The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-02-02
THE YELLOW FEVER.
tn the Editor Of The Democrat.

might say emboldened, to place at your dis
posal another article upon the same import
ant subject.
IF the Eseuapians Of the importation
school can be believed, Yellow Jack has no
country, Ia a native of no locality, is genef-
ated nowhere, y flius nntlius the son Of
nobody, since the lmportationsts of every
place unanimously, and most Indignantly
dis8vow his paternity, ms Lear did that Of
Cordelia
by the sacred radiance OF the sun:
BY all the operations OF the orbs-
Here dsclaim all my paternal care
Proplnquity and property of blood,
And as a stranger hold thee forever"
A celebrated medical practitioner wrote thus
to the lately deceased Bennett Dowler, M. u. j:
HAD you been In France or England. their
journals would have been boasting Of your
discoveries, and you would have had some
substantial tokens from government that
| your labors are appreciated"
My present communication will be COM
posed Of valuable extracts from the writings
and labors Of DR.. Bennett Dowler, than
whom there was no ADLER or more attentive
student OF yellow fever In all It's aspects. The
celebrated Professor Dickson, Of Charleston.
| In work "On Life, Sleep, Pain and DEATH"
thus aIludes to The learned gentleman from
| whom propose to largely quote: "The re-.
searches OF Dir. Bennett Dowler, Of New Or
| leans. have presented us with results pro-
| foundly Impressive, startling and instructive.
| He has, with almost unedualed zeal, availed
| himself Of opportunities Of performing au-
| topsy at period following death OF unprece-
dented promptness, chat ls, within few min
| utes after the last struggle, and employed
H.
| mrable purpose. ] have said that, In physi-
ologcal death, the natural decay Of advancing
| age, there Is gradual eneroachment OF death
| upon life: SO here, In premature death from
| violent diseases the contrasted analogy Ia
offered Of life maintaining bis ground far
amidst the destructive changes Of death.
| Thus, In cholera asphyxia. the body, for an
| indefinite period, after oil other signs of life
have ceased, 10 agitated by horrid spasms
and violently contorted. We earn from DR..
Dowler that IL Ia not only In these frightful
manifestations, and In the cold stiffness Of
| the familiar rigor mortls, that VIC are TO trace
| this tenacious muscular contraction as the
| last vital sign but that In all, or almost all
| cases, we shall find IL lingering, not In the
heart, anciently considered Ia It's right ven
| tricle the ultimum morieus, nor In any other
internal flores, but In the muscles Of the limbs,
| the biceps most obstinately. This muscle will
contract, even after the arm with the scapula
has been torn from the trunk, upon receiv-
| ing sharp blow, so as to raise the forearm
| from the table. We learn also from him the
curious fact, that the generation of animal
heat, which psychologists have chosen to
point out az function most purely vital does
4 not cease upon the supervention OF obvious or
apparent death, There is, he tells VS., u
steady development for some time Of what
he terms post-mortem caloricity, by which
| the heat s carried not only above the natural
or normal standard, but to height rarely
equaled In the most sthenic or iniammatory
| form OF disease. He has seen 1t reach 1872 OF
Fahrenheit, higher than Hunter ever met with
It, In his experiments made for tho purpose Of
exciting it.; higher than II has been noted In
scarlatina, 112o ! think, being the ultimate
limit observed In that disease of pungent ex-
ternal heat; and far beyond the natural heat
Of the central parts of the healthy body,
which 10 g7o or 9so. Nor Ia IL near the centre,
or at the trunk that the post-mortem warmth
Is greatest, but, for some unknown reason, at
the inner part of the thigh about the lower
margin oil its upper third. / scarcely know
any fact In nature more lDcomprehensble or
inexplcable than this" Prof Dickson paid
this handsome and deserved tribute before
the year 1854.
/ hope the above depression will be con
doned. ! think DR. Dower's researches mer-
| tied no less ut my hands. / now proceed to
quote from him:
Il Among the memorable transactions Of hu-
manity, and the great events which have
marked Its eras and progress as the catas-
trophies of the battlefield the downfall ol
kingdoms, destructive earthquakes, and re-
markable appearances In the sidereal heavens
related In ancient history, epidemlcs occupy
: but an obscure place. The slightest notice
Of yellow fever IL nowhere found among
ancient writer's, although they have not failed
TO record, incidentally or directly, the time
place and progress OF numerous epidemict
: with more or less particularly, 50 that theii
characteristics may now, after the lapse OF &c
many centuries be ascertained. 1t IL nov
nearly three thousand years since the first
temple arose in honor of E5culapius. -Four
or five centuries later he WAS worshiped nj
Rome, where epidemics became both frequent
and fatal. Homer opens his great poem by
ailudng to an epidemic which destroyed
dogs, mules and men; another, 43O Il. o., most
destructive at Athens, was infinitely described
by Thucydides, himself having suffered from
IT.; an epidemic which fell under the obser
, walton OF HippocrateS, whose treatne nt of II
was reckoned SO successful that he was pre-
! sented with massive crown OF gold and tht
highest public honors. Five years later
Athens was again visited
Many epldemics prevailed at Rome before
our era. In 263 and 2l2 (at the siege Of SYRIA
| cuse). and In 13l b. @. the Roman and many
other nations suffered from pcstilential visit
ations, as mentioned directly or incidental.
by ancient authors.
|
era CELSIUS, aud In the next century Galen
gave their learned words on medicine. II
the sixth century the plague was general
and In A. ID. sos smallpox was first described
in France, as 1t was in the tenth century b!
| the Arabian physicians, Rhazes and Avicenna
Before the middle OF the thirteenth centur.
! medical schools existed at Montpelier ant
, Damascus The Partisan College Of Surger!
! soon followed. Descriptions of scurvy ant
, plica soon after were recorded. Books Oh
|
! some new diseases were described in the four
, teenth and fifteenth centuries, such as whoop
! ing cough, the sweating sickness, and ST
,, Vltus' dance, which latter was epidemic upoI
J the Rhine During this long period, 8,
+ briefly sketched, yellow fever does not appea
/ to have been noticed until the discovery O
! America by Columbus. Had it prevailed il
! ancient times, it's prominent features, so YER.
1 remarkable, at least in its advanced stages
would doubtless have been recorded.
"Omitting on the present occasion its post
Columbian history for about three centuries
. in order to reach it's advent in New Orlean
iG int daH 10 DIV, ifc fuI nix