


item | thumbnails | details | text | pdf
Download this image
YANDELL on Spasmodic Cholera. was a frost which threatened the fruit. The mercury was as low as 27' at sun rise, a slight pellicle of ice was seen on a tub of water in my yard, and the water in the calyx of an apple blossom was found frozen in my garden. The fruit, nevertheless, escaped uninjured. In a few days the weather grew warm, and continued uniformly so throughout the month. From the 12th of April to the 13th of May, but a few partial showers of rain fell. Fires were not necessary even in the morning and evening during most of this time. After the rains set in, they were copious and protracted to a degree rarely before witnessed by the oldest inhabitants. Fora month, but few days passed without rain, which was generally accompanied by much thunder and lightning. Engaged at the time in a course of lectures on Chemistry, I found it difficult to collect such an amount of electricity as was requisite in perform- ing the common class experiments. During most of the period it was impracticable, by means of the powerful ma- chine belonging to the Chemical Laboratory of the Univer- sity, to charge a Leyden jar. The range of the thermome- ter was from 78 to 85 in the hottest part of the day, and the humidity of the atmosphere rendered the heat sultry and oppressive. On one occasion it fell to 67' after a storm, but rose again in a day or two to its former height with the recurrence of the rains. This weather had continued three weeks when cholera broke out. A few cases, with symptoms to excite suspicions of this disease in the medical attendants, were rumored through the city about the first of the month, and one occur- red in a negro, on the 3d of June, which left no doubt of its existence. The night following, a number of persons along Main Street were attacked, and by morning seven were dead or dying. In the course of the day cases were developed in other parts of the city, and on the next day the list of dead had increased to 27. During the next three days it progressed slowly but steadily. The character of the weather was unchanged. Thunder storms occnrred almost every day. Friday, the 7th of June, was a day of continued 2