The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-09-22
coNrAGIous DISEASES
New York Journal Makes Some
Ramarks on the Subject.

Remarks on the Subject.
r,or, the Ne,c York Journal of Commerce.
The feet that y ell-Rnown man has died
!, New York of yellow fever has created
!, little excitement among timid people.
nd we have received quite number of
communications from people outside of the
nv inouiring if it is safe to come here until
.fter frost There is nothing Of vital i'm
nrtance to the general welfare which is so
ettle understood as the subject of contagion
its relation TO epidemicS. There
re- contagious diseases easily propagated
" contact with persons affected by
5an,. if this occurs at the critical stage of
he attack The most common of these are
naIl-pox. measles, whooping cough and
numps. The medical fraternity generally
.nclude scarlet fever and diphtheria, but
he fact in regard to these is not SO well
Established. Both of the latter viii run
through family where all are subject to
he same conditions, but it is not certain
that person afflicted with either if trans
ported to a totally different atmosphere
will communicate any lnIectlon 70 visitor
In good health.
In regard to diseases that are positively
contagious there is a widespread notion that
Is wholly erroneous. We know many cases
If smallpox that are attributed to causes
wholly insufficient in our judgment to pro-
duce them. A physician of our acquaint-
snce stoutly insists that his mother caught
the smallpox in passing a house within
which at some distance from the street lay
a person suffering from that disease And
another gentleman whom we know asserts
hat he took the measles simply by driving
thrOueh a thoroughfare in which lived a
family with several children that were Just
taken with that malady. OF course it is
'ist possible that strong wind might bring
,bs-S oh vol
fayion from dwelling to the street so as to
infect one who was passing; but it is far
more likely that ii was communicated in
,lese and many similar cases by some
means far less remote.
We know case where the victim insisted
[ that he must have caught the smallpox in
rossing ferry within 800 feet of which a
hip was moored that had brought home
two of the crew sick with it on her last
voyage 1t turned out afterward that a
nan Just taken with the disease had
zone home on a crowded street car,
! rot knowing what was the matter
with him, and that five persons
three children and two adults, includ-
ing the gentlemen in question:, had caught
the complaint from him. The Infection
will remain for some time in a wooden
4 garment and while the wearer may be
. protected by incubation or vaccination, or
| previous attack of the disease, a stranger
NAV catch it from this tainted fabric But,
/ however the infection may be communi-
Gated, the fact that these diseases are
propagated by contact is well established.
But certain oiher diseases, frequently
prevalent as epidemics, are not thus conta-
gous in any sense. Yellow fever is one Of
these. and it was never communicated in a
healthy atmosphere by enc who was suffer
ing from it. II ali of the Jacksonville
fever-stricken patients without injury to
themselves could be removed and distrib-
uted in healthy northern homes, there would
be no more danger to persons coming in
contact with them, either as nurses or visit
ors, then there would be of catching a
broken leg from one thus impaired. 1t is
absolutely non-contaglous In an atmosphere
not charged with the producing cause of
the malady. 1t may be asked why not, then,
remove those who are thus afflicted The
answer is that any change in the atmosphere
after patient is taken down with yellow
fever is as fatal as bullet through the
brain. Even a slight change in the outside
air of the same place, caused by cool
wave, viii frequently end the lives of a
large number who might otherwise have
become convalesceut. But the well persons
who are not needed ought to be sent away,
and though some of them may have the
fever after they reach the north, not one of
them will carry any seeds of the disease"
to the residents of healthy localities
1t is precisely so with cholera and dysen-
terry, two diseases very apt to become cpl
demic from local causes. There is this diff
ference, that these sufferers may, and often
have been carefully removed after they
were attacked without injury to them
selves and certainly without injury to any
one else The writer of this, taken with
what is known as Asatic cholera, was
placed in bed while shaking with convul-
sions, and carried fourteen miles to home
where he was carefully nursed back to
health. Many others were thus sent from
the city to their friends in the rural dis
tricts willing to receive them, and in no
case was the disease propagated by this
course.
No one need be scared, therefore, at a
personal contact with any of the people of
Jacksonville who are fleeing from that
fever-stricken place. If they bring the
fever in their blood and suffer from it after
they arrive, they may be nursed in our
hospitals, or even In our dwellings,
with no personal dread of any dire
result. Yellow fellow is produced in
new cases by that which caused the disease
in others, but it is no more contag-
lous than badness, or the ossification of an
artery. There is something more in the
right understanding Of this than the mere
acceptance of a true theory for the bene-
fit of the intellect. 1t is practical ques-
ton, and gives us assurance that we may
deal kindly with those who fee to us for
refuge, without mourning any danger
through such instrumentality to ourselves
or to these dearest to us in our homes.