The Eureka sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1902-current, 1905-04-22

The Reno Journal sent DR.. A. II.
Heppner of Reno to investigate and re-
port to that paper the health conditions
in Tonopah. DIR. Heppner returned to
Reno Monday and the result of his mis-
sion is given in Tuesdays Journal. To-
nopah does not suffer by the report. and
it shows that the true state Of affairs
has been greatly exaggerated.
DR.. Heppner says that Tonopah was
in q poor sanitary condition, and that
the heavy death rate this month was
due in most cases to pleuro pneumonia,
brought on from various causes. He
thinks the leading citizens Of the camp
were negligent in not getting together
and frankly admitting to the outside
world just what the trouble was.
Light Death Rate.
DR.. Heppner considers the death rate
of Tonopah very light for a place with
a population of between 1000 and 5000.
The official records show there were 2
deaths in December, 9 in January, 2 in
February. In March the death rate
jumped to 81, including 1 death from
small pox and 8 from operations.
Among the IL deaths caused from the
epidemic. the doctor cites one case that
"came in deathly sick from a distance
of 80 miles, and another died 80 miles
out of town and was brought to Tono-
pah for burial. Now, observe" he
says, "that the history and symptoms
in both cases were exactly like those
who die in the environments of Tono-
pah. That people should contract this
trouble out on the desert, isolated as
these two were, without the possibility
either of contagion or infection, makes
one seriously reflect whether all these
unsanitary conditions of Tonopah have
more than an indirect bearing on the
subject. During the 16 days of April
there were 81 deaths, with indications
for better conditions for the balance of
the month.
The First Symptoms.
"The first symptoms of this trouble
is a decided chill, the temperature goes
up to 104 or 105, some pain at the base
of the lung, but not of the degree nor
in the locality in which you would ex-
pect to get it in lobar pneumonia.
There is great difficulty in breathing
from the first, with a tense fast pulse,
anxious pinched features. A bright
red expectoration, almost suggesting an
a~rterial hemorrhage takes place, quite
different again from some cases that
show more the prune juice character
of expectoration. Some few cases have
from this j%uncture On proceeded to con-
valescence in seven days. I spoke to
two such patients myself. Others go
from bad to worse, showing now the
symptoms Of pus poisoning, p~articu-
larly affecting the nervous systems that
drive and check the heart. With a
pulse of 100 and temperature of only SO
an engagement Of the entire return
circulation, they become blue, profuse
cold, clammy sweat gathering, they
present to the average layman's eye the
terrible picture of black DEATH while
in fact it is simply the mechanical dis
turbances in the relation of the outgo-
ing and returning blood due to this pus
poison. Here. then, is the explanation
of the enlarged black liver talked of SO
much. 1t enlarges from receiving more
blood than it can send out.
Vitality at Fault.
II learned it to be a fact that those
attacked by this disease have invar-
iably been in a state of lowered vital
ity from various causes, such as living
in unsanitary surroundings. people who
have no home, but lay around in low
grade saloons, or in other instances,
miners who had worked hard all day,
getting into a perspiration, then going
out into the cold night. contracting a
cold, followed from infection with pus
making organisms.
Even the few of the better classes
who died were. while living in better
surroundings, men who had worked
too hard. keeping late hours, employed
In stores where sunlight and fresh air
are wanting.
Sanitation Not the Cause.
eff the garbage which is now being
removed and the vaults which are be-
ing cleansed of their contents were the
source OF this epidemic you would be
bound to have primarily disturbances
of the digestive tract. There would be
diarrhoea. .typhoidal conditions, with
vomiting, headaches and bilious dis
turbances. and the enlarged liver would
not simnlv show to be a passive con-