The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1895-02-28
TUE QUARANTINE CONTROVERSY

THE QUARANTINE CoNTRoNEhs
We have been furnished with the ac
vance sheets of the Texas Medical jour
Inal, by note from the edlto
lin which he states that "injustice is don
lin your editorial in consequence OF mis-
apprehension of facts" abiding to al
editorial that appeared in The Statesman
giving n resume Of an article written b,
DIR. Mclaughlin and published in tn
January number Of The Sanitarian, oil
the subject of state and national quaran
tine. DIR. Mclaughlin, taking represen
tations of others that the Mobile quaran
tine was weak and unsafe, used it as al
illustration in an argument in favor Of
national control and Supervision OF al
sea coast quarantine.
The Texas Medical Journal denies this
statement and declares that DIR. Nc
laughlin's article is based on "a defective
predicate and fallacions deductions as q
matter of course" The usefulness Of the
blessed doctors makes it necessary that
the secular press open its columns to
them, especially when they write on quar-
ontine matters. but the editor that does
so will soon find that he has controversy
on his hands, and as they use the pen
with the same incisive clear cut retort
that they use the knife the editor that
knows nothing about the subject finds
himself between two fires and unless he
seeks shelter he is going to get hnrt.
The Texas Medical Journal says:
"Such n state of affairs as represented
ot Mobile would not be tolerated mo-
ment, else Surgeon General Wyman Oh
the marine hospital service and his IN
snectors have been derelict and ought 10
he impeached." 1t was asserted III the
article in the Sanitarian, it seems by
authority of DR.. Cochran, that the MO
bile quarantine board was composed OIL
few physicians and few business men
and dominated by the latter when quar-
ontine interfered with business. This
the Medical Journal denies, and asserts
that "prior to the inspection OF stations
n close comparison of all state quarantine
rules was made with the rules promul-
gated by the marine hospital service under
the law of Feb. 10, 1893, to see that there
was no conflict, that they correspondent
and were uniform and where they dld not
the marine hospital service amended them
or made additional rules and caused them
70 he enforced by the state authorizes
thus creating the very condition, the ao-
sence of which the Texas Sanitarlan
bemoans and makes part OF us
special pleading for Uncle Sam TO heip
Texas hold down the quarantine end OF
our sanitary work and calls on the texas
legislature to give us state board Oh
health to do what is now done under
the present law efficiently and satlstac-
torily. and actually without cost to the
state. /. e., look after local outbreaks Oh
infection in the state, for under the pres
ent law county physicians do that, under
orders it is true of the state health officer,
but they are paid by the county. The
law was enacted especially to relieve
the state of this burden. The doctor
does not know, perhaps, that prior to
that enactment the state had to pay the
expense of all smallpox cases and all
other infectious diseases, pay for the IN
fected articles burned, etc, and that all
these items amounted some times to
many thousands Of dollars annually and
that at this moment there are claims OF the
kind against the state, unpaid, amounting
to something like 100000 incurred under
Ross administration and before the pres
ent law went into effect and made each
county pay the expenses of its own cpl
denies"
The Texas Medical Journal, rather
than surrender all quarantine but inter
nal in n state to the national government
advocates "giving Texas board of healtl
comprising all the functions of STATE
Iboard-quarantine, vital statistics, SUI
pervision of the sale Of foods, drugs, etc.
supervision of streams to prevent contain
nation, archaeological laboratory, etc.
1t also urges a question of the surrende
of states rights and doubts whether tn
legislature could make such transfer.
The article is entirely too long evel
to give an idea of its whole scope in al
editorial in daily paper, There ha
been for years controversy betweel
two sets of the doctors in the state upol
this subject and we would like to ge
out from between the fires as GRACEFUL
as we can since we have Unfortunate
rashly stepped in there between them.