The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-05-17
SAN FRANcIsco's PLAGUE.

San Francisco is still chewing over
the plague. The State Medical Society
took up the question the other day and
after an address from DIR. Kinyoun,
whose name is as a red rag to a bull
TO the San Francisco press, a series of
resolutions were presented, of which
the following in a condensation:
Resolved, That the State Board of
Health of the State of California, as
the legal guardian of the public health
and the official exponent of our medical
civilization. should represent the high
est attachments of the medical pro-
fession.
Resolved, That it should be fair and
Independent and wholly devoted to the
public health, uninfluenced by other
considerations whatever, whether poll
teal or commercial.
Resolved, That the fatal and in
comprehensive lethargy of the present
board, in the face of the most insi-
dious, the most deadly and the most
unmanageable disease that ever me-
naced our people, deserves as it re-
ceives our severest condemnation. BE
it further
Resolved, That we hereby demand
of the governor and the State Board of
Health that vigilance and activity in
the eradication of bubonic plague
which medical science pronounces i'm
perative."
Then the opponents of DIR. Kinyoun
rallied and it was pointed out that it
was no business of the State medical
society to take up sides in the ques-
tion, and this grand flourish of trum-
pets came down the blaring scale
growing weaker and weaker in it's
a 49,
plague had existed and plague prob
ably did exist in San Francisco, but
that the authorities of both State and
city would eradicate it.
There is no doubt that there Is
great deal of unnecessary alarm about
the plague. In the present hygienic
condition of cities in the temperate zone
there is no need to fear it. OF course
proper precautions have to be taken.
as we take precautions when there is
an outbreak of smallpox, of scarlet
fever of cholera. But there is no pos
sible reason why people should lose
their heads over plague. And the peo-
pie of San Francisco did not lose their
heads, nor did they allow them to be
lost for them. That there has been
plague in San Francisco is certain
That it has not become epidemic is also
certain, and that it has not raised the
death rate from it's normal standard is
demonstrable. San Francisco had an
excellent object lesson in Honolulu.
and it did not propose to manage it's
plague business in that form.
The experience of other cities in the
temperate zone justified San Francisco
in the way it regarded the plague In
the great European trading ports
which have constant communication
with the East such ports as Liverpool,
Glasgow, London, Hamburg, Mar
settles, there is always plague. In
Glasgow quite recently it spread. but
with proper precautions it was kept
within bounds. Indeed so common are
the diseases of the tropics that hospi-
tails for their especial study have been
founded at several of these ports. The
experience of Sydney has been the
same. The plague was controlled with
out any enormous outlay, and certain
ly with no interruption of trade.
If ever we have the misfortune to
have another outbreak of plague here,
we shall treat it in a very different
manner to what we did in the last out
break, and we shall never AGAIN pour
forth money like water nor saddle our
selves with an unlimited debt for the
destruction of property. 1t was Sc
we're lesson of our own making, but it
has struck home.
There are many diseases which are
far more dangerous and menacing than
the plague. The plague carried off a
few tens. tuberculosis and typhoid
fever have carried off hundreds of our
population, yet We take no extraordi-
nary precautions against them. Indeed
in the case of tuberculosis we are sim
gularly needless, and the consequence
is that the disease has been increasing
in an alarming manner. tuberculosis
we should have a proper hospital for
but in the present state of our finances
we are not likely to have that or any
other great improvement. 1t is inter
esting, however costly it may have
been to us, to note that our example
has been a sign post to San Francisco
But we must also bear in mind that
when San Francisco heard that plague
had appeared in Honolulu it went off
into compton fits and proposed all
kinds of the fiercest quarantine. The
boot was on an entirely different leg
when plague appeared in San Fran
cisco. i6'i b9 .ata 2. 80
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