YELLOW FEVER POISON SURVIVES A WINTER.
“The U. S. Steamer Plymouth, Captain Hanning, which left Boston March 15th, for a cruise to the West Indies, returned to Vineyard Sound on account of two cases of yellow fever occurring on board when about 80 miles south-east of Bermuda Islands.
“The ship had been in Boston during the winter, and as she had come from the West Indies last autumn with yellow fever on board she had been frozen out and fumigated. As she had not called into any port since leaving Boston, this development showed that the germs of yellow fever still existed in her, and she was headed north, being deemed, under the circumstances, unfit for cruising in the tropics. On the 31st of March, Peter Eagan, the boatswain’s mate, was buried, having died from yellow fever on the previous day.”—Wilmington Sun’s associated press telegram.
The above dispatch has since been verified and the minute details will no doubt be investigated most thoroughly. Notwithstanding this case is not without a parallel, it comes in uncomfortable collision with the theories we cherish of the killing power of low temperature on the yellow fever poison.
In the most dismal times of a ravaging epidemic the heart turned with anxious longings for the arrival of frost! This was the line of demarcation between the pestilence and recovery from it! But in this case we are informed that the Plymouth spent the winter in Boston harbor with open hatches, the cold being intense enough to freeze the water in the boilers. Every means for thorough disinfection had been applied that could suggest itself to the minds of the well educated medical officers in the service of a government lavish in its supplies. With all this, a short cruise develops the fever in a form intense enough to cause the death of one of the two seized with the disease.
We will await the detailed accounts of the investigation which is to follow with peculiar interest. It is a starting point for the National Board of Health, and a difficult one.
We append the following from the Surgeon-General of the Navy, received through the Bulletin of the Public Health, from Surgeon General Hamilton, U. S. M. H. S.:
“The Surgeon-General of the U. S. Navy has furnished the following facts in regard to the recent outbreak of yellow fever on the U. S. Steamer ‘Plymouth:’ On November 7th last, four cases of yellow fever occurred on board the vessel while lying in the harbor of Santa Cruz; these were removed to hospital on shore and the ship sailed for Norfolk. Three mild cases occurred during the voyage and the ‘Plymouth’ was ordered to Portsmouth, N. H., thence to Boston. At the latter port everything was removed from the ship and all parts of the interior freely exposed to a temperature which frequently fell below zero, the exposure continuing for more than a month. During this time the water in the tanks, bilges, and in vessels placed in the store rooms was frozen, 100 pounds of sulphur was burned below decks, this fumigation continuing for two days, and the berth-decks, holds and store rooms were thoroughly whitewashed. On March 15th, the ship sailed from Boston southward; on the 19th, during a severe gale, the hatches had to be battened down, and the berth deck became very close and damp. On the 23d two men showed decided symptoms of yellow fever, and on the recommendation of the Surgeon, the vessel headed northward. The sick men were isolated, and measures adopted for improving the hygienic condition of the vessel and crew. The surgeon reported that he believed the infection to be confined to the hull of the ship, especially to the unsound wood about the berth deck, all the cases but one having occurred within a limited area, and that while the ‘Plymouth’ is in good sanitary condition for service in temperate climates, should she be sent to a tropical station, probably no precautionary measures whatever, would avail to prevent an outbreak of yellow fever.”
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