New-York tribune., 1901-06-06
IMMIGRANTS NEW TEST.
PHYSICIANS DIVIDED AS TO ITS De
STABILITY.
DRs DoTY AND FOWLER THINK 1T WILL
NOT BE PRACTICABLE TO EXAMINE
ALI. FOR TUBERCULOSIS

The exclusive announcement in The Tribune
yesterday that T Y. Powderly, Commissioner
General of immigration, had instructed Com
missioner Fitche at this port 10 dehar IN
future all immigrants afflicted with tuberculosis
aroused keen interest among those New-fork
physicians who have been trying for some time
10 impress upon the public the fact that con
SUMPTION is a cornnunica bile disease. Opinions
were not unanimous, however, as 10 whether II
was a commendable step forward In Official rec
ognition of medical science or rather too dras-
tic treatment of immigrants afflicted by disease
whose spread may he checked by the use o'
extremely simple precautions. Some physicians
seen ny a Tribune reporter yesterday we're uh-
willing TO let their names be published for rear
that they might be misunderstood as opposing
the Federal Governments policy, but one said.
THE public Is not yet prepared for this step;
and while it is along the line Of progress yet it
will bv its harshness check rather than help the
growing feeling among the masses that con-
surnptives are dangerous TO those around them
The recent crusade of the local Health Board
against splitting in the streetcars was one phase
Of the education Of the public, and the hearty
way in which that crusade WAS supported by
the press and the people showed a gratifying tn
crease in the general intelligence. Yet a propo-
sition made now forciby 10 remove all persons
afflicted with tuberculosis from their friends and
families as is done with smallpox patients.
would arouse violent storm of indignation ana
set back for years the progress which has been
already made toward that end. think this bar
to immigrants viii have the same effect be
cause the public will get the idea that medical
men have become cranks on tuberculosis. The
people will ask: Is il reasonable 10 exclude i'm
migrants from our shores because they are sut-
fering from disease against which We raise no
quarantine within borders? and ! think We
should have to admit that such discrimination
is not reasonable. II would he better, | think.
to wait until we isolate our consumptives at
home before we raise an insurmountabe barrier
against consumptives coming from abroad"
Another physician took exception 10 this ar
gument and pointed out the fact that while we
do not isolate persons in this city who are afiict
ed with leprosy or favus, we still debar all immi
grants suffering from those diseases, and public
opinion sustains the immigration officials in SO
doing.
NOT COMMUNICABLE IN EARLY STAGES.
DIR. George B. Fowler. of No. 1s East Fifty
eighth-st., said:
This step too radiGa think hays nG given o no
consider 1t be communicable in its inciplent
Of the disease Is not TO be done IN haste' ana ~
many cases it would resolve itself into battle OF
eXpcrts over this and that individual Such ex-
aninations would involve distinction altogether too
fire for the practical workings of an immigration
bureau. In word. the new regulation is not prac-
ticahle.
At the Loomis Sanatorum for Consumptives,
No 104 West Forty-ninth-s where chronic
and incurable patients are housed the reporter
was told that in spite of the close contact in
which the nurses obliged to come with the
slowly dying inmates. not one nurse had ever
developed the disease. This is attributed TO the
strict precautions taken to collect the sputa in
little paper boxes and burn tkem in a furnace
BY means of the sputum only is the disease COM
municated The same precautions taken in the
sanatorium could, of course, be taken in the
patients homes but the trouble is that such
care is not taken in the homes Id even in the
hospital the officers, and attendants have
to keep unremittng watch upon most of the
patients especially the poorer and more ignorant
ones to prevent them from careessly disregard
ing the rules Of the institution as TO the deposit
of sputum not in handkerchiefs but in the little
paper boxes provided. The reporter was also