The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1881-09-28

MANY Of the greatest evils Of life are
caused by mems own fault; many are in
evitable but NAV be greatly reduced in
power by human forethought. In the lat
ter class is the fever which every year
visits this city and claims more or fewer
victims As to the cause of the fever there
are varying opinions among those best
qualified to form them. The most thought
full observers appear to assign for cause
some peculiar state Of the atmosphere,
favoring the generation and spread OF
malaria which varies in poisonous power,
according to the changes in these climatic
influences Two years ago heavy rains
followed, very long hot and dry season
then there was prolonged alienation of
southerly winds with calms. We all of us
remember the dreadful smells from the
hsrbor, pervading the town as far as
Beretania street when the wind blew, and
the strange appearance of Honolulu when
the Gains prevailed. Morning after morn
ing a dense haze hung over all-the smoke
from the chimney rose straight up and
spread out like pine tree. Probably the
oldest inhabitant never saw our fair city
in such plight. This year the temperature
has been unusually low, there have been
constant showers with rare heavy rains
the trade wind has blown steadily and
thus far the cases Of fever have been few
and mostly mild.
Returning to two years ago, it is notice
able that the fever prevailed not only in
Honolulu but all over the group, and even
here that the cases were not few in
places high up in the valley and supplied
with water, not from the taps, but from
springs Thus there can be no doubt
that the chief causes of the fever were
out of the reach of human hands, but we
may fairly ask whether they were not
aided and intensified by our own neglect
of hygienic precautions. We have al
ways to remember that Honolulu stands
on one large cesspool. The filth of fifty
years has been put into the ground-till
even the capacity of blacksand for alb
sorption must have long ago been ex-
hausted, besides that, the heavy rains have
often filled the privy vaults, causing the
contents to flow over the adjacent surface
there to decompose There can be no
doubt that the accumulations from all
these collections of foulness, mingling
with the malaria must have greatly in
creased its power and malignancy.
Happily this great evil of increasing ac
cumulations of filth has at last been put
stop-to. The oderless excavator is con-
stantly to be seen on its rounds, and viii,
we fully believe, prove great blessing to
the town. No one has now any excuse for
allowing filth to collect on his premises.
We hope the Board of Health will exer-
else its powers with unrelenting stern
ness, not only in Furnishing people who
let their cesspools fill up, but who allow
rubbish to accumulate in their yards, and
their ground to be saturated with water
from carelessly managed taps.
Be it well remembered that we are only
at the beginning of the fever seasonal
ready we have had great change of eli
mate shown by the frequency of colds
during the last two or three weeks. Let
us do all we can to assist the authorities
in maintaining the cleanliness of the
town. Let us keep our yards free from
foul smells of every kind and from too
dense an underground of small plants.
Let us filter our water properly before we
drink it, be prudent in matters of food
and clothing and then if the plague APP
pears and we suffer in our persons or
families, we should at least escape the
dreadful bitterness of the thought, had
we been wiser, this might not have
appeared.