The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-09-27

which had become rotten; for the eel
 lars were sunk below the tides. and ii
 many cases below the fiats. and venti
 lation was neglected. In addition to al
 this the blood, harslets and bowels O
 beeyes. sheep. etc. killed at the slaugh
 ter house on the head of the wharf
 with all the filth and nastiness of sucf
 places. lay during the spring and sum
 mer months. above high-water mark
 in a state of putrefaction. These ar'
 the nuisances on and about the whari
 which Mir. Webster does not mention,
 It Is contended that yellow fever is
 not to be attributed to animal putridi'
 ty. Instances have been adduced ir
 which thousands of dead bodies have
 been left to putrefy on battle-helds
 without producing any such result; not
 have levers been observed to originate
 or to rage more severely in houses ad'
 jacent to church-yards, though the
 stench Is often insufferably offensive
 Indeed 1t is n question whether the
 with the fever be capable of communi-
 eating the infection. Whatever may be
 the extent of vegetable putrefactlon, We
 have no reason to believe that It Is ad-
 equate to such an extent. The in'
 stances related of levers produced by
 rotting flax and hemp, in ponds of wa
 ter in France and other places, and the
 uniform cessation of such levers after
 relinquishing the practice,-as well as
 of malignant levers DO less obviously produced by rotten coffee or other veg | etable matter on board ships, are suf- | fciently notorious and numerous, to
 say nothing of swamps; disease will
 often excite, though not this precise fe-
 yer. It does not appear that more ma | terial was to be found on and about the l wharf likely to produce mischievous
 and fatal efiiuvlum than could be
 pointed out in other parts of the city. | and in districts where no fever was produced. Besides numerous filthy
 houses, yards and alleys, there was eve | ry dscription of accumulatd filth | scraped together from the streets and deposited immediately in the vicinity of tenements, occupied by poor and | negligent population, on the outskirts of the city: as we'll as large collections of oyster sffells in very offensive con- dition, and other nuisances besides which were frequently complained of to the board of health. and by them in spected, but never producing yellow fe- yer.
 It is certain that until commerce car ried it to the eastern and western coasts of South America it was never known in any of the localities which, since then, it has ravished, and in some of which it appears to have become en- demic, as it certainly has at several places on the southern coast of the Gulf of Mexico; but not at all. For example, it was introduced into Dutch Guiana in 179S and in 1900, and yet subsequently,, for period of thirty years, it never invaded that province. At the end of this long period of immunity the colony suffered from a new importation of the disease, which annually thereafter visi- ted 1t for nine or ten successive years, when it ceased, and for the six follow ing years failed to occur. It was then re-introduced by an infected vessel and spread more widely than before. In Brazil, likewise, yellow fever never oc- cured until it was brought in 1S49 by vessels from New Orleans and the West Indies, which infected all the ports at which they touched. From thence the disease travelled inland, causing an im- mense mortality. On the western coast Of South America yellow fever was equally unknown until 1S42, when 1t was introduced by vessels from New Orleans, but it soon after became ex- tinct until ten years later, when 1t was brought to Lima in Peru, whence it ex- tended to Valparaiso and other ports of Chili. All of these instances of the spread of yellow fever from the Gulf of Mexico to the coast towns of South America are distinctly traceable to the gold discoveries in California, which drew thousands of emigrants from the states east of the Mississippi, most of whom were passengers on board ves- sels that either sailed from New Or leans or tarried at some one or more of the yellow fever centers of the Gulf of Mexico.
 The peculiar features of this disease, its limitations within certain geographi- cal boundaries and its occurrence as an epidemic warrant the inference that it requires for it's production special cause. Does the special cause emanate from the bodies of those affected with the disease? in other words is the dis ease contagious? This question has giv- en rise to much discussion Volumes have been written by contagionists and in defense of the two opposing doctrines. It is evident that the question is one of great importance fp lie hoo riy O. op cop, VI, aroo opd o,,, r,, tine laws, as well as on precautionary respecting exposure in visit ing or attending upon those affected with the disease. I shall simply state the grounds which substantiate the of the disease:
 1. The disease is confined within cer- tain territorial limits. In this respect l 1t differs from most diseases the conta- giousness of which is established. l Even in localities in which 1t is prevail | ing as an epidemic 1t Is sometimes re- stricted to a circumscribed area.
 2. The rise and progress of epidemics l are not consistent with it's diffusion by ! contagion. For example. Fenner, with thirty or forty cases at New Orleans in ls53H and ascertained that the disease broke out in different places among persons who could have had no commu- nication with each other. Fenner in- vestigated' the origin and spread of the disease in New Orleans for twelve years, and stated that he never found he least proof of personal communi- ,ability This is alike true of epidem- cs in other places.