The Portland daily press., 1885-09-15
THE SMALL Pox IN MONTREAL,

Alcorrespondent of the Boston Post fur.
nlshes that paper some interesting facts con-
corning the small pox epidemic now raging
IN Montreal. The daily dispatches, it APP
pears, give no adequate idea of the extent to
when the disease prevails or the number of
deaths. Indeed the Montreal health author
tiles themselves confess that it is impossible
to procure accurate statistics of either. That
there are great many more cases than are
reported they admit, and that more are diving
OF the disease than the daily reports would
indicate they also confess. One day last
week they had 400 cases on their books. but
they admitted that at least 600 more existed
that had not been officially reported, which
would make total of 1000 cases. Mr.. w.
ID. ID. Murray who now keeps a restaurant
in Montreal, is of the opinion that there are
at least 5000 cases in the city. The disease
is confined chiefly to the French Canadians
who live crowded together in miserable ten
ements and conceal the existence of cases
whenever they can. They have no fear of
1t and make no attempt to isolate persons
sick with it or to avoid them. In one small
tenement occupied by 3S persons eight
cases of small pox were discovered the 9TH
er day. And this was not an exceptional
instance. when child is sick with the dis
ease" says Mr.. Murray sit is tucked away in
its cradle; no attempt is made to keep peo-
pie away from it, and whether the child lives
or dies the mother is confident that it is all
for the best and that st. Roche is satisfied"
When inquiry is made as to what efforts
are making to check the disease the answer
ic xryhi oh 10 FTtI-
Freneh-Canadians are in majority in the
city; they control the council, the courts and
the police, and their opposition to any meas
ure proposed is sure to defeat it. Isolation
and vaccination, the two chief agencies for
suppressing the disease, the French-Canadi-
ans are averse to, and the health authorities
dare not attempt to make either of them COM
pulsory for fear of riot. The priests have
been applied to for assistance and asked to
advise their people to be vaccinated, but they
have generally refused, on the ground that
II was their business to look latter the souls
OF their focks and not their bodies. At
tempts have been made to placard houses
where small pox exists, but the placards are
frequently torn down, and the police dare
not put them up again, and even where they
remain they do not deter the French from en-
tering the houses and mingling with the in
mates. One day recently Montreal streets
were flooded with circulars declaring that vac
cination was of no more efficacy than the
charms and lamentations of an African saw
age" and denouncing it as a crime. The in
telligent people of the city who know the
facts admit that there is no hope of checking
the disease among the French by isolation
or vaccination because neither can be made
compulsory, and neither will be submitted
to voluntarily.
Meanwhile business is at a standstiI
feople In other parts of Canada dare not buy
because Of fear that the goods may be in
iected Travellers avoid the city and the ho-
tells are empty. Factories are shutting down
for want OF orders, and the prospect is that