The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1895-10-10

The regular weekly meeting of
the Board of Health was held yes.
terday afternoon, President Smith
in the chair. Present: Drs. Day,
Wood, Emerson, Wayson, Ryder,
Members Waterhouse, K9liipio,
Lansing, and Health Agent Rey-
nolds. Among the audience were
Professor Alexander, president of
the Board of Education, Inspector
of Schools Atkinson and Post
master General Oat.
The following communication
addressed to President Smith was
read from Kauai physicians:
We regret that as some of us did
not receive our mail until the 2Sth
ult., we have been unable to sooner
lay before you, in collective and con-
nected from, our side of the question
in connection with Kauai and the
measures adopted to prevent the in
PRODUCTION of cholera.
When we advised that Kauai should
have no intercourse with Honolulu
while cholera was epidemic there, and
that the people should give way to ne
cessity only, we were influenced by
the following considerations
Firstly. The nature and distribu-
tiOn of the population we should have
to deal with if cholera became epi-
demic here. You in Honolulu have a
large intelligent population con-
tiguOus with the population that is
menace to the public health at such a
period, from which you can get, and
did get, valuable aid during the cpl
Gemic. We, on the contrary, have in
our respective communities q large
mass of Ignorance, prejudice and su-
perstition to deal with, widely distrib-
uted, with comparatively small
number of people that we could get
intelligent aid from in dealing with
such an epidemic as cholera.
Secondly. We have no facilities for
dealing with the disease should it
come among US. Were we prepared
as they are in some countries to deal
with it, and if trade demanded it, we
should do without quarantine; but,
situated as we are, it was Incumbent
upon US to advise such course as
would make it practically impossible
for cholera to get footing here.
That being so, and as the Board of
Health in Honolulu had appointed a
Committee of Health in Lihue, to
whom was given an almost free hand
in dealing with the situation on Ka
uai, we advised that the committee
should adopt the longest period of
quarantine known to Hawaiian law,
viz: eighteen days, partly to intercept
cases of cholera with an exceptional
period of incubation, and partly to act
as o deterrent to traffic.
We recognize and admit the author
tiles mentioned by the physicians on
the Board of Health as placing the
limit of the period of incubation of
cholera at five days. We admit that
such a period would embrace the great
majority of cases; but we contend
that there are other authorities quite
as eminent as those mentioned who
state that the incubation period of
cholera may be much longer; e. g.,
Parke's Manual of Hygiene, which is
the standard work on hygiene in Eng
land, India and the Colonies, says
(and with your permission we will
quote portion of a paragraph which
has peculiarly apt bearing on the
situation as we on Kauai see it,
"AS the incub0tiCe stage (Of chOIerd)
can certainly last as long dS ten or
t1UeEuc days, and there are some good
cases on record aChere 1T has lasted
for more than twenty, 1t IS clear that
quarantine, unless enforced for at
least the last period Of time naCy be
useless. IA island or an
inIartd aiU0gc jar remOCed from com,
merCe, and capable for q time Of do
ing lCithOUt IT, may practice quorG1l-
,Re and preSerye ITSELF bit, IN other
q rcunlstuHceS, both iJS theory and 0c-
'.fnL experience ShO1U that quarantine |
uls." Ernest Hart, chairman of the |
National Health Society of Great !
Britain, editor of the British Medical |
Journal, and author of several articles |
on cholera, after review of various |
medical authorities places the period |
of incubation of cholera at from one |
to fifteen days.
DR. Roberts of Owens College, Man |
chester, says that the incubative stage !
of cholera may run from one to |
eighteen days, usually from two to |
four. Lebert, Med. Trans. Berlin, |
says one to three days, exceptionally |
one To two, on the average IL does |
not exceed one week, though period !
of one or two weeks is by no means |
rare, a longer time IS exceptional of |
course. We only take into account !
here those cases which have been col
lected with the greatest care.
From the above mentioned authOri- /
ties it will be seen that in asking for |
an eighteen days quarantine we were |!