Viewing page 19 of 285

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Aralauch July 9
NO ASIATIC CHOLERA IN MEMPHIS
Where the Alarming Stories Originate.

Observing in a Louisville paper the remark: "Although there seems to have been considerable cholera in Memphis, the papers of that city have managed to keep wonderfully quiet about it," accompanied with a letter from some army doctor, with a very Dutch name, to the effect that "it looks as if a dark cloud were gathering in the Southwest," and two telegrams, we think it worthy of notice. The telegrams are as follows:
MEMPHIS, June 27, 1867.
To Major Generel W. P. Carlin, Assistant Commissioner:
About seventy (70) persons have died of the cholera since June 13th--seven (7) deaths reported yesterday. 
(Signed) FRED. S. PALMERS,
Lieut. Col. and Sub. Assist. Com.

LOUISVILLE, June 27, 1867.
To Brevet Major General W. P. Carlin, Assistant Commissioner:
Only one (1) case of cholera has been reported in Louisville this season. 
(Signed) SIDNEY BURBANK,
Assistant Commissioner.
Mark the phraseology. Palmers is sure "above seventy (70) persons have died of cholera," &c. and Burbank says only one (1) case of cholera has been reported in Louisville this season. The publicity given to the matter is calculated to damage most unjustly Memphis and benefit Louisville. It is not true. Palmers says that Beaumont's sanitary squad reported about forty cases, and he heard in his office of the others. They were called cholera. Dr. Tolles, a colored doctor, and some white doctor had said they had, in their practice, met cases of cholera. He (Palmers) didn't really suppose it was the real cholera, although people died from it. This seems a slender foundation for the damaging telegram that is used by the Louisville papers to prejudice Memphis. We have inquired of a number of our physicians, in fact, most of them, and have to find yet the first respectable physician who will professionally say he has met in his practice one single case of genuine cholera. The greater the quack, the more the cases of cholera he will report having attended and cured. He wants to magnify his medical skill, perhaps he would not be sorry if there should be a panic, and every one with the slightest derangement of the bowels should suppose it cholera. Facts look as if, to use the army doctors' phraseology, a "cloud were"n't gathering. It is the business of the sanitary squad to keep the yards and alleys clean, not to furnish materials for false and pernicious telegrams, nor to steal the tool chests of dying men. They shamefully neglect their duty in regard to keeping yards and alleys clean. If there is disease in the city it is mainly to be attributed to the shocking filthiness of many parts of the city and the inefficiency of the sanitary squad, but there is no Asiatic or epidemic cholera here -- not a case -- not one instance where the symptoms are clears and unmistakable. We have every year when hot weather sets in, and the green fruits become plenty, many cases of cholera morbus, diarrhea and fevers, but these are not cholera. In most cases they are the results of imprudence. True, the patients sometimes die, but we have yet to hear of a single case where a man ate healthy food, refrained from trash and unripe fruits, wore red flannel underclothes, bathed daily and lived regularly, who suffered from any of the diseases that are mistaken for cholera.

Transcription Notes:
REVIEWED and should me marked "Complete and Pending Approval" 6-3-21