Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-02-15
REFORM THE QUARANTINE.
DR.. Van Bibber's Plan for the Prevention Of
Yellow Fever.
Baltimore American.

|
published an interesting and~ valuable
pamphlet on the prevention of yellow
fever in Florida and the South. DR.. Van
Bibber has for years made careful study
| of the climatic conditions and of other
| qualities of Florida as q health resort +,
and has in this connection DEVOTED much
| attention to the yellow fever evil. In the
| opening pages DR.. Van Bibber, after de-
scribing the nature of the disease and
its terrible havoc in localities where the
sanitary arrangements are bad, declares
| that the fever is preventable, and then
proceeds to give some valuable sugges-
tons on how to prevent it. Cleanliness
in the household and yard arrangements
is essential. Instead of springing the
houses out of the ground in low, fiat
situations, it is better to interpose a
stratum of air between the house and the
ground
If the house be built up well off the
ground, the earth paved beneath it, with
no enclosed yards, then continued clean
illness could be easily maintained. The
surface ventilation OF the air would be
one prominent advantage of this style of
building, surface drainage, an easy
abatement of certain nuisances, with
consequent increased healthfulness and
comfort would be the result. If Mac
cienny and Jacksonville and Decatur had
been built in this way, and had been kept
according to the intention of such style
of building, their inhabitants would have
been saved the recent epidemic.
DR.. Van Bibber also advocates the ne
cessity of change in the system of quar-
antine to prevent a recurrence of the
panic. ''I know - he writes, ''that it
is held by many physicians that a rigid
quarantine is the best preventive against
yellow fever. That the disease is spread
by germs is true; but that it is impossible
to prevent the Introduction of germs from
abroad by the present modes of quaran-
tine, is fully proved by the past. In the
first place, it is necessary to know
against But the germs may
be brought from place where the yell
low fever is not known to exist. To pre-
vent panic, and the loss of trade, the
first appearance of the disease is invari-
ably kept secret, in the hope that it may
be stamped ont before it becomes cpl
demic, and thus the germs may be scat
tered far and wide before any warning is
given. Then the system of quarantine
now in use is so OneTous that all means
are tried to eYade it; and if but one per-
son passes having the germs of disease,
all the labor and annoyance have been in
vain
''Not that quarantine should be aban-
doned-keep out the germs as far as pos
sible, but provide that if, despite all pre-
cautions, they are introduced, they may
fall upon clean places where they can not
propagate. Treasure quarantine, bud
make it pleasant, and not hateful.
~
happened during the recent epidemic of
yellow fever should never recur. When
the disease was announced at Jackson
vile CONSERVATION spread at once
throughout the states of Florida, Georgia
and Alabama and extended into other
Southern states.
'FThat quarantine may be made at
tractive who can doubt? But it could
not be done by the plans which an urgent
necessity compelled the boards of health
in the states mentioned to adopt in their
active eXertions for safety to their people
Their quarantine had to be done mostly
in the railroad cars in which passengers
were questioned. refused passage to their
destinations, turned back, frightened,
detected and oftentimes driven to sub
terfuges in order to get to their homes
and friends, with their baggage and let
tiers fumigated and frequently lost.
Quarantine cannot be made attractive
by these means.
'FLet us speak of the attractive
quarantine of the future. In this, you
viii see four houses situated at n proper
distance from each other, i'll the most
accessible point of the state, built and
appointed in a manner not only to make
them most efficient for the comfort of the |
clio off tod 1e+r |
but to serve also as schools and models to |
teach private citizens how they can pre-
serve amongst themselves continued |
cleanliness, aud give no foothold |
to preventible disease. The humblest |
man in the commonwealth cannot then !
plead ignorance as to how he should and |
must build his house and manage his do
mestic affairs, so as to preserve his own |
health not injure that of his nelgnbor, |
nor impair the reputation of his state. |
These four buildings should have ample /
communication with each other and the |
outside world by telegraph, telephone
and what other appliances the future may |
have i'll store. Then no one who is quar-
antined will feel himself isolated or /
hsrshly treated The visitor from abroad
and the denizen can alike receive and
send messages from and to all points
''In these establishments all knowledge
of yellow fever is to be conferred. Here
the disease cannot only be treated, but
studied under the most favorable cir
and, from them, all neees-
sarv rules for its prevention should ema-
nate. They should be under the control
of the board of health, who should be
well selected and thoroughly competent,
and they should see that nothing be
wanted to make the establishment as
homelike and attractive as the most
agreeable resort.
81 have Id that foEr houses should be
built, although there are but three dis
eases against which we quarantine in this
fever, cholera and
this is what we have to
contend against. For the first two dis
eases there is the same prevention-con-
tinued cleanliness-anda as for the last, il
IS completely controlled by vaccination
and Reorganization. The fourth house
should be for the officers of the
and for the temporary
of persons who have
been brought to the quarantine by mis-
AXE during periods of excitement. But,
n fact, it is only against the yellow
fever germ that quarantine would be de-
nauded at Drpsent The arF.auOemanfs