Huntsville gazette., 1889-01-26

petition which relates to the destruction
of beds, bedding, carpets etc, for the
iollo wing reasons:
| do not believe that there are at this
time any injected beds, bedding, or cars
pets, or any infected articles of any sort
in Decatur.
So far as l am informed it has been
about two months since there was case
of yellow fever in Decatur. In the mean
time most of the houses in which there
were cases of yellow fever have been con-
tinuously inhabited, even the rooms In
which the sick were treated have been
generally in use, along with the beds,
bedding, carpets, etc. This statement is
almost universally true SO far as the
houses. beds, bedding, etc. OF the color
ed people are concerned, and it is very
generally true rs regards the white peo
pie. If there was any danger in these
things, it would have declared itself in
unmistakable ways long ago. 1t would
be something new in the history OF pub
lie sanitation to undertake the destruc-
ton or dlsinfection of houses, rooms,
bedding, carpets or other articles that
have thus been in common every day
use for two months, and an undertaking
not warranted by anything we have
learned from the past history OF yellow
t ;yer.
Frost and cold are, in yellow fever, the
GREAT disinfectants. When the cold
weather comes yellow fever goes. and
STAYS gone until it is brought back again.
This is the lesso taught by hundreds OF
epidemics, and by all the localities in
which yellow fever has ever prevailed.
u pose that in the United States more
than one hundred communities suffered
from yellow fever in the great epidemic
wear OF 1875 In not one of these places
did it hibernate during that winter to be
awakened into malignant life by the
warm h of the succeeding summer. | do
not forget that the Memphis epidemic o.
1879 has been very generally ascribed to
the Information of the fever poison OF
1878. But was in Memphis in both OF
the years, and | was not able In 1879 to
discover one single fact in proof OF the
theory of Information. Sanitarlans have
allowed themselves to be misled in re
gard to this Memphis outbreak. Indeed
| it seems to me that saniarlans generally
have very crude notions about the hlber
nation OF yellow fever. They seem to
believe that when the FROST comes yell
| low fever GOES TO sleep and con 'inues to
sleep without interruption for five or six
| or eight months, until the suns OF a1ctha
er summer rouse it again into pestllen
| tial activity. But yellow fever does d )t
| hibernate in this way at all, In no time
and in no place. Yellow fever hiber.
mates in Havana by the occurrence OF
cases all through the winter. elbow
| fever hibernated in Florida through the
winter of 1SS7-SS just as it habltualiy
hibernates in Havana. Occasional cases
occurred all along through the winter
and spring. This is the law OF hlberna-
ton in yellow fever and there is no
other
1t is perhaps, important here to men,
ton the case 50 often q1oted, OF the
Plymouth. This vesse, had in the fall
OF 1878 seven cases OF yellow fever She
vas disnfected many times over in the
most thorough manner, Id then eXS
! posed to all the cold Of a New England
winter. On the 18th OF March she left
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for Wind
ward Islands. Onesweek later two cases
of sickness occurred on board OF her
which the ships surgeon pronounced
To be yellow fever. One of them
recovered, the other fell into typhoid
condition and ultimately died. There
was no post mortem examination. The
clinical histories OF these cases are very
defective. | do not believe that these
two men, Saunders and Eagan, had yell
low fever.
In the meantime | want it to be under
stood that | wage no war on disinfec. ion,
even on such distinction as can be
practiced by health officials. In the be
ginning of an outbreak of VI bow fever l
would exhaust all the poss bilitles OF
disinfection, and during the progress of
an epidemic might think it sometimes
wise 10 make use of it. But months after
the corni lg OF frost, and months after the