The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-10-14
THE BRUNSWICK EPIDEMIC.
1t Has Been Managed Differently
From Before the War Epidemios."

1t Has Been Managed Differently
From Before the War Epidemics.'
In answer to an article published in
Yesterdays MORNING NEWS, from the
Charleston News and Courier, allow me
to make few remarks and if possible
change the impression which it may have
left upon the mind of the reader. Like
malarial fevers, yellow fever is a summer
disease. Almost every epidemic Of vel
low fever has had it's start during the
latter part of July or in August There
must be focus of infection to start the
first case. If Assistant Surgeon Jno
Branham of the marine hospital service
be the first case, the focus of infection
may have been on Staten Island, in Bruins
wick or at the quarantine station where
he had been ordered by the supervising
surgeon general to protect the people of
Brunswick against yellow fever importa-
tion. 1t would seem that every
effort should be exhausted by the marine
hospital service to clear that point, for to
say the least it was a culpable blunder to
send a person to fill that position who
was liable to contract yellow fever If
the second case (Harris) died of yellow
fever and not of fright, he evidently
contracted the disease in Brunswick; and
the third case (Cox's child proved be-
yond a doubt that the spot where the
child lived was infected. The fact that
it took some time for outside" experts
to decide upon the case of Branham is
not "a new one" 1t was recognized as
yellow fever by the attending physician
as soon as it was possible to do so, and he
had the courage to make his diagnosis
known to the people.
The reason why sixteen or seventeen
days elapsed between the third and the
fourth case is very simple. Surgeon Hut
ton, marine hospital servicein charge, had
caused a complete depopulation In Cir
Gle of 800 feet round the points of infec
ton. 1t is well known that the yellow
fever infection only spreads at the rate of
between twentyfour and thirty feet per
day. None of the many methods used for
the past 800 years has ever succeeded in
checking the progress of the infection.
Frost alone does it, The mortality from
yellow fever has greatly decreased since
the back-b of that dread disease was
broken in New Orleans. Gen. Ben
Spoon Butler gave it a death blow when
and cleaned the city as well as possible.
And Charleston gave it the
coup de grace when she in
stituted her new systems of
drainage inside and outside of the city,
when she substituted a well organized de-
partment for the buZzard as scavenger
and exchanged the eistern water sup
ply for a more wholesome one. In 1876
the mortality in Savannah had already
dropped to below 10 per cent; in Jack
sonville about per cent, and this year it
may be only per cent. or even less. The
cause of this decline is due to the greater
admixture of remittent and intermittent
with the yellow fever cases; and they are
usually classed under the big name for eff
feet. In 615 cases of yellow fever treated
by me in 1876 fifty seven cases relapsed in
yellow fever, thirty-seven in intermittent
and nine in remittent I did not keep a
correct list of all the cases of intermit-
tent and remittent fever. which l treated
during that epidemic. When negroes were
kept under strict sanitary regulations
while in slavery, they were remarkably
exempt from malarial and other fevers.
In Brunswick the number seems large be-
cause the proportions are about six blacks
to one white. j. G. LEHARDY, M. d.