The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1879-01-01
YELLOW FEVER.
Curious Thing Abou. Ii.
IT CHANGES IT'S sPors AND IT'S CHAR
ACTER.

structive account of the queer things
about yellow fever" He says that it i
the queerest disease in the world. Near.
ly two hundred years study of it ha.
brought no unanimity of opinion about
ii. Doctors differ, nurses differ. patients
differ, authorities differ. The bottom
reason of it ali is that yellow fever differs.
If to be many sided be a proof OF
greatness, then yellow fever must be a
great fever. Every case differs from
every other case every epidemic differs
from every preceding epidemic. He
who sees il for the thousandth time can
find something new in it provided he has
eyes. He who made up his opinion 40
years ago, and sticks TO it, is a poor au-
thority now. Yellow fever is like a
character actor on the stage, who comes
out in different costumes and with differ
ent gestures and voices, but is the same
man under it all.
The geographical freaks of yellow
fever are extraordinary. Between fifty
and hundred years ago it ravaged our
Northern cities, especially New York
and \Philadelphi rs badly as it ever
ravaged New Orleans. Now it is I'M
known in those localities. Until 1850
it never attacked Rio Janeiro, although
that city was constantly exposed to it for
80 years. Since 1850 the fever is found
at Rio at all seasons. There is one city
on the northern coast of South America
-Carraccas, if l remember right-pre-
senting all the supposed causes of yellow
fever in the most concentrated form,
where no case has ever occurred. 1t will
appear for a dozen years successfully in
one of the West India islands, quaran-
tine or no quarantine; and for the next
dozen it will not appear, although unre-
stricted intercourse with infected ports is
permitted. The monster will survey the
whole Southern coast of the United States
and pounce only upon Savannah. 1t
will deliberately pass by New Orleans,
MOVE UP THE RIVER,
and attack Shreveport and Memphis.
There is no accounting for its move
ments and no epidemic predicting
them. 1t may become throughout
the Southern States; it may retrograde
to Philadelphia and New York 1t
may locate in Mexico Quien sabe?
Yellow fever is unknown topics of
the eastern hemisphere, where all the
supposed causes of it exist in the
highest degree. 1t seemed to be an
African poison engrafted upon the white
races of the two Americas A humor-
Gus friend suggests that from its yellow
color, its black vomit, and its special
ravage of slave holding countries, we
might have known long ago that the ne
gro was at the bottom of it. The native
African has no such fever. The African
brought to the West Indies never has
yellow fever. The West Indian negro,
brought to the United States is not liable
to it. The slaves of the Southern cities
had this disease very rarely before 1858
Since then they have been becoming
more and more subject to it. Who can
give any plausible reason why the native
born Creole population of this State,
especially those of French origin, should
have been almost entirely exempt from
yellow fever for 100 years?
And who can account for the change
going on during the last 80 years, slowly
but surely, so that now the children born
here have had little exemption more than
the children Of the stranger. Now. who
do you suppose are least liable Of all peo-
pie to be seized with yellow fever? The
neat and clearly? Those who handle
silks and laces, or deal in perfumery?
Those who live in salutary spots, occupy
fine houses, with bath room facilities,
and are clad III snowy linen? No, in
decd A great many writers agree on
the curious fact that scaveugers, butchers,
farriers, tanners, dissecting room people,
grave diggers, and those who handle offal
and offensive decaying animal matter, are
remarkably exempt from this disease,
Why decayng vegetable matter should
cause it (?) and deoaying animal matter
should prevent it, is a nut for the sani-
tary philosophers to crack. Yellow
fever sometimes
ATTACKS THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.
The saffron scourge is more difusive
in it's nature, and has been known to
visit all kinds of animals, from the horse
and the COW down. to the rat and the
canary bird. Dr. Rusk says that in
1898 over 5000 cats died of yellow
fever in Philadelphia. In an epidemic
which visited Gibraltar in 1872, every
monkey, parrot, dog, cat, lat and canary
bird in that place persisted by this disease.
Perhaps the Yellow Fever Commission
wilLexplain why the flies disappeared so
my seriously this summer. Why the
mosquitoes vanished from some localities
altogether, and why at one time it was
impossible to get rid of the ants and at
another time impossible to find one.
Yellow fever is supposed, on very slen-
der grounds, to be contagious, and some
people are astonishingly afraid of it. 1t
shares with Asiatic cholera the glory of
being able to get up a first class panic in
the human race. Small pox has some
reputation for generating a scare, but it
will always stand third in the panic
market. Yellow fever is unquestionably
first. Its contagion, however, like every
thing about it, is very queer.
Lit is very contagious to some people,
and not at all contagious to other people.
Il one man looks out of a window al
yellow fever funeral, he will catch it;
another person may live in yellow fever
hospital and breathe the poison all day
and night and keep in rubiound health.
Ii you don't want it you will be apt to
get it, but if you seek it you can't find it.
Desperate women, seeking death, have
often sought in vain by the utmost expo
sure, to the yellow fever poison. Unac-
climated doctors. science blind or crazy,
have slept with yellow fever patients, dis
seeted their bodies, and injected their blood
into their own veins with total impu
nifty. Fear has good deal to do with it,
as with many other diseases. The yell
low fever is sometimes like a mean yell
low dog. If you face MIN and defy him
he will stink away, but if you recede
from him he will pursue and attack you
He has been known to chase people as
far as Cincinnati or New York. There
is an immense deal of pious lying done
by doctors and nurses and friends to
keep up the hope and courage of yellow