and cold water will reduce the fever. When the patient is in the "hot
stage" of the disease, the doctor places him on the floor naked and has
20 or 30 buckets of cold water dashed upon him from a height of ten
feet, followed by liberal doses of calomel and quinine.
The physician who recommended this treatment said he had tried
it only a few times, fearing that most of his patients could not stand it.
However, he stated that all patients subjected to it made recoveries. (7)
Treatment of a more general and far different character was
applied in Jacksonville, where an artillery company was called out during
the disastrous 1888 epidemic and ordered to fire salvos in the streets and
parks to kill the "microbes" believed to be flying around in miasmic
vapors. The "concussion method" of slaying microbes was suggested by
a Key West doctor. On one occasion a Negro, walking along the street
and being unaware of the impending salvo, was startled when a blank
charge from a cannon ploughed up the earth and flung a shower of sand
in his face. "Great Lord, how thick they fall!" he exclaimed. This
"bombardment" only resulted in a period of pleasant practice for the
artillerymen and a large powder bill against the city.
The Jacksonville Epidemic. The first case of yellow fever in the
Jacksonville epidemic was reported on July 28, 1888 when a visitor from
Tampa was taken ill. On August 8 four more cases were reported