A prize essay on bilious fever / by Lunsford P. Yandell.

  • Yandell, Lunsford P. (Lunsford Pitts), 1805-1878.
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A prize essay on bilious fever / by Lunsford P. Yandell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    ponds, as yet, are full of water. But when they begin to be exhausted in July, and their beds send up exhalations under the solstitial heats, fever, in every shape, rarely ever fails to attend. If this district ever escapes this unwelcome visitant, it is in a rainy season when the ponds are kept full. In an early day, and, in fact, until within a late period, this city was regarded as one of the most unhealthy places in the val- ley of the Ohio; but such has been the beneficial effects of draining and tillage, that it would now compare, in the healthfulness of its citizens, with any other river town in the West. This is particularly true of the central and densely settled parts of the city. The suburbs continue to be visited by fever. A line might be traced around the city marking the limits of the healthy atmosphere, and the point at which malaria begins to assert its authority. Within certain limits the air is pure, but beyond these, on the three sides of the town exposed to the miasms of the ponds, it is still unsafe to reside. The explanation of these facts is easy. The inhabi- tants in the interior are remote from the source of the poi- son, and are, moreover, protected by the intervening build- ings ; whilst those who dwell on the frontier inhale the poi- son emitted by the ponds that have not yet been drained. As the draining progresses the boundaries of health are found to be sensibly and rapidly extended, and the region upon which the pestilential vapors have so long rested, like a dis- mal incubus, promises to become, in a few years, under a ju- dicious system of ditching and culture, one of salubrity and great value. The environs of Louisville only require to be rid of the stagnant water which remains, to be rendered as healthy as Main street, which was as often visited by malig- nant fevers as they now are, while large ponds exposed their filthy waters to the sun, in quarters now covered by pave- ments and houses. It is interesting and instuctive to remark, how coincident are all the circumstances attending the rise and propagation of bilious fever, in countries so remote as Italy and the Val- ley of the Mississippi. In following the historian of the Cam-