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/452.jpg 452 NARRATIVE OF CHOLERA EPIDEMIC OF 1873 counts of its progress since 1832 as far north as Canada, and south to Mexico, the West India Islands, and Central America, and this season we have accounts of it in several parts of Europe, and the eastern cities of this country. I am happy to state that with the change of the sea- son, and the sanitary arrangements that have been adopted, scarcely a trace of it exists at present in this place, and I can state, without fear of contradiction, that the general health of the people of Denison is better, and there is less mortality than there has been for the last eight months. II.THE PREVAILING DISEASE AT DENISON, TEXAS, DURING THE FALL OF 1873. BY ALEX W. ACHESON, M. D. A disease called cholera visited Denison, Texas, in 1873 and 1874. A few isolated cases were met with during the summer of those years. In 1873, during the month of October, from two to six cases were met almost every day. Denison is a new town; was born September 23, 1872. When the disease prevailed at its worst the town was but one year old. The inhabitants were all new-comers, therefore unaccustomed to the climate, the water, the food. There were not sufficient conveniences of any kind. Four thousand people lived on six acres. This is denser than New York is crowded. Such a state of affairs will intensify any prevailing disease. There was considerable sickness previous to this outbreak. Pneumonia, meningitis, measles, bilious fevers, infantile diarrhea, and dysentery prevailed. They were unusually severe and fatal. The majority of the inhabitants were men; railroad-hands, loose in morals, careless in habits, living in and around saloons. The site of Denison is good, high, well-drained, saudy soil, pure water, no ponds. The town is three miles south of Red river; the prevailing wind is from the south; no reason why it should be a sickly town. The year just past has been very healthy. The symptoms presented in this scourge were those usually seen in Cholera. There were vomiting, purging, profuses weating, extreme thirst, coldness of surface, loss of elasticity in the skin, washer-woman’s fingers, altered respiration, loss of voice, quickened and weak pulse, de- creased temperature, cramps in the bowels in the beginning, cramps in the legs towards the close, collapse, &c. We will not describe these symptoms in extenso. There were other symptoms present; to these we will refer hereafter. Popular opinion said this was cholera. Half of the physicians of Denison said so, too. Was it? What is cholera? A disease originating in India.* It acts by impair- ing the power of the nerve-centers governing the thoracic and abdomi- nal viscera. Consequent on this defective innervation are vomiting, purging, sighing, respiration, collapse. To prove this cholera, first, the possibility of importation must be Shown; second, the impossibility of other diseases impairing these nerv- ous centers, and giving rise to these symptoms. FIRST. Importation. Cholera (?) prevailed in Tennessee in the summer of 1873. (Tennes- see is five hundred miles from Denison; no direct connection between *International Sanitary Conference, Vienna, July, 1874.