The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-12-19
A PLAGUE SKEPT|C'
DR.. L. F. Alvarez Against
T.
the Board of Health.
Thinks the Evidence Insufficient
Takes Issue with the Reports
of DR.. Hoffmann.

Editor Advertiser: In the Star of
{ last evening appeared an article I'M
| der the title Earring Doctors" in
which the profession is criticized for
failing 10 agree on the question Of the
existence of the plague in our city. 1t
is only fair that few words should
| be said as to the reasons for the differ
| ence of opinion alluded to above. The
| Star. continuing, says: 1T is thou
sand pities that the condition of med
! ical science is such that one set of
! them (doctors) declare that we have
had plague and another set is quite
certain that it does not know whether
We have the plague or not"
Allow me to say in defense of my
profession that the Medical Associa
ton refused to endorse the action of
the Board of Health, after hearing the
following evidence:
1t is claimed that on the 18th day of
November we had the first case and
that the disease did not spread al
though no precautions whatever were
taken. This statement seems improb-
able if you consider that it occurred
in one of the filthy and overcrowded
places of Honolulu. The next case was
reported one month later, and DR.. Nc
Grew, who attended him, stated that
he had no symptoms of plague. The
postmortem examination was made in
the absence of DR.. McGrew, who was
not invited to be present, and the liver
and lungs did not show the condition
found usually in plague; that is, the
lungs did not show small areas of pneu-
fhn in
stead of covered with nodules of ne
crossed tissue.
1t is claimed, however, that germs
were found which resembled in ap-
pearance those of black plague, but the
incubation of one Guinea pig with
these germs without causing its death
in from ten to sixty hours, which is
the usual time these animals live after
incubation with the germs of plague,
seems to prove conclusively that said
germs were not those of the plague.
The subsequent death of the animal or
animals does not alter, the value of this
proof. All Guinea pigs kept by me in
cages were short-lived, and all the
rats and mice used in the laboratory
for experimental purposes died within
three weeks of their confinement in a
cage. -
1t is seen, then, that little or no i'm
portance can be attached to the death
of the one Guinea pig inoculated with
the supposed germs of the plague after
he had survived the usual period for
Guinea pigs. This incubation Of one
Guinea pig without keeping at least |
another one as a control seems very
ridiculous from archaeological stand |
point The statement made by the bac- |
teriologist that if the germs had mot |
killed the one pig the cause would be |
found in the disinfectant possibly left |
in his syringe acting on the germs and |
killing them before they reached the |
Guinea pig!i Is it wonder that the |
did not place due confidence |
in such experiments?
Such experiments are carried on |
everywhere, not with one animal but |
with one dozen, always keeping an |
equal number as controls which are |
not inoculated.
Again, in a case of SO much impor-
lance several rodents should have been
from the fluid in the sack
the heart and several from
the Spleen liver, ETC., with due precau-
tons against contamination from other
germs.
These facts and others, which | omit
for lack Of time, explain the want of
confidence shown by some physicians
n the findings of the Board of Health.
L. F. ALVAREZ.