Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-11-16
FIGHTING YELLOW FEVER
SURGEON GENERAL HAMILTON
MAKES HIS REPORT.

the Recent Epidemies.
WAsHINGToN, Nov. 15.-The annual
report of Surgeon General Hamilton, of
the Marine Hospital Service, for the fiscal
year ending June 80, 1888, has been sub
mitted to the Secretary of the Treasury.
Upon the subject of a national quaran-
tine, Surgeon General Hamilton saws:
"Ihe experience of the United States
since the passage of the act of April 80.
1878, has abundantly demonstrated that a
national quarantine system Is a necessity
not such quarantine as would in any
measure interfere with or cripple local
quarantine establishments, but one that
could efficiently supplement them. 1t is
apparent to any one at all familiar with
the subject that the administration of
quarantine must vary with the physi-
cal characteristics of the port. Thus
quarantine that would be
ample at Boston to prevent the entrance
of yellow fever would be utterly inef-
hcient at New Orleans, owing not less
to the lower temperature of one of the
places named than to the general absence
of climatic conditions favorable to the
spread of yellow fever. Nat
urally ports having the largest CONNER
cIal transactions are danger points to be
watched with the greatest sOlicitude. and
commensurate with the commerce of
New Orleans, the great gateway to the
Mississippi valley, was the activity and
increasing vigilance of the State Board
of Health OF Louisiana. Their cO-opera-
tion made comparatively easy work of
what would otherwise have been task of
extreme difficulty. The revenue cutter
service, with that zeal which has ever
distinguished the service, has rendered
the approaches to the coast secure. By
careful surveillance all vessels in the
Gulf approaching United States ports
were spoken, and, if necessary,
boarded while outside the harbor,
and if from an infected port or dock were
sent to Ship Island quarantine for treat
ment. The same course has been pursued
by the revenue service in Chesapeake Bay,
sending them to the Cape Charles quar-
antine station. Although Ship Island
quarantine has been made use of, it is
dangerous location, and was only
used because there was not time to estab-
lish another station. Very suspicious cases
at Ocean Springs, Miss, warrant the eX-
preston Of the hope that Congress may
establish proper quarantine in the Gulf
at a point more remote from pOpulous
settlements.
Preference is made to the opinions
of prominent men in the profession
favOring a national maritime quaran-
tine, and the conclusions reported to the
Medical Congress of 1876 upon this sub
ject. In accordance with the opinions
referred to, sanitary inspectors were an
pointed at certain foreign ports for the
purpose of obtaining and transmitting in
formation of the departure of vessels
from infected or suspicious ports, in
order that the United States might be
fOrewarned of the approach of such YES
sells, in which work the State Department
actively cO-Operated through its Consular
officers.
The Surgeon General says: 1T is
proper to say that under the existing
law the duty of the government apparently
ends with the maritime quarantine. and
the question of municipal sanitation is
one which may not only with propriety
be left with the States, but all existing
laws have heretofore done so. and that
however desirable it might be for the gov
ernment to undertake the work of gen.
eral sanitation, it is evident that
the limits of such work could
not be fOreseen at the present time.
So intimately is this question connected
with local police and municipal govern
ment that the interference of the Federal
authority is not only unwarranted but
probably mischievOus. If, however, it be
decided to continue the contingent appro-
priatiOns of the epidemic fund, ineXpen-
sive yellow fever hospitals should be
established at the principal Gulf ports, to
which all patients suffering from yellow
fever could be promptly taken by the mu-
nicipal boards of health, y and as
between the present mode of attempting
to quarantine such patients in
the heart of a pOpulous city and
the method proposed of Immediately re-
moving them to a well-kept, isolated hos
pital, experience as well as theory is in
favor of the latter. This plan would sim
plify matters, and when taken in cOnnec-
tiOn with good local hygiene, cremation
and efficient governmental quarantine,
would come as near preventing yellow
fever epIdemics and eradicating the dis
ease as any measure which l can now
fOresee. This plan may be summarized
in six words: municipal cleanliness, is0-
latiOn hospitals, national quarantines."
The following estimates are
submitted by the Surgeon Gen
eral for the proper buildings
and the running expenses of the proposed
United States quarantine stations. Gulf
quarantine: Condemnation of site and
erection of hospital, $4,000; warehouse,
quarantine: SapelO Station, Blackboard
Island, $4,000; Cape Charles quarantine
site, buildings and wharf, $4,000; run
ming geXpenses-Ship Island, $4,000; South
Atlantic, $4,000; Cape Charles, $4,000.
Total, $32, 900. No expense or charge upon
shipping for quarantine purposes would
be made under this arrangement. None
was made by this service during
its management of the quarantine this
season.
Under the heading of 'Epidemics"
the yellow fever in 1882 and the cpl
denies in Texas and Florida are referred
to, and letters from Gov. Roberts and
State Health Officer Swearingen are given,
in which those officers highly commend
the work done by this service. Reference
is also made to appendices of the report
giving the history of the epidemics referred
to, with papers on the subject contributed
by Surgeon Robert Murray and Acting
Assistant Surgeons ;. a. TOwsey, j. e.
Burke, +. Finney, w. c. Fisher, A. f.
Spolin, r. G. White, and Drs. Mark j..
Leham, Il. NJ. Leonard, Cbas- f. McDOu-
gall, r. BIS. .Hargis, E. Bower, E.W Jones,
w. E. Anderson and James 5. Heron.
Maps of the infected district with me-
teorolOgical tables accompany these
papers, and also a statement by John
Brown. of the naval reservation at Pensa-
cola.
In response to applications for aid
from the Governor of Florida and the
Pensacola Board Of Health, Surgeon
General Hamilton says: II personally
visited that city Pensacola and was
satisfied that a vigorous maritime quar-
antine, together with all that could be
done by the Board of Health in the matter
Of local sanitation, would be necessary if
a recurrence of the epidemic was to be
prevented, and with the approval of the
Secretary Ofthe Treasury a sanitary survey
of the city, and a hOuse-to-house inspec-
tiOn were made. Maritime quarantine
was established, and has been efficiently
conducted by Surgeon Murray, of this
service, acting in cooperation with the
Board of Health of Pensacola, and al
though many infected vessels have arrived
at the Pensacola quarantine, and several
yellow fever cases have been treated
there, 1t is believed that not a single case
has thus far escaped beyond the limits of
the quarantine on Santa Rosa Island"
Reference is made to the appearance of
the yellow fever at the Navy Yard near
Pensacola, and the precautions taken
to prevent its spreading thence
to Pensacola. A sanitary cor
don was at once established, and
the disease was kept out of the city. At
Ship Island in the Gulf, at Sapelo on tie
South Atlantic coast, and at Cape Charles,
near the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay,
national quarantine stations were opened
and equipped. The property formerly be-
longing to the National Board of Health,
and turned over by the President to the
Secretary of the Treasury, was made use
Of so far as practicable, and the stations
were placed under the charge of eXpe-
rienced officers. Some Is or 20 yellow
fever ships were cared for at Ship Island
and or at Cape Charles, but no disease