Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1883-03-22
s}tisttnauept.s 8tadiug.
pr. MIJDD,S BITTER MEMORIES.

DR.. Samuel a. Mudd, of BryantoWn, Nd,
who died a few weeks ago, left in manu-
scripta treatise on epidemic diseases, which,
since his death, has been published. He
wrote: a Ky g.
"In July, 1865, was sent a prisoner for
life to the military prison at Fort Jefferson,
better known as the Dry Tortugas, an island
of coral formation in the Gulf OF Mexico.
Tried by a court martial, an unlawful trl-
bunal constituted for the purpose OF convlc,
ton, the same that hanged an innocent
woman, was convicted on the testimony
of paid and perjured witnesses OF crime
the conception of which l never harbOred
or entertained. By such tri-complicity in
the assassination OF President Lincoln,
when all the world knew, and the members
of that iniquitous and laW-defying military
commission knew it as well, that my only
offense consisted in setting the leg OF man
whom l did not at the time know to be
fugitive from Justice, and with whose insane
act 1 had not the slightest sympathy.
had done merely an act of charity, from
which no true physician would shrink, no
matter what the matter might be-. For
this | was banished under a life sentence
from my wife and children, from home,
friends and society, and immured in the
gloomiest and most distant prison of the
United States. For this l was bound in
chains like some savage brute, denied for a
long time healthy sustenance, and forced at
the point of the bayonet to perform menlal
and offensive Offices which / will forbear
mentioning. The iron entered my soul
Even now, though, on restoration to my
family and social circle, l am brought back
to life and to some portion of all that which
was lost by four years of banishment, the
| raoo1Iootionc of thnSa ypa rS Of mental and
physical sufferings and the nature of what |
endured on that barren coral reef, accurseC
and plague-smitten, rises before me some.
times like horror of great darkness, and
will never be effaced as long as memory
remains.ng r. ~a
The yellow fever broke out on August IS,
1867. '"There were then at the Dry Tortll-
gas" wrote DIR. Mudd Give companies OF
the Fifth United States Artillery, q few
civilians employed in the Engineer Depart
ment, and about POO guard prisoners
These last consisted of deserters from the
Federal army, bounty jumpers, &c. The
Arnold, Spangler, Cloghlin and myself.
There were also some Confederate prison
ers, prominent among whom was Col. ST.
Leger Greenfel, sent there for life by SEN
tence ofTmilitary tribunal. for alleged COM
plicity in the abortive attempt to release
the Camp Douglas prisoners. 1t is gener'
ally supposed that he was drowned in the
attempt he made to escape from the island.' y
DR.. Mudd tells how the post surgeon, DR.
J. S. Smith, was stricken with the disease
In his delerium he refused all medicine OF
treatment and died. DIR. Mudd was the
only person on the island who. possessed q
knowledge of medicine. His fellow pris'
oners 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 prison
ers, without regard to age, color, or previ'
Gus condition of servitude." DIR. Mudd
however, offered his services to Major
Stone, in command of the post. He remain
ed in exclusive charge of the hospital fol
some time, and during that time he says ne
did not lose patient. He cited his expe'
rience in support of the doctrine which he
advocated in his work. 1t is that epidemic
diseases of infection are not propagated
by floating germs, but by absolute contact
with infected material SO that the isola'
ton of patients is All absolute prevention OF
the spread of the disease. He furnished
the draft of quarantine act based on this
theory. ...
GROWTH OF THE EARTH.-The millions o.
aerolites descending upon the earth as an ev
erlasting shower all over it's surface prove
that the earth is growing; the gradual rise
of it's oceans prove the fact, and the great
truth is also demonstrated by the bottoms
of all those oceans, according to their va
rious depths, constantly getting filled uI
by primary formations. In short, the uni
versal law of terrestrial growth is demonstra
ted by every shell upon the shore, which,
by its formation is just that much perma
nently added to the bulk. But sinking into
the bowels of the earth as deep as man
can reach proves the growth OF the earth
far more strongly than all the facts and
words which are available on the momen
tous question for no matter how far down
every inch of the descent was once the sur
face, however, low it may now be out ofslght
bv the accumulation of creative increase over
| it since the time. Thus so far as we have
been enabled to penetarte, and the rule
holds good over every part of its surface
we find the strata, however deep we may
descend all lying as to time, in the order o
their formation. They cannot be otherwise
as no convulsions of nature could reverse
the position of one stratum by superimpos
ing it upon another. If we sink dOWr
through the strata to the depth of, say,
thousand yards, we pass through the works
of several geological epochs, the first one
that on which the drift of the deluge rests
the latest formation, the next-if in thu
sinking there is no missing link-a step il
time earlier, and so on in succession, unit
we reach the lowest stratum at the deptl
mentioned, the oldest one in the series
There it is just where it was deposited, ther
on the surface of the earth, perhaps more
than 100000 years ago, while all the other
have been in latter times superimposed II
their respective geological epoehs, up to th'
surface. There is another such epochal for
nation going on and getting thicker unde
all oceans since the present continental fea
lures Of the globe arose, which will yet b'
dry land, and will be the latest formation
for the geologists of the remote future
Col6u1n's Magazine.
| II1nICInIrs ADVERTISING.-A man de