The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-01-22
AN EPIDEMIC Is FEARED
ANOTHER CASE OF SMALLPOX AT
INDIANAPOLIS FOUNDRY.
The Four Hundred Employees Nacci-
mated During the Day-Twenty
Cases for january.

The fears of the city health officers that
the exposure of 800 employees of the In
dianapolis Foundry Company TO victim
of smallpox in its most virulent form would
result in a dangerous epidemic among the
colored people of the city may be realized.
Last night member of the family of Day
ton Demar, a cOlored emplOye of the fOun-
dry company, went to the Office of a doc
tor in the neighborhood and informed him
that Demar was very sick. The suspicious
Of the doctor were aroused and his in
vestigations showed that Demar was af-
fiicted with a case of smallpox of the most
pronounced type. The doctor who handled
the case stated that Demar undoubtedly
contracted the scourge from contact with
Pack Williams, the colored foundryman
who was discovered with the disease while
at work in the foundry. Demar had been
sick several days before his family realized
that he was seriously ill; and in the words
of the doctor, after he made the examina
ton. His face was a sight"
Demar, as well as Williams, had been
mingling constantly not only with employees
of the foundry but with colored people of
his own neighborhood, and it is feared
that his sickness will have particularly un-
pleasant results.
BY order of the City Health Board most
of the men employed at the foundry were
vaccinated yesterday but the officers of
the board are apprehensive that the vac
cinatiOns were made too late to be of serv-
ice in checking a spread of the disease.
The officers of the board are going ahead
quietly without arousing popular fears and
are making preparations to deal with an
epidemic DR.. Buehler. city sanitarian, is
rushing plans for the new contagion house
at the City Hospital, and special meeting
OF Council may be called at any time to
pass an ordinance authorizing the construc-
tiOn of the 2,500 building. The Health
/ Board is seriously handicapped even at
present in dealing with smallpox on ac-
count OF the crowded condition or the pest
house at the hospital. and if epidemic
were to develop suddenly the results might
be of the gravest nature.
In addition to the case of Demar, Of
which the board has not been officially
notified, there were three cases formally
reported yesterday w. A. Owings. OF ~
BeVille avenue, was reported by DIR. c..
/ O. Lowry to have a pronounced case of
/ the disease, and his house was Immediate
/ " quarantned. Owings is a white man:
/ DR.. Nelson BraytOn reported TO the board
/ that Julius Pettiford, of 43l Hiawatha
/ street, is suffering from case of var1ola,
/ and he was taken to the City Hospital.
Pettiford is a colored man. DR.. Buehler
/ ored. OF 527 North California street, and
/ he too, was taken to the cOntagiOn pa
/ viliOn. With Demar's case the record for
\ the month of January is an even twenty
/ cases, an average OF about one daily.
/ Dr. Buehler, while apparently not APP
/ prehensive of a dangerous epidemic, does
/ not attempt to disguise the fact that the
situation Is serious. Whenever another
/ case of smallpox is reported TO the office
/ ne says II means that the circle or persons
/ that have been exposed to contagion grows
/ larger; on that principle contagion develops
! with the speed of geometrical progression.
i He says the board is following strictly
the rules of the health service in regard 10
vaccination and quarantine, and he hopes
| that they may be effective.
In discussing the local smallpox situation
! DR. Nelson Brayton said last night: There
| is far too much smallpox in indianapolis
| much more than the size OF the city war
| rants / attribute the unusual frequency
Of the cases to the lack of general vaccina-
ton. In Indianapolis colored people are
| the usual victims. and IL is because, 1r
| nineteen cases out of twenty, they have
| not submitted TO vaccination either from
! superstition OF from actual fear. In the
| East there is seldom the disproportion OF
| cases among whites and blacks that there
is here Vaccination among colored people
| is more common there
| Dr. BraytOn, while declaring that there
! may be some danger of a spread of the
| scourge among the colored people of the
/ city does not believe that the case origi
mating among the employees of the Indian
apolis Foundry Company will result in 6
general epidemic.