FEVER, YELLOW. 



audiences. He next attempted to act as man- 

 ager of the Globe Theatre in Boston, but failed 

 in tlioventnro. lie also on several other oc- 

 casions essayed management, the principal 

 enterprises being the Lyceum and Park The- 

 atres in New York, but generally met with 

 great financial losses. He was, however, emi- 

 nently successful otherwise, and he was always 

 well received on his appearances in different 

 cities. 



FEVER, YELLOW. The first outbreak of 

 the fever during this year was in an unexpect- 

 ed quarter. The United States ship Plymouth 

 sailed from Santa Cruz to Norfolk on the 7th 

 of November, 1878, with several cases of yel- 

 low fever on board. In this infected condi- 

 tion she was ordered to Portsmouth, N. H., 

 where she underwent a rigid quarantine. On 

 the 17th of December she entered Boston Har- 

 bor. Taking with them their bedding and per- 

 sonal effects, officers and crew left the vessel 

 on the 8th of January, and did not return to it 

 until February 12th. The official report says: 

 " During this period the temperature of the air 

 was generally below the freezing-point, and ice 

 formed and remained solid in buckets through- 

 out the ship. Hatches and air-pipes were left 

 open. Fumigations with sulphurous acids were 

 several times used, disinfectants applied to the 

 bilges, and lime-water was freely used. In 

 fact, the disinfecting agents of cold, fresh air, 

 and fumigation were freely used." The Plym- 

 outh sailed for the Windward Isles on March 

 15th. At sea, on the 21st, yellow fever broke 

 out on board. 



On December 16, 1878, a family who had 

 resided for eight months in Chicago took 

 passage in a Pullman palace-car for New Or- 

 leans, and arrived there on the 18th. On the 

 22d one of the children was taken down with 

 an undoubted attack of yellow fever. No cases 

 of fever had occurred in the house occupied by 

 this family. It was new and freshly paint- 

 ed and whitewashed, had been opened to the 

 frosty air for thorough ventilation previous to 

 their occupancy, and was altogether in ad- 

 mirable sanitary condition. The child's case 

 was regular in all its manifestations. It had 

 black vomit, and recovered. There were in 

 this household several unacclimated persons in 

 close attendance upon the patient, but none of 

 them contracted the disease. The thermome- 

 ter in the sick-room marked 42. Outside the 

 weather was bitterly cold. 



Throughout the South the winter was one 

 of unusual severity ; but the cold proved in- 

 sufficient to destroy the yellow-fever virus. 



Memphis. Memphis was blighted by a recur- 

 rence of the scourge. It is difficult to trace 

 the inception of the disease. It must be re- 

 membered that many material interests are 

 destroyed by the announcement of a single 

 case. It is not surprising that, acting in all 

 good faith, physicians hesitate to affix this 

 dreaded name so long as there is the slightest 

 doubt. It is probable that there were several 



oases in Memphis during the first week of July. 

 There was a death in the Tenth Ward on July 

 8th, registered as malarial fever. It may be 

 presumed that this was really yellow fever, 

 from the fact that persona residing in the 

 neighborhood, who visited this patient, con- 

 tracted that disease. On July 8th the first case 

 was reported to the Board of Health. Death 

 occurred on the 10th, and a post-mortem exam- 

 ination left no doubt of its genuineness. So 

 soon as this became known, an unparalleled 

 panic broke out. Railroad tickets to the value 

 of over ten thousand dollars were sold in one 

 day. Streets and avenues were blocked, and 

 every available vehicle was pr ssed into ser- 

 vice. On that day a number of suspicious cases 

 were reported, of which five proved to be yel- 

 low fever. These six cases appeared simulta- 

 neously in widely separated parts of the town. 

 One was in the Sixth Ward, two in the Eighth, 

 and three in the Tenth, at least a mile distant 

 from the other two points. No communica- 

 tion between them has been traced. They were 

 attended by different physicians, who did not 

 meet, and belonged to different social classes 

 not likely to be thrown in contact. It is no- 

 ticeable that the three houses in which these 

 cases occurred were not inhabited during the 

 previous epidemic. It is said that bedding and 

 clothing used by members of the family who 

 died of yellow fever in 1878 were still pre- 

 served in one of these houses, and that in the 

 other second-hand bedding had been purchased. 

 These may have imparted the poison. Strenu- 

 ous efforts were made by isolation and disinfec- 

 tion to stay the progress of the disease. For a 

 time there was hope of success, but by the 19th 

 of July, thoroughly disheartened, the authori- 

 ties advised the people to leave. On the 10th 

 of August the pestilence was declared epidemic. 

 No part of the city was then exempt, except 

 the Ninth Ward, an outlying suburb called 

 Chelsea. The condition of Memphis was now 

 gloomy beyond precedent. Yellow flags at 

 every turn betokened the presence of the de- 

 stroyer. Door after door bore this inscrip- 

 tion, u Closed until after the fever." There 

 was no life except on the bluff where the col- 

 ored troops were encamped. The darkest 

 chapter in the story of this epidemic is the un- 

 ruly disposition evinced by the negro popula- 

 tion. They flocked into the town, attracted 

 by the expectation of free rations, and became 

 not only food for the fever, but a menace to the 

 living. Robbery and incendiarism were of daily 

 occurrence. The white population were insuf- 

 ficient for the care of the sick and the protec- 

 tion of property. The colored companies were 

 called out, and, under the command of Colonel 

 Cameron, aide to the Governor of Tennes- 

 see, succeeded in repressing the disturbances. 

 About eight miles from the city refugee camps 

 were prepared for this class of the population. 

 It was very desirable that they should be placed 

 out of risk of starvation and infection, thus 

 freeing the city from riot and pauper sick. It 



