The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1919-02-20

They Will De lne guests VI tiiN
Der of Commerce during their stay
in the city.
grees are observed in short periods
during these months"
After a cold and backward spring
there followed an abnormally hot
and dry summer, and this was sue
ceeded by long drought in the
fall. The "endemial fever ragged
and September was, from sickness
and death the blackest month ever
recorded in Charleston, there having
been 32S interments, of which la
were from endemial causes, and at
least one-fourth Of the inhabitants
ESTIMATED at $4,000 in number)
were affected with influenza about
the last of the month"
During October and November
"the inhabitants were distressed
still more by the clouds of dust when
drifted in every direction. All
the ponds and many of the wells ana
springs were dry, so that in country
places many cattle died for want OF
water and travellers could not obtain
sufficiency near the road either
for, themselves or their horses"
At this time a comet, which was
first observed on September 10,
though DR.. Johnson thinks it was
probably visible for some time be-
fore that date, was arousing much
discussion. "By many says DR..
Johnson, 'the dreadful influenza
that oppressed them, with all the
aggravations of the drought, were
ascribed to this comet" The doctor
ridicules such a superstitious theory.
His own account of the epidemic
follows:
Influenza is noticed as occurring
in March and April, although not
sanctioned by our journals. My
opinion. which was then supported
by the concurrence of several emil
nent physicians, has since been con-
firmed by correspondence OF symp-
toms with that which prevailed In
the fall. On the first of it's appear
ance in the latter period the symp-
toms were so mild that few required
the attendance of a physician. :
This lulled many into a fatal secur-
ity, and when about half the inhaol-
tants had been attacked by it cold
change took place in the weather.
during which many relapsed ana
several lost their lives.
$50 general was the prevalence OF
this disease about the middle of Oc-
tober that many families nd from
fifteen to twenty sick at o-e time;
servants could not be hired to DO TIE
duties CT a fsmily, nor nurses pro-
cured to attend the sick. Reap
were frequent. In all such cases TIE
symptoms were ealy aggraVaseI
and frequently accomplished by Vio-
lent determinations to the Pleura
and Medistinum.
However severe the influenza
was in Charleston, it was much more
destructive in the interior country
and along the northern boundary CT
the state In Georgetown eig per-
sons were lying dead in one day, and
in Allanstown, in North Carolina,
out of nine masters OF families sew
en- were said to have did of his
complaint; whole families were sick
at the same time, and in a small
neighborhood at Cashaway Ferry
nine families of children are like
wise said to have been l'ft orphans
by this prevailing malndy. win
persons advanced in years j was
most violent; next to these with per-
sons of irritable lungs; next wi h
persons left debilitated by previous
inflammatory complaints. . +
BLEEDING ard ether evacu MT
with emollent drinks were tie onl"
remedies necessary at the first, but
frequent blisters were afterwards
requisite. In the country pl 'c@
above mentioned bleeding is said to
have been injurious, and probably
was so, as the difficulties attend n
country practice render it impossible
for so active a remedy to be reason
ably applied"