The Sun.
London, England, 1844-11-21 00:00:00

THE QUARANTINE LAWS.

If the existing system of sanitary regulations and
quarantine laws is to remain unchanged, not only
until the question of contagion or non-contagion has
been decided by the scientific world, but even until
all the Governments of Europe have unanimously
adopted a scientific opinion on the subject, it is evi-
dent that nothing short of a mathematical demonstra-
tion can put an end to these inconvenient restrictions
on the intercource of nations. Such a demonstration
can never be arrived at, especially under a system
which prohibits experiment ; and thus the whole
restrictive system is retained, because we consent to
be the victims of an uncertainty and the slaves of a
doubt. It is doubtful in the highest degree whether
if a person affected with Oriental plague in its worst
form and stage were suddenly transported into the
heart of a foreign, and particularly of a northern,
country, where no previous tendencies to the dis-
ease prevailed, the disorder would prove infec-
tious. Yet, so strong is the prepossession of alarm
ingrafted on our legislators and our Administration,
that we still act upon the most terrible conceptions of
pestilential influence, and the officers entrusted with
the care of the public health, exert all the vigilance
of a vexatious police over a considerable portion of
the commerce of this and all other countries. To
such an extent do these sanitary regulations extend,
that they are directed not only against those places
where infectious disorders are known to prevail, but
against whole quarters of the globe. It was not
till the French had been many years established
on the northern coast of Africa that they dis-
covered that the plague was as little known in the
Regency of Algiers as on the shores of Provence,
and they at last abandoned, without inconvenience,
the system of quarantine, which they had till then
rigorously enforced. In like manner, nine-tenths of
the precautions taken to avoid the transmission of
infectious disease are utterly fantastical ; and the
question, which it behoves our Government to con-
sider is, how large a portion of these superfluous re-
etrictions may be abolished, without too great a risk
of exposing our ports and our population to any real
danger. It is an old maxim of law, " omnia prmsu-
muntur contra spoliatorem;" and assuredly this prin-
ciple has been held good against infectious disease..
Not only are they supposed to be transmissible over a
vast distance of sea and land, and through a con-
siderable lapse of time, whenever they have oceurred ;
but travellers -and merchandise are treated with
almost equal suspicion in spite of direct evidence
that they come from places where no pestilence exists
at all. A clean bill of health is received only
in mitigation of these rigorous precautions ; and
under the system which now prevails, with more or
less severity, throughout Europe, the whole com-
merce and intercourse of the world with the sus•
pected countries is dealt with as if the exception
was the rule. The proportion of vessels coming
to this country with clean bills, even from the coun-
tries where plague most frequently :prevails, is hap-
pily very large ; yet these ships, against which no
practical evidence whatever can be said to exist, are
detained on the bare theoretical presumption, that
they may have latent plague on board; though none
was known to have disclosed itself in the places from
which they sailed. It is of so much importance to
proceed in this important matter with due caution,.
that we should be most unwilling to run any direct
risks, or even to alarm the prejudices of the public or
the scruples of foreign nations, by a premature ad-
mission of vessels coining from infected countries to
free pratique. But long before we arrive at this stage
of sanitary reform, we may hope to see the precau-
tions disposed of which are taken, not against real,
but imaginary, perils ; and we shall venture to throw
out one or two suggestions on the most obvious of
these changes. It is in the north of Europe, and es-
pecially in the ports of the United Kingdom, that these
experiments may be tried with least risk and with
most advantage; for the most zealous contagionists
admit that the propagation of these diseases requires
something more than mere contact—namely, a certain
concourse of circumstances unfavourable to health,
and an epidemic tendency to that form of disorder.
The best writers on the plague have remarked that,
even in the East, whenever it has occurred out
of season, it has not spread; and it is evident that the
total diversity of climate and habits on the banks of the
Nile and on those of the Thames render it most impro-
bable that a disease should be transplanted with the
same fatal results from one to the other. We rest our
view of this subject, however, on grounds more ac-
curately ascertained than theories of science. There
is, we believe, no recorded instance of a case of plague
occurring in any of the quarantine establishments of
this kingdom. No one seriously believes that there is
more plague, or chance of plague, at Standgate Creek
or Bamborough Pool than in the heart of the me-
tropolis ; yet the vessels which undergo this deten-
tion are all assumed to have on board the germs of a
pestilence ; the amount of suspicion is expressed by
the length of time they may remain in quarantine ;
no ships from the suspected ports are allowed to es-
cape, although in none of them has this presumption
ever been verified. It would not be difficult to show
that the present system, especially as it is practised
at Malta and in various foreign ports of the Mediter-
ranean, is inconsistent and unsatisfactory upon either
hypothesis. If the plague is highly contagious, the
carelessness and indifference to various minor but es-
sential points in the lazarettos would infallibly let the
disease into Christendom, and all these precautions,
ought to be redoubled ; if it be not contagious, it is
not to these precautions we owe our security, and
they are vexatious without being requisite or effectual.
The first steps, however to be taken in the matter by
the British Government should be at once extremely
moderate and very important, we see no reason, con-
sidering the length of the voyage from any port of
the Levant to the United Kingdom, that all vessels
arriving with clean bills of health, and from a port
where no plague was known to exist at the time of
their departure, should not at once be admitted to
land their passengers, and even to discharge their
cargoes. The mode of dealing with vessels and
cargoes from infected ports is a more delicate part of
the subject; but we have no doubt, as we hinted
on a former occasion, that ever, with them the mere
lapse of time spent in a lazaretto is by no means the
best or surest preventive of contagion. The more
urgent and important measure of relief, however, is
that which would exempt from the quarantine regu-
lations the large majority of vessels against which no
colourable apprehensions can be said to exist ; and
we are satisfied that this relaxation may be extended
to all the foreign trade of this country, except from
places at which the plague or some other epidemic
may be raging with violence at any particular time.
To some up our opinion as briefly as possible, we
dissent from the application of general and permanent
restrictions of this nature, without denying that it
is the duty of the Government to protect the public
health by particular precautions, whenever it is en-
dangered ; and we blame the present quarantine
legislation. of Europe, because it exists as a system,
and is endured as an institution, instead of being
adapted, with as much regard as possible to the in-
terests of trade, to the places, seasons, and times, in
which epidemic diseases may prevail. We are aware
that any considerable change in this system must be
carried into execution by several at least of the mari-
time Powers; and the negotiations to effect this im-
portant object are of so delicate a nature, that we
hope they will not be intrusted to obtrusive volun-
teers, or to men whose readiness considerably outruns
their reason and respectability. But we see no reason
to despair of our obtaining the concurrence of the
Baltic maritime States in the first instance, and after-
wards extending the same modifications, with the
assistance of Austria, to the Mediterranean. Mean-
while, however, there are powerful elements most
-actively at work in this cause. All the Eastern
events of the last few years—the culture of Egypt—
the overland communication with India—the Oriental
packet service—the Syrian expedition—and the pro-
jects for crossing the Isthmus of Suez—have already
shown how little the fear of infection interferes with
the operations of politics, war, or trade in the country
where the disease is supposed to be most rife, and"will
ultimately relieve us from apprehensions, which we
should cease to entertain if we were better informed
as to the precise nature of the danger.—Tirnes.

MATCH AT QUOITS FOR 501. A-SIDE.—On Friday.
this match, which excited considerable interest from the
celebrity of the players—Messrs. David Weir, Glasgow,
and J. Dunlop, Pollokshaws' against Messrs. A. Smith
and R. Paterson, Mauchline Ayrshire—came off on Mr.
Weir's green, radeston. The morning was exceedingly
stormy, but at mid-day it cleared up, and the weather,
considering the season, was highly favourable. Messrs.
Dunlop and Weir took the lead and kept it till they num-
bered 50 shots. The game afterwards was keenly contested,
both sides being equal at 55, 57, and 58 ; at this point
Messrs. Smith and Paterson got two shots a-head, making
them 60 against 58. All hope of beating the far-famed
Ayrshire &nen seemed now at an end, when Messrs.
Dunlop and Weir, whose playing throughout (particularly
that of the latter) was admirable, again took the lead,
and gained by one shot, the result being—Messrs. Weir
and Dunlop, 61 ; Smith and Paterson, 60. The green
was crowded all day with visitors, many of whom were
deeply interested in the game. Considerable sums of
money, we understand, changed hanth, the defeated
party having been heavily backed by Liverpool sports.
men.-61,1,g0w Argus.

THE BRAIN.—At the inquest held on Monday
upon a person who survived for three days a dreadful
injury of the brain, Mr. Waltley said that a Short time
ago a man was struck on the head with a pickaxe, and
that although his brains escaped from the wound and
besmeared his hand, he was able to run without assist-
ance to the London Hospital. Upon arriving at tho
hospital he was asked how he felt, when he replied that
he was much better since he lost his brains. Mr.
Waltley further said that it was almost incredible how
long persons survived injuries of the brain.
We understand that the reduction of fares on the
Liverpool and Manchester Railway has been followed
by a great increase in the number of passengers.--,
Liverpool Courier.