The daily gazette., 1880-05-04
THIRD EDITION
YeltosO eVer.

THE DISEASE rRASsMITTED TO THIS
COUNTRY IN COFFEE AND BAHANAs'
From the Memphis Appeal
Nearly two years ago Dr. Jacob 8.
West, . prominent physician OF Texas,
and q gentleman of integrity, published
q letter which Is conclusive on the sub
jeok He said:
In 1857 the town of Liberty had de-
clared and was enforcing quarantine
was prevailing, and IL boiug n small
town, and everybody on the alert. a
stranger could not have come nor goods
have been imported without it Deing
known. The steam boat Ruthven came
from Galveston, and when within a
mile or two of town, was ordered to
stop, and the captain stated that II be
was allowed to land on the bank of the
river sack of coffee that he had on
board for Mr.. Kicker, he would take
his steamer down the river. This per-
mission was granted, the sack of coffee
was placed on the bank and the boat
Immediately left. The coffee was
hauled to Liberty and opened by Mr.
Kicker at his store, and iu a few days he
was taken sick with yellow fever and
died his wife and servants were the
next cases, and then 1t spread ali over
the town. In this instance the yellow
fever Infection was clearly traceabie
through the sack of coffee. The second
instance is as follows: In 1870 In pass
ing throAgh Galveston on my way TO
Corpus Christi, met Hon. E. b. Pick
EFT, who gave me list OF names OF
families who had moved from Liberty
county some years before, and had set
tied on the Nueces river, near Corpus
Christi. On reaching Corpus Christi l
visited the settlements mentioned, and
learned that nearly all the families
were dead-having died Of yellow fever.
The story, as related to me by several
parties living iu the Immediate neigh
borhoOd, and by IA few members of the
stricken families who had survived the
scourge, is as follows. During the epi-
demIc of 1867, coffee gave out in the
neigbborhoOd. ana man who had the
yellow fever was selected 10 20 to Cor
pus Christi, fifteen miles distant, 10 bay
q sack of coffee, aud drive TO certain
mesquit tree 10 the Nuec-s vatley, near
q place known as Meansv lie, and there
divide the coffee into separate sacks,
previously deposited III the tree tops
and limbs. In twenty-folr houIs after
the coffee had been thus divided and
suspended in the tree top, the several
parties interested went there ami got
their respective portions of coffee, and
in every family into whose house this
coffee was introduced, IN few days yell
low fever broke out and ragged with
fearful fatality.
felt deep interest IN the matter,
and was very pa ticularly in my inquir-
les, and the testimony of ali the parties
interested prov ell beyond doubt that 1t
was sack of coffee that conveyed the
disease, for not single family escaped
who used the coffee, and ol her families
did escape who had no interest IN the
coffee aud Received none, and ON the
fact that all the families were attacked
about the same time, and no other CON
munlcatlon with Corpu, Chrlsu or other
place of Infection was had. 1t Will he
observed that this sack of Cutfro was
transported In wagon exposed lu the
open air for fifteen miles and then OPEN
ed, di gided, then paced IN small sacks,
and again exposed In the open air for
twenty-four hours. Ine yello fever
germ still lived, aud rs soJu AS the con-
ditloDs were favorable acted with great
virulence
The facts stated by DR.. West are cor
robora'ed by the experience of the past
two years. 1t Is no doubt true that yell
low-fever can be transporter either il
the grains OF coffee or the sacks hem
selves. 1t frequently occurs that large
bunch of bananas hides an immense
black spider, and hts web in the centre,
and 1t is no doubt true that this web is
impregn mated with the germs of yellow
fever, and Will transport it with as much
certainty az a pound of wool or blau.
ket. A smallpox patient can infect a
whole city, and IL may be possible tnar
the web OF a spider, saturated with the
miasma of the climate IN which it was
spun and wove, has poisoned the atmos-
phere of cities Indigenous to epidemlcs
Everybody admits that IN 1873 yellow o
fever was transmitted from Memphi s
and Grenada to Holly Springs, Bro wns-
Vile, Grand Junction, Tuscumbia,
Florence AMI Decatur. The same causes
introduced The disease at Grenada and
Memphis, and 1t Will do so again un less
wise precautions be taken. 1t was shown
before the yellOw-teVer commission,
which convened in Memphis in 1878,
shat a box OF fqulnlne protected by saw
dust. was sent from Memphis while the
yellow-fsver was raging here. TO ply
sician in Fayette county. When the
box arrived there were several persons
In the physicians office, and the facts
show that every person IN the room at
the time the box arrived simultaneously
took the fever and died liza box OF
quinlne can transport the germs of yei.
low-fever, 80 can a bunch of bananas
and sack of coffee, and the recent or.
der should be regarded and sustained at
wise precaution.