Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-01
DR.. WASDlN'S REPORT
His Examination Of the Existing Conditions
at Hampton Home.
He Has Seen All the Cases of Suspect
ed Disease The Last
Epidemic.

| DR.. Wasdin's official report of his exam
Efnation of existing conditions at the Sol
diers' Home at Hampton has reached DR..
Wyman of the marine hospital service. 1t
| is dated Sunday. and notes the fact that the
! doctor has seen all the cases of suspected
| disease at the home. He sums up the his
tory of the contagion as follows:
EARLY in July an old soldier entered the
home for a short rest, and soon afterward
appeared at the dispensary, where he in
formed the physician in charge that he was
| but recently from Santiago via a transport,
| to a northern port; thence he started for
Manila via San Francisco beat his way to
the home on a freight train and entered
with his baggage. He complained of dumb
chills and fever and was prescribed for.
He mingled freely with the inmates of the
home and short time ago disappeared.
From this as possible cause the outbreak
| is as follows: Preceding Friday the 21st
instant, there had been noticed nothing of
a suspicious nature. The weekly death rate
was as usual. But on the 21st and 22d there
became ill during the night with chills and
high fever some eight or ten inmates. men
of usually good health These seizures. al
though noted as peculiar. had occaSioned
| no alarm until about Thursday, 9th, when
death occurred the man becoming dis
tinctly yellow some time prior to death. On
or about the same day another died
without having attracted particular atten-
ton; he also turned quite yellow. Autop-
sizes were held on both by the resident path
ologiSt. 1t was then little later that
the telegram was sent you asking for an
expert. 1 found there We're $500 inmates,
and that 30 had been taken ill since the
Dist"
No Doubt About the Disease.
DR.. Wasdn says ne withheld positive
diagnosis in his first communication be-
cause Of the assertion of Surgeon Vickery
at the home that there had been no COM
munication of the inmates with any Cuban
soldiers returned since last May or early
in June. With the discovery of the prob
able origin of the infection and the two
autopsies yesterday there can be no doubt,
he says, about the disease being yellow
fever. and continues: Il have advised Maj.
Vickery to empty the dormitories infected
at once, putting the men preferably in
tents. The grounds are closed. There has
been a very free intercommunication be-
tween the inmates and the people of Phoe-
bus, a public house near the grounds hav-
ing been freely visited until last night. 1
have suggested to DR.. Pettus to meet one
more of the local boards of Phoebus and
informing them of the state of affairs, ask
their cooperation in watching the village
These inmates, as l understand it, do not
minSle much with people outside of the
village. From this fact it would seem pos
sible to confine it in the home.
Some data furnished by the surgeon gem
eral shows the prompt manner in which the
authorities have taken the situation in
hand. Late Saturday DR.. Wyman received
telegram from Surgeon Vickery at the
home. asking for an expert. Dr. Ward was
ordered there from Norfolk at once and
last night a dispatch came from him an
nouncing the disease was genuine yellow
fever. Surgeon White was sent from Wash
lngton TO take charge of marine hospital
ahalrs. He has had large experience in yell
low fever epidemics. After a Gordon mad
been established around the Soldiers Home
nelghboring cities were warned and adj
V1sed to hunt for any inmates of the home
VINO might be visiting, and to keen them
under close observation. Dispatches to this
effect were sent Sunday to Norfolk Ports
mouth, Newport News and Richmond and
the health officer at Washington was mott
ned In Norfolk a house-to-house inspec-
ton is being made. DR.. Farquhar at Ports
mouth was appointed to consult the health
authorities there and at the adjoining town
OF Berkeley, and to aid in locating army
refugees. Passed Assistant Surgeon Wer-
tenbaker. who has been ordered from Will
1nington, n. C., to Hampton, is not an inn
mune, but is intimately acquainted with
the iocanty, ana will serve on the outside of
the Gordon. Surgeon Vickery at the home
has been asked to prepare a list of soldiers
VINO have departed within a month with
view OF tracing them. Yesterday afternoon
Ezdorf from New Orleans to Hamilton
raised Assistant Surgeon Smith who is on
leave, has been directed to return to Nor
tolk Surgeon Magruder has been ordered
from Memphis. Both of these have had
large experience in quarantine matters Sur
geon Pettus. in charge of the Cape Charles
quarantine. has been ordered to assign his
assistant, Surgeon McClintick to temporary
charge and to remain on duty himself at
Old Point
The MT nil
The last epidemic of yellow fever in Nor
folk and vicinity was the great plague of
1855, which devastated the three communi-
ties of Gosport, Norfolk and Portsmouth
and ranks in medical history as one of the
most severe epidemics this country has
ever witnessed. Despite the fact that a
third of the population of these three towns
fled when the disease reached epidemic
proportions, the total death list for the
three months of pestilence 1,S07. The
death rate was more severe than during the
black plague in London in 1863 That
scourge carried off 100000 people. but the
mortality was only one in seventeen. Dur
ing the Norfolk epidemic it was one in
three.
The fever was brought to the port by the
West India steamer Ben Franklin from ST
Thomas where yellow fever was then rag
ing. Several men died aboard the Franklin
after she entered the bay, some of the bod
les being buried and one washing ashore
On reaching her wharf the hold was opened
and the bige pumped out resulting in an
outbreak of fever in the adjoining shipyard
The fever was confined for while to Cos
port, but was carried. by refugees to Nor
foik and Portsmouth. 1t rapidly spread
throughout all these towns and the people
fled panic-stricken. Other towns uuaran-
tined against the infected district till at one
time there was an incipient famine and not
enough able-bodied people left to nurse the
sick and bury the dead. Whole streets
were depopulated and families wiped ont