The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1880-02-13
PECULIARITlES OF YELLOW JACK

Since the beginning of the eighteenth &C n
tury seamen have had occas ion to notice that
sometimes, after visit to ce, tain ports iu
West Indies or in Central or South Ameri
ca. mysterious something has entered their
ships,-a something which may in few days
turn the vessel into floating pest-house, or
which may show no signs Of its presence for
days or weeks, and yet at the end of the voy
age may promptly destroy stranger entering
the hold which might attack all the sailors
sleeping on one side of the ship and leave
the rest unharmed,-in short an invisible,
mpalpabe entity presenting so many pecu-
iarities in its results that it was the most rat-
ural thing in the world to imagine it as beisg
endowed with the attributes of purpose and
will, and to speak of it as Bronze John or
yellow Jack
This tendency to personify yellow fever is
strong among all who are familiar with it,
and physicians ard nurses who have had
much experience Of its vagaries often speak
of them, and of Yellow Jack in much the
same terms as they would speak of highly
disreputable but very interesting acquain
tauce, a sort of Bohemian among diseases.
Its course in city has been compared to that
of tax collector passing from house to house
along a street, often only one side Of street
1t is usually stopped by prison or convent
walls, sometimes affecting but few squares,
and again developing in week into one Of
the most terrible of epidemics.
We have no reliable information as to the
origin of yellow fever in time or space, The
majority Of specific, contagious, or infectious
diseases as plague, smallpox, measles,
scarlatina, cholera etc,.-can be traced with
more or less precision to Asia as a starting
point but Yellow Jack has no such history
His presence is first distinctly recognized il
the West Indies about 1890, prior to which
date there is no satisfactory evidence of the
existence in these islands of pestilence pre-
senting its peculiar symptoms, and harmless.
to the natives while fatal to the uuacclima-
ted .
1t is the intertropical Atlantic pestilcnce
just as cholera is that of India, or the plague
that Of Egypt and Mesopotamia. 1t is ;
specific disease due to specific cause,-t
cause which can be picked away in closet OF
bureau, and be preserved for months ; O.
which may be carried in ship, or in a trunl
of clothing for hundreds of miles retaining
its specific powers. Many of its phenomeni
can at present only be explained on the as
sumption that this cause is either itself ca
pable Of growth and reproduction outside thu
of something which has these qualities. Il
other words, the cause may be minute or
ganism, somewhat like the yeast-pant ; o.
it may be the product of such an organism
like alcohol Either of these may be com
pretended under what is known as the germ
, theory. If the cause is an organism whlc
, itself enters the human body and multiple
there, it must exist in more than one form
: and in the form in which it usually exists i
the human body is not capable Of passing di
recty to another person. 1t is presume
that it usually enters the body through til
respiratory process, and period of from on
to ten days elapse before the characteristic
phedamena of the disease appear. This
known as the period of incubation. Th
cause of the disease has selflimtcd perio
of existence, and this period is comparative
ly short if it is freely exposed to the extel
nal air In the West India Islands the di,
ease disappears at various ports for man
years, and only reappears on fresh relmpo
: tation of the cause DR.. John s Billings 0
for january, 1880