The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1888-04-24
ISOLATION OF SMALLPOX.
An Interesting Article BY the Sur.
SeOn Of the NIariPOsa-The Value
of Vaccination.

In the San Francisco "Weekly Alta
of March appears long article on the
above subject from DIR. N. S. Giberson,
surgeon on the Oceanic Company's
steamship Mariposa. We give the first
part of it, which will be found interest
ing:
The science of preventive medicine,
that grand electicism of the future. is
rapidly assuming larger proportions, and
1t exhibits one of it's most salutarv
shapes in the isolation of smallpox on
board ship when at sea or at quarantine
on shore. 1t seems to be the prevailing
opinion among medical men that case
of the dread disease cannot be success
fully isolated on a passenger steamer,
particularly when she is we'll provided
with passengers, and this impression has
been not little strengthened by a num-
Der OF recent cases, where a ships COM
pany has suffered terribly from the di-
sease, which started invariably from a
single case, and where isolation $50
called) was rigidly practiced. A recent
trip OF the Mariposa, from Honolulu to
Sydney, with case of smallpox on
board, was such notable exception to
this rule as to be deserving of a some
what extended notice.
-Four days out from San Francisco the
patient, lad OF II, complained of the
ordinary symptoms of seasick passen-
ger, viz, irritable stomach, trif1ing de-
gree of vertigo, dull pains in various
parts of his body and constipation. On
the second day his temperature rose to
103 Fahrenheit without any apparent
cause but as the sudden rises of tenn
perature are not uncommon among sea-
sick passengers, no further notice was
paid to the circumstance than to admin
lister few doses OF antipyrine, which
had the effect of reducing the tempera-
ture to normal in four hours. On the
entirely recovered, and his vivacity and
appetite had fully returned. One tenn
perature observation was taken at noon,
and it was found to be normal. He was
carefully inspected by the Health Officer
at Honolulu with negative results.
Early on the morning of the fourth
day attention was again called to him,
and he was found to be fairly covered
with the popul@ of variOia. He was at
once removed from the steerage and
placed in deck cabin in the after part
of the ship, under care of his father, who
had suffered from the disease when
child. On either side of his room about
twenty feet apart, were erected two can
vas screens, which reached from the
deck to the awning overhead and formed
a closed tent opening only on the side of
of the ocean. Further immunity from
the circulating germs was secured by
placing two other screens about ten feet
from the first two, forming, as it were, a
neutral ground between the deck pa
TENTS apartment and the deck space at
large. No one except the surgeon was
allowed to enter the inner space, and the
nurse was rigidly confined to it. Within
the outer screen the doctor had room,
to which he resorted to change his
clothes when a visit was necessary. He
then sprayed his garments with solu-
ton of carbOlic acid, and filled his hair
was ready for the call. Another change
of clothes and bath once more fitted
him to emerge into the open air. The
food for the patient and his nurse was
placed in the neutral space by steward,
who Immediately retired, whereupon the |
nurse reached out and took it, returning
the empty dishes to basin of carbolic |
solution of the strength of l to 30. By |
these precautions it was hoped that the |
disease might be confined to its original |
limits. The enclosed deck space was
kept saturated with strong solution of
and the receivers partly filled |
with the same; while the sick room was
kept charged with cal bolic acid, which
was used through a large hand ball
three or four times daily. The
where the boy lay was then
fumigated by taking solderer's furnace
and getting a brisk charcoal fire In 1t,
after which the top was removed and it
was filled with sulphur. Then the hatch
was closed and kept on for four hours.
The steerage passengers were then vac
rinated. To this suggestion many of
them demurred, and some utterly re-
fused to submit The result was that
the contumacious few were quarantined
at Sydney for twenty-one days after the
removal of the boy from the ship. At
the present day, when compulsory vac
cination is in force in almost every en-
ightened nation in Christeudom, it does
seem but simple justice to travellers that
heir lives should not be jeopardized by