New-York tribune., 1905-08-16
FILTH AND FEVER.
The "Housecleaning" in New-0rleans Last
Week
To the Editor of The Tribune.

To the Editor of The Tribune
Sir: In an editorial. Not a wisesly Directed
Campaign" in yesterdays issue. you bear rather
heavily on the efforts cleanse New-OrIeans as
a OF checking the spread Of yellow fever
saying cleanliness and sanitation do not now
bear the same intimate relations to each other
that they once did, in the minds OF the experts II
New-Orleans wants to get rid of the plague. let
her get rid Of her mosquitoes"
Pardon me, but yellow fever is considered to be
essentially filth disease and is most prevalent
where filth is rankest. in West Indian. Gulf and
South American ports
1t was my fortune good or bad. to be
resident of Santiago. Cuba for a time after
the American occupation. Santiago was nOtori-
ously one OF the flthiest cities in the world and
it was equally notorious in that it never free
from yellow fever. The work given TO the Amer
leans IN cleaning the city tremendous; but it
was done. and largely done under the supervision
of one Major Barber, who practically changed the
city from of the thiest to one Of the cIeauest
as we'll as healthest cities in the world. Yellow
fever, rampant before. was driven from the place,
ana Tor several years not single was known,
except where an English tramp steamer brought in
eleven casesIslX more developing after her ar
aeg9ss the bay where every one recSo
one single case developed in the city. though mos
quitoes are always In evidence well in
Now. this cleansing of the city and the com
FORE the expermenting and the MOSQUITO theory
was carried out at Havana. for Major Barber,
carbolc acid and iodoform. had simply killed the
disease-had driven IL away from its stronghold
before 4b IL 5 Was ever dreamed that the
Guths station. Penn. Aug. u. 1905
[Our correspondent may be right. The question
is not yet fully settled. Most of those who hold
the new theory are careful TO say that they do
so tentatively. In so important matter, opinion
is not to be altered completely in instant.
Apparently, however. the same sort of revolu-
ton in thought is taking place in regard to
yellow fever as recently occurred relative TO
diphtheria. 1t was once universally believed by
medical men that sewer gas was the cause of
that disease 1t is now known that particular
species of microbe is responsible. and that bad
plumbing either has no influence at all or else
operates indirectly by promoting debility and
susceptibility Already the preponderance of be-
lief favors the idea that the mosquito is the
exclusive agent in the dissemination Of yellow
fever. When such high authorities as the med
icaI department of the United States Army, the
United States Marine Hospital Service, progress
sive State quarantine officials. like DR.. Doty, and
the leading medical journals of the country ac-
cept, dissent by the laity is rather audacious.
Just how to explain the immunity which San
tiago has enjoyed since the war is not altogether
easy. without definite medical testimony. That
it began at the time of the first thorough clean
ing of the city may have been nothing but
coincidence. Perhaps the work was so con-
Quoted as. without design, TO diminish the
number Of breeding places of the mosquitoes.
Again, winter having once assisted in the sup
preston Of the plague. a stricter quarantine
than Santiago had ever known before greatly
diminished the chance Of a fresh invasion from
other ports. It is possible that during the short
stay Of the few patients mentioned by our cor
respondent no opportunity for injecting any Of
the new crop of mosquitoes afforded If
none arose the subsequent freedom Of the city
is explicabe on the modern hypothesis.l