Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1879-08-20
YELLOW FEVER THEORIES

iho nWtu correspondent COnOulh
the theory that yellow fever is caused
by malaria, or by the corporate un-
cleanliness of neglected cities. In the
scientific as well as the popular mind,
the belief that these are the governing
agents in producing the scourge is SO
deeply rooted that it seems hopeless
to dispute them. He says it is great
mistake to suppose that the people Of
the South and Southwest has been ut
terly unmlndful Of sanitary rules dur
ing all these years in which they have
been afflicted from time to time with
yellow fever. They have tried sani-
tary precautions, perhaps in spas.
modic and imperfect but occasionally
in very energetic and costly way,
Tor the last thirty years, all these san
itary measures have been like the
withes with which the Philistines
tried to hamper Samson--the giant
has broken them "from off his arms
like q thread"
10 show that yellow fever devas-
tates districts of country where there
is an almost entire absence of malaria,
he cites that part of the country lying
along the Gulf and stretching from the
alluvial marshes that surround the
mouth of the Mississippi--say from
Lake Borgne--to the neighborhood OF
Mobile Bay, and then beyond far to
the eastward through Alabama and
West Florida. 1t is a strip of sterile
sand with only soil enough to sustain
q continuous forest of pines. There is
no cultivation except that of the or.
ange and fig tree, and gardens which
by dint of diligent culture, may be
made to yield scant supply Of vege-
tables for family use during few
months of the year, and then wither
and fail for want of soil, The streams
are unpolluted, and the waters clear
and limpid. The shores are swept by
delicious breezes on the one side from
the Gulf and on the other from the
resinous and fragrant pine forests.
People can expose themselves TO rain,
sun, sea and night air, sleep in their
wet garments and never be troubled
with malarial fevers of any sort, pleu.
risy or pneumonia, BIT for old age
and whisky, the people would have to
migrate elsewhere to die.
Notwithstanding this was a paradise
OF health, and supposed TO be proof
against the scourge, the epidemic oi
1878 found it out and dashed its waves
into its villas and isolated cottages and
lowly cabins. Even now, in an oh.
scure quarter of this belt of country a
whole family have been victims of vel.
low fever. A girl of fifeeen had been
employed as nurse for several months
in New Orleans family where there
had been some cases of remittent fever
Of mild sort. This girl was taken
sick with chill on her arrival home
and died OF yellow fever four days af-
ter. Her body remained unburied for
twenty.four hours. About week af.
terward her brothers and sisters-fve
in number-were attacked, and final.
ly the widowed mother. One of the
young men subsequently died.
The object Of the correspondent is "a
show that there is no condition prooi
against yellow fever, and that all the.
ories 80 far advanced have been set al
naught by its curious inroads and ter.
rihlc work Medical science with all
its research, has not been able to give
the public q satisfactory theory--a
material, tangible, practical reason for
the cause of the mysterious scourge
or any specific remedy for its cure
Like in some other diseases, what will
cure one will not cure another. II
comes down on communities and
isolated households as mysterious
ly as the mystery enshroudinq
its origin and the antidote. II
overlcaps all theories and defes all
remedies. We are not, however, with
out hope that medical science will ere
long be able to unveil the secrets o.
the yellow demon.