new
ertheless such questions 80 plain, so mani
testify simple that In discussing or discarding
them the mental power OF q six-year-old child
may equal scientific giant.
There was brought to me yesterday one Of
our daily journals of Wednesday last, which
contained, among other diverting and exhil-
arating SUBJECTS the assertion Of an other
wise educated man, which assertion heads
this communication, and which, viewed in
In Its proper light, ought to be- considered al
most too ridiculous and absurd for serious
notice. Incredible as 1t may appear, the die
talm under controversy does not originate In
an obscure source, but 1t comes from pro-
fessor a doctor of medicine, from one of the
teachers OF the medical department OF our
University, In the face and experience OF the
population OF the whole lower por ion of the
Mississippi valley, Uf thousands of men and
women, old and young, who have watched and
suffered from the irresistible progress Ut our
arch-enemy during the last murderous cpl
demic. and who could point out its track al
village, arrested only in It's route BY q
shotgun quarantine, to extend It's de-
vastatiOns again us soon as that bar
rier was removed; ! say, in the face
OF the interrupted Judgment OF those
thousands dares this man, q teacher of our
youth, utter the sentence, "the yellow fever
is neither contagious nor erportabtep LIS 1t
arrogance or inordinate conceit Of ability to
try and prove that black be white, or is it in
sanity l hardly know of third. We must
hear the doctrine of contagiousness OF yellow
fever by the same dOctrinaires called re
pulsive, mischievous, demoralizng and inhu-
man. when he tells us that this doctrine Of
cOntagiousnesS had been revived In 1878. and
had led to remorseess quarantines and o
shameful neglect OF the sick.
Away with your quarantine, then. you rest
less men OF New Orleans, New York and
Lisbon. Down on your knees and rem
der your pater,, peccdpi, you shotgun quar-
antiners Of Texas. Mississippi, Alabama
and Louisiana. Here comes the man
who after "a more systematic examf-
nation Of the matter" will tell you that .yeI-
low fever is neither contagious nor erportabie."
Will not every impartial and unprecedented
man who knows anything about the history
2Of yellow fever, and has become acquainted
with the unfortunately direct progress that
disease made last year, in reading these state
ments and EXPLANATIONS halt and put the ques-
ton: is q man who can write such stuff really
sound in mind? Let him be sent into the
interior OF our State. and not very far need he
60 to be taught in almost every habitation
that had the unhappy inmates followed the
counsel and example OF their wiser neighbOrs
they would not now have to mourn the loss OF
dear relatives, of brothers and sisters, SONS
and daughters, parents and children. Conta-
giousness may as well be separated from yell
low fever as the light from the sun. Strange
the class OF polymathistieal complers should
comprise SO many impractical and inexperi-
enced members, but 1t Is just this class, hav-
ing had the least experience with yellow
fever, who are denying the direct contagious
character Of the disease. Differences Of opinion
In medical matters are inevitable and may
be justified in many instances from the diff
culties surrounding and lnseparably entang-
ling the object, yet there are rules which
cannot be neglected with propriety IN rem
dering judgment in these matters. Let US
inquire what Is meant by a contagious disease
The answer will be: 1t Is a disease
containing contagion, that Is. substance OF
q certain specific character designated also
uifus, germ, poison. which Is transmissible
from one person to another by direct or indi-
rect contact, and exciting In that other per-
son the same disease This Is the proper def
milton OF O contagious disease. It might he
asked yet what an indirect contact meanS-di-
rect contact being stff-undefstoed. Il the
contagion Is communicated by inanimate sub
stances, having been In contact with a dis
eased person, as clothes, bedding, or il the
contagion has been retained in room, or
ship, etc, where sick person has had his
temporary abode previously and now infects
again another person, such we designate m
direct contact.
No disease which does not incite in another
subject the same symptoms can be
lished to be the case, be the number
Of persons attacked ever SO small, such dis |
ease ought unexceptionally be enrolled among
the contagious diseases. W. know the
ways anu means OIL transmitting II disease
to be various. In one class Of contagious dis
eases this may be accomplished by lnocula-
ton, l. e., to enter the contagion by the skin
through an artificial opening. Thus small
pox and syphilis may be com
In another class the con-
tagion may be introduced by inhalation
through the lungs, being absorbed BY the mu-
cous membrane, or enter by the digestive
lube, or the contagion may be absorbed by
the pores Of the skin, through the savatory |
channels.
Further: The contagion may be transmitted
only by an immediate contact, like in the itch
where the contagion Is an animal. an acarusl.
This class OF diseases has been separated by |
authors (but by an Illogical reasoning) from
the exclusive contagious diseases, and has been
called infectious diseases. Il you inquire,
why such d separation? you will be told that
here .'posnire contact" is afforded Such |
20 illusory separation ought to be abolished.
long as we 10 not know the nature OF the
iiffarent oapta pipnc their mode of transmits |