The age-herald., 1898-11-02
 THE QUARANTINE QUESTION DISCUSSED Before tho Jefferson County Medical
 Society AT A MEETING LAST NIGHT Very Able EXpOSitiOnS Presented by Dr.
 |. ". H. Sanders.
 
STATE HEALTH OFFICER UF ALABAMA
And President Moody of the State Medi- cal Society, in Support of State System Abuses of Nation
 al Quarantine.

The quarantine question was ably dis
 cussed at a special meeting of the Jefferson
 County Medical society, held last night in the rooms of the Commercial club, the prin-
 cipal speakers of the evening being Dr. w.
 H. Sanders, state health officer, and Presl-
 dent Moody, of the State Medical society.
 The meeting was called to order at p.
 m. by Dr. A. T. Henley, president of the
 county society, and in the absence Of the secretary Dr. Wilder was appointed to act
 in his stead. Besides the regular members
 of the society, a number of representative
 business men were present and entered into
 a discussion of the question:
 In calling the meeting to order pr. Hen
 ley stated that it had been called for the
 purpose of hearing the all-important ques- ton of quarantine discussed by Drs San-
 ders and Moody. pr. Sanders, he said, was too well known to the profession and to the
 people of Birmingham to need any intro duction at his hands.
 After briefly expressing his pleasure at being present with the society, Dr. Sanders at once entered into discussion of the subject He stated that the question was of vital importance to the people, and more especially to the people of the south in its connection with yellow fever and smallpox. There had been, he said, considerable agi- tation in the press as to what is called national quarantine, which has created very grave apprehensons in the minds of the people in regard to the question of yellow fever. The recent epidemics of this disease had been attributed, said the speaker, to faulty quarantine system. This, said Dr. Sanders, was |. misconception upon the part of the people and of the press, the real
 cause being the tardihess with which the
 disease fs recognized. In the epidemic of
 last year the physicians at Ocean Springs,
 Miss.,- were unable, he said, until monln
 after the disease appeared and not until
 four or five hundred cases had developed,
 been able. to diagnose it as yellow fever
 In the meantiuneyit had spread to other places, which, could have been prevented had it been Known earlier The quarantine system, welAd have been sufficiently. eff
 feetive to have prevented the spread of, the
 disease, but the knowledge of the existnee
 of the disease was necessary in order to
 put int o,praetical use the quai s tine regu-
 lations. s4 i..x
 system Need. Some Reforms rs
 'I will grants2' said the speaker, "that our quarantine system needs some reforms,
 and I shall attempt to point out the de-
 fects and remedies as l see them in the
 course of my remarks" yf5
 The solution of the problem of yellow fever, continued Dr. Sanders, lays in how
 to recognize the existence of the disease
 promptly. This. he sad was difficult
 matter, and in behalf of the profession and n aIlaV the af ho he desired to point out a few of the difficulties that lay in the way of an early diagnosis of the disease. A physician, he said, might stand at the bedside of a patient stricken with fever, and might detect symptoms of the disease that might be common to other levers; the patient might also show symptoms which would indicate another diagnosis. Any conscientious phy- sician, he continued, might find cases the diagnosis of which would leave him in | doubt, and which he would necessarily hesitate to pronounce yellow fever until ne was absolutely certain.
 Reference was here made to the report of a physician in Clarke county on the ex- istence of yellow fever at a lumber camp, l which was not diagnosed until month af- ter it's appearance The first cases were | so mild that a physician was not sum- moned. At Ocean Springs he sad hun | dreds of people who had yellow fever never called a physician. The first cases at that | point were so mild as not to be recognized | The public continued the speaker, does not
 realize the difficulties and responsibili- l ties that confront the physician.
 | The paramount question, therefore, he l r.f1 to ney1atz 11afo :. l dissemanates and spreads into other com
 munities. This can be done only through | the practcing physicians who are brought
 into daily contact with sickness of all
 kinds.
 First in Nineteen Years
 Until last year, sad Dr. Sanders it had l been nineteen years since yellow fever had
 be in Alabama, and many of the physi- l clans had never seen or had any experi- | ence with it. It is therefore necessary to l give the doctors time to familiarize them
 selves with the symptoms of the disease in
 order that it may be promptly recognized The people and the press, said Dr. San l ders, had jumped to the conclusion that
 the only remedy at hand was national | quarantine whatever that might mean | As he understood it, it meant quarantine l system under the control of the national | government, with a chief executive officer | stationed in Washington to direct the ma- 7 chinery. If such was the case, it would require an army of men vastly larger than | the standing army and navy of the United States. This army would have to be ready | at all times, for if called in emergency
 would not be at all effective The question | T, ..z4z not we cannot organize and direct our ma
 chinery here at home, or whether the chief l quarantine officer in Washington can do it
 better. Any fair minded man will coneede
 that we are better able to do so ourselves. The objections to a national quarantine, l said Dr. Sanders, were, that 1t would be unconstitutional and impractical, and 1 would create poplitical function. His