Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1878-09-23
Internal Quarantine for Yellow
Fever.

Tie Medical Record OF Saturday publishes
the following communication from John NJ.
Woodworth, surgeon general United States
marine hospital service:
have your letter requesting N.Y." views re
garding Internal quarantine, and how it could
be MADE effective in the way Of preventing the
spread of yellow fever"
l hope later to review more fully than is pos
sibe at this time the lessons Oi the present
epidemic in respect of internal quarantine,
which has been tried by nearly if hot quite ali
OF the cities and towns which have suffered
from the fever, as vel as bya few cities which
have SO far escaped. The experience Of the
past, especially as eXemplited IN land quaral-
tines against the spread OF cholera, have not
only proved Intellectual. but have IN some in
stances added famine co pes,ilenca. Where
The indrcement Is great, tue quarantine is
sure TO be broken, and in view of this fac I
have taken the ground that absolute quaran-
tire by land is lmpracticabe. I do not, in
fact believe it necessary, but cel uainly. in any
e Tort TO prevent the spread OF yellow lever, Il
IS more rational to adopt some plan which iG
is possible TO execute.
1.ie Quara antineS established, since the com
mehcemeDt of the present epidemic, by the
various FOCAL authorities, have been directed
especially against persons coming from in
fected places, and have been extreme and uu-
compromising; that is, they have declared
that no ore from an infected district shall be
permitted to pass the quarantine until frost,
or the first day OF December. While so rigid
an ordinance was declared against persons,
infected vessels, like the steamboat John D.
ascend the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, a dis
tance OF ], 600 miles, almost without hindrance.
The rivers are national high roads of com
merce. The health authorities of the several
states can, at most. only forbid the landing of
infected vessels, and the laws of the United
States forbid the government health authority
from interfering in such cases, which practi-
caily leaves an infected vessel as a Law unto
herself, to carry the poison of the silent de.
stroyer unchecked, with effect much like
frebr~nd among explosives"
The unsettled. Indefinite 0DlDjDnS hnl1
respect to h0D the yellow Iever poison is
spread from place to place appear to underlie
the failure OF internal quarantine.
Egi6e7ace acdrrG7atS the assertion that yetI0U
feUeT poison is transported by THINGS, and not
or PERSONS considered apart from their cloth
ing. AS examples bearing upon this evidence,
may mention several cases which occurred
during the present epidemic. a young wo-
man, a resident of Cincinnati. was there at
attack, baggage or goods brought from the
infected city OF New Orleans had been stored
IN the house where she lived. The children OF
the Mississippi about two miles from Cairo
found a skif which had been used by refugees
from the infected cities, and carried it to their
ward all OF the children who were around the
boat were stricken with the yellow fever in
one day. At Gallipolis, Ohio, none have had
near the infected steamboat and her barges
anchored in the river near that place. and
there have been twenty-five cases and nine
ucdtlio up ~ tUc lolIl luSts Ou bHS Otiiti HtHu,
yellow fever patients have been treated, and
in some instances are now under treatment,
i'll the Marine Hospitals at st. Louis. Cairo,
Louisville, and Cincinnati, without comnuni-
eating the disease, the simple precautiOn hay
ing been taken to disinfect the clothing and
other effects Immediately upon receiving the
patients 1t is a vel. known fact that the un-
acclimated attendants upon the yellow fever
patients at the New York quarantine do not
contract the disease; this is also true of other
quarantines. Dr. Vanderpoel diSinfects the
clothing by fire, SO there shall be no mistake
about its thorOughnesS.
Now, IL the premises be true the conclusion
indicates simplified quarantine, not Of PR
sons, but of thingS-the clothing upon the per,
SOD, baggage in boxes, trunks, valiseS, Or
hand bags. The disinfectiOn should be effectu-
mencement rather than at the end of jour-
ney. When the yellow fever breaks out among
the resident population OF city Or town, al
unacclimated persons should be prohibited
from entering the infected place, and the un-
acclimated residents should be removed to
temporary camps on the highest available
ground, at least two miles outside of the in
ished an intermediate station where the
clothing and other effects of the fleeing people
should be thoroughly disinfected before tIev
are permitted to enter the camp. Such
simplihed internal quarantine, as here indi-
Gated, might be carried out il a central office
or head were clothed with authority, but in
my opinion the millennium will have coma
when the authorities of all of the cities and
towns OF the several states think and act alike
In this matter. Checking the spread of trans.
portable and preventable disease is one of the
contingencies that our forefathers appear not
70 have taken into account when they estab-
ilshed o ur e pttri6as uHuns form of govern