Stillé on Yellow Fever

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At this time, when public attention is so forcibly drawn to the plague that prevails at Memphis and Havana, and threatens every commercial city of the country, our readers cannot fail to be interested in the critical review of the natural and clinical history of yellow fever, by Dr. Alfred Still, In the current issue of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT. There is probably no- man living whose competence to discuss the subject is more widely recognized; and now that the newspapers are so full of speculation and error in respect to the origin and propagation of the disease, the profession as well as the public will be glad to know from him what he holds to be positively known about it. Dr. Still traces the origin of yellow fever to the West Indies. There it was first discovered; and from West India ports it has, in all instances, spread. It has never originated elsewhere, however favorable the conditions may have been for its rapid extension when once introduced. A high temperature is essential to its propagation; salt water and un- sanitary conditions favor it; but the morbid poison must be imported in ships and fomites. A strict quarantine is always efficient in preventing the dissemination of the disease. It is not contagious. Its essential cause has never been isolated ordeflned, but is assumed to be a specific poison, distinct from all other fever poisons. It is spread by infection. In the system it acts primarily in two ways: by disintegrating the blood and by inflaming the stomach; secondarily, it tends to impair the eliminating function of the kidneys. The evidence upon which these conclusions are founded, with much exact and timely information as to the character J and behavior of the disease, and the effects of different modes of treatment, will be found in Dr. Still's lecture, reported specially for the SUPPLEMENT.

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