The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1919-03-13
INFLUENZA VISITED
CHARLESTON 1907
TERRIBLE MORTALITY CAUSED
ON VISIT TO CHARLESTON.
People Suspicious Then
Some People Connected the Dread
Visitation With the Appearance
of a Comet i'm the Sky.
Charleston Sunday News.

charleston Sunday News.
Few articles which have appeared
in The News and Courier lately have
excited more comment than the re-
publication of Doctor Ramsays
account of the influenza cpl
demic of 1907, which spread north
and south from New York like wild
fire, at least half the population of
Charleston being afflicted with it in
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 ply
sician of that day, DR.. Joseph John
son. Some extracts from it undoubt-
edly will be welcomed by many read
ers; but before giving them perhaps
there are some who would be
glad to know what attention
the epidemic attracted in the
newspapers at that time.
What the Papers Said.
Comparatively, a great deal. It
must be remembered that in 1907
newspapers in general gave practi-
ca1ly no space to the publication of
local news items. The Charleston
papers were no exception in this re-
spect; the theory, apparently, being
that people knew what was happen
ing at home and that the function of
the newspapers was to inform them
as to what was going on at the va
rious seats of government and of the
state 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 a 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 Charleston af-
fairs; and that in general was taken
up with marriage notices and death
notices.
: 1t will be understood from the
foregoing 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 a real sensation;
even more so, it would appear, than
in the epidemic fever, which like
wise ragged at that time, ia deaths
occurring from it in September.
First Mentioned October Is.
s. The influenza epidemic had start
sed 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 in
fluenza," !" it stated, lis becoming very
prevalent in this city" A week lat
er, or, to be exact, on Friday, Octo-
ber %, it was stated: .'The influenza
has become so prevalent that it is
supposed upwards of 5000 persons
are now afflicted with it in this city.
It has not, so far as we can learn,
been attended with any mortality.
The next item which follc-rs this
Is interesting. "Greatly as we have
been distressed during the past sum-
mer," it reads, with oppressive
heat, the ravages on an uncontrolla-
bic disease, and the stagnation of
business, yet under the blessings of
Providence our planters have made
more luxuriant crops than in many
preceding years, and the weather
continued remarkably favorable for
the gathering of them in
Deadly in Havana.
One other quotation from the Cou-
rier before passing to DR.. Johnson s
narrative. On December %, 1908,
appeared the following: 1--WE learn
that the influenza is now very pre-
yalent at Havana, and that it is at
tended with very considerable de-
gree of mortality"
In 1907 DR.. Joseph Johnson was
president of the Medical society OF
South Carolina. DIR. Johnson was
the father of the late DR.. John John
son, long rector of the St. Phillips
church. He is probably best known
as the author of Johnson's Tradi-
tions of the America revolution.
At the anniversary meeting of the
Medical society held on December
24, 1908, DR.. Johnson devoted his
address to review of the weather
and the disease of Charleston dur
ing the year, the address being pub
lished by order of the society.
Dr. Johnson began his address
with An account of the weather oom-