The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-11-12
LESSONS FROM FEVER IN NEW
ORLEANS

We notice that a communication in
The New Orleans States gives an ac-
count Of the prevailing yellow fever ep-
1demic in that unclean city that Is
strange and well worthy Of attention.
IT Is to the effect that in the clearly
Fart of the city the epidemic has been
che most violent. while in the flthiest
part there has been almost immunity
fpnm the disease. Reading that 1T sur
prises n seems to refute the theory
Of sanitation and cleanliness. But an
examination Of the facts stated in
Guides a lesson tina should be objec-
Give and important. Other cities and
towns might take warning and learn
how to do it. The lesson taught is
that there is a right time and a wrong
vime to clean up. Digging at the
wrong time invites contagion and
makes it spread quickly. 1t furnishes
the exact conditions for the active
spreading Of a plague like the yellow
fever.
The afflicted part of New Orleans is
the upper part where Eat the very start
or this fever the people Of that dis
frict, at great expense, put that local
fly in thorough condition. The streets
were cleaned, the accumulation of
Filth from the cutters taken up, and the
premises disinfected and the privies
-emptied, and yet, the fever not only
held it's own, but continued to spread,
until at present writing it may be con-
sSdered, in this locality, to be cpl
,armic.' Such is the statement in The
States. The cleaning up was done af-
ter the fever had entered the city and
had begun it's destructive work. Think
OF that. Sanitation began in hot wealth
CT. too late, and thus actually fed the
fever by the e~xhalations, odors, ETC.,
thai came up from the active digging
and cleansing. There is a wrong time,
n fatal time to do such work. 1t
spreads disease instead Of stamping it
out or preventing it's living.
How was the fever elsewhere in
New Orleans? How does it live and
destroy in the u~ncleaned, filthy part
or parts? The same writer says:
ION the other hand, very little clean
ing or stirring of cutters was made
in the lower portion of his city. as
compared to the energy in that direc-
aion displayed up town, and yet there
vs. comparatively very little fever in
the lower portion of the city, except
possibly in that portion occupied to a
barge extent by the Italians, which por-
tice1, thanks to Mr.. Farrar's devotion
to the public good, was the most fuml-
gated and disinfected Of this CITY,"
Note, that in the one part of the
lower and filthy portion an attempt to
clean up after the fever had got IN its
-xork, and the result is seen in the
spread Of the disease, while in the
same. lower section where no attempt
TO stir UP the filth right in the hot
weather was made there is but little
fever. The correspondent says of this
lower part that it is in this portion
etc be found the large majority OF the
drainage canals of this city, and as
to their conditions of filth NO one will
contest their claim to being, the most
Foafhsome in the world. That section
has had but little, if any cleaning
Gnne. r-.
Few of the cutters have been stirred,
and yet, with all these apparent draw
backs, there has not been any case of
yellow fever in that section, or, if any,,
very few, as compared to the portions
where the filth had been stirred and
carried away"
The correspondent thinks the
germs" of the fever seek filth and
low conditions" and if permitted to
remain in the cutters and canals, that
they would not seek other homes, and
would remain harmless during the en-
tire season? Would it not be wise,
therefore, never to clean these places
from the month of June until frost and
TO keep them purified by a free use of
dislnfectants?"
Here is wisdom to be found. Santa
Nv lessons abound. There is a time to
clean up a city and a time not to stir
the filth. There is a time to dig and a
time to disinfect. Do not dig a town
after May until the frost comes. Keep
the lots clean from month to month
where not much of filth is allowed to
accumulate, but beware of general dig
ying and stirring in the hot months.
FARMING RESULTS IN NORTH