Report upon yellow fever in Louisiana in 1878 and subsequently / by S.M. Bemiss.

  • Bemiss, S. M. (Samuel Merrifield), 1821-1884.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report upon yellow fever in Louisiana in 1878 and subsequently / by S.M. Bemiss. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    low fever on the voyage. During this month, the bark FeHsa, in baUast from Havana, arrived and repoi-ted one death from yellow fever; while on board there was, at the same time, one convalescent from the same disease. On the 29th, the schooner F. T. Richardson, from Matan- zas, arrived with two cases of yellow fever on board. One of these, i. e., a colored sailor, was placed in hospital and died. The other, Mrs. Caroline Bellano, the wife of the captain, was treated on board of the schooner, and recov- ered. The Pottsjevnan reached the cit}^ on the i8di, the Felisa on the 26th. In the meantime, since the Souder's arrival on the 23d May, with her supposed cases of 3'ellow fever, she had made three other trips to Havana and returns, ar- riving at New Orleans June 13th, July 2d, and July 20th. On her arrival here July 2d, having left Havana June 25th, she was undoubtedl}' an infected vessel, if the following extract from the report made by Dr. T. Hutson Ford is correct: Dr. A. P. Sankford gives the following information with regard to the case of W. P. O'Bannon, verj- probabl}' one of the first in the United States, and the first or second in St. Louis : Youno O'Bannon, who was born in Mis- souri and reared in St. Louis, left this city in the steamer Commonwealth for New Orleans, Capt. Sliields, his uncle, in command, late in June, 1878, holding tlie position of assistant second clerk. O'Bannon lived on the Com- monwealth, and wliile at New Orleans, about the 3d or 4th July, went on board the Emilv B. Souder, then lying at the levee, notwithstanding the prohibition of his uncle against his going on board an}' such vessel. The Souder had latelv arrived from the West Indies, with a car^o of suo'ar, and at the, tmie of O'Bannon's ^'isit had two cases of yellow fever on board, which had apparently escaped the vigilance of the autliorities. It is not probable, however, that O'Bannon came in direct contact with these cases. The Commonwealth lay close to the Souder at the time, and transferred to lier deck from the brig five hundred hogsheads of sugar for the Belcher Refining Compan}' in St. Louis. It is not known that O'Bannon went into the hold of the Souder during the process of transfer, nor is it probable that he did so, as his duty as clerk required his presence on the deck of the Commonwealth. From the