Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-09-15
ANOTHER CASE OF URGENCY.

The yellow fever is epidemic at Quay
mas, Mexico. We are connected directly
and daily with that place by rail and fre-
quently by sailing and steam vessels. The
fever is more malignant than it was two
years ago, and for very good reason
When it first appeared there it was pointed
out that burial of the victims would i'm
pregnate the soil with the germs Of the
disease, and make the occasion Of its recur-
renee more likely and more virulent. This
has proven to be a correct theory by the
experiments of the Brazilian Commission.
which demonstrated that the grave soil of
yellow fever victims swarms with living
germs two years after burial, which are
capable of producing the disease. 1t is
reasonable to suppose that precisely this
has happened at Guaymas; the germs of
two years ago live, and have communicated
the fever anew. California, by the short
sighted policy Of her Legislature, and its
criminal neglect to provide the State
Board of Health with means to establish
inland quarantine Is at tie mercy of the
disease. There is no fund with which to
establish border quarantine stations or pay
competent physicians to stand guard
against the introduction of the disease.
This pitiful inaction Of the Legislature
Is directly chargeable to the amazing posi-
ton of the San Francisco press. When
the State Board Of Health asked for power
to establish quarantine stations the papers
of San Francisco, with scarcely an excep.
ton, Jumped upon the proposition, and
declared it meant power to establish
water quarantine stations where Chinese
immigrants might be brought, landed and
turned loose upon the country. Thereupon
The State Board pointed out that no such
bill was before the Legislature, and that
the item of appropriation was for inland
quarantine against cholera smallpox and
yellow fever, and that the section so read.
But the San Francisco press refused to
read the lines of the bill, notified the san
Francisco delegation not to support the
appropriation, and threatened them with
political damnation if they did, and so
the section was stricken out Yet now
every thinking man in the State regrets
the action, and this same San Francisco
press Is solicitous that something should
be done to guard against the introduction
OF the fever. The State some years ago
was caught in precisely such predica-
ment with regard to the smallpox, and
Governor Perkins was forced TO seize au-
thority and declare quarantine at the State
line in Nevada county. 1t was unlawful,
but it was an occasion where it was better
to ride through the law than be ridden
over by it. Fortunately there was little
money in the Governors emergency fund
and II was used This, with the assist
ance rendered by the Central Pacific Rail-
road Company, enabled us TO put mp the
bars near Truckee, and as result we
escaped an epidemic of smallpox. There
must be some seizure of authority again to
keep yellow fever from our doors. 1t is
probable the Federal Government will
also order its military arm to aid the med
ical staff in the establishing a station of
inquiry and detention on the Arizona Dor
der, but California should have one also
upon her own extensive southern boundary.