New-York tribune., 1873-02-01
pEsTyLEgoE and ITS MORAL.


Boston has narrowly escaped calamity only
comparable with her fire. Until within rev
weeks there has been ever since the summer
steady increase in the spread and fatality OF
smallpox in that city, The facts were bad
and rumor magnfed them. Had the con-
taglon spread with still greater virulence'
as seemed likely, the ultimate INJURY
to Bostons commercial interests might
have been reckoned by millions of dollars.
Property may be swept away by lire, whiie
trade remains. But contagious disease not
only frightens away customers, it sends them
to other cities. Ii they have bought gOods Oh
certain houses in city during long series
of wears. they may almost always be counted
on. The force of habit and custom is in
nothing stronger than in trade. But the
customer once driven to another city LOT Ills
purchases, is more than half lost lie can
only be reclaimed to the ancient ways, IL al
all, by extending to him unusual credit OF
sales at diminished profit And from this mis-
fortune Boston is barely delivered. The story
of her peril, its slow growth for while, Its
suddenly rapid increase, and its recent sup
preston, is told by a correspondent In other
columns. 1t is an interesting and instructive
narrative.
One year ago the disease first broke out III
a filthy tenement-house quarter. Patients and
physicians conspired to conceal cases, and the
infection gradually spread. AS is usual with
il. the disease was partially arrested with
warmer weather. There had been some alarm
felt, and some pottering action on the part Oh
various bodies in authority. 1t was somebody's
business, but nobody found it his For pruden-
tial reasons nothing was said about it during the
Jubilee. That occasion also absorbed Official
attention, The disease was in what might be
called a latent c6fiaitiOn. Fey efforts were were
making to check it, and it was Quietly taxing
a deeper hold With the cooler weather of
Autumn, there was sudden outbreak OF the
contagion. Officials found their doors besleged
by anxious citizens. Boards were compelled to
consider the facts But nobody seemed to have
quite enough authority to do anything. The
great fire came and utterly diverted public at
tention. People forgot to urge officials to their
duty. A smallpox hospital just built was
fired by an incendiary and burned to the
ground. Meanwhile patients were refusing TO
be sent to an island somewhere down the Bay.
Dishonest attendants were selling injected
clothing. And smallpox in its more mallg-
nant form was spreading, according to rumor,
through every street.
There came a change of government, and
the new officials, fresh from the people, ap-
precated the danger. The delays and Obstruc-
ton of red tape gave way before en-
ergy. Prompt and stringent measures were
taken. Private rights were disregarded. There
will be lawsuits about these acts, but the
great public danger is averted. We find that
the record for the year was 1882 reported cases
of smallpox. AS the disease showed no great
violence till Fall, the numbers in its latter
weeks must have been very large. Our corre-
spondent is fully within the fact in stating
them at sixty per week. The measures taken
to extinguish the pest had no novelty. They
were the "stamping-Out" prOcess-compulsory
vaccination, disinfection, and isolation. Again
the lesson is plainly set forth that no
dallance with pestilence is safe; that
nothing but stamping out" will quench
it that a few officials must have authority
for stringent measures. From time to time
our city and Brooklyn have been similarly
endangered. Always we have experienced this
same difficulty from want of coordination OF
authority. All the causes of contagious diseases
are not known, but abundant means of prevent
ing them are known. 1t is as absurd to stop
to handy the question as to whose busi-
ness it is to take action, when pesti-
lence is present, as it would be when a
building is on fire. These are things
that must be provided for in advance.
While our legislators at Albany are regu-
lating our civic system, let them see to it
that the responsibility for the health of the
city rests on somebody's shoulders. Then
we may hope that the filth and disease of the
overcrowded "back slumsn will be cleaned
out as in cholera times, by power of law !;
and, what is yet more important kept so.