The Daily clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1866-1888, 1878-01-13

After having organized, as / suggested in
my last communication on this subject a
proper board of health in every county, city.
town and village in the State, with health
officers selected with a view to their special
fitness for the position, all acting u der the
general control and advice of the State Board
OF Health-having inaugurated system of
registration of births, marriages, deaths and
the causes of death-having established
vaccine bureau i'm the State with compul-
sorry law in its hands, we would then, and
not until then, be prepared to look TO a still
higher and still more extensive develop
ment of the field of observation and study
AS soon as NJ al ajOrity OF the State shall
have made the preparation alluded TO, it
would then be proper to look 10 the Organi-
zation of National Board of Health. or, if
you please, National Department of
Healtb--a health council of the Government
to be created in such a manner us to give to
every State proper representative. Let
this council haveit executive officer, whose
Office shall be kept in Washington. Once a
year let the council meet as Medical Con-
grrss, and make such suggestions in regard
20 the public health and quarantine as the
.sgeueral welfare" of the people may demand.
Last Spring / had occasion in these
communications to allude to certain dis
cases, such as yellow fever, cholera, etc. as
being produced by portable poison-that
these diseases did not originate spontane
ously, but were transported from one place
to another, injecting district alter district,
as they passed along And in this connec-
ton | alluded to an efficien quarantine as
a certain means of che cking the progress of
these disorders, and of keeping them torev
| er away from cur shores. | also stated that
| it was impossible for single State, in its
| individual action, to establish an absolutely
| protective quarantine. For Illustration
| took the State of Mississippi and the bare
| mention of the fact, that we not only had
an extensive gulf-cOast of our own, but that
we had two railroads whose termlnl were
! i'm two other States-in Mobile and in New
Orleans-over whose control we had no 1u-
| risdiction whatever, was sufficient to show
| that in matters of quarantine, Mississippi
alone, was utter powerless
But when the general Government can
| be brought to understand that the health OF
/ the masses is as important as the commerce
and trade of merchant princes, then sue
| cessful quarantine can be devised and en-
! forced. When Congressman can be made
| to understand that the preservation of tue
/ health of the people is as portant as the
improvements which are likely TO ema-
nate from the Agricultural Depart
ment at Washington--when the Gov
ernment can be persuaded that the
duties of the signal service bureau in guard
ing the shipping interest along rocky coasts
i and no more important than the protcctlof
of the inland people against the introduc'
ton of contagious diseases-we VIII tnel
have laws and regulations which verify
J believe will Danish some OF the wol st pestl
| Iential epdemics from our land forever
In one respect the duties of an officer OF tn
signal service are closely allied TO th'
duties of health officer of port. and !
the attention oil the powers that be couit
| once be interested in the subject, 1t woui'
not fequire great deal of sagacity TO sug
, gest that the duties of the two position
could be admiralty performed Dy youni
medical expert
!, When once we'll engaged in the contem
8 plation of this grand sanitary idea yer
! small amount of ingenuity on the part
) statesmen might discover that our trcate
with other nations might very proper
contain some provisions looking to tii
preservation of health by preventing I'D
e spread of disease. Indeed the present sy:
p tenn of quarantine might De very proper
t reversed. Instead of being directed man
J, ly against the landing of an infected fe
n vessel at healthy port, let its chief purpo'
be to prevent the departure of vessel 1ro
an infected port. For instance,
might prove to be more effectual If, by II
Tternational law, no vessel should De aiioWe
to leave Havana during tie prevalence OF ye
low fever in that port than the plaa oil, OF pr
L Charleston. When we contemplate Il
rayages produced by an epidemic of Asiat
- cholera or yellow fever in our ceuntry,
~ ~ does seem that those countries in whl
70 those diseases appear TO De lnulgeno
At shoull be required to keep the poison
f. home, and not be allowed 10 disseminate
5. throughout the world. Civilized natio
d. may vet consider such an outrage TO be
e. cQSus beih.
When the Institutional treatise came
1 be shaped by considerations of the pu
lie health, may we not reasonably exp'
sstk