The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-24
MANY MEN AFFLICTED.
The Trouble Confined to the
Sailors of the Cruiser
Chicago.
IT RESIsTs ALL TREATMENT.
One Of the Victims Gives a Woeful
Account Of His Aches and
Pains.

NEW YORK. N. Y, June 23.-The sur
geons at the Navy Hospital in Brooklyn
are puzzled by peculiar malady prevalent
among the sailors who served on the
Chicago during her last cruise. There are
at the present time, according to the
statement of Surgeon in Chief DIR. Edward
S. Bogert. about twenty of the Chicago's
crew laid up in the Navy Hospital, and a
half dozen or more are at the Norfolk
Hospital, where they were taken from the
Amphitrite to which many of the Chicago s
crew were transferred after the latter vessel
went out of commission.
Although some of the men in Brooklyn
have been under treatment for six or seven
weeks their condition has been but little
changed. The same high temperature,
giddiness and rheumatic pains in the
joints which characterized the disease
when first contracted are still experienced
by the victims, and little progress seems
to have been made in contending with the
illness.
DR.. Bogert said to-day that the disease
with which the sailors are suffering is well
known in the countries bordering on the
Mediterranean Sea and that there is no
Il,
that they had not as yet made satisfac-
tory diagnosis of the disease and that the
patients did not seem to improve per-
ceptibIy.
The sailors take different view of the
case. They say the doctors are puzzled
and that they have no name for the NAL
ady nor any satisfactory treatment.
The certificates which are sent with each
patient to the hospital are supposed to
state the name of the disease with which
he is suffering. In the case of the Chicago
men the disease is put down under various
names. The certificates of some named it
typhoid fever, but the treatment in these
cases was not that which is used in typhoid
fever cases.
One of the most dangerous features of
the "Chicago fever" as it is termed in the
Navy Hospital, is an excessively high tenn
perature. One sailor said to-day that his
temperature had run up to 104 degrees and
that the temperature of the patient in the
adjoining cot had reached 106 degrees.
The sunstroke treatment is used in lower
ing the temperature. Ice is used in every
conceivable shape, plunge in an ice bath
being the most effective and most expe-
ditious relief.
A representative of the United Press Wis.
tied the hospital to-day and found bench
on the terrace occupied by several of the
Chicago's crew who looked pictures of oe.
Chicago fever?" said one, stout, good
looking tar, who went by the name of
Ham. "Well, l should say so. / know a
thing or two about the Chicago fever. 1
have had rheumatism, yellow fever, small
pox and all the rest of 'em, but this lays a
man out quicker than any of 'em." His
companions showed their assent by nod
of the head, and Ham proceeded to dilate
on the peculiarities of their mutual enemy.
"We got it," he said, "while lying off the
port of Algiers. There was no tide there
and stiff land breeze all the time.
1--WE lay there seven weeks waiting for
the San Francisco to come and relieve us,
and during all the time there was big
sewer emptied right off midship, and 1
guess that was not over healthy for the
crew. Most of the men began to keel over
one by one until there were sixty or seventy
on the sick list. We left Algiers in Feb
ruary and went to the rock where some of
the men went under. When we got in
port here most of the crew went on the
Vermont and some went on the Amphi-
trite at Norfolk and they are laid up at the
hospital now"
"The disease first makes you feel light
headed, and then comes the bloomin'
fever, and after that terrible pains in the
joints. have been here seven weeks" he
added, as he slowly and carefully lifted
one leg over the other, land the only thing
they have given me for these pains is some
kind of powder which don't seem to do no
good"
The sailor asserted that he had just re-
ceived letter from mate in the hospital
at Norfolk, saying that two of the strong
est men in the crew of the Chicago had
died since being admitted there, and it
was believed that the fever had killed
them.
DR.. Bogert said to-day that the fever
was not so malignant as that.
What do you call the fever2' he was
asked.
"Well, it is generally called remittent
fever, said the doctor. But the truth is
that it is not remittent fever It NAV be
what is called Mediterranean, Malta or
Rock fever but we have not diagnosed it
satisfactorily as yet. None of the men
have died from 1t here up to this time, but
we do not know what may happen. One
popularity about it is that the germs which
were inhaled at Algiers do not seem to
take effect often times until months after
ward. 1t is not a contagious disease, but
one of long duration and quite troublesome
m combat -