Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1897-10-01
THE SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
THE YELLOW FEVER EPIDEMIC.

The course run since September by
the epidemic of yellow fever now mildly
raging in certain parts of the South con-
firms, on the whole, the optimistic views
already expressed in these columns of
the situation with which the health and
sanitary authorities in Mississippi. Louisi-
ana. Alabama and the other Gulf States
are now confronted. 1t is true that
within the last week the spread of the
infection in the city of New Orleans has
been so pronounced as to excite re-
newed distress and apprehension, while
in Mobile and in the smaller Mississippi
towns in which the plague has taken
root no definite check has apparently
been put upon its subtle and insidious
progress. Worst of all, the germs of
the fever seem to have been carried up
the broad and open highway of river
traffic to towns altogether remote from
the original seat of the outbreak. Cairo,
ILL.,, has reported four cases of real or
suspected Yellow Jack to marine hos
pital service authorities at Washington,
and in other Mississippi river towns adj
ditional fever patients are not unlikely
to be discovered. But in spite of these
rather dlsquieting developments condi-
lions in the fever-stricken districts may
be said in general to be distinctly re-
assuring. The excessive and facilitating
heats of September have at last been
| broken by a cool wave. which has re-
duced temperatures in many parts of the
South below the point at which the
dreaded fever germs can readily prOpa-
gate themselves, and this welcome natur-
al embargo on the progress of the in
lection has naturally stimulated the
local health authorities to fresh and
more effective efforts to stamp out the
disease. Even in New Orleans, the
chief danger spot on the Gulf coast, the
apprehensions of the last few days have
been greatly allayed by the promise of
an early approach of frost, or at least of
that cooler autumn weather which in
vites and accompanies the decadence of
each recurring fever plague.
Yet even without the fastened inter-
venton of Jack Frost the present cpl
demic had promised to spend itself in
comparative innocuousness. Certainly
no outbreak of yellow fever could well
have assumed form less dangerous
and malignant than that taken by the
! infection developed a month ago at
Ocean Springs For though the roll of
cases in the three states of Alabama
Mississippi and Louisiana has been
swollen day by day to formidable pro-
portions. the mortality reported so far
has been practically dwarfed alongside
the percentages of fatality shown in the
epidemics of former years. About two
hundred and fifty cases of genuine yell
low fever have now been brought Off
cialy to the attention of the marine hos
pital service at Washington, and proba-
bly, one hundred more suspected cases
have passed under inspection and treat
ment by purely local health boards.
But the number of deaths so far an
nounced is estimated at something less
than five per cent of the whole number
of cases treated, and there Is no reason
to think that the rate of mortality will
materially increase, as conditions grow
daily more unfavorable to the develop
ment of the disease. Indeed, when ii is
remembered that at Jacksonville in 1883
the percentage of deaths from yellow
fever amounted to ten per cent of all the
cases, and that in earlier epidemics 1t
had risen as high as twenty per cent, the
mlldness of the present outbreak, as un
looked-for as it is phenomenal, should be
gratefully appreciated.
Extensive loss of life is therefore not
to be feared as the chief evil likely to be
wrought by the prevailing epidemic
The damage it has already done and will
continue to do to the South's business
interests, through the stoppage of traffic
and commerce In certain sections, can
: not fail to assume considerable proper.
tions. But perhaps the most serious
harm it will entail will be to fix a sus-
piciOn of relaxing vigilance on the state
boards charged with scrutinizing inter
course along the Gulf coast with the
plague-breeding ports of the West In
dies and the Caribbean. Under such al
imputation the Gulf States ought not tC
allow themselves hereafter to rest. Fol
so long as dreaded diseases like yellow
fever are allowed to creep into southern
ports that section of the union cannot
Z hope to assert its equality with the RESI-
of the union as a field for the pursuit Of
life or happiness New York Tribune.
JUDICIAL USE OF INJUNCTION.
p IA.