The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-01-26
At YOKOHAMA
The Plague as Officially
Reported.
Letters Detailing Facts From the Ha-
waiian Sanitary Inspector Re-
ceiVad by Foreign Office.

The following letters forwarded by
the surgeon of the Marine Hospital
Service, Yokohama, addressed to Sur
geon General Wyman at Washington,
copies of which we're sent to the For
eign Office by the Hawaiian Sanitary
Inspector at Yokohama, are Of partic-
ular interest to Honolulu during the
present plague conditions. These Off
cial letters bave been referred to the
Board of Health for perusal, and Pres
iden: Wood considers that they are
of Importance in showing that even
plague conditions in Japan are not so
serious as reported, and that there is
a possibility that the plague may have
been effectually. checked by this time.
The Nippon Maru reported that for
nineteen days previous to the time of
her departure from Yokohama no new
cases had been reported. The cold
weather is supposed to have been help
full in preventing the plague from
spreading. The letters read as fol-
/ lows:
December 20, 1899.
/ Walter Wyman, Md, Supervising
| Surgeon General, M.H.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, resident of Osa-
ka, died on the 18th, and on the same
day a case was detected at the Osaka
railway station in a party of sixty en-
igrants on their way to Hawaii, via
Yokohama. All these intending pas
sengers were Immediately taken to a
disinfecting depot for treatment. and,
as under the terms of circular issued
by me on the 22d, they must, after ar
rival at Yokohama. remain under OBJ
servation for fifteen days, and submit
to thorough disinfection, / think that
when they leave here they will be fair
ly safe. On the 10th a fatal case was
reported at Kobe in a district outside
of the original epidemic center. On
the 18th a case in Osaka proved NOR
tai in a few hours, and a second fatal
case occurred there on the same day.
On the 18th and 18th two cases died OF
J 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
adjoining that OF Hiogo on the south
also on board a local trading steamer
in one of the ports of Miye Ken. q
, little north of Osaka; and one in Shid-
, zuoka Ken. about halfway between
, Yokohama and Kobe.
No second case has been returned
, from Nagasakl, where one was said &c
, have been met with on the 9th, as al
, ready reported to you.
The most capable experts, who have
. been investigating the epidemic in ant
. about Kobe. seem convinced that thu
. infection has been present much longe1
. than was at first supposed. In the Low
: district OF Kobe, where the disease wa
, earliest detected, there had occurred
D nominally from acute pneumonitis, ~
. deaths during the months of Septem
Der and October, and, during the sam
period, and in the same locality, %
deaths were ascribed to acute menin
gifts. Beriberi, also. which, in II
acute form Is marked by heart failur
and dyspnoea, figures under the sam
circumstances as responsible for 70
deaths. Professors Kitasato and Oga
ia are inclined to suspect that most o
these cases were of the pneumonia
other very acute form of plague
4 which, by the ignorant physicians i
attendance on people Of the class anect
ed, might easily be mistaken for etth
er OF the diseases named.
1t Is certainly strange that this IN
o usual mortality, especially tina
ascribed to acute pneumonitis, unit
within a few years practically IN
known In Japan, and even now rar'
should not have attracted the attenuo
s OF the Kobe authorities.
The type or the cases which haV
been diagnosed as plague by comp'
tent men appears to be most malignan
The patients, in many instances, q
before there is time for Emphatic Il
slons to become evident, and the rat
event often occurs within few houi
Of the first attack. have not, as We
In been able to learn OF the recovery
a single well-marked case.
While think that there Is. pro-
|. ably, little reason to fear any vide q
velcpment OF the epidemic during u
m winter months. the persistency VII
/ which single cases are occurring Ia
N Their and farther from the original Z
Gus OF disease, affords ground Il
~ grave uneasiness as to what the spriI
may bring US.