The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1900-10-10
STUDY or THE PLAGUE.
New York to Have New La6ora"
tory For That Purpose.
TIE ONLY ONE OF ITS KIND.

remarkable Building to Be Erected
by the Health Board-HOw DuboHie
Plague Germs Are Studied-Lessen-
ing the Dangers OF Infection
Within three months the health board
of New York, says The Sun, VIII nave
in operation laboratory especially
built for and wholly devoted to the
study of the germs OF the buDonlc
plague. So far as the health officials
here know, it will be the only labora-
tory in the world entirely devoted TO
that purpose. Certainly it Will be the
only municipal institution OF the kind
in this or any other country, and, While
the need of it's establishment may not
be fully realized now, with no case or
the disease very near, its value, should
the plague appear, would be inestlma-
BILE. And Glasgow is less than eight
days from New DIRK.
Laboratories are not built and equip
ped in a week, and in this case the
health department took time by the
forelock. Ever since last November,
when the coffee laden steamer Taylor
brought cases of the plague to New
York from Santos, Brazil. the boards
physicians, under instructions from
president Murphy have been studying
the disease and the best methods of
meeting it should it appear within the
city. A general plan for a laboratory
was devised by DR.. Herman NJ. Biggs,
the boards patholOgist; DR.. w. ii.
Park and Dr. Frederick II. Dillingham;,
assistant sanitary superintendent or
Manhattan. The plan was indorsed by
Colonel Murphy, approved by the
board. and the board of estimate has
appropriated $4,000 for the cCnstruc-
ton of the building. Two months will
be required for its completion. By the
end of December it is expected that the
laboratory will be in working order.
The New York health board has al
ready three Laboratories for the study
of disease germs, but the plague germ
is no ordinary bacillus, and it would be
dangerous to handle it in any of the
existing buildings. In Lisbon and
Vienna deaths have already occurred
from just such attempts. The most
deadly form of the disease is contract
ed from inhaling the bubonic bacillus.
The new laboratory is designed to re-
duce to the minimum all danger OF
ccntagion. 1t is to be placed on the
East river front in a distant part of
the grounds of the Willard Parker
Memorial hospital, where contagious
diseases are treated, and it is to be Sc
constructed that no germ shall escape
I Its windows, screened to keep out flies
and mosquitoes, will be placed only in
I the safe parts of the building. The
walls of steel and cement. will be
ratproof, and the surface of the in
terror will be so smooth that there
will be no pinhole in which stray
germ may Turk The building viii
have it's private sewer to the river anC
even that will have patent disinfect
ing trap attached. The doors will be-
double, and stringent regulations vii
be framed, which will exclude from
the laboratory every person except its
own staff The iceman will call, but
81 he win fill the iceboxes from the out
side without even a peep inside the
building.
The laboratory is to be a two story
building and a small one, only % by 81
feet, and it will serve double pur
pose. The ground floor will be takeI
up principally by eight stalls for the
horses which viii supply the anti pest
4 serum. In this floor there will be com
paratively little danger of infection
but all the same it will be barred t.
everybody but the bacteriologist anC
his helper, under whose care the horses
will be. 1t is on the floor above tina
the plague germs will be kept and ex
periments undertaken, and the tive
floors do not communicate. A staircase