The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-09-07
DIR. BYRON's AoaIFICB.
He Goes to Take Charge of Swim
burne island.
From the NerO York Tribune Sept 5.

From the NelO York Tribune Sept. g.
A well-known physician of New YORK
city went into voluntary exile yesterday to
remain for no one knows how long in the
pest hospitals at Swinburne Island. He Is
DIR. Byron, the scientist and psychological
expert and lecturer at the LOOMS labora-
tory. He has given up his large practice
for the time being. and will remain on
Swinburne Island to fight the cholera. He
will be forced to quarantine himself as
strictly as any Of his patients are
quarantined, and he does not
expect to set foot on shore again till the
danger is over. He made light Of the risk
which he was running and was not desir-
GUS of saying much about his action, but he
acknowledged that it would involve a hnan-
DIAL sacrifice, as the salary paid him by the
state would not nearly equal the income
which he derives from his regular practice
DR.. Byron went to quarantine at first only
as a meteorological expert, and he did not
expect to do anything except make exam
nations and microscopical analyses. But
he was requested to remain and take charge
of the pest station at Swinburne Island, and
he decided that 1t was his duty as u physi-
clan to accept the call He, however, is In
clined to take favorable view Of the situa-
ton and thinks that the trouble al quaran-
tine will be over In probably five or six
weeks.
"Frost will kill the disease" he said ,"but II
it does not develop now and the proper SAN
itary precautions are not taken, and IL the
vigilance of the board of health OF the city
should be relaxed in the slightest degree,
the cholera might break out in the spring
and that would be bad NATTER
What result did your archaeological ex-
animation OF the cholera discharges from
the Normannia and Rugia haven
"Well, | don't wish to say officially and
positively, but l have no doubt whatever
that the cases are those OF true Asiatic
cholera. The symptoms of the patients of
the Normannia and Rugia are too violent
for anything else, and they are those of
cholera Asatic. The term cholerine which
has been used on the ships is most elastic
term. The word means a mild case of
cholera Asiatica. These cases were not
mild"
DO the patients suffer any painr'
"No; there is no pain connected with
Asattc cholera. That is a popular fallacy.
This is one of the things which distinguish
cholera Asiatica from cholera morbus. In
the latter the pain comes at once. In true
cholera the patient becomes apathstic and
suffers hardly any pain. 1t is really an
easy death to die. Cholera patients die
from asphyxiation. The terrible vomiting
and discharges thin the blood so greatly
that what material is left in the blood Coz
produces an excess OF carbonio acid
gas in the system which causes
asphyxiation. This same carbonio acid gas is
what numbs the pain in a manner and rem
ders the patients to large extent insensible
to pain. The only pain during the progress
OF the disease consists in cramps in the calves
of the legs, which are due to reflex action.
The cramps in the bowels do not begin until
the end, when deash approaches.
I'VE are treating the patients now with
the salt and water remedy discovered by the
Italian physician, DIR. Catani, known as
ypodermoclysis. We inject weak solu-
ton Of salt and water, about part OF salt
to 1000 Of water, warmed up to the tenn
perature Of the human body. AS fast as the
fluid matter Of the blood leaves the patient
we renew IL by injecting this solution
under the skin. We use enormous quanti-
ties of 1t, sometimes giving a patient 30
to 80 ltres day. This keeps the blood
going. Then, to check the diarrhoa, injee-
tions of a solution of tannin are put into
the stomach. We use about two or three
quarts day for each patient 1t not only
checks the diarrhosa, but also produces coma
In the bacteria and kills them.
The vomiting, which is so marked q
feature of the disease. is particularly dis
tresslng to the physicians, because it pre-
cludes the possibility OF introducing medl-
cines through the mouth, and the stomach
general treatment, besides the injections, is
to give such drugs as can give relief, with
brandy and water to keep up the vitality of
the system. The patients are kept quiet as
much as possible. and their abdomens are
kept warm and dry.
The symptoms Of the patients are those
Of Asiatio cholera" said DR.. Byron. 'eThe
dead people had all the appearance of chol-
era dead. Their eyes were sunken deeply
in the sockets, their skin was dry and like
parchment so it could be pulled out from
the body, and so inelastic it would stay that
way, and their frames were OF course
wasted away 80 that they looked like skeie-
tons with the skin stretched over it.
"Were their faces of the blush black hue
OF which we have heard SO much as Deiny
the characteristic symptom of cholera in a
dead patientp
That blush black hue is due only to the
fact that what is left OF the venous blood
has become coagulated. and there is SO
little left of it that the arterial blood
shows through the blue arteries, which
produces peculiar livid hue and makes
cholera dead look particularly awful"