The San Francisco call., 1899-10-01
AUCTION SALES.
CONSUMPTION QUARANTINE.

y HE tentative action OF State Board OF
Health in regard d quarantine OF consump-
tives has had the very desirable effect OF pro-
ducing discussion OF the subject.
The Call has reproduced the comments OF four
teen newspapers representing large centers OF popu
lations. from Salt Lake to Boston OF these eight
oppose and SIX iayor the quarantine idea in some
icrm.
We have no doubt that il in the cities where oppo-
sition appears it proposed to rgidy isolate
,4ses OF consumption putting them under some form
oi police oversight that the isolation is per
fcct these same newspapers would make objec-
tion because the precaution would be or the proec
ton OF the communities in which they circulate.
The New England States had system designed to
protect municipalities against the support OF indigents,
by which a man. no matter what the condition OF his
fortune was compelled to secure in some form a
municipality to which he as a stranger against
any burden arising in his possible Indulgence. In
many OF the most enlightened Western States there
used to be black code which denied access to
free negroes unless they could give security in
cases running to their moral conduct we'll against
their possible Indulgence
Now ali of these regulations were, in effect, a
quarantine against certain classes for the financial
protection o the public treasury In their day there
was necessity ior them or they would not have ex-
isted They were recognized as a legitimate use OF
the police power
It d maxim OF civil government that the public
health and welfare is the supreme law and under our
system OF government each State must Judge for itself
when and how to apply that maxim. There is moth
ing in the Federal constitution which forbids State
quarantine and the undenied power to establish it is
freely used against smallpox cholera and yellow fever
The power being undenied il the necessity OF its
Use Is eStab the tentative DrODOSitiO0 Of o1,r
Board OF Health must be discussed on the line of its
necessity and its benefit.
As to the necessity, that depends upon the rccog-
rition by science Of consumption as a disease 50
certainly and dangerously infectious to be pre-
ventabe by quarantine precautions We are not pre-
pared to say that science has gone far enough in this
recognition to Justify quarantine. 1t advises isola-
laon strongly. andwe are not OF any difference
OF opinion in the medical world on that subject Ii
also strongly advises distinction of sputuln clothing
objections and surroundings Just as in the case of the
eruptve ievers, cholera. plague and typhoid To the
lay mind this goes lar to establish the theory of in
lection and prcventability
The Chicago papers indulge in some drastic criti-
cisms OF California 1t is not to be expected that a
city which its oan sewage for potable purposes
and TO quench It's thirst will have very nice ideas O,
such question. The stranger who enters that citv
reads in Is morning papers every day an official no
tcc by the Board OF Health that the water in certain
districts is for that day dangerous in others passabe
in others under suspicion But he does not know
what faucet IS dschargng fecuence not yet oxidized
and therefore poison, what one is dripping deiec
tons in IN advanced state OF decay. Under the cir
cumstances Chicago is in an admirable condition to
quarantine healthy people and keep them away from
he typhoid fever. lux and other fatal diseases which
circulate in her water pipes