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Logo by Ginger Cisewski
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1882 Case of
Black Measles in Cascade
Dubuque Herald Sept 19, 1882
Submitted by Nancy Coleman
It seems that the family of William McGovern, living a few miles from
Cascade, had become afflicted with a disease which the physicians subsequently
pronounced as black measles, and on Monday four members of the family,
all stalwart sons, who had attained the stage of manhood, died of the
dread affliction. While the corpses were at the Cascade Catholic Church
awaiting the burial services, a messenger arrived from the home of the
family, stating that the fifth son had died of the same disease. The number
of people who attended the funeral, with utter recklessness of the danger
of spreading the disease maybe estimated when it is known that the procession
was three miles in length.
Note: black measles, a rare, severe, often fatal, form of measles in
which hemorrhage into the skin lesions and mucous membranes is associated
with a sudden rise in temperature, convulsions, delirium, stupor, coma,
and marked respiratory distress. Called also hemorrhagic m., or Rocky
Mountain Fever.
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