The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1900-09-09
HAvANA's YELLOW FEVER NESTS.
Cleanliness a Certain Preventive OF All Such
Diseases. says DIR. Doty.


There Is no reason in the world said DR..
Doty, why Havana shor'd not he rs free from
yellow fever as New York. let the streets
be asphalted so that they can be flushed with
water. and let the old sewers he swept away
and new ones and a new system ~ outlet
be put in. After this tear or hurn down a
few centres where the disease seems always
TO Turk. and We would hear no more Of yellow
fever in Havana.
"Eavnna causes ne more trouble and re-
uuires more v%igilant watching than any other
pert from which vessels como to New York.
And IL IL ali unnecessary. They talk about
the yellow fnvar holt, or tho yellow fever zone.
They might as well say filth belt or Nth zono.
Find mo a place whore yellow fever thrivcs
and III find you a place fun Of filth. Exter-
inmate the filth and you cxterminate the yellow
fever. And It is the same with bubonic plague
and typhus ns it is with yellow fever. All
have their source and thrive in filth. ] know
from my own observation OF several houses
in Havana tina. should come down. Board
ing houses Of some sort they we're. Every
year the fever breeds In them and spreads ftom
them. They ahould be wiped ont OF existence.
and the places on which they stand should be
cleaned and disintected.
Havana will always be a menace TO the
health Of this country until it Is swept clear
There is not so much reason. for their having
yellow fever there by a good deal IA there Is
isa E below "r i2e Iicsvc11 81 Sf'S Tho p'r liver 81 Se Tne %f' have
problems OF drainage there that are unknown
In Havana.
disease like yellow fever always hanging about
the southern part Of our country-such a threat
az we constantly have with Havana still only
partly cleansed. And IL Is not merely the illness
and death that are serious. II is the great
financial loss. Let one case Of yellow fever be
reported in the South and ! venture TO say,
would mean si,OOO,OO lost. One place would
quarantine against anotherand so on until with
anything approaching a fairly scattered out
like a general paralysis Of business. meaning in
calCulable loss. The loss. furthermore, would be
wholly disproportionate to the actual danger
and to the actual ravages OF the disease. Ii Is
fear that actuates men in such cases-fear in
many instances of the unknown. That ia
particularly the case with this matter Of
The bubonic comes with an awful name.
II comes with the record. OF its appalling raw
ages in Asia, where conditions exist for its devel-
opment and spread that never could exist bere.
Then there are the awful stories OF the ravages
Of the disease, the black plague, as II was called,
in LONDON in the time OF Charles IL.
People forget that the conditions hat existed
in London then are as different from what ex-
is from night, They do not. think Of this or
do not appreciate It in It's full force. They only
stop TO consider that II Is the same. disease.
the same awful brinR-out-your-dead plague
and they become alarmed The plague Is not by
aigood deal so dangerous az tie typhus, yet
tile typhul has not been painted IN such black
colors, and there might be a number Of cases
held up here on a ship AT Quarantine and peo-
pie would not begin to be so much alarmed
a. they you'd nc ,D De , by one ne o case Of b u6 Gd
sibility Of either the bubonic or the typhus
getting a foothold here. The conditions OF
sanitary science do not permit II. Yet there Is
always the danger Of commercial loss from
fear Of one or the other Just as there IL always
the danger OF commercial. loss In the South from
fear Of yellow fever. And this last Is a danger
that viii exist until Havana Is cleansed."