St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-09-02
DEFENDS HIS POSITION.
Surgeon Hamilton Says Preven-
ton Is Better Than Cure, and
There Is No Cause for COmplaint.


tion Is Better Than Cure, and
There Is No Cause for Complaint.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 1.-The follow
ing is a card from Surgeon General
Hamilton on the sanitary regulations:
To the public: Certain criticisms,
mainly based on misinfOrmation, con-
cerning the present sanitary regulations
have appeared in the daily press, and
as these criticisms have tendency to
weaken the hands of the officers ell
gagged in the prevention of the spread
of yellow fever, and to induce laxity in
the maintenance of quarantine, and
thereby greatly increase the danger to
the whole country, l have thought it
eXpedient to make a general state
ment of the condition of affairs.
The United States government, acting
through its marine hoSpitaFservice, is
engaged in helping the people of Flor
ida, not in injuring them, and in par
ticular the stricken city of Jacksonville,
has been treated with kindly cOnSid-
Grafton suited to the calamity which has
befallen it. They were permitted to go
anywhere they desired, so long as the
disease was confined to circumScribed
areas in the city, but when the city be-
CdIIlG lnlCCtCO, buCL OilC
sity of placing certain restrictions upon
the movements Of outgoing persons was
apparent, and in restricting prOmiscu-
Gus travel from Jacksonville, the bureau
is looking to the
SECURITY OF THE COUNTRY.
The dreadful record of the ravages of
yellow fever in the towns along the
lines leading out of New Orleans in
1878, where there were over $1,000 per-
sons affected, of which over 1000 died,
is too fresh in memory to risk its repeti-
ton along the Atlantic SeabOard. The
extension of the disease to Memphis in
1878, where nearly 5000 persons died of
the yellow fever, might have been pre-
vented had there been any authority to
restrict travel by quarantine. 1t may
be fearful alternative to compel per-
sons from Jacksonville to remain within
a camp of refugees for period of ten
days before being allowed to go at
will, but that alternative is humane
in comparison with the results
which would follow the admission of the
contagion into all the sHapOrtS and
southern cities, each of which in short
time would itself became center of in
fection. The government has not at
any time established a strict Gordon
sanitaire about the city of Jacksonville,
but has opened camp of refuge in a
high, healthy locality, and
FURNISHED FREE RATIONS
to those detained. 1t has also author
lied, at large expense, the building of
two hundred pine cabins to shelter
those poor people who are driven out of
infected localities, and it is will
ling to provide for the fur
ther relief of Jacksonville by
furnishing transportation by special
excursion trains to any definite point
that is safe, and has opened its doors,
but there are few places willing to re-
ceive large numbers of refugees.
While it is probably true that the body
|. of healthy person does not carry the
contagion his clothes do carry it, and
baggage packed in an infected house is
dangerous in the extreme. Emigration
| stations have been established at proper
points, and all baggage will be fumi-
| gated which comes from any infected
CITY. l do not think, therefore, there
can be any Reasonable ground of COM
plaint. JOHN B. HAMILTON.