The record-union., 1899-11-20
THE TAYLOR DIsINFECTED.
No Further Developments Among
the Crew.

NEW YORK, Nov. 19.-Ihe steamer
j. w. Taylor, which arrived yesterday
from Santos, Brazil, with the Captain
and cook i'll with suspected bubonic
plague, has been disinfected as far as
possible without discharge of cargo.
The patients are at Swinburne, Island,
and there is no change in their condi-
ton.
Deputy Health Officer Sanborn says
the crew will be kept on board the
steamer until tomorrow, when the
agents will supply new crew. The
crew will be removed to Hoffman ISL
and and detained for observation for
ten days. There has been no further
development among them. After the
removal of the crew, the cargo, coffee
in sacks, will be discharged into light
ers. The sacks will be emptied into
other receptacles and then subjected to
steam disinfection on board of the
James w. Wadsworth. After the dis
charge of the cargo, the holds will be
disinfected
DR.. Fitzpatrick, the psychological
expert of the quarantine service, is
making cultures of matter taken from
the patients. The result of his exam
nations will determine the question of
the discharge of the cargo.
DR.. Hermann NJ Briggs, bacteriolo-
gist of the Health Department, gave
out this statement to-day regarding
DR.. Parks examination of the sup
posed bubonic plague patients:
THE meteorological examinations
thus far made by Dr. Park show appar-
emily that the contents of the broken
n f11INn do faiy
germs 1t is possible, however, that
some may develop in the cultures
"Microscopical examinations of the
pus are rather negative. These mega
tive results are such as might be ex-
pected in the plague at the stage of
the disease presented in these men. and
would be very unusual in other condi-
tions. They therefore afford some con-
firmatory evidence as to the existence
of the plague"
DR.. Biggs said he had little doubt that
the two patients supposed to have the
disease are now almost we'll The bac-
THEOLOGICAL examinations will be con-
tinued SO long as the patients of the
infected ship present the opportunity.
This is the first time the physicians
of this city have had an opportunity to
study the disease directly Up to this
time they have depended upon foreign
medical reports which are not always
authentic. Health Commissioner COSBY
said that he had no doubt the ship is
thoroughly disinfected. But even so, it
would not be permitted to come to the
city. The Health Department will take
no chances, he said.
In forbidding the docking of the ship
or her approach to any wharf, the au-
thoritieS have been actuated by the fear
that the rats which infest the vessel
will get ashore and carry the germs, if
plague, with them.
Experience with the bubonic plague
in foreign countries show that the rat
is a potent factor in the spread of the
disease, it being affected by the bubonic
bacillus in a similar way to man. In
Nothnagle's laboratory in Vienna sew
eral years ago one of the assistants de-
veloped the plague from contamination
from a rat into which he had inocu-
lated the disease.
The health authorities have not yet
decided upon the mode of disinfection
that shall be employed to rid the vessel
of the vermin, but the disinfection,
whatever form it may assume, will be
of the most thorough character