The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-12-29
PLAGUE VIE US
Need OF Cleanliness
Emphasized.
A Striking Example of What SAM
tary Methods Did for a
Stricken Community.

Editor AdyerCiser:-T morning
you editorially remarked that THE
wacchwords CT the hour are cleani- |
ness and vigilance. In hoe signo !
vinces"
The pertinency and truth Of your |
words seem to require but little en- |
phasiZing, but, nevertheless. ii may not |
be amiss TO call attention to a special |
power given oven malignant insanitary
conditions that, by their tendency TO
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 Outlines
rendered acute by such criminal neg
Iect 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 I would call
attention, and that wonderfully eX-
Nmplifies how the disgrace of dirt and
insanitary conditions form indus for
disease, occurred in Hongkong in
1894 At a recent meeting of the SAM
tary Board of that city the principal
civil medical officer stated how, when
lone district had been giving 100
| plague cases a day, 1000 Of its inhab-
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 the1I
report on the plague epidemic in India
after alluding to the long-recognized
fact that rats are highly sensitive tc
plague infection called at
ItentiOn to another fact namely, that
as rats gnaw the dead bodies of thel1
kind, the pestilence is very quickly
spread among them and carried else
where, and ultimately carried to men
There is quite sufficient evidence tc
warrant the belief that the
| oE al 81 nI 4
be undertaken as one Of the means fol-
the prevention or limitation of tbs
spread of the plague.
1t is not, sir, for a layman to SPEAK
of medical treatment, but it is perhap:
permissible to quote authOrities-ont
such, of eminence, says, none OF thu
modes of treatment have yielded any
such measure of success as to highl!
recommend themselves. What thel
can be done? Much can be done, ever
. to the suppression and eradication {
the dread disease said to be IN on
midst. A loyal backing up Of tn
powers that be, and an equally loya
and careful attention to their adyic'
given.
Apropos of these matters allow m
Mr.. Editor to quote words OF one
eminent as physician and sanitarlai
the world over. Whiting in the las
clepiad," Vol. VIII, he says: w
have revolutionized therapeutics, an
lifted away many evils, without how
ever substituting much that is, rs YET
so demonstrably scientific as to ADM
of systematic repetition. We have DC
come animal engineers, and have foun
that to put foreign elements into on
. engine is not such good science 10
keeping the engine in working orde!
or for preventing it from falling INT
\ decay, as prescribing pure air, i:ur
water, pure food. proper rest an
proper exercise. In these direction
new physic contrasts favorab.y wit
cd: and in them is its work for til
future. if it is &c retain Its place ID
wiser world.
: Yours obediently,
LAYMAN.
Honolulu Dec 27th 1899