The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-01-16
Probably, but Not With Anything
Like the 1errors 1t For
merly Had.
The Secretary OF dotham'e Health
Board Talks of Modern Pre-
ventive Measures.
Tho situation In New York-Sfnmping Out
Contagious Disenses-Ihe Question
Of Quarantine.

II comes III earnest ~ VIII '"O
big fair out for a time at least. new ioiK
wants to know. because 1t ~ould XIII tr"oe.
California wants to know. becauae IL "ouAu
make fruit a drug in the market.
Everybody wants to know IT we're likely
TO have again such q dreadful time AZ nifty
Years ago, when in aristocratio Newport
cholera patients we're dragged about on an
extempoye ambulance made OF W. poles
with a cot Rwung between. and when IN the
long, cold Vermont winter 30 many people
died, 80 many were sick and the ground
was 80 hard frozen that there were bnrials
in the snow by the roadside. where the
corpses lay frozen until spring.
II cholera comes it is likely to be by way
of this great Atlantic seagate. Hence con-
gress Is certain to talk, and may possibly
act upon propositions to forbid lmmlgTa-
ton for Il time altogether.
What is tho Now York health board
doing about it?
Owing to inadequate room tho city de-
partments are scattered all the way from
the dock department at dock A upon the
Battery to the fire department on Sixty
seventh street. Midway OF the long SERIES
In one of those little eddies Of quiet, which
are left by the roar and rash of the great
city stands n big building running COM
pietely through from street to street. 10
the west the police headquarters look ont
on Mulberry street. as if conveniently
placed for cases of stiletto stabs among the
Calabrian and Sicilian Inhabitants there
about, whose swarmlng life grows increas-
inely interesting as one follows IT helr II
mile south to its elimination in the
a. - -1 - NJ -. mad kIn Siy lrJt1jrn fuaaa
Mott street, alert for strange oriental dis
enses sprlnging from Chlnntown-tor these
are the qua tiers of the health board.
The Mulberry street people are called the
finest police force in the world by those
whose interest it ie to praise them. The
health board gets seldom praise but usually
abuse, for its wholoyome task IT IL 10 tread on
the toes Of Ignorance and rouae the enmlty
of greed. Yet the work it does, not for New
York alone, but for the whole country, ia
vast. II is wedding out the s!ums. IL ID
wedding out the slams. 1t is making tene-
mentdom less noxious and dangerous. 1t
pounces upon hidden disease. 1t performs
considerable charitable work.
Within tho dingy old building. at one of
Its not too numerous windows and facing g
desk filled high with papers. Sits a man
slightly mast middle age, slender and alert
and with the bearing of Il soldier. This 10
Col. Emmons Clark, long the commanding
officer of tho famous Seventh regiment. and
now the sec etary of the board OF health.
What" ! nsked Col. Clark, sis the most
serious business OF q health board, and Its
greatest labor?'
1.-The checking and prevention of conta-
gious diseases," replied Col. Clark. "ln
this work a constant inspection of the tepe-
ments is necessary. Every tenement in the
city il inspected twice II year. formerly
the board also inspected tho sanitary appli-
ances OF new buildings. Since last June
this has been done by the buildings de-
partinent, to which we transferred a doz n
of our skilled inspectors for the purpose"
D. you consider it likely that cholera
will come again next year?' WAS asked.
'and if SO, what preparations are being
made for it?"
Med cal men on both sides Of the ocean
seem to be agreed replied Col. Clark,
that cholera is apt to br ak out again.
Our p operations are fully made; they wer1
made long before the excitement was
aroused he @ last summer and they con-
tinued in force. The department was fully
prepared for the epidemic. We have the
st. Johns Guilds floating hospital for the
isolation of cases, and full supplies of cots,
however, quite ns likely to invade the
country by any other port as by New York.
1t may CONT in anywhere from Galveston
to Portland, and, once having entered, viii
do its most dest uctive wofk in smaller
places where the public health Is not &c
systematically guarded"
Col. Cha k was much Rverse to expressing
en- opinion on the vexeG subject of quaran-
tine regulations and their efficacy. Fed
eral, state and local authorities all have
some say ir this matter, 30 that it is &
rather delicate one. The health board's
quarantine limits arc 300 feet from the
dock. 1t has tie power, however, TO send
any vessel, suspected or proved to have oon
tngious disease on board. back to quatau.
tlne. l gathered from Col. Ciark's guarded
ru,pnrk thpt ha rEfhar favnra thu EnrlSSt
syetcm of combating cholera by local vigl
lance and prompt isolation with q quaran
tine of sufficient length TO. thorough disin
lection. the more especially IA choleta i
supposed TO develop within two, three o
five dave, and the Atlantic voyage last
longer. OF course, as baggage and froigh
may carry the germs Of disease, o thorough
disinteotion is only common p udence
Tyr hns fever is much moro difficult t.
handle, ms its time Of development IL from
ten to twenty-one days.
"Do you think" l asked, that in til
ideal city of the future contagious disease
can evet be wholly prevented 7"
II have an idea. and l think it is share,
by the members Of the board, that they cal
be practically. if not wholly. Smallpox
typhus and cholera. the most dreaded an,
fatal Of diseases, have been robbed of thel
terrots. We believe that scarlet fever an,
uiphtheria, by thorough INSPECTION an,
complete isolation of cases which do occu
con be stamped out. and that before man
Year,. ms smallrox, typhus and cholera hnv
been. On the first of January n doZAn dis
iufecto s for these two diseased will DO mp
pointed, aud they will ba viaorousl.
fought"
Then diSease of n contagious nature ca
be brought down to IA minimum, il no
wholly ersdicated."
"lt ia Il fair Inference. Smallpox Is a
instance in point. Twenty-Five years ny
there we're several hundred deaths a yea
from it in New York. Now we have som
years no cases AT Nil, and never any eros,
1T is b ouaht here. Or course. n difficult
in dealing with it is that it Will often b
concealed uutil n denth makes further con
cealment impossible, by which time n Who'll
noiRhborhood may have been exposed. A
to the value OF vaccination there can be II
possible doubt. Tho experience of Til
health board ia absolutely conclusive upo
that point, The objections to yhcoturatio
usually arise from a mistaken notion thu
un2ious diseases may be introduced int
the blood. There Ii no danger of thiH nor
in New York, at lenRt, for all the virus use
is ne vaccine matter, ftom tho city's ow
farm. OF course, whom the blood il not
good condition tho vacoinated subject ma
have "A bad ann but there IL nothin
worse to BIO npptehcndsd."
And as to tho SO called child en's dis
oaseaf"
Measles wus last Year. included in III
s~nnitnry code. and Will hereafter be trsntl
with ali possible precautions. Ii il ons {
tha most contagious of al diseases M