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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, October 29, 1867

The Epidemic in New Orleans.

The first death by yellow fever this season, of which we have any information, occurred at the Charity Hospital, on June 29. The victim was a coal-wheeler, who, it is supposed, wheeled coal into the hold of some steamer, from which the disease was communicated to him. Others assert, and apparently with some authority, that the fever was brought to our city by the bark Florence Peters, from Havana. Her captain, Melville Hooper, the captain's wife, and several others connected with the bark, died of the fever, and from that time on to the present writing, the terrible scourge has made desolate the homes of this beautiful city. Not less than ten thousand persons have been down with the disease at one time, and not less than three thousand have fallen victims to it. Whole families have been swept away, and in one instance, of a family of seven, not one remains to mourn the death of the other six; all are in the grave—father, mother, and five children. Nor has the destroyer been partial to any sex, age, or condition in life. Hitherto, woman has been nearly exempt, but this time the fever has destroyed her.

In other seasons of epidemic disease, childhood has escaped, but this season has proved fatal to children. The common opinion is, that the poor and filthy are the first to fall; but the obituaries of this summer prove that the rich and refined have died first. Generally, the malady gave monitions of its attack in a slight chill or headache, but, in very many instances, it seized its victims in an instant, on the street, in the counting-house, in a funeral procession, and in less than thirty-six hours the strong man was dead.

There is much suffering in New Orleans. Through the long summer, business was dull, and the laboring classes earned but little, and now, when all income from labor is cut off, they are in want. But the distress is not confined to the poor. Those in more comfortable circumstances suffer from lack of good nursing. Five dollars per day for a good nurse is more than most persons can afford to pay, and hence must depend upon voluntary nurses. This state of affairs has developed a commendable spirit. The Howard Association, composed of our best citizens, is a most effective organization. At one time it had twenty-two hundred patients under its care