The record-union., 1898-10-12
The DOCTORS TO MEET.
PROBLEMS FOR STATE BOARD
OF HEALTH ON MONDAY.
They Will Convene Here to Discuss
Diseases of Cattle
and Men.

There will be a regular quarterly
meeting of the State Board of Health
In this city on Monday at which sew
eraI questions of far more than usual
Importance to the! physicians as well as
TO the people of the State will be dis
cussed. These questions are: Anthrax
In all it's relations, with special refer
ence to the necessity of appointing a
State Veterinarian; splenetic fever, in
connection with the problem of quar-
antining CATTLE and last all the health
problems that arise in reference to
leprosy, and the probable appointment
OF specialist to go to the Hawaiian
Islands to study the disease.
Speaking of the matters to come be-
fore the board prominent local physi-
clan last night said: DIR. Crowley of
oakland has just returned from the
East, wherelhe made a special study of
the so-called Texas fever. He will
have valuable matters to report, and it
Is probable that he will advocate, IN
common with other doctors, the ap-
pointment of State Veterinarian to
look into all the complicated questions
that arise in connection with anthrax,
splenetic fever and other diseases of
eral mat ters, of Importance will be urg
ed as a relief against the dangers from
diseased cattle
Another question of vital Importance
will be the cooperation of the State
Board with various local Boards of
Health relative to the action they have
taken in various communities with re-
gard to tuberculosis in cattle Oakland
hoe
acter to settle, and some of them will
be brought to the notice of the board.
1t is we'll known that the annexation
of the Hawaiian Islands has attracted
the attention of doctors all over the
world to the dangers of leprosy. AS
California is closer than any other
State to the islands, it is probable that
there will be more interest here in all
matters pertaining to the diseases of
the islands than will be found else
where For this reason it is probable
that the State Board of Health will dis
cuss the feasibility of sending an ex-
pert there to study the disease and
learn all that it is possible to discover
concerning preventive medicine and
sanitary precaution.
In this connection it is interesting to
note the fact that a medical work en-
titled THE Recrudescence of Leprosy,"
published few years ago, contained
the remarkable statement, apparently
based on statistics, that leprosy is on
the Increase all over the world-in
Sweden, England and the United States
in particular. 1t is a strange fact that
Ieprosy lies dormant in the system for
about seven years before it makes
known its presence, but after that pc
riod of incubation is over its ravages
are wonderful. One may appear as well
as ever, only to discover inside of. a day
that an apparently innocent swelling is
the fatal Chinese sickness
Mosquitoes carry the germs of the dis
ease, as do flies and other insects. As
mosquitoes are the pest of the Ha-
Waiian group one who goes there may
not be sure he is free OF the disease
until he has patiently waited for the
full term of seven years. There is no
cure for the dread disease, though one
may have it and live many years. In
deed. the history of Molokai (the ISL
and where banished lepers live) shows
that many of the lepers die of old age.
If the State Board appoints a doctor
to investigate the disease it will be for
the purpose of learning what can be
done to prevent its introduction on this
coast