The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-01-30
LIGHT.


Certainly the prospect is now most
encouraging. We have been forty eight
hours without a case of plague making
it's appearance, which is almost more
than could have been hoped for within
little more than a week of the sudden
destruction of Chinatown and the in
evitable escapes of some of the resi-
dents in spite of every effort to pre-
vent it. The sporadic cases in the ten
days that have elapsed have not been
nearly as numerous as might have
been expected, or as DIR. Wood fore
Swallowed. In this we have been es-
pecially fortunate.
Then again the health of the camps
has been Unexpectedly good. Though
at first in very cramped and straitened
quarters, no epidemic has broken out
among the people, showing that those in
charge of the camps have done rem ark
ably good sanitary work. and have ris-
en- to the occasion. Too high praise
to the gentlemen and ladies who have
devoted themselves to this branch Cf
the service cannot be given. 1t has
been continuous and wearing work ur-
on all engaged but has been skillfully
and cheefully performed.
1t is true that we may yet expect
some cases, and the misfortune is that
each recurring case puts us so much
further back However energetic eff
forts such as ours have been, have
seemingly put stop to the plague in
Kobe. The actual number of deaths
in both Kobe and Osaka have not
proved very large and it is evident that
if plague is met and fought from the
outset, it can be beaten. Ours appears
to have been a somewhat harder fight
than that waged in Japan, and we have
had to adopt more stringent measures.
But the value of the methods we have
adopted is justified by the end which
has been attained.
That in Bombay no such success was
attained comes from the fact that the
plague stricken population was too
/ large to handle. The disease got away
completely from the authorities, and
they were powerless to cope with it.
They could not prevent the population
from moving from the city into the
province, carrying the infection and es-
tablishing fresh centers. To read the
account of the plague in Bombay is to
read the account of a nightmare. Then
again Bombay is a very old city. It's
foundation dates to a remote past, and
a fostering. unsanitary condition has
| been it's main characteristic for CEN
turtles. Last, but not least, there is
lace and religious prejudice against the
sanitary reforms of the foreign ruler,
which play a considerable part in the
sum of Bombay's ills.
With us, we have had on our side
the fact that the Chinatown conditions
are the result of but sixty years or less
We have been able to keep our popula-
ton in hand and watch It, and the race
and religious prejudice though present
has been a very slight factor, if it has
been a factor at all.
When the history of the plague in
Honolulu comes to be written by some
skilled physician, it will be found that
the management of it will call forth
the unanimous praise of intelligent
people throughout the world. For
though we are a small community, a
struggle of this kind fought to a fin
fish, calls the attention oe people in all
parts of the globe, especially as the
plague is on it's march and threatens
many other countries. What has been
done here may prove valuable les
son elsewhere.