Please apologize an "independent" question - what kinds of malaria respectively plasmodia (plasmodium vivax, falciparum or malariae) occur over there?

I remember those fever-related diseases leading to the invention of cooling systems by doctors, and finally AC.

Naturally occurring malaria is very rare in the U.S. now since we pretty much eradicated it in the 20th century. Most cases here come via people traveling to areas on the globe where it is still prevalent. I know that it was an ongoing threat in the American South up until the concentrated efforts to eradicate it. The biological end of it is more than I can discuss. Here's a link to the U.S. Center for Disease Control that has basic facts that might help:

http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/facts.html

Thanks, Laurie - same in south Europe, Rome e.g. was highly malaria infested due to swamps until these were drained in the early 20th century.
The link unfortunately doesn't specify which plasmodia species occurred in the US - I'd just like to know whether there was also plasmodium falciparum, which is by far the most deadly one, causing malaria tropicana.

Thanks, Laurie, for advertising my book. The saga of Dr. Luke Blackburn's ill-begotten plot to create a weapon of mass destruction by attempting to disseminate yellow fever in the North is a fascinating example of a Southern war effort gone bad. Blackburn involved many Confederates in this scheme, and he hired one Godfrey J. Hyams to serve as the distributor of the contents of the trunks filled with the contaminated clothing and bedding. Blackburn's moral character suffered from this plot, but his later career wasn't adversely affected since he became the Governor of Kentucky in 1879. Needless to say, his political opponents tried unsuccessfully to use the "yellow fever plot" against Blackburn in the election, but most people either didn't care about Blackburn's previous activities or didn't believe that he was the same person as the one involved in the germ warfare.

Lest anyone become involved in any breath-holding exercise awaiting the publication of my book, you need to know that I'm just now negotiating a contract with the publisher, so the book won't likely appear in bookstores until Spring 2017.

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With regard to the malaria question, the vast majority of cases in the early history of the United States were caused by plasmodium vivax. Cases of falciparum malaria then were virtually always acquired in other countries. Endemic malaria was eliminated from the United States in 1949. Now all cases of malaria reported in the United States have been acquired elsewhere, including vivax and falciparum, as well as the other varieties.

Dr. Greene, do you know if Dr. Blackburn spent his entire life believing that if Godfrey Hyams had delivered the valise to the White House the "infected" dress shirts might have killed Abraham Lincoln? Or did he learn later in life that yellow fever could not be spread by the clothing of yellow fever victims (or in Lincoln's case by exposing the dress shirts to "contaminated" clothing of yellow fever victims)?

(05-05-2016 10:35 PM)Leon Greene Wrote:  With regard to the malaria question, the vast majority of cases in the early history of the United States were caused by plasmodium vivax. Cases of falciparum malaria then were virtually always acquired in other countries. Endemic malaria was eliminated from the United States in 1949. Now all cases of malaria reported in the United States have been acquired elsewhere, including vivax and falciparum, as well as the other varieties.

Thank you so much for the information!!!

(05-06-2016 05:05 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Dr. Greene, do you know if Dr. Blackburn spent his entire life believing that if Godfrey Hyams had delivered the valise to the White House the "infected" dress shirts might have killed Abraham Lincoln? Or did he learn later in life that yellow fever could not be spread by the clothing of yellow fever victims (or in Lincoln's case by exposing the dress shirts to "contaminated" clothing of yellow fever victims)?

Roger, the contagion theory of the transmission of yellow fever (as well as other diseases) persisted until 1901 when Dr. Walter Reed discovered the need for a mosquito vector to pass the disease from one person to another. Likely Blackburn clung to his death to the concept that exposure to contaminated clothing could transmit the disease. He died in 1887.

We know that the trunks with the contaminated clothing and bedding were transported as far as Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Blackburn's accomplice Godfrey J. Hyams (using the alias "J. W. Harris") repacked the material into other less suspicious-looking trunks, likely eight in number. (Of course, one should question how Hyams could do this transfer if the contents were so deadly that they "could kill a man at 60 yards." But those are just pesky details.) Testimony at the Lincoln Assassination Trial confirmed that a merchant in Washington, D.C., named W. L. Wall and Company, located at 9th and Pennsylvania Avenue, called an "auction and commission merchant," received five of the eight trunks on August 5, 1864. Wall and his employee Mr. A. Brenner (sometimes referred to as "Albert Bremier") sold materials from at least one of the contaminated trunks later in August 1864. (See the Benn Pitman Lincoln Trial Testimony Transcription, pages 55-57, and Exhibit #74 in the Trial Evidence). The trial testimony even itemizes the clothing sold - 96 shirts, 9 coats, etc.

Other trunks were shipped toward New Bern, North Carolina (often called "Newbern" then). There large Union strongholds of troops and civilians were the targets of the contaminated goods. It's unclear if the trunks ever reached their destination; the conspirators attributed an outbreak of yellow fever there in 1864 to their plot, but of course we know know that it had nothing to do with the epidemic since yellow fever cannot be transmitted by that method.

Hyams, for all of his complicity, refused to have anything to do with the valise containing the fancy shirt, allegedly contaminated with yellow fever, intended for President Lincoln. Hyams was willing to kill thousands of innocent civilians in large Northern cities, but he balked at the thought of killing the President. No one was ever able to track the valise. It likely never arrived at the White House.

We know almost nothing from Blackburn himself about his thoughts in his later years regarding the yellow fever plot. During his race for the Governorship of Kentucky in 1879, he simply avoided discussing the topic, stating that the story was "too preposterous for intelligent gentlemen to believe." There's nothing in currently available Blackburn papers that reference this scandal. He discreetly avoided mentioning the plot in any of his memoirs. Our only window to any "confession" was an article published in the October 4, 1879, issue of the Cincinnati Daily Gazette. There the newspaper claimed that Blackburn "Admits the Yellow Fever Plot As Charged Upon Him, and Details all His Proceedings in the Business," citing a discussion Blackburn had held with friends years earlier in 1869. Since this story was printed during his campaign for the Governor of Kentucky, Blackburn never responded to its accusations.

Thank you for the detailed information on the contaminated clothing and bedding. I've read that they contained blood and puss. Why would people pay for these at auction and if the White House had received the trunk intended for Lincoln, why would Dr. Blackburn believe that Lincoln would be given such filthy used clothing?

Dr. Greene, I second Anita on thanking you for such a terrific reply.

Anita, Dr. Greene can correct anything I say that is wrong, but I think what was supposed to be sent to Lincoln were clean, expensive dress shirt(s) that Blackburn had exposed to the dirty, used clothing of yellow fever victims. The "gift" was to be sent by a supposed loyal but anonymous supporter of Lincoln's. However, the plan failed when the man who was to deliver the "gift" to the White House got cold feet and backed out. As Dr. Greene mentioned the "gift" was in a valise.

Thanks for the clarification Roger. I wonder what Mary and Robert Lincoln thought about this diabolical plot when it became public after the war. How did the White House staff protect against the possibility of poisoned food ?

(05-06-2016 07:19 PM)Anita Wrote:  How did the White House staff protect against the possibility of poisoned food ?

Order takeout from Chipotle?

(05-06-2016 08:36 PM)Gene C Wrote:  

(05-06-2016 07:19 PM)Anita Wrote:  How did the White House staff protect the President against the possibility of poisoned food ?

Order takeout from Chipotle?

You go first. I'll send you the " Come Back and Try Us" coupon from Chipotle
I just received.

(05-06-2016 05:00 PM)Anita Wrote:  Thank you for the detailed information on the contaminated clothing and bedding. I've read that they contained blood and puss. Why would people pay for these at auction and if the White House had received the trunk intended for Lincoln, why would Dr. Blackburn believe that Lincoln would be given such filthy used clothing?

Great question, Anita! Your skepticism establishes you as a saavy shopper.

You're right that the contaminated articles of clothing and bedding were badly soiled with vomit, blood, and excrement. In fact, Blackburn preferred the worst soiled garments, and he favored those items from patients who died. Obviously these items would not likely sell well in the used clothing stores of the day in the North. We learn of his technique from the intended second shipment, the one that was intercepted before it left Bermuda. (The first was in the Spring of 1864; the second was to be in the late Spring or Summer of 1865). Blackburn alternately layered his clothes: clean-dirty-clean-dirty. It wasn't an attempt to hide the soiled garments; it was a method to infuse the contagion into the clean ones. The first shipment left Bermuda in March 1864; it wasn't sold until August 1864. That means the soiled garments were in close contact with the clean ones for about 3-4 months. Blackburn must have thought that this amount of time was sufficient to allow passage of the infectious material from one layer to another. The clean-appearing ones would be salable, but they would still have the essence of yellow fever - whatever that was - imbedded in them. LIkewise, the fancy shirt that Blackburn had intended to be given to Lincoln was treated similarly. It was to be kept in close contact with soiled items until the expected delivery to the President. We don't know what happened to the valise containing this shirt.

The second shipment of trunks was intercepted in the Spring of 1865 before they left Bermuda. The items were thoroughly inspected by the Bermuda Police, by Nathaniel Jackson, St. George's "Nuisance Inspector," and by Dr. Benjamin Burland, the Health Officer of the East End of Bermuda. They discovered the clean-dirty-clean-dirty layering. We know that no one died as a result of this inspection, belying the notion that the contents could "kill a man at 60 yards." After the garments were itemized, and witnessed, they were buried on Nonsuch Island in Bermuda, one of the smaller and sparsely inhabited islands where a quarantine station had been built. Later, just to be sure that the contamination never emerged to sicken anyone, the police bored holes in the underground trunks and poured acid into them.

By the way, it's known that a mosquito can survive in conditions like those that existed in the trunks for only a maximum of 24-48 hours. There's no chance that any of the reported epidemics that emerged in the areas where the trunks were delivered could have been caused by mosquitoes still surviving within the trunks.

So the shoppers in the North who were to be the recipients and purchasers of these contaminated articles didn't ever see the filth and smell of the original dirty items. It was the clean ones, the ones into which the "contagion" of yellow fever had seeped, that were displayed for sale.

Thanks Dr. Greene. A carefully thought out plot based on Blackburn's understanding of how the disease was transmitted. Are there other diseases transmitted by contaminated clothing and bedding that would have resulted in the outcome Blackburn intended?

(05-07-2016 12:12 PM)Anita Wrote:  Thanks Dr. Greene. A carefully thought out plot based on Blackburn's understanding of how the disease was transmitted. Are there other diseases transmitted by contaminated clothing and bedding that would have resulted in the outcome Blackburn intended?

Yes, smallpox would have been the ideal agent. Even during the Civil War era, there were prior historical examples of smallpox being used as a weapon of mass destruction. Epidemics had been spread purposefully in 1763 and 1812, and Blackburn was aware of them. Blackburn was seeking outbreaks of both yellow fever and smallpox for his diabolical scheme. Fortunately for the North, only yellow fever was rampant during 1864, the year that Blackburn began his plot using germ warfare. Sporadic cases of smallpox occurred in the Spring of 1864, but not in a frequency that would yield him large quantities of contaminated articles, which he wanted for wide distribution in the North. Had he been able to find an outbreak of smallpox for his scheme, the result likely would have been very different.