Yellow Fever at Miami 47


 Two other persons who had been aboard the steamer Laura
developed mild cases of yellow fever, while James Flye, a third
passenger, died with renal failure. His illness was so suspect that Dr.
Horsey performed an autopsy in the middle of the night (October 16),
with Drs. Jackson and Skaggs and several citizens present. Although
there were some dissenters, the final decision was yellow fever.29
On October 17, Philip DeHoff, a clerk at the Hotel Miami who had
nursed Hargrove, became sick with undoubted yellow fever. He had
returned to the Hotel Miami after remaining in detention on the bay
several miles south of Miami with the other hotel occupants for a
suitable length of time. But within five days of his return, DeHoff
became sick.30

 Quarantine Is On Again

 At this time, Dr. Robert Drake Murray of the United States
Marine Hospital Service, a noted authority on yellow fever, visited
Miami and publicly announced the existence of seven active cases.
Only then, did Dr. Porter officially acknowledge the presence of
yellow fever in Miami, and ordered a rigid quarantine against the rest
of the state. Porter pronounced Philip DeHoff as the "first case" of
the epidemic; later he amended this to I. R. Hargrove. Sam Ander-
son was not recognized as such since he had been so quickly seg-
regated from the community and because nearly three weeks had
elapsed before Hargrove became sick.31
 Most physicians believed the chief manner in which yellow
fever spread was through contact with a victim, his clothing, bed-
clothes or other items; a few favored the foul air theory. For Miami-
ans, this meant increased restrictions. Houses containing yellow fe-
ver patients were marked by yellow flags and no one, except doctors,
nurses, and persons with Immune Cards, were allowed to enter or
leave them. Quarantined residents made out grocery lists and posted
them on a tree or fence for neighbors who shopped for them. On
returning, the neighbor set the supplies in the yard for pickup. Upon
the patient's recovery, the house and its contents were disinfected by
fumigation and the yard wetted down with bichloride of mercury then
sprinkled with lime. Only then were the patient and residents of the
house free to circulate in the city. Early in November, fumigation of
outgoing mail was instituted.32