Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-07-15
FEBRILE DISEASES.
A Medical Opinion of the Fever Excite
ment.

To the Editor Of the Knoxville
Tribune The citizens of Memphis are
in a fright. Would it not be right to
say they are on the rampage, because
forced by professional disregard of re-
peated observations and propagation
OF erroneous doctrine, to 60 out from
their own homes wanderers, encoun-
tering opposition to their entering the
towns to which they resort, and finding
every ones hands raised against them
in the country through which they
pass, or in which they seek rest.
AT Memphis andlike situated places,
there will always be, seaSonably, febrile
diseases, intensely and MORALLY severe
In individual instances. But such
places, in common with others, are
subjected to the advantages and dis
advantages Of atmospherical conditions
antecedent to, and existing at a given
time.
AT Memphis, and like situated
places, the febrile diseases, whatever
may be their essential features, are not
the result of any cause of foreign
origin, but are occasionsd by "a nox-
ious influence fixed on the spot, but
capable Of undergoing variations in
its powers of action
The casual, or occasional occurrence
Of a very severe winter, and wet
spring, or very open and wet winter
and very warm spring, are the antece-
dents Of a summer of wide spread
febrile disease, attended with a NOR
tally having relationship with the
antecedents, and the high heat at the
time Of the febrile disease.
| think that neither the winter nor
the spring last past wa so character
lied SO that now it is probable that
the dryer the atmosphere continues,
and the longer the earth is subjected
to a dry high heat, the less Of febrile
disease will prevail at Memphis-less
indeed than ordinarily. High dry
heat is the only positively destructive
agent which can be employed against
contagious causes and Infectious
diseases can hardly originate where
the atmosphere is dry and hot
moisture is an essential factor to the
formation of infection.
Infection is not transp0rtable. 1t
may originate in the holds Of ships in
mid ocean and in the holds of boats on
the rivers Of the interior country, and
wherever such ships and boats touch
ports and landings the atmosphere of
a small area may be contaminated,
because the source Of poison genera
ton is there on the spot. This is very
different to a generation Of the nox-
ious influence at a given point, and its
transportation by persons or things to
another point. A transportable dis
ease is essentially contagious disease
generated in animal organization
not in decomposition, but in diseased
action, and capable of occasioning in
a healthy organization with which
it comes in contact a disease
in all particulars similar to that in
which it was generated. Yet. such n
contagion is not capable of action in an
atmosphere with a persistent tempera-
ture of 920 Fahrenheit. The genera
ton of a noxiOus influence at a given
point or place of the earth's surface
will occasion trouble only to those
within the immediate influence of tbe
atmosphere Of the point or place at
which the n%oxious influence is genera
ted-they only will be infected. and
neither their clothing nor their per
sons will infect persons in the atmos-
phere Of another point or place NOT
similarly conditioned and not then.
the cause Of disease in similarly con-
ditioned points or places is generated
by the conditions.
| have written so much beeause T
have been appealed to by persons he
longing to my c%lientle for opinion as IN
how they should act in the event
any citizen of Memphis comes here
sick, or should sicken after coming
here? And | have asked that nv
opinion be published, in the hone thai
1t might, though from SO humble n
source, have some effect in infueneing
inhabitants of the country and towns
to extend to the people who come
from the infected city the generon.
hospitality to which that people are
entitled, and which under other cir
c9mstanees our people would heartily
give. FRANK A. RAMSEY, M. D.
July II, 1879.