Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-07-20
The Cause of yellow Fever.

Einction of being the first actress on the
English stage. She is one OF the lew
great artists who never visited TINS couh-
try.
The Cause of Yellow Fever
Neao. Orleans PicdyuRe, jug 18th.
Immediately on the reception of the no
tees of the valuable experiments OF Dr.
Domingos Freire, of Brazil, which we set
before our readers ON July Is and 10, the
PlcdyuRe telegraphed to its washington
to endeavOr to procure
from the State Department information
the subject. He obtained per-
mission to transcribe the report OF Mi.
John c. White, our Secretary OF Legation
at Rio de Janeiro, which Will appear IN
its place in the regular publications of the
In respect of public sanitation, the
of the fact that the germs Of
yellow fever do not disappear with the
burial of the corpse is obvious aud COM
When we know that the
cemeteries are perennial foci of con-
we know enough to protect
against them. Sharp and prompt
action on the part of the public authori-
ties will enforce that remedy which is the
only safeguard Of the public health, GER
tain and perfect.
S'TO the Hon. FFedb I. E'reliBghUyS en-,
Secretary Of State:
s'SIR-I have the honor to submit here
with extracts from report made by DR..
DOmingOs Freire, a distinguished physi-
clan. on the transmission of yellow fever
by cOntagion. This dreadful disease has
been very fatal during the past four
months and the death rate from it is still
high.
IL have the honor to be, sir, your ODE
dent servant, JOHN WHITE,
''Legation Of the United States, Rio de ia
Metro, Nay IL, 1888"
InclOsure.
YELLOW FEvER-TRANsMIsSI BY CON-
TAGION.
On the 14th we took from the heart of a
person who had died of yellow fever an
hour before some grammes of blood, in
which the microscope revealed the pres
ence of the cryptO-cocci that are now cur
rently considered to constitute the char
acteristic of that disease. These organ
isms were in different phases of full de-
velOpment, from the size of small black
points to that of large, round cells, grey
ish or dark fringed with a brilliant point
in the centre. Besides these were to be
seen masses OF transparent granulations
set in gdngue of yellow pigment.
We took one gramme of the blood, and
with every care that the case required,
our able assistant, Sr. Menezes Doria,
made an intravenOus injection in the
great vein of a limb of a rabbit. Fifteen
minutes later tetaniform commissions
showed themselves, with back hollow
ings, and the animal soon succumbed,
Illuminated, so to say, by the violence
of the virus so rapidly and di-
rectlv introduced into the great circula-
tory torrent. At first, we suspected that
some accident had caused the death of the
animal, such as air getting into the vein,
or some clot, but the operation was exc
cuted with the utmost care and the death
in those cases should have been sudden
and unaccOmpanied with the course of
symptoms just mentioned.
In making the autopsy we found Yisce-
raj congestiOns analogous to those we
had seen in the corpses Of yellow fever
patients, and we found in the blood the
same cryptO-cOcci as existed in the corpse
that served for the incubation.
If the death had been due to the quick
action of the cryptO-cOcci, and not to an
accident, the blood of the rabbit should,
when itself inOculated in another animal.
cause the death of the latter. To put this
beyond doubt. we took gramme of the
dead rabbits blood and injected it hypoder-
matically into guinea-pig.
Well, the latter died at the end of some
hours { in the night of the 14th and we
found an extraordinary quantity of cryptic
cOcci in its blood, and saw also the
anatomO-pathOlogi lessons, which usually
characterize cases of yellow fever in man.
The death of the second animal was
evidently due to the contagiOn, and
showed that the rabbit whose blood was
inoculated contained in itself the trans.
mitOry virus and succumbed to the in
iuence of this virus,
Not content with this, we injected a
gramme of the guinea-pig's blood under the
skin of another guinea-pig, and in the
space of some hours this one appeared
feverish, oppressed, with cold ears and
paws, trembling and rejecting blackish
deiections. A drop of this animals
blood showed an infnity of crypti-cocci,
and within little time it also died.
By these experiments we have proved,
therefore, cOntagi0n and transmission of
the disease four successive times. The
sick man received it from the medium in
which he lived, from him we passed 1t to
the rabbit, and from it to a guinea-pig,
which in turn transmitted it to another
guinea-pig. In all the four cases the blood
showed swarms of cryptO-c0cci.
In this manner we are able to produce
epiZootics in the animals in our labOra-
tory, by inoculating many at once with
the microbiated blood. These facts, there
fore. prove beyond doubt that yellow
fever is prOpagated by contagIon from in
dividual to Individual, that it is primi-
lively a contagious disease, but may be-
come infectious as soon as sufficiently
many focuses accumulate. They also
prove that the disease does not reside eX-
clusively or especially in any one organ;
it resides in the blood, and therefore in all
tho ORGANS the blood traVprSpS
DIR, DOmingOs Freire also considers that
they also establish the parasitic nature of
yellow fever, and that this parasite is the
found in every legitimate
case of yellow fever, and termed by him
c. rdnthOqenicUS.
DR.. Domingos Freire also cOmmuni-
Gates the discovery by him and isolation
of an alcalOid extracted from black vomit,
in which it exists in the state of q salt,
He says he has reason to believe that it
is a prodnct of a secretion or eXcretiOn of
the microbii, which, however, does not
prevent both the alcaloid and the micro
bias being factors of the morbid state. 1t
is LIQUID, of an acrid, aromatic smell, oily,
forms an Opalescent emulsion with water,
is soluble in alcohol and ether. 1t strong
ly blues red letmus paper, and must con-
tain a good proportion of nitrogen, as it
gives out abundant ammoniacal vapors
when heated with potash.
He also ascertained by direct expert
ment,by cultivating cryptovcoccus in gela-
tine within Pasteur globe, that the color
of black Yomit is not due to altered blood.
but to the crypto-cOccus, and he was thus
enabled to obtain an artificial black VOmit,
A culture of the earth taken, as reported
in our issue of April /, from the grave of
a man deceased a year before of yellow
fever, also produced artificial black vomit.
Another experiment was made with
the same earth. A gWnea-pig whose
blood examination showed was in pure
state, was shut up i'll a confined space in
which was placed the earth taken from
that grave. In five days the animal was
dead and its blood proved to be literally
crammed with the crypto-coccus in vari-
Gus stages of evolution, the urine was al
luminous and the brain and intestines
were yellow, with the peculiar pigment of
the crypto-cOccus.
In view of such facts he asks how it can
now be said that the germs of yellow fe-
yer disappear with burial of the corpse.
IN the contrary the cemeteries are the