The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-01-15

a long time after it had become cpl
demic in many other places, and pos
sibly might have escaped altogether if
the rain had only come a little sooner.
AS it was, though, the long, dry season
that had prevailed left everything in
such condition that the germs grew
with frightful rapidity after they once
started. The result was that the doc
tors soon found themselves with their
hands full and the Board of Health was
confronted with a serious problem.
The cases of la grippe that might
have existed in Alameda before the be-
ginning of this year were certainly very
few and attracted no attention what
ever. Two days later every doctor in
town had to work almost day and
night. There seemed to be a case in al
most every house, and new ones were
reported as rapidly.
1t was apparent that something had
to be done, and done quickly. The
Board of Health was equal to the emer-
gency and at once procured a large
number of portable formaldehyde gas
furnaces. These are acknowledged to
be the most powerful disinfecting ma
chimes in existence. Large quantities
of formaline tablets, formaline liquid
and methyl alcohol were also procured,
and instructions given to use plenty in
every case.
From the first the board realized that
to do the work effectively 1t must be
done thoroughly. To this end several
of the furnaces were placed at the SER
vice of physicians, who used them in
houses where they had patients. This
Immediately put a check on the disease
in that place, as it killed all the germs
In the house and so prevented the we'll
people from carrying them out and dis
tributing them about the town.
The work done by the Board of
Health was principally precautionary,
although DR.. Mclean, the Health Of
ficer, had large number of cases that
required the same handling as was done
by physicians in their private practice.
The first public work done was to dis
infect all the omces in the City Hall.
This was done by bringing the formal
dehyde furnaces into the rooms at
night, closing doors and windows tight
and starting the apparatus. In less
than an hour the rooms were so full of
gas as to make it impossible for any
body to remain in them. The gas was
allowed to remain in the rooms all
night, in which time it penetrated into
every crevice and killed every germ
that lurked there. In the morning the
doors were opened and the odor of the
gas passed away
All public halls were treated the same
way. The Public Library was the
biggest undertaking, as the room is
enormous. Several furnaces were used
and nearly 5000 formaldehyde pastils
consumed. The material used in do
ing this work cost about SIS.
Several merchants obtained the use
of the formaldehyde furnaces and disin-
fected their stores. People who had
no sickness also borrowed the machines
and disinfected their homes merely as
a precautionary measure. In this con-
nection it is interesting to note that not
a single case of la grippe has been re-
ported from these houses.
1t seemed for two or three days that
all of Alameda was being disinfected.
The Odor of the gas hung heavy on
the air, but nobody minded that, for
the dread disease was being conquered.
E. c. Maillot the sanitary inspector,
has had charge of most of the work
of disinfecting, and it has kept him
busy.
Il don't know how many cases of
grippe we had he said. when speaking
of the matter. but there were good
many. And they all came on us sud
denly. l don't think there were any
more than we had at the last visit of
the disease, but they seem more, as
they all came in bunch Two weeks
ago we hardly heard of la grippe, OK
cept that it was bad in some other city.