The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-03-15
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"TILL the Legislature of Hawaii
wv iced the request of the Board
w of Health and pass law pro-
\ hibiting persons afflicted with
. tuberculosis and leprosy from coming
. to this Territory from other countries?
. At the meeting of the Board of Health
yesterday afternoon, which was attend
. ed by the public health committees of
. the Senate and House, President Ray
. mond of the board made an earnest
. FLA to have the bill introduced in the
. House on Wednesday by Representa-
tive Beckley made a law of the couu-
: try.
. From the statements made by the
. president of the board and from the
. statistics quoted by him of the inroads
. made by the disease. it is evident that
an alarming condition of things has
Z abided in Hawaii for the past two years
. and that consumption is rapidly on the
. increase, especially among the Hawaii
. ans. He said that the bill was intro
. duced not only as a safeguard against
foreign patients afflicted with consump-
= ton coming into the midst of the whole
= community but was protection to the
. Hawaiians, whose numbers were being
Q depleted at an alarming rate.
zone tuberculosis patient will cause
more damage to the Hawaiians than
= hundred cases of 'leprosy," said Dr.
. Raymond, emphatically.
Q There was little or no expression of
. opinion from the members of the two
public health committees of the Legis
lature, but they obtained copious data
and showed their interest in the subject
q by putting a running fire of questions
Q to the president of the board One of
. the principal reasons offered by the
. board for desiring such a law was to
prevent Hawaii from becoming the
dumping ground of the worlds 1epers
and to prevent the country from be-
. coming vast sanitarium or retreat for
. those afflicted with consumption. It
was pointed out that each state in the
. Union is now battling with the disease
by means of legislation and the coun-
try was at last aroused to it's sense of
duty in the premises.
. The Senate public health committee
was composed of Senators II. P. Bald
win, D. Kalauokalani, George r. Car
ter, D. Kanuha and Kaiue, and that
= of the House by Representatives Beck
. ley and Gilfillan.
THE statistics during the last thirty
days relative to tuberculosis in Homo
lulu have been alarming" said Presi-
Q dent Raymond, land I believe the Leg
islature should assist US in preventing
il from being spread further. The case
q of leper Pratt, who was undoubtedly
0 sent to Honolulu at the instigation of
. the San Francisco Board of Health.
has caused the present activity in this
matter, and 1t was believed that if lep-
rous cases were to be prohibited from
entrance to the country, tuberculosis
. patients should also be denied. Con-
. sumption kills more people annually
than any other disease known, not even
barring epidemics. Tuberculosis can
= be found in almost every cadaver at
the morgues infirmaries and such
= places One out of every seven persons
Q has at some time in his life had some
Q form of tuberculosis. The question has
been given deep thought by all the
health authorities of the world. 1t is
. the hardest question the medical fra
ternity has to deal with because it is
q impossible to secure legislation for the
Q reason that it strikes too close at home.
. Bills have been introduced in Legisla-
lures throughout the United States,
but they have been turned down be
cause the legislators have had tubercu-
= losis in their own families and We're in
. fuenced by sentiment altogether. The
Q disease is becoming so alarming in its
spread that each state will sooner or
later have to adopt methods similar to
ours in the treatment of lepers. The
first law OF nature is self-preservation.
One tuberculous person suffering from
Q the pulmonary form will do more dam
. age than fifty or one hundred lepers.
| don't mean to say that leprosy is not
disease that will not do any harm,
y but only in comparative way.
DR.. Raymond went on to say that
persons contracting slight colds breathe
in tuberculosis microbes from the street
dust and thereby become infected. No
conscientious physician, in his opinion,
. should hold his peace at this stage of
o the spread of the disease but should
use every effort to show to the COM
munity the alarming conditions we
have in our midst and what it would
be if the Mainland consumptive patients
were allowed to come here untrammel-
ed by laws.
A system of instruction in the public
schools of Honolulu is about TO be be-
gun with relation to the disease. A
series of lectures by prominent physi-
clans was being arranged for and DR..
= RAYMOND hoped to see his plan put into
execution He said the cause of much
of the spread of the disease was due to
. the ignorance of innocent persons, and
he wanted to present facts to the ris-
ing generation which would be of bene-
v fit to them in battling with the insidious
o foe.
Q Senator Baldwin at first was OF the
. opinion that the measure to inhibit per-
sons so afflicted was too radical but
O Coi6 i
. caIlv he was in favor of the measure,
as II had been already introduced into
q the House. He said that when con-
. sumptive people came here they usually
came to die When they were in the
Q last stages of the disease in San Fran
cisco they were usually bundled aboard
= a sailing vessel and came to Honolulu