254 INFECTION AND IMMUNITY 



Mississippi were also invaded. A still more extended 

 and deadly epidemic occurred in 1878, causing a mor- 

 tality of 15,934 out of a total number of cases exceed- 

 ing 74,000. In this epidemic the disease followed the 

 Mississippi River to the very suburbs of St. Louis, and 

 the State of Tennessee suffered severely as well as the 

 States south of it. The city of Memphis alone had a 

 mortality from the disease of about five thousand. 

 These repeated epidemics not only cost the lives of 

 thousands of citizens and paralysed business of all 

 kinds during their prevalence, but apprehension with 

 reference to the recurrence of the disease very materi- 

 ally interfered with the growth of many Southern cities 

 and retarded greatly the development of those por- 

 tions of the country most liable to invasion. All this 

 is now changed ; public health officials are no longer 

 filled with apprehension upon the approach of sum- 

 mer by the thought that any ship arriving from 

 Havana may introduce the deadly pestilence to our 

 shores ; commerce is no longer subjected to the seri- 

 ous restrictions formerly considered necessary for the 

 exclusion of the disease ; and the public generally 

 have been made aware that the fangs of this threat- 

 ening monster have been drawn by the scientific de- 

 monstration of its mode of attack and the simple 

 measures which have been proved to be effective in 

 preventing its propagation. 



