The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1919-02-20
FLU EPIDEMIC N
S. c. III YEARS AGO
TOLD ABOUT IN PAPER BY A
CHARLESTON DOCTOR.
Nine Families of Children Left Or
phans at Cashaway Ferry by
the Epidemic of-1S07.

CA
{ qualification last Monday OF DR.. Ram
saws account of the influenza cpl
demic of 1907, which spread Norih
and South from, New York like
wildfire at least half the population
of Charleston being afflicted with II
III the course of very short PERIOD.
There is another contemporary re-
port on this 1907 epidemic which is
in some respects even more Interest
ing than that of Dr., Ramsay. 1t too
was by an eminent Charleston physi-
eian of that day, Dr.. Joseph Johnson
Soma extracts from it undoubtedly
4 will beNwelcomed by many readers:
but before giving them perhaps there
are some who would be glad to
know what attention the ep demic
attracted in the newspapers at that
fine.
Comparatively, a great deal. 1t
must be remembered that in 1897
newspapers in general gave practl-
cally no space to the publication OF
local news items. The Charleston
papers. were no eXcep ton in this re-
spect;, the theory, apparently, being
that people knew what was b ppen-
ing at home ard that the function
of the newspaper was to inform them
as to what was going on at the yafl-
Gus seats of government and OF the
status of affairs in Europe.
The four pages of the Charleston
Courier in 1907 contained daily
three and one half pages of adver-
tisements and about three columns
of matter devoted to discussion OF
what was being done by Napoleon
or at Washington, or by the State
Legislature, or to the war cloud
then thickening. Six or eight inches
was the maximum given to Charles
4 ton affairs; and that in general was
>Rken up with marriage notices and
nth notices.
will be understood from the
solegoing that the fact, that the pre-
valence of influenza in the city was
mentioned at least five or six times
during the fall of 1907 means that
the epidemic was real sensation;
even more so it would appear that
in the '.endemic" fever, which like
wise ragged at that time ia deaths
occurring from 1t in September.
First Mentioned October Is.
: The influenza epidemic had start
ed in New York in August, 1907, ac-
cording to DR.. Ramsay. The first
mention of it in The Courier was on
Thursday, October Is. "The lnflu-
enza", it stated, sis becoming very
prevalent in this city" A week Ia
ter. or to be exact, on Friday, Octo-
Der %, it was stated: "The influen-
"a has become so prevalent that II
is supposed upwards of 5000 per-
~sons are now afflicted with it in this
city. 1t has not, yet, so far as
we can learn, been attended with
any mortality
The next item which follows this
Is interesting, Greatly as we have
been distressed during the p1st sum-
mer," it reads with oppressive heat
the ravages of an uncomfortable dis
ease, and the stagnation of business,
--Jet under the blessings of Provi-
dence our planters have made more
luxuriant crops than in many pre-
ceding years, and the weather con-
, tinued remarkably favorably for the
gathering of them in"
One other quotation from The
Courier before passing to DR.. john
sons narrative. On December %,
1907. appeared the following: 1--WE
learn that the influenza is now very
prevalent at Havana, and that it is
attended with very considerable
degree of mortality
In 1907 DR.. Joseph johnson was
president of the Medical Society Of
South Carolina. DR.. Johnson wos
the father of the late DR.. John john
son. long rector of s.. P'iip's
church. He is probably best known
as the author Of Johnson"s Tradi-
tions of the American Revolution
At the anniversary meeting OF
the Medical Society held on Decem-
ber "a, 1907, DR.. Johnson devoted
his address to a review of the wealth
er and the diseases of Charleston
dgring the year, the address being
by order of the society.
DR.. Johnson began his address
with an account of the weather. COM
menting in detail upon the seventy
of the cold with which the year had
set in. 1.-The changes in February
and March, he says, "were very
great and sudden. On the 9Th the
temperature fell thirty-two degrees
In seventeen hours, as appeared by
nur diary. and had probably been