Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-04-05

professional brethren. When the heglra
commenced upon the declaration of the ex-
istence of the epidemic yielding 10 the
persuasions of his wife, Colonel H. q. Battle,
,,roprietor of the Guido Gdzette, determined
to seek safety for himself and family IN
fight, and before leaving requested me to
assume editorial control of his Journal.
consented thereto, and as | reached the en-
trance to the office on the first day of my
duties DR.. Scruggs drove up in his buggy,
and | saw at glance that he was IN the
tolls. His flushed face and staring eyes,
and the Undesirable look of depression
and alarm which indicate not only an
attack. but knowledge there on the part OF
the sn1itten one, could be mistaken by no
one who had seen ever 50 few in the grasp of
the DESTROYER. A hurried consultation
with my friend resulted in his consent 70
return home on condition that | should
20 his rounds" and notify his patients
that they must secure the services Of an
other medical attendant. On arriving at
his house his wife was found Frustrated
with the fever Suffice it to say that every
member of his household within ten days,
including the colored servants, numbering
altogether eleven or twelve, succumbed to
an attack of the epidemic. DR.. Scruggs,
himself. and his old colored nurse who had
been his faithful and devoted servitor from
infancy, were the only ones who died. My
duties we're divided between the household
and the newspaper until the last member
of the former was declared out Of danger,
when | became one of the general visiting
and relief committee. Here let me remark
that recalling these scenes, l am reminded
of paragraph ! saw in one OF the San
Francisco papers last fall, during the dis
cussion of the subject as evoked by the
threatened danger to California. Some
physician, whose name has escaped my
memory, who was disposed to let pooh
pooh" be the all and the end Of all OF his
argument, was reported as saying, by,
! had as lief sleep in the same bed with Il
yellow fever patient as not or words to
that effect. Did the disciple of
Esculapius ever lie down by the
side of a person thus afflicted
| trow not. Else he would have been
more chary with his words. Just before
DIR. Scruggs passed into the final delirium
he asked me to lie down by his side and
take his hand while he breathed his last
wishes. ! did 80, and it is no extravaganza
to say that the heat from a white-hot fur
mace at similarly close range would be al
most as endurable. | would not advise
the San Francisco medico to do as he sug-
gests and counsel others not to follow his
advice. | have said above, after being re
lieved from my duties to my friends
household. | became one of the general
visiting and relief committee. / have gone
room, each one CHASTITY picture Of IN
watched and unattended agony. | have
met fellow man in the full flush Of virile
manhood at the morning rendezvous for
consultation and assignment to duty, and
the next morning found him distigured
corpse. 1t is useless to dwell upon these
horrors. Mutdtis nllddndis what Mr.. Cable
details so graphically in the article already
quoted from may be taken as an enlarged
picture of Inflated Shreveport in 1858.
Let me refer briefly to the course pur-
sued by the medical fraternity of that city
in that year With one single exception
they stood manfully to their posts Of duty.
The only recusant went TO his long home
not many years later. The charity of 81
lence perhaps belongs TO him. But 1t Is
not too much to say that doubt and per
plexity deepened the awful sense of
responsibility which became the heritage
of every medical man in Shreveport. They
did the best they could, but were daily
shocked and grieved at the constant failure
Of remedial agents which they employed.
When, in Shreveport, as Mr.. Cable says of
New Orleans, despair seemed the only
reasonable frame of mind" an event &C
Cured which, to some extent, modified the
gloom Mr.. Cable, in the article referred to,
says: Con the 22d of August the climax
lin New Orleans was reached, more than
80 deaths occurring on that day" He
then tabuIates the successive decrease in
the number of deaths, until on the Both of
September there were only Is, and adds
that " in some of the inland towns it was
still raging, and so continued until the
middle of October"