The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-04-19
FENCES MAY
COME DOWN
DR.. Wood Awaits Soil
Analyses.
MAY REOPEN CHINATOWN
No Plague Bacil|i Found in Soil from
Infected Observation-Disclosures
With Officials.

One OF the most vital questions re-
sulting from the plague in Honolulu
will be decided in the next day or two.
1t is whether 1t is expedient to retain
the board fences now encircling old
Chinatown and other sections which
were swept by fire by order of the
Board of Health or throw open the
area for building operations. Keen in
terest is manifested in the experiments
now in progress in the ARCHAEOLOGICAL
department of the Health Board
Soils from the various sections sup
posed to bear bubonic plague germs are
being experimental upon, and the re-
port thereon will be in the hands of DR..
Wood either today or tomorrow. His
opinion as to whether the fences shall
be torn down or whether the districts
shall remain as they are for a further
period of nine months or so, will be
expressed at once.
From interviews yesterday with sew
eral prominent men connected with af-
fairs of the Government, it is learned
that the chief difficulty arising from
the removal of the fences would be the
class OF buildings that might be erect
ed. and which might be dangerous
from the fire standpoint. Each stated
his opinion that in case the districts
were thrown open again, Ii would de-
feat the measure for the extension of
the fire limits, which Is only in the
power of the Legislature to enact.
Boards Powers Curtailed.
Some one, more venturesome in his
opinion than the conservative officials
of the Government, urged the state-
ment that as soon as the quarantine
was declared off by the Board of Health
the great executive powers of the lat
ter body would be curtailed, and from
being a government within a govern
ment-with authority almost exceeding
that of a legislature-it would become
again mere factor of the Attorney
Generals department. This gentleman
contended that as soon as the Board
ceases its active government, 1t could
not hold the infected districts as they
are now held; neither could the Board
prevent the property owners from TAX
ing possession of their property and
erecting buildings thereon.
The manner in which the authorities
in Alexandria, Egypt, handled the
plague, condensed report Of which
appeared in yesterdays Advertiser, was
the subject of much comment on the
streets during the day, and gave an
impetus to the general feeling among
| business men that something should be
done toward the opening up of the en-
closed districts of Honolulu.
Surgeon General wyman's Opinion.
In his report to the Treasury Depart
ment, Surgeon General Wyman of the
United States Marine Hospital Ser
vice, makes the following statement:
The longest time that infected ma
terial, as lint, wadding, earth, etc., re-
NAMED active was eight days. Sputum
from patients affected with the pneu-
monte form, kept in a vessel plugged
with cotton wool, was no longer viru-
tent in sixteen days. In ordinary
drinking water the bacilli die in three
days, in sterilized water eight days,
and in sterilized bilge water five days.
I'm direct sunlight the bacilli die in
three to four hours (Report of the Ger
man Plague Commission, as quoted by
BowhilD. The bacilli are killed by
drying at ordinary room temperature
in four days (Bowhill)
The length of life of the bacilli,
when exposed to favorable conditions
outside of the human body has an i'm
portant bearing upon the quarantine
measures necessary to be enforced,
particularly with regard to merchan-
disc from an infected port"
DIR. Carmichael Talks.
DR.. Carmichael when seen In regard
to the above in reference to life of ba-
cili in soil, said: THAT is true in
part, for the sunlight of course does
not penetrate below the immediate sur
face The effect of the sunlight, may of
course, also be equally as effective be-
meath the surface. / think that in the
case of Chinatown, the pestus bacilli
most to be feared, are those which no
doubt inhabit the old cesspools.'
do you think that IL no plague ba-
cilli are found in the soils now under
going examination, that 1t will be wise
to throw the old district Of Chinatown
open?" was asked by the reporter.
mo, don't think that should be
done for the present." was the reply.
Take Bombay, for Instance, where
they not only burned houses and en-
closed the burnt districts with fences,
but they also plowed up the ground,
covered 1t with petroleum and burned
that also. The property thus treated
was kept enclosed for nearly a year.
That seems to me an argument endors-
ing the Honolulu Board OF Health's
action"
President Dole's Opinion.
Surgeon General wyman's quotations
were shown President Dole, and his
opinion asked as to whether the burned
districts should be opened for business
In the near future.
We'll" said the President, THAT Is
question which has two sides to 1t. |
have not heard that plague germs have
been discovered In soils taken from the
infected districts for experiment. But,
suppose the fences were taken down.
there is a likelihood that the class OF
buildings which would Immediately
spring up. would be undesirable, and
totally contrary to the provisions Of the
new extension of the fire limits"
Does the Executive Council have