The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1874-01-03

To the EtitOT OF the PGcyVc commercial AdCeTtlSer:
SIR In the last issue of the Gazette, 1 notice o
communication signed Oahu - giving "a thought
or two on my report of the Queens Hospital, re-
ferring especially to the part of it touching on the
increase of syphilis and the ''Act to Mitigate"
1t is neither my province nor intention here to
discuss at any length the motives of the late Minis
ter " in arresting the action - of this law, although
1 do question his right; for, good or bad, it is still a
law Of the country, and as long as it remains so,
neither be nor any other man by his own action has
q right to abrogate it. His reasons could not have
been from economy, or in fact from the want
Of means, as then alleged, for know that the
office of medical attendantfunder the Act was offer
ed to others both before and after my removal from
it. Besides, if this were the sole object, l offered to
perform the duties gratis, rather than see the work
ing of the law stopped, being so well aware of the
good it had done. "Oahu" ought to be aware that
for several Legislatures no direct appropriation was
made for the carrying out of this law, its expenses
having been drawn from the general funds of the
Board of Health. Therefore in my opinion these
reasons we're not sufficient justification for the Min
lister in arresting it."
L am not in q position to state whether syphilis
was introduced here by males or females, but L think
the presumption is strongly in favor of the former,
AprODdDly lOTelbuSTSD uuu muCu uS L SlOuIu SSAiS
to see the law reach equally both sexes, 1 know that
the experience of other countries teaches that the
idea is too Utopian to be practical; in fact it is sim
ply absurd, and could never be carried out. Such a
law can only be made to apply and be enforced upon
u class who have as here voluntarily declared them
selves to be prostitutes, or are known to be living by
prostitution; from such a course of life they must be
considered as the main source from which the disease
:, I;-.ar;,otal In ,ronf Of which I will Sfota that
during the first quarter in which the Act to
Mitigate - was enforced, 1S9 registered women were
found to be diseased, whilst in 1871, or ten years
afterwards, there were only % for the whole twelve
months, 9 of whom were treated at the Queens Hos
pital. Also in the years 1868 and 1864, there were
81 males and 81 females treated in that Institution,
whilst in 1878 there were 103 males and SO females;
1 wish it to be clearly understood that these were all
purely syphilitic cases, and not others arising there
from. deny that this law was always an unpop-
ular one; that it was so, and still is with a few 1
freely admit, but certainly not with the intelligent
majority who will not shut their eyes to the existing
state of affairs, melancholy, and much to be deplored
as they are. These have always been in favor of the
law, however imperfect, feeling that it is the only
step taken in the direction of staying, or at least
mitigating, the frightful havoc committed by syphilis
Tor many years, ana the great curse OF the HAWAIIAN
race. "Oahu " also makes another great mistake.
which 1 must beg to correct, when he endeavors to
prove without the slightest data the reason Of the
great increase of s~yphilitic cases treated in the
Queens Hospital. He says 1" the surgeon who had
charge OF the ~syphilitic hospital was also the surgeon
of the Queens Hospital, and just as soon as the
former WAS closed, the patients within an hour ap-
piled for admission to the LATTER sc. most en-
phatically deny this statement, for on the contrary
those patients who were then under treatment there,
Immediately left on becoming aware that they were
no longer under police supervision, and although
still diseased at once returned to their former voca-
ton.
1t is with extreme reluctance,-snd only impelled
by a sense of duty which 1 consider 1 owe to a peO-
pie who have long been allowed to perish from this
disease. which, under proper regulations duly en-
fore ed, could soon be eradicated, or nearly so,-that
I write this. I feel that the next Legislative Assem-
bly, will soon meet, and 1 think it well that the eyes
Of the whole nation should be opened TO the plain
antI naked truth as it exists. in order that they may
tax e some energetic steps to arrest this. the real
car Sc of the barrenness and the decay of the Hawai-
ians, and one Of the chief sources of leprosy now
dra wing SO largely on the resources Of these islands,
bot h socially and pecuniarily.
ROBERT McKIBBIS, Jr., NJ. D.