NARRATIVE OF THE CHOLERA EPIDEMIC OF 1873 IN THE UNITED STATES.
43D CONGRESS, 2d Session, House of Representatives. Ex.Doc.No.95
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Pages 295 through 301

Dr. S. Y. Chandler, of Campbellsville, reports strongly in favor of 
the dilute-sulphuric-acid treatment in cholera cases, maintaining 
the value which has been ascribed by others to the use of the dilute 
acid.

CARROLL COUNTY.

During the epidemic of 1873, the only cases of cholera that are 
found to have occurred in Carroll County are found upon the 
construction-train of the Louisville, Cincinnati and Lexington 
Railroad, at the village of Worthville, a point nearly midway 
between the cities of Louisville, Ky., and Cincinnati, Ohio.

Dr. N. B. Lewis, to whom we are indebted for the facts of this 
demonstration, informs us that the hands upon this construction-
train were negroes, picked up at Louisville, Frankfort, 
Covington, and La Grange.  The cars in which the hands lived 
were in the most miserable sanitary condition.  During June and 
July, there had been frequent cases of diarrhoea and cholera 
morbus among them.  Frequently sick negroes had been left at 
their homes, of whom no further information can be obtained.

On the 12th day of July, a negro named Norman was taken with 
cholera upon this train at Worthville, and died within twelve 
hours.  On the 13th, Mrs. Conner, who was employed as cook for 
the hands, a white woman, was taken sick; her attack was violent, 
but she recovered.  The hands upon the train dispersed to their
 homes.  Dr. Lewis has been informed that of these men five cases 
died after they reached their homes.  It is suggested that 
through the workmen employed upon this construction-train the 
infection of the town of La Grange, Oldham County, was 
accomplished, as the homes of some of these men were at that town.

CHRISTIAN COUNTY.

Hopkinsville, the county town of Christian County, was 
invaded in the month of July by cholera; from what cause 
the development of the disease occurred the reports which 
have reached us fail to determine.

The town is located upon the line of the Saint Louis and South 
Eastern Railroad, and the inhabitants are in daily communication 
with Saint Louis, Mo., Evansville, Ind., Henderson, Ky., by 
south-bound trains, and with Nashville, Tenn., by all north-
bound trains.  Close connection is moreover made with the 
Louisville, Paducah and Southwestern Railroad.

During the month of June, strenuous efforts were made by the 
authorities to place the town in the highest possible 
sanitary condition.  Debris of all kinds was removed 
from public and private property.  Disinfectants were 
freely used wherever required.

July 12, Mrs. T., aged forty-eight years, was taken with 
cholera, and died in ninety-six hours.

July 18, a negro woman, fifty-four years of age, was attacked, 
but recovered.

August 4, Mrs., H., thirty-two years old, died in thirty-six 
hours.

August 7, John, a negro, thirty-eight years old, was attacked, 
and died after an illness of twelve hours.

August 8, Jim, a negro, thirty years old, died after a few 
hours' illness.  The cases were isolated, with the exception 
of the negroes.  All had been guilty of imprudence in diet.

BARREN COUNTY.

We are able to present the following letters descriptive 
of the cholera-epidemic of 1873 in Barren County.

"GLASGOW, KY., November 30, 1874.

"MY DEAR SIR:"

"My report is confined strictly to cases exhibiting all 
the characteristics of genuine cholera.  The tendency 
to cholera in the district in which the cholera was 
confined was exceedingly marked, cholerine prevailing 
quite extensively.  Cholera appeared a mile north of 
our town on the most elevated lands in this very broken 
and well-drained locality.  It occurred, so far as a 
critical investigation demonstrated, with no intercourse 
between the subjects of its ravages and any infected 
district.  The disease had been prevailing epidemically 
at Gallatin, Tenn., and Franklin, Ky., and in a sporadic 
form at Bowling Green for perhaps two or three weeks, 
when suddenly, without premonition, it irrupted near 
Glasgow in a most alarming and fatal form.  Six or seven 
negroes died in as many days, and all in a small negro 
settlement on an elevated and well-drained ground.  No 
local causes could be developed for its appearance.  It 
next appeared a mile northeast in a country largely 
overflowed by a creek running a number of miles, and 
poisoned by malaria, and was principally confined to that 
locality during its prevalence."

"The locality of its invasion wars against the malarial 
theory; its subsequent settling argues in its favor, and 
the non-communication of its first subjects with any infected 
district militates forcibly against the contagious theory."

"My own impression, derived from close personal observation, 
induces the belief that it was materially influenced by 
malarial poison in its later movements.  Cholera-specifics 
I found not only wholly inefficacions, but perniciously 
hurtful. The remedy which I relied upon, and which did not 
disappoint me in the stages preceding collapse, was as 
follows:
  B. Hydrg. submur.,
      Camph. pulv. a a gr. xxx.,
      Opli pulv., gr. iv.,
      Acct.plumbi, gr. xx.
  M. Ft.chart.no.xv. 
Sig., one to be given every hour until the discharges 
change in character."

"The number of cholera-cases in this neighborhood I do 
not know, nor can they be accurately determined, as the 
physician who attended the majority has since died."

"The number of cases was probably not over thirty-five, 
with eleven deaths.
"Very respectfully, JNO. D. WOODS, M. D.

"Ely McClellan, M. D.


"The earliest case is reported on the 19th of July; 
this case lingered until the 22d, when it died.On July 22, 
Dr. E. R. Williams, of Glasgow, was attacked, and died on 
the 23d.

Glasgow is the termius of the Glasgow branch of the Louisville 
and Nashville Railroad, and the town is in communication 
with the main liens by two daily trains.  It is about thirty 
miles distant from Bowling Green, and we have been informed 
that negroes who fled from the last-named town during the 
epidemic, took refuge among their friends at or near Glasgow.

DAVIESS COUNTY,

THE CHOLERA EPIDEMIC OF 1873 AT OWENSBOROUGH, KY.
BY E. H. LUCKETT, M. D. 

Owensborough is a thriving town of about four thousand 
inhabitants, located upon the south bank of the Ohio river, 
one hundred and fifty-five miles below the city of 
Louisville.  This town is a large tobacco-market, and is 
the shipping-point of a number of counties.  The town has 
railroad connection with the Louisville, Paducah and 
Southwestern Railroad.

The history of the cholera-epidemic of 1873 at this city 
is embraced in the following cases:

Case I.--Was an importation from Nashville, Tenn., at which 
place cholera existed at the time of the departure of Brown, 
colored, aged forty-five years, married.  Brown was sick with 
diarrhoea when he started for this place, which was on the 
19th of July, arriving the next day.  He was visited by Dr. 
Harris on the 21st, and died on the 25th.  When seen he was 
vomiting; purging rice-water, and in collapse.

Case II.--Henry Hayden, colored; married; aged about forty 
years; taken sick in Louisville, Ky., July 30; arrived here 
next day.  Hayden was a deck-hand on a steamboat plying 
between Louisville, Ky., Evansville, Ind., and Henderson, 
Ky., at all of which places cholera existed at the time.

Case III.--Miss O'Donald, twelve years old, was taken sick 
September 5 with vomiting, purging, and cramping; was ordered 
calomel, opium and capsicum.  Dismissed cured on September 13.

Case IV.--Rachael Lee, colored; aged thirty-five years; 
attacked August 11.  Was seen by Dr. Stewart on the same 
day at 3 o'clock p. m.  Dr. S. says: "We found her vomiting, 
cramping, and passing large rice-water discharges.  In 
collapse when seen.  Ordered mixture of chloroform, tincture 
of opium, pulverized camphor, tincture of ginger, and Hoffmoan's 
anodyne.  A dose to be taken every hour.  She died on the 
night of the 12th, at midnight.  Rachael Lee lived opposite 
No.I, and was frequently in Brown's house during and after 
his illness. She was the mother of three children.  After 
her death the children were removed five squares distant to 
a higher location.

Case V.--Emma Lee, aged twelve years, oldest daughter of Rachael 
Lee, was taken sick August 24 with the same symptoms as her mother.  
Treated in the same way.  Died August 25, thirty hours after 
date of attack.

Case VI.--Jos. Crabtree, colored; married; aged twenty-six years; 
moved Emma Lee and the other children of Rachael Lee to his house, 
where Emma died.  He was taken sick on the 24th of August, the date 
of Emma Lee's sickness.  The symptoms were the same, but less 
aggravated.  Treatment the same. Recovered. (One of the remaining 
children of Rachael Lee was moved back to Second street, one square
 above the residence of Brown, where it sickened and died with diarrhoea,
 after a short illness.)

Case VII.--Mrs. Nichols, white; married; agreed thirty years; 
attacked August 16 with vomiting, purging, and cramping.  Died 
the same day. Delivered eight days previous.

Case VIII.--Sammuel Nichols, white; aged thirty-five years; husband of 
case No.7; convalescing from remittent fever; attacked August 19 
with cholera-symptoms. Died same day.  Mr. N. was a mail-carrier 
between this place and the city of Henderson, where cholera was 
prevailing at the time.

Case IX.--Tom Nichols, son of cases Nos.7 and 8, white, aged 
fourteen years; attacked with cholera August 19.  Recovered.

Case X.--Miss Reinberger, German, aged ten years; taken sick with 
cholera-symptoms August 20.  Recovered.  She occupied a portion of 
the house in which the Nicholses resided.

Case XI.--Tom Reinberger, German, aged eight years; sickened with 
vomiting, purging, and cramping on the 21 of August.  Recovered.  
Lived in a part of the Nichols house.

Case XII.--Frank Winter, German, married.  Visited by Dr. Stewart, 
on August 30, at night.  Had had a diarrhoea for two or three days.  
When seen by Dr. Stewart he was vomiting, purging, cramping, and in 
a cold sweat.  Was ordered three twenty-grain doses of calomel and 
chloroform-mixture.  Recovered.

Case XIII.--Frank Hahn, German, aged thirty years; dissipated; 
attacked at midnight, September 1, with cholera.  Treatment same 
as previous case.  Died at midnight, September 2.

Case XIV.--Mrs. Winter, wife of Frank Winter, German, aged 
twenty-six years; sickened September 6 with same symptoms as 
cases Nos.12 and 13.  Pregnant; aborted on the 9th; recovered.  
These last three cases were near neighbors of the Nicholses and 
Reinbergers, and visited them during their sickness.
Case XV.--Mrs. Rarrick, white, aged about thirty-two years, married, 
mother of several children; attacked with cholera September 2, and 
died on the night of the 3d.  She lived opposite the Winters, and 
visited them during their sickness.

Case XVI.--Mrs. Buckley, mother of several children, was taken 
sick with cholera on the 5th of September.  in collapse six or 
eight hours after commencement of the attack.  treatment: Sulphate 
of morphia and subuitrate or bismuth, beef-tea, and chicken-broth.  
Recovered. 

Case XVII.--Nannie Buckley, daughter of Mrs. Buckley, (case 16;) 
attacked with choleraic dirrahoea on the 8th of September.  
Recovered.

Case XVIII, XIX, and XX.--E.C. Berry, Mrs. Berry, his wife, and Henry 
Berry, their son, aged respectively fifty, thirty-eight, and ten 
years, were relatives of Mrs. Buckley, (case 16,) and waited upon 
her in her sickness--the son driving the wagon for his mother--
were all three attacked with choleric diarrhoea on the 12th and 
13th of September.  Treatment, calomel and opium; recovered.  
This family resided about one mile from town.  They had three 
other children who did not visit Mrs. Buckley, neither of whom 
were sick.

Case XXI.--Mrs. Green, German, aged fifty years, waited upon 
Mrs. Rarrick was taken September 5, and died the same day.

There can be no doubt upon the mind of any unprofessional person 
that the cholera was introduced into this city from three different 
sources, two of the points being sources for the spread of the 
disease.  In following the history of the disease, starting from 
Brown, lately of Nashville, we have, first, the disease developed 
in Rachael Lee, who lived across the street, and was in daily 
communication with the family; next, in her daughter, who 
sickened and died of cholera, notwithstanding her removal to 
a higher and healthier locality, and one entirely out of the 
cholera-district, who, in turn, communicated the poison to Jo. 
Crabtree, to whose house she was removed after death of her 
mother.  It is probable, also, that a sister of Emma Lee, 
aged two years, died with the disease, as in about a week 
after Emma's death the sister was taken with a purging, and 
died in two or three days.

There was no spread of the disease from Hayden's house, (case No.2,) 
unless a child of his, who died suddenly three or four days 
after he died, had the disease.  Of this I have no proof, being 
unable to get a history of the case, the family moving off.

The third point of introduction of the poison was by Nichols, 
the mail-carrier.  he was making tri-weekly trips between this 
city and Henderson where cholera was prevalent; but there is 
no evidence that he had been in contact with the disease, nor 
was there any investigation from this point.  During his last 
trip from Henderson to this place he was taken sick with a 
remittent form of fever, from which he was cured in three or 
four days.  Two or three days after his recovery his wife was 
taken sick with cholera, and died in a short time.  She was 
quite feeble at that time, being in a puerperal condition.  
The second day after her death Nichols takes the disease, 
and dies the same day; his son then sickens, and the two 
Reinbergers, who occupy part of the house, are attacked, the 
last three recovering.  Frank Winter, who lived in the vacinity, 
and visited the Reinbergers, was next stricken with the disease, 
to be followed by Hahn, who lived with him; and then Winter's 
wife was attacked.  The next case was Mrs. Rarrick, who lived 
opposite the Winters, and waited upon Mrs. Winter.  Mrs. Rarrick 
was nursed by Mrs. Green, who, in two or three days after Mrs. 
Rarrick's death, sickened and died with the disease; and then 
Mrs. Buckley, who made Mrs. Rarrick's shroud in the room occupied 
by Mrs. Rarrick during her sickness, was attacked with the 
disease, but happily recovered.  Her daughter, brother, sister-
in-law, and nephew, who were constant in their attentious 
to her, were all taken sick with a diarrhoea which lasted 
several days.

The facts herein, presented do not absolutely prove the 
portability of cholera, but they strongly corroborate much 
that has been proved, as I think; and the only question that 
can throw a suspicion of doubt upon the subject, is as to how 
the Nichols family contracted the disease.  I have no scruples 
in believing that Nichols was the means of its conveyance to his 
house, and that it was either his having another disease at the 
time he was subjected to the poison, or because of an unfavorable 
condition in this system to its implantation at the time that 
he owed his escape.  But mark how readily the poison acted as 
soon as his nervous systems received a shock, as it did by the 
death of this wife.

It may be asked, what was the sanitary condition of these 
localities where cholera prevailed?  In the Nichols locality bad, 
very bad; in the other localities not worse than other portions 
of the city.  Nor was the sanitary condition of the Nichols 
locality as bad as a portion of the city where typhoid fever 
was then prevailing.

HOPKINS COUNTY.

This county escaped almost entirely the epidemic which raged 
with such severity in the towns of the adjoining counties.

Dr. J. W. Prichett, of Madisonville, under date of August 12, 
1874, states that no case of the disease occurred in that town 
during 1873.  Madisonville is located upon the line of the 
Evansville, Henderson and Nashville Railroad, and as cholera 
was epidemic at the terminal points of this road, the escape 
of this community is remarkable.  Dr. P. reports that a number 
of aggravated cases of cholera morbus occurred, "but in all 
the characteristic features of cholera were wanting," and 
none terminated fatally.

One case, that of A. R. Bradley, occurred July 20.  Mr. B. was 
taken sick at Nashville, and at once returned home; the diarrhoea 
was exhausting, cramps were developed,, but the case yielded to 
treatment.  Disinfectants were freely used.

MEADE COUNTY.

Dr. H. R. Pusey, of Garnetsville, Meade County, reports that 
five cases of cholera occurred within the limits of the county, 
but in that portion that is adjacent to the infected-district 
in Hardin.

On the 27th of July B. A. Jones, who resided close to the line 
of the railroad, and who had been for several days at 
Elizabethtown, was taken with cholera, but recovered.

July 28, a Mrs. Torance, who lives on the turnpike road from 
Elizabethtown to the Salt River, was taken with cholera, and 
died after a short illness.  The country at this time was 
infested with tramps from Elizabethtown, and some of these 
wanderers had been at Tornace's house.

July 29, a Mr. L. C. Danly, who lived three miles west of 
Round Hollow, was taken with cholera at this home, and died 
after a short illness.  This man was a colporteur, and had 
recently been within the lines of infection in Hardin County.

Two other cases are reported, both of whom recovered.

WEBSTER COUNTY.

The only demonstration of cholera in 1873 that can be 
found in Webster County was at the village of Providence.

On the 31st of July a Mr. Perryman, while attending court 
at Princeton, Caldwell County, was taken with a profuse 
and exhausting diarrhoea.  As cholera was at this time 
epidemic at Princeton, Mr. Perryman left as soon as 
possible for his home.  He, however, was able to reach 
the house of a Mr. Dixon, near Providence, where he
 died on the 2d of August from cholera.  Upon the day 
that Perryman died, his physician, Dr. John Shackelford, 
was taken with cholera, and died on the 4th of the month.

These cases were followed by the illness of Mrs. Dixon and 
her son, both of whom recovered.  A few days later a lady
who had visited Mrs. Dixon was attacked with cholera, but 
recovered.

GARRARD COUNTY.

The epidemic of cholera in this county was confined 
almost exclusively to the town of Lancaster, and to 
refugees from that town, after the development of the 
disease.

Lancaster is situated nearly in the center of the 
county.  In 1870 this town had a population of about 
1,200 inhabitants, one-third of whom were negroes.  
Among the people of this town the memory of the epidemic 
of 1833, at which time the town had been almost 
depopulated by the ravages of cholera, had been 
kept green, and this fact accounts for the terror 
which the disease occasioned in 1873.

In 1833 the cholera had been directly introduced into 
the town in a way so patent that, among the older inhabitants 
of Lancaster, it would be difficult to find an intelligent 
person who doubted the infectionusness and the portability 
of the disease.

On the 18th day of June, 1833, late in the evening, 
a wagon, laden with merchandise for the store of Mr. 
William Cooke, who was at that time the principal merchant 
of the place, arrived at Lancaster.  These goods had been 
purchased at the city of Philadelphia, Pa.; they had been 
transported the Wheeling Va.; from thence by steamboat on 
the Ohio to Maysville, Ky.; from thence to Lexington, Ky.  
At the last named town they were loaded on the wagon from 
which they were delivered to Mr. Cooke.  The wagon was unloaded 
the evening of its arrival at Lancaster; the goods were unpacked 
and placed upon the shelves in Mr. Cooke's store, and before 
noon the next day Mr. Cooke, the wagoner, and two or three 
men who had handled these goods, were dead from cholera.

Prior to these cases there had been no sickness in the town, 
but from them the disease spread, became epidemic, and from 
the 19th of June to the 8th of July one hundred and sixteen 
deaths occurred.  Of these, fifty-eight occurred in the persons
of whites; of them, thirty-two were males, twenty-one were 
females, and five were young children.  Two fatal cases 
occurred in the persons of medical men, and duplicate cases 
occurred in many families.

Forty years later the same disease visited this town, concealed 
in the person of a sick stranger.  This man, as will be shown 
hereafter, came directly from an infected district in the State 
of Tennessee.  He was taken with cholera after his arrival at 
Lancaster; he lingered for twelve days and died; but before he 
died, cases of the same disease occurred among persons who came 
in contact with him; from them the infection spread to others, 
and eighteen fatal cases occurred.

The town of Lancaster is built upon undulating ground, some 600 
feet above the level of the Ohio river.  The business portion 
of the town is high and well drained.  On the eastern side of 
the town, Richmond street descends abruptly into a valley 
through which a small stream flows in a northeastern direction.  
This stream is fed by some small springs which issue from the foot 
of a hill occupied by a cemetery, and affords drainage for the 
main portion of the town.  Its banks are marshy and overgrown 
by wild grasses and weeds.  Beyond this stream the Richmond 
road ascends a considerable hill, upon the summit of which is 
located the barracks of the United States troops.  The space 
between the barracks and the town is occupied by private residences.  
Upon the east side of the drain, and upon the low ground in which 
it empties, after crossing the Sugar Creek road, a number of 
cabins are occupied by negro families.  Upon the banks of the 
drain, outside the limits of the town, was a filthy slaughter 
house, the efflavia from which at the time pervaded the entire 
town.

In the month of August, 1873, the sanitary condition of this town 
was very bad.  No attention had been paid to its police.  
Filth of all kinds was scattered around the negro-cabins, 
and human excrement was entirely upon the surface of the ground.  
The water-supply of this town is obtained, in the main, from wells.  
Those wells in public use are so situated that after each rain-fall 
they inevitably received a large amount of surface-washings.  One of 
these wells, that of Richmond street, to which frequent reference 
will be made, is directly on the line of the eastern drain.  Above 
this well, on the slope of the hill, at the foot of which the well 
was dug, are stables, cow-sheds, pig-pens, and privies; and it is 
notorious that after each rain-fall the water of this well has been 
found to be tainted.  When the fact is taken into consideration that 
throughout the Southwest the stables and their adjoining premises 
and invariably used by the males as privies, it is clear that the 
fluid contents of this well must have been contaminated by a 
certain amount of fecal matter.

On the 10th day of August a man named Bewley, who had traveled from 
Russellville, Tenn., which town, at the date of his departure, was

[cont'd on Page 302]

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