Daily Honolulu press. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1886, 1885-09-22
sAxrrAnY CONDITION oF HoxoLULU.
Attorney-C Generals Office.
Honolulu, Sept. IS. 1885

The Lancet of the date of August
9Th, 1885, has an article headed " Re-
turn Of Cholera at Marseilles" in which
il says: "Anyone who has read the
special report we recently published on
the sanitary condition of Toulon and
Marseilles would not be surprised to
hear that cholera has again broken out
in at least one of these towns. 1t
would have been surprising had Mar
seilles escaped, considering that
nothing was done during the winter to
improve the condition of the town.
AT the last epidemic it was observed
that the streets which were we'll paved
and possessed of sewers were compare
lively free from cholera. There were
225, 1000 metres of streets and only
1880 metres Of sewers in Marseilles.
To meet this great deficiency the
authorities sanctioned the construction
of 5000 addition metres of sewers !;
that was all. The port is infected as
usual, and 10000 cubic metres of foul
deposit have to be dredged out every
year. Thousands of houses have no
closets, and all the filth is emptied into
the gutter. The regulation calling
upon the proprietors of houses that
possess no cesspool to adopt the pail
system is not enforced. Our commits
sioner found that only "A per cent.
of the houses at the Capelette were
provided with pals and that, in spite
of the terrible havoc wrought by the
cholera in this district last year,
nothing whatsoever had been done.
Contaminated wells, a
contaminated brook, houses without
any sort of sanitary accommodation
such was the condition of the Cape
lette. A little hole dug in the soft
earth Of the back garden and plank
or two replaced is what in England we
call closet OF course the wells in
the same garden we're poisoned. Yet
for sixteen shillings year these houses
might have been supplied every week
with a metallic closed pail, and the
law demands that this should be done.
The police authorities, however, seem
equally careless as to whether their
own regulations are carried out or not.
= If Marseilles We're not
connected with the rest of the world, if
it were MOI one of the principal stations
on the great line of oftraffic between the
east and west, we should be tempted
to leave this ill-conditioned town to
suffer the penalty that npayia6ly t0lIoaos
in the wake Of nm ignorance and
neglect" Italics ours.
Now here is the greatest medical
magazine of the age plainly declaring
that the city Of Marseilles is only re-
ceiving just reward, in the shape Of
scoarge which is sweeping away the
inhabitants by the hundred, for their
open defiance Of the laws and regula-
tions Of health and hygiene Let US
apply the matter to our own city Of
Honolulu and what would be the re-
suit. Before going into the facts as we
propose to do, let US see what authority
the Lancet has for its statement that
Marseilles is suffering "the penalty
that invariably follows in the wake Of
filth, ignorance and neglect" At a
recent meeting Of the " British Medi-
cal Association held at Cardiff, Wales,
on Wednesday July goth, this year,
Mr.. Dyke, Medical Officer Of Health,
at Merthyr, said: :" He had had ex-