The National tribune., 1898-07-28
SOMETHING ABOUT YELLOW FEVER.

troops III santiago IL Ol q HHu W pc anu
will probably not do much more damage
than the typhoid at Camp Alger. Vel
low fever is disease which varies
widely from one epidemic to another,
being sometimes of astonishing malig-
nancy and at others fairly innocuous.
Epidemics have been known where the
mortality was 80 per cent. among those
attacked and others where it was but 3
per cent. And the present epidemic, SO
far as may be judged, hardly approaches
the last limit. This showing is of course
partly due to the skill in diagnosis Of
our medical men, by whom every attack,
no matter how light, is correctly charac-
terized. 1t is the rule among the Span
ish to record only the serious attacks as
yellow fever, making no record of mere
transitory illness.
There is always yellow fever at San
tiago, that is under the ex-regime there
always has been, but the probabilities
are that this statement will not be true
in the future. Our Governments Vel
low Fever Commission 1879 said
" there has been yellow fever in Santi-
ago every year and nearly every month
since 1850" The "bottle forming the
harbor is deep depression in the hills,
and the ocean breezes do not reach the
city to any extent, so that Santiago is in
tensely hot with a breathless kind of
heat. AS the vultures are depended on
for scavenging and general sanitation,
the filth is indescribable.
Under these conditions yellow fever is
endemic /; that is, always present. But
the Santiago fever has reputation for
mildness compared with that Of Havana
or Vera Cruz. Nevertheless, it is not
innocuous. When the city is cleansed
up it will disappear, however, and never
come back, if cleanliness and proper
sanitary regulations are maintained, just
as it has disappeared from Key West,
New Orleans and from the whole Island
Of Jamaica. Til that time, however, it
is unadvisable to keep garrison of sus-
ceptible troops in the town.
But on the hills surrounding the town
there is no yellow fever. Yellow fever
is not good climber, and seldom leaves
the congenial filth of the coast towns.
1t is regarded as a rule, not without ex-
ceptions, of course, in the West Indies,
chat yellow fever does not appear above
300 feet elevation. Patients going with
it to the hills do not necessarily recover,
but the disease does not often spread
and attack new victims The hills of
Santiago Province have good reputa-
ton for healthfulnesa
There is another peculiarly about
yellow fever. 1t is an intensely local
affair. 1t has been known to 90 up
one side of hospital attacking every
body without affecting anybody on the
other side. Troops attacked by it are
often saved further ravages by moving
camp few hundred yards.
AS to the exact method by which it
is propagated, this is not yet known, but
that it is in some manner air borne is the
common assumption. At all events it
is not directly contagious. A wind
break, such as clump of trees, often
shields one camp or vessel from con-
tagion, while in absence of such an OBJ
stacle the contagion may spread. One
popular explanation Of this is that it is
carried by mosquitoes, which inoculate
the blood of their victims with germs
derived from decaying animal and
vegetable filth, or carry the specific
poison directly from one patient to
another. Dr.. Koch, the great German
bacteriologist Of tuberculin fame, has
recently cast the weight Of his opinion
in favor of the mosquito theory regard
ing most malarial fevera At all events,
whether mosquitoes carry it or not, the
phenomena attending the spread Of an