The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-11-20
low THE YELLOW FEVER CAME.

HOW THE YELLOW FEVER GAME.
surgeon General Hamilton : avs It was
Imported iat) tampa LAST ear.
From the Medical Ne,cS, NoU, TO-
AT the meeting of the Virginia Medical
societv. held at Norfolk last week, Surgeon
General Hamilton gave the following ac-
count of the manner in which the epidemic
If yellow fever was introduced into this
oountry. the details of which, he said, had
been secured at great cost to the govern
noent and have not before been published:
last year the yellow fever appeared in
Kew West in the family of a restaurant
peener by the name of Baker. A family of
Rolios, who had kept hotel in Havana,
eroirrated, unfortuna tely for Florida, to
Yav West Their households effects were
4 landed and stored above Bakers restaurant
The Baker family died. of the fever; thus
the fever started, and rapidly became cpl
deUic.
i that section of the statutes forbidding inter
far eoce with local authorities, did nothing
evceDt al the request of the governor to
4 beIn the local board to establish q dispen-
earv and pay the expenses of the city hos
nitaL To assist in the speedy depopulatlon
IF the city a refugee camp was established
4 Of Ecmonts KY. at tn mouth of Tampa
! the disease The first cases in Tampa were
] kept secret from August to Oct. 81, 1887. A
family of Italians by the name of Turk
/ fruit dealers, brought the fever into Tampa.
4 The steamers had refused, under orders
from the Hillsborough county board
Havana or Key West. These Ital-
;ans. finding it impossible to con-
tipue in business. set up a smuggling line,
and brought fruit by way of Punta Gorda
hav and overland to Tampa. For this pur-
nose the man Turk and his assistant, Pete"
made frequent surreptitious visits to Key
West while the disease was epidemic there,
and blankets were purchased in the infected
ctv. used while on the overland trip, and
brought to Tampa. 1t is a significant fact
that the whole family of the Italians were
the first to be taken sick, and that they
we're not publicly known to have been out
Of the town, although the fact is now
known. The measures taken by the gov
prnment were simply to conform to the
wishes Of the governor to aid the Hills
borough county board of health.
The duty of preventing the spread of the
disease was undertaken by the Florida
State Protective Association, an organiza-
ton consisting of one representative from
each county board of health, under the
In December, 1887, the association raised
the quarantine against Tampa. The county
board of health ass erted that the disease
had dis .ppeared. Unfortunately the dis
esse had not been stamped out and.al-
though the cases of fever fingered all win
ter in Tampa, its existence was bitterly de-
MED. From Tampa the disease spread to
Plant City, Manatee and other places, and
it is now believed that the fever was at
Jacksonville as early as February,
1888. DR.. Guiteras of the Marine
81 hospital service, an acknowledged ex-
4 pert, says that in his Judgment at least
two of the cases of society" fever, of which
there were over thirty reported in Jackson
vile in that month, had the well-marked
clinical history of yellow fever. Nine of
the e cases died. DR.. Potts treated cases in
Bay street in June, and there were proba-
bly, cases continuously until the formal an
nouncement was made. Ht said that
so-called isolated cases had been reported at
Jacksonville otter the case in Bay street
had been treated in June by DR.. Potts, but
that the local authorities denied the pres
ence of an epidemic and placed a guard
around each case. This state of things
existed until Aug. 10, when the spread of
the disease in Jacksonville became so great
cases springing up at various points in the
city that could not be traced to any of the
so-ca led isolated cases, that the authorities
had TO declare the disease epidemic.
DR.. Hamilton said that the disease had
been introduced in Decatur, Ala, by man
wEo had Como from Jacksonville while all
Of the cases in that city had been reported
under guard His ticket had been from
some point outside of the infected city, and
consequently he was not denied admittance
The doctor said the fever had been intro
diced into Gainesville and Fernandina by
base ball players, who had played a game
of ball i'll Jacksonville before the epidemic
nature of the disease had been declared, and
then returned to these cities.
DR., Hamilton went on to explIin the gov
erament work at Camp Perry and said that
sine its establishment there had been only
ore desth from yellow fever il the fever
hospital there. lie said that the experience
OF the physicians at the camp went to show
that five days was the incubative period,
ard that when persons had been in the camp
for that length of time and did not develop
tie disease, there was no danger of their
having it. No person having spent ten
Gefs in the camp had developed the fever
after leaving the station.
Ii spoke of the lack of local inspection at
Tampa, where the disease first appeared
tAis season, an said that If the first cases
lad been reported there would probably
have been no epidemic, and said he had
proof to show that when the case of Nc
Cormack was reported as the first in Jack
sonvllle the fever was then epidemic.
lie also said that while the fever was
raging at Key West, he, at the request of
several health officers, rad prepared bill
providing for the establishment of a state
board of health, which was laid on the
table by the Florida legislature through
motives of false economy. He concluded
Dy saying, that the inspection Of Florida
cities odered by the government had
developed the fact that the yellow fever
was epidemic in both Enterprise and Fer
nandna.