The daily gazette., 1883-03-10
DR. MUDD's BITTER MEMORIES
IsecItIng His SutIerings in the Dry Tortn-
gas for Doing an Act of Humanity.

gas for Doing an Act of Humanity.
BALTIM0RE, March 10.-Dr. Samuel A..
Mudd of Bryantown, Charles county, Md,
who died few weeks ago, left Ia manu-
script treatise on epidemic diseases. ex-
tracts from which are published in the SIN
to-day. He wrote
SIN July, 1865, was sent prisoner for
life to the military prison at Fort Jefferson,
better known as the Dry Tortugas, ian island
Of coral formation in tine Gulf of Mexico.
Tried BY court martial, an uri-
lawful tribunal constituted for the
purpose of conviction, the same
that hanged an innocent woman. ] was
convicted on the testimony of paid and per-
jured witnesses of q crime the conception of
which never harbored or entertained. By
such tribunal ] was pronounced guilty of
completely in the assassination OF Presi-
dent Lincoln, when all the world
knew, and the members OF that In
iquitous and law-defying military com
only offence consisted In setting the leg of a
man whom did not at the time know to
be fugitive from Justice, and with whose
insane act had not the slightest sympathy.
! had done merely an act of charity, from
which no true physician would shrink, no
matter what the consequences might be.
For This was banished under life sentence
from my wife and children, from home,
friends and society aud immured In the
gloomiest and most distant prison in the
United States. For this was bound in chains
like some savage brute, denied for long time
healthy sustenance, and forced at the point
of the bayonet to perform menial and often
sive offices which will forbear mentioning.
The iron entered by soul. Even now,
though on restoration "a my family and
social circle, ! am brought back to life and
to some portion of all which was lost by
four years of Punishment, the recOllections
of these years of mental and physical suffer
ings ara the nature of what i endured on
that barren coral reef, accursed and plague
sIntten, rises before me ut times like hor-
ror Of great darkness, and will never lie
ehaced rs long as memory remains"
The yellow fever broke out ON August Is,
1867. "There were then at the Dry Tortu
gas, !" wrote DIR. Mudd, ''fve companies OF
the Fifth United States Artillery, a few
civilians employed in the Engineering De-
partment, and about 200 guard prisoners.
These last consisted of deserters from the
Federal army, bounty Jumpers, &s. The
roll of State prisoners consisted of Messrs.
Arnold, Spangler, Cloghlin, and myself
There,were also some Confederate prisoners,
prominent among whom was Col. st. Leger
Greenfel, sent there for life by sentence of a
military tribunal for alleged completely In
the sbortive attempt to release the Camp
Douglas prisoners.
"It is generally supposed that he was
drowned In the attempt he made to escape
from the Island' DIR. Mudd tells how the
post surgeon, DIR. j. s. Smith, was stricken
with the disease. In his deliium he refused
all medicine or treatment and died. DIR.
Mudd was the only person on the Island
who possessed a knowledge of medicine.
His fellow prisoners of State urged him to
do nothing, one of them remarking; "The
yellow fever is square deal, in which the
keepers take an equal chance at death
with their prisoners, without regard tC
age, coler, or previous condition
Of servitude." Dr. Mudd, however, of
fered his services to Major Stone, In com
mand of the post. He remained in exclu
sive charge OF the hospital for some time
and during that time he says he did not lose
patient. He cited his experience in sup
| port of the doctrine which he advocated In
| his work. 1t is that epidemic diseases of in
fection are not propagated by floating
germs, but by absolute contact with in
| fected material, so that the isolation oil
patients is an absolute prevention of the
spread of the disease. He furnished the
draft of a quarantine act based on this
| theory.