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Yellow Fever
Yellow
Fever Epidemic of 1873
Shreveport, Louisiana
In mid-August of 1873 men dropped dead on Texas Street
for unknown reasons. Then at least five people died
each day. 1
Reverend Dr. W. T. D. Dalzell
of
St. Mark’s
Episcopal Church, who had visited Savannah, Georgia and
cared for the victims of in the 1857 yellow fever
epidemic there, tried to warn the officials that they
had an epidemic on their hands. 2 Officials, who ignored
Dr. Dalzell, tried to calm the panic-stricken city, but Shreveporters packed up their belongings and headed west
to Texas and north to Arkansas. The population shrank to
about 4,500. East Texas communities set an embargo on
traffic arriving from Shreveport, intercity commerce was
halted, and all trains to the city stopped running. 3
BACKGROUND
In the
1790s influential doctors Benjamin Rush and Noah Webster
first believed that the disease came from contagion, but
eventually denounced this idea. In addition, they
denounced that it was imported, finding quarantine
methods unproductive. They determined that yellow fever
came from local miasms spawned by decaying plants and
animals, especially when exposed to heat and water.
Sanitation was deemed the best way to rid the infected
area of the disease. Many physicians felt that it came
from harmful fumes, known as noxious effluvia, which
spread the disease. By the early 1800s travelers in New
Orleans pronounced the vapors rising from garbage that
was exposed to heat as the direct cause of the disease.
4 When an outbreak occurred, many fled the area, but
some were unable to do so. Several of those who stayed
behind believed that breathing through cloth that had
been soaked in garlic juice, camphor, or vinegar would
help protect them from the disease. 5
Dr.
Benjamin Rush felt that the disease was not contagious,
but was caused from rotting vegetable matter, duck
ponds, privies, and old books. He believed that the
best way to cure a victim was to give them jalap and
calomel, to perform bloodletting, to throw buckets of
ice water on them to reduce the fevers, and to give them
ipecac to induce vomiting. 6 English physician Colin
Chisholm believed the disease to be contagious in
personal contact and through clothing and other
articles. In 1817 Drs. Gros and Gérardin felt that the
epidemic in New Orleans was spawned by heavy rains,
excessive heat, and travelers. 7 Physicians continued to
agree, for the most part, that the disease was caused by
noxious effluvia.
Sanitation was a big problem in Shreveport. The city
had unpaved streets, no sewage system, and inadequate
drinking water. People in tenant houses on the edges of
St. Paul’s Bottoms lived near the stagnant swamps of
Silver Lake with water flowing beneath their
stilt-raised homes. Water usually came in the form of
uncovered cypress cisterns behind homes since wells were
impossible so close to the river, and drinking water
came from Currie’s Spring, located where Line Avenue
once intersected with Louisiana Avenue between Howell
and Cotton Streets. 8
However, John L. Riddell, a professor of chemistry at
the Medical College of Louisiana, felt that
microorganisms were the cause of yellow fever, although
sanitation may have had a hand in it. 9 In 1848 Dr.
Josiah C. Nott of Mobile, Alabama published his
hypothesis. Dr. Nott noticed that the disease traveled
along the rivers and the coast and that it was most
frequent in cities visited by ships and trains. He
stated that insects, such as the mosquito, were the most
likely culprits. 10
But in 1873 Shreveporters believed that heavy rainfall
or humidity caused the outbreak of yellow fever; some
believed it came from a circus that had traveled through
the area. 11 Still others believed it came from the
steamboat cargo and passengers that had made their way
up the rivers. 12 Dr. Henry Smith, who cared for the
sick first-hand, believed that the disease came from the
miasmatic vapors from downtown’s Silver Lake. He also
saw the city garbage, which baked in the streets under
the afternoon sun, to be a cause; moreover, just prior
to the outbreak, the steamboat Rugby had wrecked on the
river, drowning the cattle that were aboard. 13 These
were skinned and left to rot on the banks of the river.
14
SYMPTOMS OF YELLOW
JACK
Yellow
Jack attacked the heart, lungs, kidneys, and sometimes
the central nervous system and affected each person
differently in terms of symptoms, which were usually
evident within three to six days after exposure to the
disease. 15 The destruction of cells in the liver causes
yellow bile pigments to accumulate in the skin. 16
Jaundice often set in with the skin bronzing in many
cases, attributing to the fever’s nickname “bronze
john,” and then yellowing. 17 Dr. Smith reported that
the pulse often declined from 140 to eighty, seventy,
and sometimes even fifty. In the worst cases, the skin
was often covered by bluish patches, bloody vomit was
expelled, and urine often took on a dark reddish color.
18 Delirium, convulsions, and comas were feared in
extremely serious cases. Sometimes the gums, nose, eyes,
ears, and even toes would hemorrhage. 19 Temperature
reached at least 102 degrees, sometimes progressing much
higher. Severe headaches, backaches, and nausea were
known to plague the ill. Often patients experienced a
fear of light. 20 One of the most serious signs was what
was known as black vomit: this occurred when stomach
acid acted upon blood that hemorrhaged from the stomach
and was vomited, looking much like coffee grounds. The
vomit often was expelled from the victim without any
effort on the victim’s part. 21
No cures
existed, but cold presses were used to break fevers, ice
was crushed for nausea, and liquids were vital to keep
kidneys from shutting down. 22 Dr. Smith also suggested
warm baths, bed rest, and warm teas. Stimulants such as
cognac were also used on occasion. 23 Within a week to
ten days, the ill were either cured or dead. 24 If the
disease made its way to the kidneys early on, victims
died after three or four days from urine suppression;
this was known to be worse than black vomit. 25
Those that
survived usually had rapid improvement, although
jaundice remained for some time afterwards. Once a
person has had the disease, he or she is immune for
life. 26
SEPTEMBER, THE PEAK OF
THE EPIDEMIC
By mid-September gravediggers could not keep up with the
number of burials, and they hastily interred thirty
victims each day in community graves. 27 Captain Matthew
Scovell’s steamer Royal George was stacked high with
coffins and a hearse for use in Shreveport. 28 Through
the night, horses were heard in the streets carrying the
dead to the cemeteries. 29 The coffins of the prominent
and the common citizens were treated much the same as
they were shoved in the backs of hearses and rushed to
the cemeteries. 30 Blacks, who were apparently immune to
the disease, were paid five dollars a day to dig graves
and drive hearses. 31
A sect of New Orleans’s Howard Association formed in
Shreveport. The organization aided the sick, fed the
poor, and established a haven for children whose parents
died in the epidemic. Daily expenses for the group at
the end of September reached $1,000 to $2,000. 32
Monroe, New Orleans, and Dallas all sent telegrams to
the city offering their services of doctors, nurses, and
druggists. P. T. Barnum gave $100, the Cincinnati
Chamber of Commerce sent $1,000, and President Ulysses
S. Grant donated 5,000 rations to the city after General
W. H. Emory telegraphed him on October 3 to ask for
permission to donate the rations to Shreveport. Ed
Jacobs and J. B. Lewis of Shreveport raised $1,000 in
Boston for the needs of the sick, and Jacobs also raised
$1,000 in New York. 33 New Orleans’s Shakespeare Club
and the Orleans Dramatic Association often held
performances as fundraisers for Shreveport’s relief.
The Western Union Telegraph Company wired money to
Shreveport for free. 34 Blacks also left their work on
the steamboats to help the city as nurses. 35
Also giving their assistance were Reverend John
Wilkinson of the Methodist Church, Reverend Adams of St.
Paul’s Episcopal Church in New Orleans, and Baptist
Reverend W. E. Paxton, who moved to the town to help in
the epidemic. 36 Rev. Dalzell spent many long hours
caring for the sick and wrote articles in the newspaper
directing people to hold fast to their faith and avoid
blaming God for the epidemic. 37
The minister of the First Baptist Church died, as did
twenty-seven other members of the congregation. 38
Twenty-two people living in a boarding house all died
from the disease. 39 Four doctors and the city judge
lost their lives in the epidemic. 40 When entire
families died, their clothes and houses were burned to
prevent the spread of disease. 41 Tar and sulphur was
burned as the smoke was thought to purify the air. 42
Lieutenant E. August Woodruff, the leader of the U. S.
Army Corps of Engineers, had been placed in charge of
clearing the Red River Raft after it had reformed. When
he learned of the epidemic in Shreveport, he joined the
Howard Association, a sect of which had formed in
Shreveport to aid the sick. 43 He established a hospital
in the Talley Opera House. 44 On September 15 Woodruff
caught yellow fever and fifteen days later he died; he
was buried in Oakland Cemetery in Shreveport. 45
Five Catholic priests died during the epidemic while
ministering to the sick. Stained glass windows in
Holy
Trinity Catholic Church on Fannin and Marshall Streets
in Shreveport commemorate these men. 46 The first was
Holy Trinity’s associate pastor, Fr. J. Queremais, who
died on September 15. The church’s first pastor, Fr. J.
Pierre, died the following day. Fr. J. M. N. Biler, the
chaplain of St. Vincent’s Academy in Shreveport, died on
September 27; Fr. L. Gergaud, a pastor from Monroe, died
on October 1, with another priest, Fr. F. LeVezouet, who
had traveled four days on horseback from Natchitoches,
dying eight days later. 47 Two Daughters of the Cross
nuns also died caring for the ill; their deaths came on
September 17 and September 23. 48
By October 1 the death rate dropped to ten victims a
day, signifying the height of the epidemic had passed.
49 By November 15 the epidemic had reached its end as
cool weather moved into the city. 50 The embargo was
lifted, trains began to run to the city, and people
returned home. Of the 4,500 people that remained in the
city, 759 died in the epidemic. 51 Shreveport’s first
Board of Health, along with Charity Hospital, was
established after the epidemic. 52 The Susan Constant
Chapter of the Colonial Dames XVII Century presented a
marker for the mound that covers the graves of hundreds
of victims of the yellow fever epidemics. 53
FINDING THE CAUSE
It was not until the 1881 that Dr. Carlos Juan Finlay of
Cuba began experimenting with mosquitoes and human
volunteers. 54 He felt that it was possible that the
mosquitoes could bite infected people and spread it to
others through their lancet. He chose to work with the
culex, which was later known as the stegomyia, and is
presently referred to as the Aedes aegypti. One problem
with Dr. Finlay’s work was that he was unsure if his
volunteers were immune to the disease. 55 With the
Spanish-American War in 1898, the United States took
over Cuba and began combating the yellow fever problem.
56 In 1900 bacteriologist Walter Reed headed the U. S.
Army Medical Commission and began testing Dr. Finlay’s
research, except that they made sure their volunteers
were non-immunes. By February of 1901 they had
determined that the mosquito required ten to twelve days
after it had bitten an infected person before it was
able to transmit the disease to another. The disease
was controlled with sanitation, draining mosquito
breeding grounds, and quarantining ships that arrived
from infected areas. The disease has since been
determined to affect monkeys and other animals, but is
only caused from the virus spread by the mosquitoes. 57
References
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