The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1895-09-24
Why Board of Health Makes II
Five Days.
PHYSICIANS STATE AUTHORITY.
Result of Investigations Made In United
states-ExplanAtIOn OF Regulations
for Guaranteed Island Steamers
Thoughtful for other Communities.

A conservative, intelligent citi-
zen of Kauai has addressed letter
to the Board of Health which
states the reasons why the laymen
of that island, under the advice of
the resident physicians, deter
mined to maintain a quarantine of
twenty days on all persons arriv-
ing from Honolulu. The principal
reason given is, that during the
cholera season of '92 in the United
States, the President of that coun-
try ordered, under the advice of
physicians, that the quarantine
against cholera should continue
for TWENTY days, and that this
precedent was quite sufficient to
Justify a quarantine on Kauai for
the same length of time.
The people of Kauai felt, he
says, that in case the disease broke
out on that island it would be very
difficult to cope with it, for many
reasons which he states at length.
There has been no desire to inter
fere with the authority of the
Board of Health, or obstruct the
freedom of travel, but that the
safety OF the people was the first
concern, and there was no better
or stronger precedent than that
established by the President of the
United States. There has been no
feeling of disloyalty to the Govern
ment. On the contrary, what this
Government has done has been
heartily approved of and apprecia-
ted by thinking people, who know
the arduous duties imposed on it
by the terrible disease.
AS tie people of Kauai, as well
as those of the other islands, enter
tain the came views regarding the
proper or necessary length of quar-
antine, the physicians of the Board
Of Health have furnished the fol-
loving statement regarding the
proper length Of time for that pur-
pose:
Mr.. WILLIAM o. SMITH, President of
the Board of Health
SIR: The efficiency of the measures
IdOpted by the Board of Health forthe
prevention of the spread of cholera to
parts of these islands has
'een questioned, especially the five
ay limit of quarantine. 1t is the de
ire of the undersigned to Substantial
y authority the value Of these meas
res and to prove their effectiveness
D restricting the spread of the disease.
In imposing conditions under which
inter- island commerce could be car
led on with safety the Board was gov
rned by the following considerations:
'tven ~ clean, disinfected vessel.
pom which there had been no sick
esS OF contagious nature; (2) q dis
lfected crew free from disease at the
me OF disinfectiOn; (3) the mainte-
ance OF a strict quarantine of vessel
nd crew from the moment of disin-
'ctlOn, thereby preventing further
that il, after the lapse of
We days, no diarrhRl trouble has de-
eloped, then it Is reasonable to as
lme that there is no cholera on board
nd that the ship and crew are clean
The question resolves itself, there
re-, into determining the period OF
lcubation within tie human system.
thls period ever more than five
ays? We affirm that it is not. we
elleVe that if the cholera poison is
ken into the human stomach that
less than five days either the indi-
dual will have overcome the poison
the poison will have overcome the
dividual. The history of the pres
lt epidemic emphasizes the truth OF
is assertion, but there is plenty of
edical authority for it.
Mr.; William Squire, physician to the
orth London Hospital for Diseases
the Chest, in an article on the in
baton of contagious and infectious
seases, writes: "IncubatiOn in choI-
a lasts from a few hours to fOur
Us. The reports of numerous com
lssions give from one to five days:
thin five days, before the third dav
d not later than the fourth daV
cases often fall on the sao-
d or third day.
Mr.. I. Macuamara, surgeon to West
-nster Abbey Hospital, London. the
thor Of an article on Asiatic cholera.
ties: Among persons predisposed
It's influence, the injecting material
AsIatIc cholera will manifest its
ects on the system within five davs
having been swallowed"
I. .. Shakespeare, NJ. D., United