The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1900-01-26
AT YOKOHAMA
The Plague as Officially
Reported
Letters Detailing Facts From the Hs-
waiian Sanitary Inspector Re-
ceiyed by Foreign Office

The following letters forwarded by
the surgeon OF the Marine Hospital
Service. Yokohama addressed to Sur
seon General Wyman at Washington,
copies Of which were sent to the For
cign Office by the Hawaiian Sanitary
Inspector at Yokohama, are OF partic-
ular interest TO Honolulu during the
present plague conditions. These Off
cial letters have been referred % the
Board of Health for perusal, and Pres
ident Wood considers that they are
of Importance in showing that ever
plague conditions in Japan are not 5,
serious as reported. and that there !.
4 possibility that the plague may hay,
been effeotually checked by this time
The Nippon Maru reported that foi
nineteen days previous to the time
her departure from Yokohama no new
cases had been reported. The COLI
weather is supposed to have been he'
full in preventing the plague from
spreading. The letters read as fol-
lows;
December e, 1899
Walter Wyman, Md, Supervising
Surgeon General, MH.S-Sir: Since
my report of December 18th. which
brought the record of plague in Japan
down to the 9th inst, the following
cases have occurred in which the dag
nosis is clear One, a resident OF Osa-
ka, died on the 18th, and on the same
do W. IIf or ha I'm
railway station in a party OF sixty EN-
igrants on their way. to Hawaii via
Yokohama. All these intending pas
sengers were Immediately taken 10 a
disinfecting depot for treatment, and,
as under the terms OF circular issued
by me on the ed, they must, after ar
rival at Yokohama, remain under OBJ
seryation for fifteen days, and submit
to thorough disinfection, / think that
when they leave here they will be fair
ly safe. On the 10th q fatal case was
reported at Kobe in district outside
OF the original epidemic center. On
the 18th case in Osaka proved NOR
tai in few hours, and second fatal
case occurred there on the same day.
On the 18th and 18th two cases died OF
plague in Kobe. ... .,...
In addition to the above noted cases
in which the diagnosis was undoubt-
ed suspicious cases have been reported
from Okayama, the Ken Immediately
that Of Hiogo on the south;
also On board local trading steamer
in one Of the ports of Miye Ken, a
little north of Osaka; and one in Shid-
zuoka Ken about halfway between
Yokohama and Kobe.
No second case has been returned
from Nagasaki, where one was said to
have been met with on the 9Th, as al
ready reported TO you.
The most capable experts, who have
been investigating the epidemic in and
about Kobe, seem convinced that the
Infection has been present much longer
than was at first supposed. In the low
district of Kobe, where the disease was
earliest detected, there had occurred
from acute pneumonitis, 270
deaths during the months of Septem-
Der and October, and, during the same
period, and in the same locality, $50
deaths We're ascribed to acute menin-
gifts. Beriberi, also, which, in its
acute form Is marked by heart failure
and dyspnoea, figures under the same
as responsible for 26G
deaths. Professors Kitasato and Oga-
ia are inclined to suspect that most of
these cases were of the pneumonia or
other very acute form OF plague,
which, by the ignorant physicians in
attendance on people of the class affect
ed, might easily be mistaken for eth
er Of the diseases named.
1t is certainly strange that this I'M
usual mortality, especially that
ascribed to acute pneumonitis, until
within few years practically I'M
known in Japan, and even now rare.
should not have attracted the attention
of the Kobe authorities.
The type of the cases which have
been diagnosed as plague by compe-
tent men appears to be most malignant.
The patients, in many instances, die
before there Is time for Emphatic le-
sions to become evident, and the fatal
event often occurs within a few hours
Of the first attack. have not, as yet,
been able to learn of the recovery of |
1 single well-marked case.
While l think that there is, prob |
ably, little reason to fear any wide de-
;elopment of the epidemic during the |
winter months, the persistency with
which single cases are occurring far
her and farther from the original To-
Jus OF disease, affords ground for
grave uneasiness as to what the spring
nay bring US.
Very respectfully,
STUART ELDRIDGB, MD,
\. A. Surg, Mis-, Sanitary Inspect
or, Yokohama.