The daily silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1903-1907, 1905-04-20
|OFF|C|AL REPORT
TO GOVERNOR
~
'Dr. Lee Gives Detailed Account
of Conditions in
Tonopah


Honorable John Sparks, Governor of Ne
vada
Sr:--In compliance with your request OF
the 14th instant, / started to Tonopah,
Nevada, on the morning of the 18th to
investigate the sanitary conditions of
that town, and, so far as possible, ascer-
tain the cause or causes of the disease
prevailing there as an epidemic
/ arrived on the night of the 18th. and
at o'clock a. m. 1 took transcript from
the records of Mr.. Wanacot, the coroner.
who is the only undertaker in Tonopah.
He makes affidavit that he buried all s4ie
kets for all who died and were transport
ed to other points. This record SHOWS
that the deaths from all causes during
the month of January amounted to nine,
in February two. in March twenty-three.
From April lst to the 10th, inclusive,
twenty-five, making a total of fifty-six
of whom fifty-four were males and two
females or the foregoing one died of
smallpox. one suicide, one following an
amputation, one (fema.e) from operation,
one killed by hand-car, one killed on the
desert ten miles from Tonopah, one from
Brights disease, two from heart disease,
the remaining forty-seven having died
from the disease that has caused such
excitement In this locality as well as
throughout the coast
From the above total one should be
eliminated, as death occurred at Kawich,
but the burial took place in Tonopan,
thus reducing the number toA forty-five
deaths from shis disease since December
3lst. 1904. in an estimated population of
5000.
My next step was, if possible, to dag
nose or name the disease. Every oppor-
fession, and general courtesy extended TO
me.
In the Miners Union, Railroad, City
and County and Lane Hospitals and at
private residences, visited some twenty
six cases. among which number every
stage of the disease was represented e..
from the twelfth hour after invasion to
the convalescent, or TO death. one having
died on the night of my arrival.
Having examined some forty cases OF
this type of disease in this same camp
during an epidemic in the month of jan
uary. 1902. had no nesltancy in pro-
nouncing the disease pleuro-pneumonia
However. fully realizing that the fears of
the public would never be allayed
through my opinion unsupported by otn-
ers, 1 called a meeting of the resident
physicians at the Mfzpah Club at o'clock
D. m. of the 18th. Fortunately an au-
topsy was made upon one of the typical
which the physicians were generally pres
ent.
| would say in passing that / have new
er seen more clever body of physicians
in a city of five or eight thousand peop'e
than are now practicing in Tonopah
Such a compliment to their mental equip
ment naturally suggests that they are
pathologists of no mean order.
Having thoroughly examined The NOR
bid organisms, the cause OF death. in this
instance, was declared unanimously, to
be p.euro-pneumonia; and as above stat
ed. the case being similar to all others
that had resulted in death 1t was unani-
mously held that the epidemic was one
of pleuro-pneumonia, due to pneumoeocci
and streptococci Infection invading the
pleural cavity and pericardium. Death
occurs from heart failure from auto-in-
toxication.
Lowered vitality resulting from alco-
holic excesses, poorly ventilated cabins,
great expenditure of vital energy. follow
ed by suddenly lowered temperature, gen.
eral unsanitary environments etc, etc,
were unquestionably responsible for the
high death rate through failure of the
body to resist germ invasion. The infec-
uousness OF the disease has been almost