The Hawaiian gazette., 1899-12-29
PLAGUE VIEWS
Need Of Cleanliness
Emphasized.
a Striking Example Of What SAM
tay Methods Did for a
Stricken Community

Editor Advertiser This morning
you editorially remarked that echo
watchwords Of the hour are ctcanf-
ness and vigilance lu hoe siruo
yinces."
The pertinency and truth Of your
words seem TO require but little EN-
phasizing, but, nevertheless. 1t may not
be amiss to call attention to a special
and striking instance of the dominant
power given over malignant insanitary
conditions that, by their tendency 10
lower the normal status of health and
vitality, invite all manner of disease
and not of plague only. Pathogenic
| failings, weaknesses or peculiarities OF
any one, are intensified and oft-times
rendered acute by such criminal neg
ect of all sanitary knowledge and
| teaching that it at once raises a ques-
! ton of our common sense of our
claims to civilization and our earnest
ness as men seeking to make the best
we can out of the puzzling mysteries
and problems of life. The special and
striking instance to which | would call
attention, and that wonderfully ex-
emplifies how the disgrace of dirt and
insanitary conditions form a indus for
disease, occurred in Hongkong in
1894 At a recent meeting of the SAM
tary Board of that city the principal
Lat, I'm
"one district had been giving 100
plague cases a day, 1000 of its innab-
itants were moved into new. clean.
four-story dwellings, and were com
PEELED to keep these clean and we'll
aired, and that in the next six weeks,
not 100 cases a day but only ten cases
of plague, in all, occurred, though the
epidemic was raging through the rest
of the town."
Anent your annexation regarding
rats it may be further stated that, the
German Plague Commission, in their
report on the plague epidemic in India,
after alluding to the long-recognized
fact that rats are highly sensitive to
plague infection = called at
tention to another fact, namely, that
as rats gnaw the dead bodies of their
kind, the pestilence is very quickly
spread among them and carried else
where, and ultimately carried to men.
There is quite sufficient evidence to
warrant the belief that the
ix,1 90 ,iy,,a lc oh
be undertaken as one of the means for
the prevention or limitation of the
spread of the plague. -
1t is not, sir, for a layman to speak
of medical treatment, but it is perhaps
permissible to quote authorities-one
such, of eminence, says, none of the
modes of treatment have yielded any
such measure of success as to highly
recommend themselves. What then
can be done? Much can be done, even
to the suppression and eradication IF
the dread disease said to be 10 our
midst. A loyal backing up of the
and careful attention to their advice
given.
Apropos of these matters allow me
Mr.. Editor to quote words of one .
eminent as physician and sanitrian
the world over Whiting in the As
clepiad," Vol. VIII, he says: I'VE
have revolutioni2ed therapeutics, and
lifted away many evils, without how-
ever substituting much that is, rs yet
so demonstrably scientific as to admit
of systematic repetition. We have pc
come animal engineers, and have found
that to put foreign elements into our
engine is not such good science for
keeping the engine in working order,
or for preventing it from falling into
decay, as prescribing pure air, i;ure
water, pure food, proper rest and
proper exercise. In these directions
new physic contrasts favorab'y with
cd; and in them is its work for The
future, if it is 10 retain Its place ia Il
wiser world.
Yours obediently,
LAYNAN-
Honolulu, Dec. 9th, 1899.