The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-19
F. SANDERS !l DERSn,. : IS HOPEFUL Health Officer Returns From CaStleberry. TALKS OF THE SITUATION Source of Fever Infection Still
 a Mystery. No Suspicious Cases In the Conecuh County Village and RefDgees
 are Returning to Their
 Homes.

 annihflation at Castleberry. State Health oficer w. H. Sanders yesterday morning returned to Montgomery from the infected water station on the Lou isville and Nashville Railroad, ninety miles south of Montgomery. The re- turn of Dr. Sanders was expected Tues day night, but final effort to work out a clew as to the origin of infection Tuesday afternoon delayed him over twelve hours.
 It is the opinion of Dr. Sanders that all has been done to prevent further spread of the fever in Castleberry. The house in which Gus Josnson and wife lived was sealed the latter part of last week and every article of the household was fumigated thoroughly. Since then every house and cabin in the commu- nity has been subjected to the sulphur fumes. As many of the trees as sur rounded the house of infection have also been fumigated with the hopes of killing every mosquito which bit the yellow fever patients and still survive.
 Corrects an Error.
 On account of an error in transmits sion of his telegram of Tuesday. the impression went forth that Dr. Sanders had declared that mosquitoes which bit Mir. and Mrs. Johnson in the propaga- tion period were not capable of trans hitting the disease now. Dr. Sanders, aS SuOu hC StCPpCu oii ShS ttn'h terday, made ready denial of this statement and said that, on the con trary, the time has just come for the fever to further spread if there are to be any new cases. The only hope is that the mosquitoes which bit the two patients In the first three days of their illness have been killed or reduced to so few that no other persons will be stung. For this reason Dr. Sanders and his few volunteer assistants have been waging an industrious war on all mos qiutoes in the neighborhood of the Johnson home.
 Monday was the first day on which it was possible for mosquitoes to trans
 init the fever from the Johnsons to a third person. said pr. Sanders yes terday. These would be the stegomyia which bit the patient on the first day of the sickness Tuesday was the first
 day on which it was possible for the mosquitoes which bit the patient the
 second day of sickness to carry the disease and today was the first oppor- tunity for the mosquitoes of the third day to infect a person. So 1t can be seen the danger is just on and not past, as was stated.
 The mosquito theory makes the pe-
 riod for the mosquito incubation twelve
 days after biting patient and the only time of the patients sickness in
 
 ed Is the first three days. With this in mind there is no trouble in seeing
 that Monday the danger of spread be- gan.
 Origin StilI Unknown.
 Despite the most careful investiga-
 tions that were conducted by Dr. San ders for five days and Dr. Mohr of Mo- bile and Dr. McCreary of Evergreen the latter part of last week, they all had to leave the town completely baf- fled as to finding the origin Of infec- ton. Where the fever that visited tho Johnsons came from is as great a mys- tery as 1t was before Dr. Sanders reach ed Castleberry Probably half the time 1 of the State Health Officer in Castle berry was consumed with tracing the | origin of the fever. This was consid- | cred important because in order to fight | the disease intelligently 1t is valuable | to know where the first infection was. There were at least half dozen | cases of prior illness that were inves- | tfrated by Dr. Sanders. Their history
 was gone into thoroughly but there was | rot an iota of evidence which could be made to connect the eases with the Johnsons The latter were known to | have never left Castleberry during the
 whole summer. This made the search | for the imported illness the more dtffi- l cult. Every suggestion of inhabitants of tbe town was followed to the last | thread and when it came to associating | a case of fever with the Johnsons the | effort fell flat The origin Is practl- | caIly reduced to chimeras and the only | thing left to account Tor the intection l is that refugee coaches on trains from New Orleans and Pensacola occasional. | lv stopped within a hundred yards of | inc home of Mir. Johnson. This was
 when the engines took on water. Even 1 this ia considered a very remote pos
 sibility.
 If was once thought that the John-
 sons were infected through the visit of | relatives to their home recently from 1 Mississipui. It was found, however, | thai the visitors left an uninfected por- | tion of the State July 1s. or three or l four days before the announcement that | New orleans had the fever. They could | have hardly brought the fever to the l little town of their relatives especially | aa none of them was sick on the visit. | Tbe visitors spent most of their time | xrith other relatives in the country l naar Castleberry and continuously min | gled with more people than they came
 in contact with while in the home of
 .ho Iobnsons. The members of the l Sau,Ilv in the country were never taken l sick and this premise In hunting the l orIgin of the fever was blasted.
 "A man named Sullivan" said pr. sanders yesterday, who lived in the country close to Castleberry. looked for awhile as if his movements would ex- nIain the infection. Even his case, however. led to no association with the Johnsons under any conjecture, and he
 was dismissed from the investigation. He said he had child sick with the fe- yer directly after he had visited Mont romery and Pensacola in succession. | His testimony conflicted in point of time. He said he was in Montgomery
 when the Minhinnett case was pro- | nnunced. He went straight to his home. he satd. and shortly went with l his child to Pensacola. He said this
 was in July, but the fact is that the Montgomery case was diagnosed in Au-
 gust and if this preceded the trip to Pensacola he could not have gone there | in July. Even admitting that he went
 10 Pensacola when he said he did. we could find absolutely nothing which
 would indicate any communication be- tween the Sullivan family in the coun- try and the Johnsons in town"
 1 The last inquiry held by pr. Sanders
 was Tuesday afternoon when he drove | through the country i've or six miles