The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-05-04
DANGER MAGNIFIED.
Expert Authority Says Cuba is as
Healthful as Any Tropical Country.


Chicago, May 4-Dr John B. Hami1-
ton, former surgeon general of the Ma
rine hospital service of the United
States, in an address given at the
Physicians club, maintained that the
danger from yellow fever in Cuba is
much exaggerated. The paper was in
regard to camp hygiene, with special
reference to the present war and ac-
cepted theories in regard to health con-
ditionS in Cuba.
DR.. Hamilton began with a brief
summary of his past experience in san
itary camps of various kinds. AT the
time of the civil war, he said, little
thought was given to the matter, pro-
vided there was plenty of water and
hillside on which to pitch the tents. He
acquired considerable experience dur
ing the war and later. In 1882 and 1888
he had charge of the big yellow fever
camps in Texas and Florida. The ref
ugees camp near Jacksonville he built
in five days, and there worked out the
system which he advocates for use in
the present war He described the
camp in Jacksonville and stated that
the basis of the whole system was the
twice a day inspection. In 1892 he
built the cholera camp at Sandy Hook,
the first of it's kind. He stated posi-
lively that the nurses and attendants
never ran any danger from diseases
like cholera and yellow fever in these
open air camps.
After the comments on hygienic
camps in general, DR.. Hamilton took
up the question of yellow fever in Cuba
and it's treatment.
The danger to our soldiers, he said,
was not half SO great as the people be-
lieve. He had no hesitation in saying
that Cuba was naturally as healthful
country as any in the tropics. The
trouble has been made by man. He
then enumerated the places where yell
low fever was first propagated: the in
fected buildings in Havana, the infected
the bay of Havana. This. he said, was
the principal cause of all the trouble.
In this part of the bay the water is
stagnant and filthy, breeding disease.
military hospital Instead of taking
the sick soldiers up on the hills, they
are put in this old infected building.
Was it any wonder, he asked, that the
fever could not be controlled?
A consideration of the geographical
conditions in Cuba showed that the
hills back of Matanzas are II to 10
hundred feet high and back of Havana
they are eight or nine hundred. By
making the camps on these hills, the
speaker said, the danger would be
coast city where it would be so easy
to keep troops, provided the system of
regular and careful inspection be main
tanned. The stagnant portion of the
bay of Havana could be purified by a
canal from the Alnendarez river, and
after a period of proper household san
itation in the city, Havana would be-
come as healthful as any city in the
tropics.
He calls attention to the fact that
England had given a lesson in SANTA
ton at Jamaica. At one time Kingston
was as subject to yellow fever as Ha-
vana, but now cases seldom occur.
The carelessness of the government,
he said, was the principal cause of all
the yellow fever danger. Not half the
necessary precautions were taken at
the wharves where the danger was
greatest.
In conclusion DR.. Hamilton said that
there had been Fea son enough for war
with Spain before the present crisis
Any country which would carelessly
allow such a disease breeding center to
affect the ships of the world, without
any effort to improve the conditions
deserved nothing better than the most
severe and summary punishment.