, 1888-10-19
THE [ FEVER.
The Question of stamping out"-Is It
Co~ntagious?-Its Course.

Ine Oueoton OF stamping Out"-Is It
Contagious7-Its Course.
I was in New Orleans during the de-
vastating epidemic of 1878, which
wrought such horrible havoc not only in
that city, but in Memphis, Grenada,
Holly Springs and a number of other
towns. Nowhere in the world is yellow
fever so well understood and 30 scientific
ally handled as in New Orleans. There
was proof of this in the fact that the
death rate during the year was scarcely
IL per cent. of h cases, while at Mem
phis it was at least 90 cent. and in Gren-
ada 70 or 80. When it was known that
the disease had obtained a foothold and
that the conditions were favorable to its
spread the board of health bravely came
out with a public announcement that
yellow fever was epidemic in the city,
and the railroads made preparations for
the outward rush of the frightened. For
a week the stampede kept the town in
an uproar, and then New Orleans settled
down into grim silence, closed her shops,
stiDed her church bells, r~eorganized the
benevolent Howard association to help
the needy, and without fuss or fret closed
in combat with her invisible foe.
Now as to the question of stamping
out Whenever a disease begins spread
ing in a city there is always a loud med
ical howl about stamping out. The
stamping out process, however, seems
generally to get a screw loose and post
pone working as long as does Keely's
wonderful motor. Smallpox, measles,
scarlet fever or any other of the major
exanthemeta may be stamped out by Wig
lance, fumigation, the isolation of pa
tients and the prompt destruction by fire
of all bedding and other fomites exposed
to the infection, but in the case of
cholera, yellow fever, bilious remittent,
dangue or other of the great zymotics,
h case is different. Contagion is the
means of spread with the former
that is, the germs are engendered within
b human body and are communicated
by contact. The latter diseases are spread
by infection-that is, the source of the
poison is the soil, the air, drinking
water or other externals.
1t is much to be doubted if yellow
fever is contagious at all. Bring a pa
tient to a hospital in New York, burn
his clothing and baggage, and he will be
found to be as harmless as a sufferer from
a gunshot wound to his physician and
attendants. That which poisoned him
is an external, the germs of which can
only be sown in an atmosphere and in a
soil possessing the still unknown condi-
tons favorable to their increase. Elk
treme humidity and long continued heat
are regarded in New Orleans as concom-
itantS essential to yellow fever, but the
epidemic which ravaged Mobile fifteen
or sixteen years ago struck that town
after the first frost and became a per-
nicious partisan of death with fearful
activity.
An epidemic of yellow fever runs a
ninety day course. This rule has its
exception in cases where the infection
occurred late in the season. Heavy black
frosts then checked it, but in nearly all
these instances it hibernated and on the
following spring broke out afresh and
completed its course. The death rate
usually reaches its climax in thirty days,
keeps even until the SEVENTEEN and then
begins to wane. The disease itself is not
as dangerous as typhoid when properly
handled. 1t is a "single paroxysm," OF
continuous fever, lasting about seventy
two hours.-Henry Guy Carleton in
New York World.