Grayson County Texas -The Cholera Epidemic in the Denison Texas area in 1873 By Deb Haines *********************************************** This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by:Deb Haines by - Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm *********************************************** Original image of this page located: http://www.usgwarchives.net/tx/grayson/images/451.jpg 451 IN THE UNITED STATES. by some doctors cholera, and by others congestion. We learn from Mr. Munson, who came down on Monday morning from Denison, that four Deaths took place there the day and night previous. * * * * We learn that on Wednesday and the night previous there were six or eight deaths there. * * * Governor Owings and others of that place in- formed us that a large portion of the population had left, probably over a thousand or fifteen hundred. THE CHOLERA AT DENISON, TEXAS. To the Editor of the Sherman Patriot: For some weeks past a disease has visited the thriving town of Deni- son, and about sixty deaths during the past three weeks have been the result of this sad visitation. The inhabitants have been startled, and many inquiries have been made with regard to what this disease is. Some physicians of good standing pronounce it by one name, and Others another; and the public are puzzled to know what the malady Is, and how it may be averted; and the people very justly look to the medical profession for information. And it has been suggested that if the physicians here could not diagnose and treat the disease, that a subscription be raised for the purpose of bringing experienced physi- cians from a distance, who were capable of treating such cases success- fully. Now, for my own part, I cannot see any reason for not coming to the conclusion that the disease with which we have been afflicted is cholera; and those who coincide with me in this conclusion are physicians who have been in practice in the South for a number of years. I may men- tion the names of Lipscomb, Field, Cooke, and Harris. I do not wish to be dogmatical in my assertions, and give due respect to those who differ from me. I have no desire to come out in the pub- lic press on a subject suited for discussion among medical gentlemen, or at a medical association; but~ circulars have been printed and published, and articles have appeared from the press, that the disease with which we have been afflicted is not cholera, and is not an epidemic. The absence of malarious influence we have in this locality would not warrant us in coming to the conclusion that these cases are exclusively of a malarious character. The number of deaths we have would repre- sent several thousand cases of ordinary remittent and intermittent fever that always, under proper treatment, get well, even in the most malarial- infected localities, and a large number of the very worst cases of this class will yield to treatment. Under cinchonism and other proper management not more than one in eight probably will die. (Hartshorn Essentials, page 323. In none of the forms of congestive fever is the first paroxysm apt to be of a pernicious character. In the majority of instances the disease begins as an ordinary periodic fever, and it is only in the second or third paroxysm the alarming symptons appear. Nor is the first con- gestive paroxysm very likely to prove mortal; generally it is not until the second or third that a fatal issue is to be apprehended. (Da Costa on Diagnosis, page 725) The history of cholera goes to show that it is not confined to any par- Ticular locality or country. Since 1545 we have accounts of its fre- quently breaking out, from time to time, in different parts of Europe, as far north as 64_ north latitude, and on this continent we have ac-