The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1898-12-14
WHITES ARE IMMUNE
American soldiers I'm Cuba Need Not
Fear the Disease Called
W Beri-Beri. ilf

" a statement puDilSHcu sSOhiS uuy .
,go in the press throughout the coun-
try from Gen. George w. Wingate, an
army officer, about the climate OF
Cuba, and the dangers from disease
to be confronted there, and concluding
with statement about "beri-beri,'
which has made its appearance there
in the cities, was handed to Mr.. st.
Julien Mazyck by reporter for the
Charleston Is. C.) News and Courier re-
Gently, with the request for informa-
tion about the disease, with which he
was understood to have had consider
able experience.
"Well, do not think anyone need
give himself any apprehension about
the danger from beri-beri," said Mr..
Mazyck when he had read the article.
at may be regarded as disease Pc
culiar to the black and yellow races
and rarely, if ever, attacks a white man.
| have seen and treated more cases of
it, perhaps, than any man in America,
and, while it is contagious to degree
among the negroes, can state posi-
lively that no white man contracted it.
My acquaintance with it lasted from
May until September, 1862, and was OF n
nature calculated to impress itself
upon me with peculiar force. l was in
Charleston at the time it first made its
appearance among my fathers ne
groes on the Santee, and knew nothing
of it until the oyerseer became alarmed
and sent me word that a number of
them were attacked by a kind of
dropsy that seemed to spread among
them and completely nonplused the
local physicians. As the matter APP
there to see about it myself, and found
between 80 and 40 negroes of all ages
in bed, swollen fearfully from head to
foot and unable to walk.
There was nothing else for it, and
determined to stay there and nurse
them myself. No one had ever seen
anything like it in the country, and I
was unable to do anything more than
nurse them for long time. The ma
iority of those who took it died, and
with a few it seemed to run its course
and disappear. From what l could
see it was an infectious dropsy, with
the difference that it did its work much
more rapidly, the climax being reached
in about three weeks, when the patient
either died or began to improve.
'In utter despair took numbers OF
people up to look at them, and all OF
them were forced to confess that they
had never seen anything like it before.
At length a lady in the city told me OF
a similar case in Il negro of her fa'
theirs which old DR.. Schmidt, of this
city, had termed 'beri-beri' and treat
ed as such, he having seen much of it
on the Guinea coast of Africa. His
treatment consisted of rubbing the pa
tient with sweet oil and administering
five-grain doses of calomel daily. i
tried the experiment on woman who
had it. She recovered, though whether
as the result of the treatment or not
am unable to say.
'Some years later 1 was telling DR..
Guiteras of the disease, while he was
stationed here, and he Immediately
pronounced it beri-beri, having seen il
in Cuba. He said it was negro disease
and not to be feared by white men.
Both he and DR.. Schmidt claimed that
it came from dampness, and was not
to be found where the soil was dry.
From my fathers plantation on the
Santce a few cases spread up on the
Waccamaw, but the epidemic disap-
peared with that year, and have never
heard of it in this country since. -
St. Louis Republic.
JAPANESE ORCHID CRAZE.