Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-05
HALF A TOWN SICK.
A Strange Fever Has Made Douglass
vile, Pa, a Vast Hospital.
MILLS FORCED TO CLOSE DOWN.
One Family of Five All in Bed, and Many
Cases Almost as Bad.
PHYSICIANS AT THEIR WITS ENDS

| DoUGLAssvILLE, PA, July 4.-This lit
tie town is sorely afflicted just now with
singular disease. The nature of 1t tn,
physicians cannot determine. Over one
half of the total population of the town il
suffering from the peculiar nalady, ant
probably 10 per cent more have been i'll ant
have recovered Although the disease /.
very severe, and generally keeps a patien,
| confined to his bed from four to nine weeks
a remarkable fact is that up to date there
has not been single fatal case.
The rnalady is in the nature Of fever,
and the patient invariably shows symptoms
of both typhoid and malarial fevers, al.
though in number Of cases the prevailing
symptoms have varied from either or both.
Several patients who have recovered from
the queer illness stated to-day that in some
particulars it affected them very much the
same as pneumonia
Eight Weeks of Suffering.
The first cases that came under the notice
of the physicians were reported about eight
weeks ago and attracted but passing notice,
the symptoms of typhoid fever being strong
enough to warrant the announcement that
the patients were suffering from that dis
ease, but within the succeeding few days
matters shaped themselves in such way as
to cause first wonder and then alarm among
the townspeople.
Within two weeks more than 20 people
were confined to their beds and the epidemic
was spreading rapidly. The inability of
the physicians to determine. the nature Of
the disease caused the patients and their
families much concern, and as the illness is
of lingering nature it was not long before
one-half of the people were sick.
Mills Compelled to Shut Down.
Two weeks ago the Douglassville Iron
Company was compelled to shut down its
rolling mill because there were not enough
men left to operate it. The mill employs
50 men, and Of that number 80 are sick at
the present time, while nearly half as many
more have recovered from the effects of the
disease
The family of Joseph Esterly, five in
number, and including father, mother, two
sons and daughter, are all confined to
their beds, and fears are entertained that
Mrs. Esterly's will be the first fatal case
In Farmer Henry Bush's family there are
four sufferers, and q number Of cases are
known where there are three in one family
down with the queer disease. At the home
OF Glenn L1nderman the doctor has been
making daily visits for nine weeks without
the intermission of single day. MI. Lin
derman was first stricken, his wife followed,
and now his son is i'll.
The Cause Is Mystery.
The cause of the disease is as much a
mystery as its exact nature. It was at first
to the water from the we'll at the
rolling mill. The water is very cold, and
the men drank copiously Of it while warm.
But this theory was soon exploded when
people living half mile or more from the
well, and who had never tasted the water
were taken sick.
DR.. Gerhard, the leading physician here,
thinks that the disease is more of the nature
Of malarial fever, and that the impure air
which blows over the village from the low
Schuylkin Valley is the prime factor In the