IS The Yellow Fever Conta...
The Times, 1824-01-22T00:00:00

Tnis question is of such great practical importance, that it is proper to give.publicity to the following letter of Sir Gilbert Blane to tee Admiralty: it is from the AfMedical Repository. - "Sackville-street, London, Dec 5, 1823. ",6ir,-Be pleased to acquaint the Lords Commissioners of the Adrnirattys that in vircue oF their Lordships' directions, I have been furnished by the Commissioners of Victualling with such documents. as have cometo their hands regarding the appearanceandfatal effects of the yello* fever at theisland of Ascension * and I have procured further information relating to this subject from the Navy-offlce,and tle.6fficeofthePaymastezof Alarines. IJhavealso been favoured, through the politeness of Dr. Burnet, one of the Aledical Coninis. sioners of the Victualling Board, with the sight of a private letter to him from the commander of tbe Bann gloop of war, from which. I have derived important inform3tion on the same subject. " The result of all these sources of information is, that from the timethefever showed'itself on board his Miajesty's sloop of war Bann, a few.days after her departurefrom Sierra Leone, on one of the lsgtdays of MAarch lt, the crew at that time being ain perfect health, till her arrival at Ascension on the 25tls of April, there died 13 men; and 20 between that time and-the 2d of June, when the epidemic was supposed to have ceased: and that by a report, dlted the 5th of August, there died of the garrison, among whom the disease broke out a few days after the arrival of tlbe ship,l6 meu, five women, and foar children; beo$des one child, stated in the report to have perished for want of sustenance after the mother's death. " In order to estimate the rate of sickness and mortality in the crew of the Bann, it is necessarvtostate that there were mustered on board of her, on the 31st of Maich, 107 men and officers, beinrg only three short of complement; besides 29 supetnumeraries, native Africans. It appears that no death occurred among the:Afficans, wo that nearly one-third of the ship's comnpany was carriedoff by this disease. It appears by the surgeon's journal, that.99 had been seized with it; and I was informed bv the Paymaster of 1lia- rings, that it appeared .fromn his corresponacnee, tbht of the twernty- eignit men and officers first stationed at Ascension, in September, 1821, there died none; nor was -there even a single case of sickness among them from that time till MaY, 1823, a few days after the ar- rival of the Ban. Daring this timne the garrison was neither in- creased nor diminised. But the rate of mortality is not to be com- ppated on the number of twentv.eight, for there were six men at a distant post to whom this disease did not extend; so that out of 22 therc die4 16, that is, som6what more than three-foarths "Two mnen belonging to his Majesry's ship Driver alsodied at the island of this 4isease. The death of aptain SFuamarez, of the Bann, which happetied subselfineily to the above report, being added to these, the total loss of lives amounts to the number of 62, including thle child. "As thisgarrison was quitelhealthy at the time of the arrival of tlhe Barnn, there can be no doubt of thio 4isease being contugious; and the gted1icaloffices, upon wlbose convicti9n of its not being so the comniandming officers omitted'*to takre anv. eftfctual mieans of cuttibg of intercourse between the. shtip and. the -garrison, have . since, in their of icial cossimtnuisldain, ex ciCt1Vdeclared their change of opi- nion. At the Ears.e titne,;they described the disorder as possessing fte erue4ma ractrmsepsof the yellow fever iu that agvravatedand in- getI-ois foUn in which it lhas s1oiri itse' in thc Vleas idigs and gem of. the Bdann leaves not thejent GMM guityinj f tore; for, among tilier smptoms, h6 ene*rW -t'he ikintinizd ith ycllow, assuminig a deePer and de_elr h*e, .tia,-; 'befo death, te vomiting ofa darksc ud o ljr i likJ CoWfeF?reunTii1W these are characteristics which w- apply ta,norotheritdeTli W lVithout entering into any detiIed histary bt 4e " fi less of the controversy regaring it ie may be-ati ctory ar their Lordships to be informed, that the first account of it Cli record in the British. Colonice in the West Indice; is that' of Barbadoes, in 1647, and in North Am Ciea thtt of -169,. at Boston, to which it was carried from atartinitue, by the fleet under Admiral Wheeler. In Europe1 its first Rpperance was at Lisbon, in 1723. From these periods it contintied to make its appearance in al these region.t but at lone interv2is, par- ticularly in North America and E'urope Bnt 'in 1793r a ne* era of its prevalence commenced, for sinte thattime i"hisbegn infinitely more frequent and fatal in the West Indies and N'ortlt America. This increased prevalence did not -mmeoce in Europe till the Vear 1800, 'when it appered! at otdiz in aii its horrors, after an interval ot 3S years. Suiee that timeiths vi*ated this place four times, and has spread fr6in thenc* to other j ort towns in the soutb of Spain, at short intervals. Aniu-oth' places in this line of Coast, it hat visited Gibral t.- fittbt year 1804, when more than one.third-cQf the gardtisour ad-poi-t maton were carried ofi; and several tmes since, bat lfit little loss, on account Qf the-preventive means adopted-weine'.iw,*'cl had been wholly neglected at the first visitation. ' It is remartkable that this pestilential.epiderqin havs-nvrtonr itself except in tropital dimates, or at thine seasens *-ttcp~rqte. climates in which the heat ascends, to the troplcal heigfht. , is:hns perhaps been one of the chlef causes of the disbelief ofriterii1Wo,sf nature. Butnottomentionthe establishment ojft by: -eyldebee, as amatter offact, itnla$beroemarked, thatint'li res'patltb ' close analogy to the plagun which has never ben known to ' s1 but under one particular range ofatmosphericheat,thoui loirer thasj -that of the yellow fever; for it is only In:-teperate climites ibalh has ever prevaile:-bhaving never been klrov*n between the trouicsor within the Polat circles. It evezi disuppear$ inmtempeir4 W - ' diping the solstitial -hcats, which equal' the tftiq 'iUNKwel knoiwui in' Lower 1gypt, adii ll esomexe athlnt witmei. E - djn tl, 1Wo nottii o the inemdutity. rega'ding tis fict, isthe great resemblance-it bears to that form of the yellow fevtr fhich is at all times more or less endemic in the 1Vet Tidi& Y '^bi4de. Thig,- itordInary circumstances, isnot contaDgins,ibutbe='-fsoiwenit is engendered and fobtered by corrpted human nefflunva, under those circumstances of foul ait occasioualsy creat- by crowding, filtb, long privations, hardships5and dereetiveve ahggion, more par-. ticularly incident to ships and. to time& of war., It;;s mdersiuch concurrence of incidents that this- fever tles orn a rnoreintense virui. lence and a contagious character; wheKebYijtprop&gates and spreads itself in the mannerof a pestilential-epidemic ' "What I Wish rnostanxioiily to presi6on thelrTrciihips'dtten. tion is, that a great proportion of'the meiealoffiars 6ftbe navy, like the to alluded to (before whiat, d awAscensins), are said actsially t d i Asunfiver in any ofits species5forns, or citcums LstaiiCe ' "rTheir Lordships will readily applghid5 from Wviiit hln 'bap. pened on this snall scale, what must ahe been the effect 6 this opi. nion, if erroneous, held by those whose ddty it is to suggest the re. quisite precautons in the case of the fleets, arMs'e4, garrsons, and great towns, tvhich.have been exiposed to tbis imtlaav for the-last 30 yearson the continent, and in tle islands of -America, andlfoithe last 23 years ifi the south of Europe; and what 3must in fature he the effects of thls singular delusion, should it continue to-prevailanda to be actea upon -as heretofore in his, ajesty's scrvice by gea'snd land. "IDeeply penetratedv with these sentimentsi I feel myself irtpsis. tibly caUed upon humbly to submit to their ILordslibs',whe'her some steps might not be taken, under their authority3 fq- promul. gating these and similar truths, with a view to enlighten and-guide naval -officers, militar and -medical, in the exerdise of this'part of their duty, so that such a cautious svstem of conduct may be adopt. ed as may prevent the recurrence of.the like calamitous hid tragical events in all time to come. I airs inclined to believe that, as the greater part of the medical ofilcers of the inavy, as wel as the army, are now well educated, ani ofahighlyrespectablechasacter,itis from a want of due information that this fatal error has prevailed so much - far there are already on record many facts, as stron.gly in evidence of the contagious nature of the yellow fever., as those that have so re- cently occurred at ths island of Ascension, which, vere they gene- rally known, could hardlyfail to carry conviction to every rational mind. Of this kind might be quoted the,various instAncer of the communication of this dlsease from-one ship to another in themiaiOdle of the ocean. It is obvious tjhat any one of these facts, duily attested, would by all the laws of evidence, be sufficietn to establish the proof of tllis point, soas to decide the question; and the-forceof so miany could not fall to prove irresistible wvere thev generally known. "In apology fot this. long addressreto torlr slp, 1litake leave to plead, that besldos theo reat importan,ce of te subject) it has been my lot for the last 44 years to; have either been en.. gaged in actual employment in the medical service, of the navy, and occasionally in that of the army, -or in the absence of such employment, to have devoted almost an ,tceasin attention to such studies; and I have felf none of my 'd ties mdre imperious than that of-inculcating, to tif best of my judgment, 'a just-manner of thinking on the subject of infecdon in general, and particularly that of the desoplating mnlady now in questiaii. I trust, theCef"ore, that my 6arnes?tness on this subject will not appetr to. their Iord. ships in the light-of an -improper ard oflcio6as interference,, proceed- inig, as it doesi from a p3ersoni not in actual emrploymeint. - .I feel, fur,' tiger, that what I now (lo is not unbecoming of me in the ch-aracter of frst physician to ourSovereign, and as an act of gratitude aad-,ustyv for those rewargs and tokens of approbatjon *hich I havc naw the happineessto enljoy f'rom his tajektv personallyt as. well as from-the State; -not to mention that call upoh cvery well,disposed person to take a serious interest in matters which inv'olve the. fte of: s- mangy. human be-nga; and - of'so many 'of his felrotv-subjects of the most valuable claiss.- I have the honotir to bie, Sir. - - ; - ' " Your snot obedient humble servant, to: the,diat. :' ' P. S.-My fear of trespassin o-theyLordshlps' tine and it tenlion havinginduced me to make my sttment ias few words as possible, I have perbaps done''vron grtan omittingemp nt cib cumatanees which- I hatl heried aRposibl..-- A fdw days beforethe Bann sailed from Sierra Leone. the Captaia sent some of his men on board of ainercbianf`hip called the Caroline, to a.ist in bringing herboan anchor. Thns.shx had Iah'tbylo fever almostall her ha?ntls, to the nunmier of 20d none tha ser- vived but the masiter and two others., Woere witias,a ta ie an unprecedented loss of lives from the sane feveramong the white inhabitants of the settlement. It is desribed in the reports made to the Mtedical Board of the Army, w7fhliaght of which I was favour, ed, as a fever widelvilifferentir mtlhe oddinary fwer ofl the coun. try, both in its symptoms and i-iti deg Qaf malignity ; such, in- deed, as had never beer known beffire)n hi.at-colony,,and as occur- ring at aseasonof theiyear w hich istssuall' the mostuhealthy. Itis also worthy otremnsrk, that his Majest's -sloop of- war the Driver, which had lainat Sierra. Leoneat the samene with the Ban7?, ar- rived at Ascension with all-the crew in health * and that I fihnd by inquiiy of the master of the Caroline that none of the ship's com- pany of the Driver had been on board of `ii. ship, nor bad anv inter- course taken place between the two ships aifter the breaking out of the fever. Some of the men of .the Driver, he said, had been on board of his ship, but this happened many days before the sicknesis had commenced.. " G. B."P IS THE YELLOW FBVER CONTAGIOUS g