Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-12-02
MORNING SESSION.

the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
DIR. Daniel NJ. Burgess, OF Havana, Cube,
read the following very interesting paper on
PRACTICAL EXPERIENCES IN REGARD To
THE INFECTION OF VESSELS WITH YELLOW
FEVER IN THE PORT OF HAVANA.
The remarks and observations which are
now submitted to the consideration OF the
American Public Health Association relative
to the infection of vessels in the harbor OF
Havana by yellow fever are offered with much
diff1dence. as they are mainly the result OF
personal experience and observation during
the last fifteen years, the last two while in the
employ of the National Board of Health as its
Sanitary Inspector at that port.
That the crews of vessels contract yellow
fever at Havana is fact as apparent as the
truth that scores of their numbers die annually
of the disease at that port, but that vessels
themselves become infected might not be so
palpable at first sight.
Repeated opportunities for observation and
watchful attention to the sanitary vicissitudes
of vess Is, while in port. combined with a
knowledge of their anterior as well as subse
Quent sanitary histories, reveals the fact that
ships have arrived in the harbor of Havana,
fresh and new, on their first trips from the
temperate coasts of Maine, or the more frigid
ones of Norway, with every member of their
crew perfectly well, and with no history OF
disease en- route; that those ships have in due
time gone to some wharf to discharge; that
soon after, members of their crew have sick
aIIef
another of them yielded to its morbid infiu
e1ce till all on board who were susceptible to
the disease have had it, The vessel dis
charged of her cargo, and, with her crew, now
in good health leaves, in ballast to load for home
or some foreign place. at some other port of the
island. where she arrives and casts anchor
near and to the windward of feet of mer-
chant vessels, all Of which are healthy as well
as the town.
In a few days cases of yellow fever are de-
veloped on the nearest leeward vessel, and soon
after cases occur on board of those in close
proximity to the latter until quite number OF
the mercantile feet are invaded by the dis
ease. There is good evidence that q harbor
epidemic of MatanZas was caused in this way
few years since. Such well known instances
go far to prove, not only the infection of yes
sells by yellow fever, but the portability of its
virus.
Another illustration: 1t is not seldom that
Spanish vessels on arriving at the harbor OF
Havana with cargoes, when yellow fever is
raging, discharge all persons who do not enjoy
an immunity from yellow fever.
They then go to a wharf to be unloaded
by protected men from ashore. That the
wharf and locality is infected is proven by the
fact that crews of all the vessels at it are suf
fering more or less from the disease. After
such vessels are discharged at these infected
wharves by men who have had yellow fever
they go out into the open bay with no evidence
of contamination, and anchor in close prox
unity to vessels which had remained free from
disease for weeks With the change of wind
and tides the vessels swing, and, at times, gel
so near each other that they practically be
come one vessel.
In few days cases of yellow fever begin tC
occur on the vessels which had been so long
healthy. Their infection can be clearly traced
to the vessels which had been in bad company
at the wharf, but on board of which, for plRiI
reasons, not a case OF yellow fever had oc
Cured. Instances like these occur every sea
son in the harbor of Havana. Two striking
ones happened this year.
Vessels sometimes Law at WharVeS diScharg
ing, and as fast as members of their crew fal
sick they are sent to the hospital or discharged
They go into the open bay with no sickness;
| infection, until some unfortunate neighbol
who has up to that time been healthy, gets
sick. These are truthful instances of the in
lection of ships and portability OF the poison
of yellow fever, and they occur often enough
in Cuba to be easily observed by a person
whose business and tastes interest him in such
matters
It being, then, admitted that vessels do be
come infected by yellow fever in the harbor Of
Havana, the questions naturally arise by wha
| means they become infected, and are they
| equally prone to do so in all parts of the her
veniently answered by answering the
last first, viz: Are vessels equally
prone to become infected in al
| enables me to give an emphatic negative tC
| the answer and affirm that the infection OIL
a vessel has a constant relation to the wharves
shore. and centres OF pODulaJlOn, ana the
proximity of ship to them.
Experience has proved that wharves are al
ways dangerous, some of them even in winter
The danger OF infection constantly diminisheS
with the distance with which vessel is from
the wharf. 1t is believed that at five hundred
| feet or over, particularly on the windwarC
side of an infected wharf or vessel, the danger
| from infection becomes small will mention
here, what all will undoubtedly admit. thai
favorable winds are an important factor in the
spread of yellow fever and contrary winds II
| the prevention of it, and that high winds anC
| hurricanes diffuse the poison, so that epidem
4 les are often checked by them. small hurri
cane occurred at Havana the night after the
total eclipse of the sun in August, 1578, anC
yellow fever, which had been very active in
| the pursuit of victims previously, became sc
sluggish and dormant that very few cases OF
| the disease occurred for weeks afterward, in
| fact that season.
But to return to wharves and the danger oil
infection by them. This is 50 common and sc
apparent that even owners and Captains oil
| vessels remark that as long as their barkS
| stay ia the open bay they jntinue free from
disease, but that soQn after they go to The
wharf their crews begin to sicSen of yellow
| fever.
| Twin cite a case The American banks IAN
| tonia Sala" and Havana" are owned by the
same parties, and are employed mainly in car
| rying ccude petroleum to Havana and bring
ing TO the States sugar from Cuba. They are
models of cleanliness, and in all respects thel
sanitary condition is good. The Havana" i
nearly a new vessel, and up to August last hel
sanitary history was perfect The ~Antonlt
| cur aboard, occasiOnod by her crew visiting {
neighboring infected vessel. About tue last o.
| August of this year they were both found II
| the harbor of Havana, with crews liable K
| yellow fever They brought and carried away
\ the same cargoes and remained in port abou
| the same length of time. The Havana, which
4 had never had yellow fever aboard, discharged
1 in the omen bay with no sickness but she theI
4 TO- ha fO tai "a IN
less than fOur day three cases or the disease
1 in very severe form two OF them vomiting
black occurred aboard, The Antonio Sala,
4 which had had yellow fever III 1851, but which
| now discharged and loaded in the open bay
l far from the wharves. and remaining in por
/ about the same time as the Havana" sailed
/ away without disease occurring. Thls Is
| striking instance, and yet instances equally
| striking occur every week during the summer
| months in Havana, to prove the danger o.
| wharves nd the proximity to them, and the
comparative safety Of vessels in the open har
| bor distant from any infected vessels will
| their creys kept aboard. Cases like this prove
| that vessels can sntDr the harbor of Havana
| discharge and even load, without becoming in
| fected, providing they do it under conditions
which will be spoken of farther on.
From the Goth of August. 1879, to October
| 1881, a period Of a little over twenty five
| months had inspected and had under obser
| vation for the National Board of Health oyel
! 1900 vessels, comprising those of every kind
| shape size, nationality, end IL every state Of
| hygienic condition. Out Of the thirteen hun
| dred vessels, one hundred and nifty, or little
less than one in eight, had yellow fever occur
aboard, and am forced to say that in all those
| infected vessels the strongest PROOF exists tc
me that they became infected in consequence
of their nearneSS or contact with the WharVes
or land (save the few which were evidently in
/ fected by other infected vesSelS). Vessels lay
| in the open bay in every state or nltn-ln 8
| high OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES by an atmos
phere molstened almost to a point OF satura
1 ton. and enjoy freedom from yellow fever
but let them once get near wharf, an ERECTED
vessel or take on an infected cargo, and sooL
they become invaded by the disease, and al
| the sooner, and more severely 50, for theii
| filthy condition.
In the one hundred and fifty infected vessels
alluded to, fail to get any evidence OF sponta
neous generation of the disease aboard. In
every Instance of infection it can be satisfec
torily accounted for and explained, by the re
Iation Of the vessel to the shore and centres OF
popu alton, or through the agency of articles
taken aboard, or by the visits OF the crew to
the shore, or proximity Of infected vessels
Among the substances brought on board which
NAV infect q vessel is ballast Ballast at Ha
vava is of four kinds First, white or light
colored and tolerably hard and compact stone
which is quarried on the south side OF the bay
opposite to Havana, and remote from any
centre of population From that point 1t Is
taken directly aboard of the vessel without its
being stopped at any infected wharf or inhab'
tied locality. l mention this BALLAST only to
commend it. 1t is the best to be found at that
port but unfortunately not large gu antity OF
it is used IL is the ballast which all vessels
bound to the United States should use In sum
mer especially.
The second kind Of ballast is a porous, fra
BILE, blueish gray stone, easily and quickly
breaking down on exposure to ordinary VIC
lence or to the moist atmosphere, and Is guar
ried or dag out of the hills south of Regla "a
town on the south side Of the harbor) and has