Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1892-09-11


be under uniform quarantine regula-
tions. They should be agreed upon by
conventions with neighboring countries.
OF course the federal government would
have TO do this.
Congress once passed q law to pre-
vent the importation Of diseases OF cat
tie. Why should it not prevent the i'm
portation of diseases of men?
1.-THE government establishes port OF
entry, collects revenue, and has the right
to close the port. 1t should therefore
perform all the duties Of port, one
of which is proper quarantine service,
kept under military regulation, oy
which it would be rendered uniform and
efficient. The government would not
hesitate to take possession OF any place
necessary for the common defense from
invasion by foreign foe, regardless OF
State boundaries or jurisdictions. Is IL
not Of equal importance that it should
take precautions for the public safety
from secret foe Of pestilence and
poison so vastly more destructive to the
lives of our people?
Local control OF the guarantees is
fraught with great danger. 1t was
only few years ago that the consulting
physicians of Boston issued pamphlet
in which they seriously proclaimed their
belief that cholera is neither contagious
nor infectious; that it cannot be propa-
gated by being near the sick, or by the
handling Of the secretions or excretions
from bodies Of the sick or dead; that the
disease is epidemic and cannot be con-
trolled or restrained in its progress by
ouarantines or by cordons OF any kind.
DR.. Snow, OF Providence, sanitarian
OF reputation, has expressed similar sem
timents. Now, suppose men OF such
views were in charge of the quarantine
service at Boston or Providence. In
fected ships would be admitted without
fumigatlon, and their passengers with
our proper inspection. The whole
country would be endangered.
The views OF the Boston and Provi-
dence physicians, the doctor continued,
were those generally held throughout
the country twenty-five years ago, and
he remarked in an amused manner upon
the scoring he received from the medi-
cal profession and the press In 1866 for
declaring the cholera to be portable and
contagious. He was publicly denounced
by the New York sanitary commission
and by the Academy Of medicine.
''If any man, professional or layman,
should say now that cholera is not port
able and not contagious he would speed
lily forfeit his reputation for common
sense" was the chuckling conclusion of
his comment upon these things.
DR.. Sayre has letter received by him
from Captain Montague, OF the British
army, who served many years in India,
and had frequent EXPERIENCES with the
cholera. In this letter the captain wrote
of the military custom which obtains in
India of placing Gordon around an in
fected town or city, saying that where
the picket service was rigid and no one
was allowed to pass in or out OF the
town, the disease had never been known
to pass The Gordon. The doctor quoted
this letter to me as an evidence, If more
were needed, that the disease is port
able, and that it can be restricted by
rigid quarantine measures and finally
stamped out. The old Boston and Prov
dence idea, he said, would not do.
"But l want to emphsze the state
ment that it will be very grave mis-
take If any OF our national or local OIL
Gals having control of the quarantine
shall proceed upon the idea that cholera
will not do it's deadly work in winter.
At that season." the famous santarian
concluded, "our overerowded tenements
are closed to fresh air and their occu-
pants are hived together like so many
bees. The conditions become ripe for
disease. Many Of the large towns will
be IN an insanitary condition, for in the
winter sanitation is always relaxed.
The cholera cannot be created In this
country, but it can be propagated. and
the tenements and the slums OF the
large cities are good field for 1t, once
started, frost or no frost. We must re-
member Russia and keep our powder
dry for the common foe in winter as in
summer" Epson BRACE.