The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-06-15

AS q result of a final decision that it's
Chinatown is infected with plague, San
Francisco is renovating and disinfect-
ing Chinatown, under the supervision
of an officer of the United States Ma
rine Hospital service. The Government
health authorities at Washington final
ly took the matter up, and there APP
pears to be no further doubt that
plague has existed for some time. in
the Chinese quarters of San Francisco.
Information on the subject is so sue
cessfully kept from the public that
only the scientific journals tell the
story The following review of the sit
uation from the Literary Digest gives
the history of the case, and shows how
the Federal authorities finally got tired
of Frisco taking:
THE existence of the bubonic plague
in the Chinese quarters of San Fran
cisco, which has been asserted and
strenuously denied during the past
year, now seems to have been establish
ed beyond doubt. The history of the
disease Is TS11ldEkdDlS on account VI
the attempt of the State authorities,
following the plan of the legendary
papal bill against the comet, to quiet ap-
prehension by legislative denial of the
disease and even to threaten those
who should venture to disagree with
them. The subject is thoroughly venti-
| lated in a leading editorial in Science
MAY ID, from which we quote a -num-
Der of paragraphs. According to this.
the first case of plague was discovered
in the spring of 1900, and was imme-
diately followed by other cases all of
which were promptly reported spy the
health authorities. The diagnosis was
objected to by number of local physi-
clans, and on this basis the existence
of the disease was at once denied by
most of the city press. The. events
that followed which are both curious
and interesting, are thus described in
Science:
Fearing that the State Board of Health
might quar- antine the city and that other
States might quarantine the city, or even
| the State, to the vast injury of public
and commercial interests the commercial
| interests of the city solicited the estab-
| lishment by the city Board of Health Of
| a quarantine Oh CHlHdlOWu, llle POE-
| ton of the city occupied by the Chinese
| in which all the reported cases had oc-
Cured. This request was acceded to, and
the quarantine was established. The pub
| lie was given to understand that plague
was disease Of frightful contagiousness
and rapid spread and that this quaran-
! tine was Necessary to prevent the spread
of the disease through the entire city.
The quarahtine, though inadequately en-
forced and obviously ineffective. was
quite naturally obnoxious to the Chinese
residents of the quarantined area, and
| they sought relief in the courts
| In the opinion rendered upon the case,
| Judge Morrow decided the establishment
and maintenance of the quarantine lille
gal, but marred what was, under the
laws, a correct decision by the prejudi-
cial and unwarranted statement that no
cases of plague had existed in San Fran
cisco. That the quarantine was, in the
| light of our knowledge of plague and
| in the light Of the Oriental experiences
| with the disease, an unwarranted and
mistaken procedure, is obvious. AS a
| rule, plague is not a personal infection; it
| is house Infection; the best evidence of
this fact is the statement of one of the
| European commissions that about the
safest place in Bombay is the plague hos
pital As stated the public of San Fran