The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-08-14
ANOTHER WARNING.

Warnings about tuberculosis come to
us every month from our own unsatis-
factory statistics which only cover the
district of Honolulu, and they come to
us from abroad, yet neither the Board
of Health nor the public seem to realize
how deadly this disease is to human
life, and no effort seems to be made to
check its insidious advance.
BY recent published reports it APP
pears that of 46,9SS deaths which oc-
Cured in Paris in 1899 no less than 12,-
S14 are attributed to tuberculosis or
more than one-fourth. If the deaths
by ages is considered the result is still
more striking. Thus for every 100
deaths the figures for the ages between
l to 20 attributes 372 to tuberculosis;
from 20 to 40 years 602 from 40 to co.
30.5: GO years and over 3.3. Thus 1t is
seen that from the age of 20 to 40 tuber-
Culosis counts for three-fifths of the to-
tai mortality.
The Star has for years agitated the
subject of tuberculosis and it's dangers.
1t is a disease which is spreading with
fatal activity in the city of Honolulu,
this we can tell from statistics furnish
ed by the Board of Health, and reason
ing from analogy it must be spreading
with quite as great activity in the outer
districts, though we have no statistics
for such Districts
When is the Board of Health going
to furnish the public with statistics of
deaths outside of the city of Honolulu?
The law upon the subject is clear Part
Y of the Board of Health law is devo-
ted to the subject of registration, the
matter being divided into nine sections.
One section reads lit shall be the duty
of such Registrar to keep in proper
books, used solely for such purposes, a
full and complete record of all the
births, marriages and deaths which oc-
cur in the district of which he is the
Registrar"
A further section says: 1T shall be
the duty of each Registrar at the end
of each month to transmit to the Board
full copy of the records of births,
marriages and deaths made by him du-
ring said month" There are besides
many articles. dealing in detail with the
kind of information to be furnished.
There is therefore law enough and to
spare. for the last section but one in the
act provides a penalty for violating any
of the provisions of that act, so that
if any registrar, when appointed, does
not send in his reports regularly, he
would be liable to fine.
Reading the law one would imagine
no e
gistration of these facts throughout the
Territory and that statistical informa-
ton would be easy to obtain, but bet
ween printed law and actual practice,
especially in the Board of Health, there
is very wide margin. You cannot OBJ
tain accurate statistics, or for the mat
ter of that statistics of any kind outside
of Honolulu, and even for the city there |
are no accurate statistics of birth. We |
manage to get statistics of deaths be-
cause no one can be buried without a
permit. These used to be issued very
loosely, but through the pressure of the |
press there is much more care in the |
matter, and there are no burial certif- |
Gates issued under the heading cause
unknown"
But to return to tuberculosis. Even
If we cannot get statistics from the
outer districts, and one, who observes,
knows that it is prevalent. Nearly
two months ago the Board of Education
called the attention of the Board of
Health to the fact that some of the
teachers were suspected of being affect
ed with tuberculosis and asked for some
line of action to be formulated. Up to
the present the matter is still under
consideration and is likely to remain
under consideration for good and all
unless further pressure is brought to
bear and a decision of some kind de-