Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-29
Is the Condition of Threatened Dis
ease to the United States.
GOOD ADVICE FROM A PHYSICIAN.
He Would Adopt the Most Radical Measures
Of Prevention
IF HE FAD THE NECESSARY AUTHORITY
rrRox A STAFF CORRESPONDENCE

the introduction of disease from one place
into another, to do what he can to arouse
anv and all communities to the danger that
threatens, and excite the people who always
take the lead in such extremities to prompt
and decisive action"
The gentleman who began in this strain
to THE DISPATCH correspondent to-day, is
one of the most distinguished physicians in
the country, one who has held high position
as a sanitary adviser of the Government
and who has spent seasons sbroad when the
cholera and yellow fever were epidemic, in
the very midst of the plague.
'There is no occult or complex question
involved in the means of prevention, I"
continued the great DOCTOR" The grand
preventives are cleanliness, fresh air,
plenty of breathing space, simple and cool
| ing food, abstemious habits to both food
and drink, avoidance of overcrowding in
our great cities. and an impossible barrier
| against the entrance to the country, or to
other communities if it once gain q foot
hold in any locality, of the germs of the
| disease.
Coutagion May Come without Contact.
'It may be that contagion would develop
| without contact, on account of the extraor-
| dinarv and sinister conditions of the mag
netic world, or in other words, the peculiar
i atmosphere composition of the time. but
the great reservoir tor the generation of
diseases of all kinds, at all times, especially
of contagious or febrile diseases, is filth,
impure air. decaying vegetation, bad sew
erage, a failure to keep clean the drain
pipes from the habItations of human beings,
and especially those habitations that are
crowded with tenants till there is not an
inch to spare for one more.
ave say that a certain city Is a clean
city. There is no such thing as clean city.
Some are cleaner than others, but at best
the cleaning of city is pretense and
sham, thing of jobbery and swindling for
a contractor. who is usually a political
pile out of the public At most q few of
these leading business and society localities
are objects Of the solicitude of the author
titles of a city. The places upon which
disease is most likely to pounce doup and
commit the direst ravages are scarcely ever
touched.
Only Superficial Cleaning Customary.
1--WE in Washington think that if Penn
sylvania avenue and a few other streets are
cleaned that all is clean and We have the
cleanest city in the world. Paris cleans
her grand boulevards and her fashionable
quarters, and the Faubourgs are left in
filth. The Belleville quarter, where di-
sease revels, and whence springs the disor-
derly class, with all its abnormal character
istics, is a hades of crowded tenements, bad
food, bad drinks, evil smells. So it is in Lon
don, in the Soho, in the Shoreditch, in all
the Whitechapel district, dirt, disease and
crime go hand in hand.
$50 it is in all of our cities, and this So
called beautiful city of Washington is no
exception. Uncollected garbage lies every
where, reeking and evaporating in the heat
under the windows OF sleeping rooms. The
sewerage system is bad at best, and its
present unrepaired condition is standing
threat that if contagion gets foothold it /
will play fearful havoc before it can be
checked. Why, at night, when the air is
humid and rare, one is almost suffocated bv
the noxious gases that pour from the sewer
drops The stencil pervades every part of
the city. The astonishing thing is that the
recent hot weather did not carry deadly
contagion on its wings to greater extent
than it did.
One City as bad as Auotbe-.
'There is little difference between one
city and another in this respect. 1 suppose
that Pittsburg is not better than WASH
ington. But there is little use of talking
to either the people or the CITY authorities
in regard to habits and cleanliness. In my
long experience it has been proven to me
almost every hour that bad habit in eat
ing and drinking, lack of frequent bathing,
uncleanly closets and all the other vehicles
of disease will be perpetuated, no matter
what the warning. A single spasm Of
virtue exhausts the impulse to do right, and
we go on as before. Therefore, attention to
the more superficial and general methods
of prevention is a Thousand times i'm
perative.
81 speak from somewhat remarkable
experience when tell you that if the large
cities of the United States escape a visit, /
more or less calamitous, of this terrible
scourge of cholera, it will be something
near akin to a miracle. I predict tnat
within two weeks we shall see that the
cholera news from our own cities over
shadows that from the other side of the
ocean, unless the most heroic treatment be
applied
Necessity for Radical Measures.
"Were at the head of affairs would |
not permit a rag of clothing or of merchan-
disc which could carry the disease to enter |
at any of our ports until after its thorough |
disintection, and that not in the YES |
sells in which it is trans |
mitted, but in the open air.
WOulu nOlQ every passenger from |
an infected city until all of his belongings |
had been disinfected in a similar manner |
The germs of the disease may lie dormant |
for weeks and months in clothing and other
articles and then SOW the plague broadcast.
As thoroughness would be impossible if |
there were not some restriction placed on
immigration, would prohibit all immigra-
tion at least until after the advent of freez-
ing weather, and even then would continue
a close supervision and compel Q continu-
ance of the disinfecting process until the
warm weather OF next year shall show
whether there be danger of q new outbreak.
1.-THE history of these diseases tells us
that almost invariably the second year of a
and the precaution should, therefore, affect
not only this year, but particularly should
look forward to the next, which, II it be one
of intense heat, like the present summer,
will be one of gloom end death If the con-
tagion gets any sort of foothold this fall.
Instead of fairs and festivities, there will
be funerals The cemeteries will not be
enough to hold our dead.
More Serious Than Threatened War.
"we are confronted with a condition
more serious than a threatened war. There
is a demand for the most consummate Gov
and municipal generalship. viii
the Washingtons and the Grants and the
Napoleons spring to the front and be equal
to the tremendous emergency?
EVERY town and city furnishes opportu-
nifty for the development of the man for the
time who will do the great work that must
of the dread army of the contagion is to be
met and baf1ed. 1t may be even now too
late to insure complete immunity from the
disease but 1t is not too late to confine il to