The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-08-10

| The crisis usually comes on the
! third day. Then the sick person
travels rapidly towards either dissoln'
tion or convalescence. There have
come under my notice instances Of
patients dying within 10 hours from
the time they took to bed. [ helped
prepare one young man for the grave,
who, the attending physician said,
had died Of pure fright.
All sorts of treatments were applied
to the yellow fever patients during
the epidemic of '78. Members Of
several schools Of medicine were
operating among the sick and the re-
suit was the employment Of great
variety Of remedial agencies in fight
ing the disease.
one day asked an experienced and
successful practitioner, DR.. Harper,
who began as an allopath, but was
then employing the homeopathic sys-
tenn of curing-which of the two
methods he had found Of greatest eff
cacy in treating yellow fever.
He was long man-too long to ride
in buggy comfortably. He was an
old man-nearly 70-also a profane
man; and he answered me with long
string Of picturesque oaths, decorat-
ing his reply:
"By heaven, sir; since l have been
practicing homeopathy, I have man
aged to save few people; but I'll be
id, sir, while l practiced allopathy
I never saved a single one. >
had occasion to become convinced,
as far as my personal experience went,
that the old Doctors homeopathic
treatment was mere figure Of speed.
For, as soon as he was called in, be
had me put into bed, covered with a
pile of heavy blankets and bathed in
water heated to a temperature ap-
preaching the boiling point and plen-
tifully thickencd with mustard. In
this sort Of bath, applied under bed
clothes, my body was stepped three
times du ing the first two hours after
the attack came on. A thorough dry
ing with crash towels followed each
application Of the hot water and mus
tard. A mustard plaster was laid on
the full length Of my back and | was
given a copious dose of castor oil.
Bags filled with crushed ice were kept
about my head and I was allowed to
drink all the ice water wanted.
Frequent draughts Of watermelon seed
tea and sweet spirits Of nitre were ad-
ministered to stimulate the action Of
the kidneys. 1 was allowed to take
chicken broth the first day and to
drink iced buttermilk on the second.
Before noon on the third day the doc
tor pronounced the fever broken. On
the fourth day the period Of GONZALES
cence began; on the ninth [ was per-
mitted to dress and walk about the
room. On the fourteenth day I walk
ed.o of the house we'll man.
The ravages of the fever showed
most severely among the poor, because
their number was greater and because
their surroundings were for the most
part foul and unsanitary. Foul air as
the result of bad water and lack of a
sewage facilities aided the fever in
taking virulent type from the mo-
ment it made its appearance at New
Orleans, Vicksburg and Grenada. In
those places, and especially in the
smaller towns around them, a shortage
in experienced doctors and trained
nurses to cope with the disease in the
initial stages of its progress, had much
to do with piling up the mortality.
The wealthy and well-to-do classes
suffered also with proportionate sever
ity. Many Of them stood their ground
and did faithful service in nursing the
sick and helping the bereaved and
destitute.
i saw bank president and u pro-
fessional gambler sitting as nurses by
the bedside of an Italian fruit ped
dler and members of the half world
ministering tirelessly in plague-strick-
en- homes.
Sanitation and boards of health in
the stricken cities of the South were
jokes iu IS compared with what they
are now. Old tar barrels were burned
on street corners, carbolic acid was
thrown in the cutters and lime was
scattered everywhere, but this was
done in the old days after the fever
had obtained foothold. Since 1875
the exposed localities have entered or
the ''ounce Of preventive policy or
an ovto,S;yo anl;rbtorod aud norsa