Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1903-02-19
HALF WAY QUARANTINE OF CON
TAGI0US DISEASES


And Its Abortive Results.
EDITOR DEMOCRAT -
The present method of quarantining con-
tagious diseases differs so widely, as to the
locality, that no universal enforcement Of
the statute is observed and its provisions
become abortive in their designs. This
basic conception of the law was no doubt
intended to be Prohibition" and not
g Local Option,u in its nature, but like
many sumptuary statutes, the law of COM
pulsory quarantine must inherently de-
pend somewhat upon the sentiment OF the
public before it can be effectively enioEced,
and unless the public mind can be inore
or less, convinced of its common sense and
self protectiye purposes the statute IS in
yariably brought into disrepute by an in
nate motive to evade its application. 1t
is the practice of some localities to compel
the family under quarantine to remain
within the confines of their own home and
not permit those who happen to be absent
to return within the sacred precincts of
their own domicile-unless, they elect to
stay there, while in other places, they
simply isolate the patient in one room of
the house and allow the others to go IN
and out, dd libitun, assuming, of course,
that the person nursing the patient will
not mingle with the other occupants, with
out due care of change of clothing, &c.
This brings us to the point of !" Half Way
Quarantine y in our headline so far, the
only parties considered in the discipline
of quarantine are the occupants OF the
house and the absent members. Now, the
curtain rises and the tragedy" begins
in earnest, when the Doctor appears upon
the scene. Upon his advice and scientific
counsel the utmost sanitary precautions,
in detail, have been very properly OBJ
served and the patient carefully isolated.
He has been extremely cautious and so
thoroughly absorbed in barracading the
patient from the outside world, that he
has become entirely oblivious, as to his
own contract, with the infectious germs,
and unlike the eminent Pasteur in his
" Experiments on Fermentation, 7" has COM
pletely overlooked the necessity of passing
the forceps" of his own body through
the Bunsen flame to avoid the introduce
ton of micro-organisms into his cultures.
If it is essential to conform to the strict
letter of the Quarantine Law y and drive
out the man of the house, who, if good
citizen, would not think of going near the
isolated patient-it is a thousand times
more important and mandatory, that the
Doctor should be constrained to change his
clothing before and after entering the pa
TENTS room-that he may conform to the
same discipline that applies to the nurse
and thus reduce to minimum the posi-
bility of carrying the disease to the public
The incongruity of the discipline, as ap
piled to the household and the Doctor is
so marked, that the practice of exiting one
from his own home and subjecting him and
his family to innumerable discomforts
besides adding to his already abnormal
expenses in making suitable provision for
the welfare of the patient of Pro-
fessional I" flim-fam THAT bears a close
relation to the methods of one Joseph Bal
sans, alias Cagliosbro of former times.
Walt Whitman says, Having dived down
deep, calculated close and analysed to a
hair, find no sweeter fat than sticks to
my own bones" and it seems to the writer
that Waits inspiration is quite pertinent in
the present discussion, as between the med
cal fraternity and the laymen.
The same law of immunity, as a common
carrier of contagious germs, applies to the
plebian body of laymen, as to the sacred
body of the physician, and the writer has
the testimony of no less than three reputa-
BILE and prominent practitioners in this
county, who frankly admit that Doctors
have all the elig'h lie attributes of common
carriers " Of contagious diseases, and more
than one case is attested, where they con-
Wet themselves of having inoculated their
own children, notwithstanding the fact
that some would have the laymen believe
they possess some peculiar alchemy" of
the body, as to be germicidal.
Under the present extreme enforcement
of the quarantine law by some Boards of
Health the taxpayers would realize what
it meant if confronted by an epidemic and
compelled to raise funds to defray the ex-
penses arising from such an exigency where
men are locked in their homes and the
Board of Health is obliged to remunerate
them for such enforced idIeness- as ies-
piled in a recent verdict in this count,
and surely the statute does not premedi-
tate any other construction-than reciprocal
compensation.
The City of Woodbury., where the county
B.of H. hold their public meetings, the 'Leg1
stature, SO to speak, of B. of H. rules and
regulations, is conspicuous example OF
the random manner of applying the discid
pline of the law, which means that some
of the ablest physicians have little faith in
the extreme conceptions of the law or are
willful violators of its injunctions Extreme
measures rarely reform. Practical quaran-
tine will be Observation-Disclosures quaran-
tine will not A law that requires a
Estate Constabulary" to enforce it must
be little too strenuous in itssexactions.
If these remarks seem to be incendiary
in their character and the authorities want
to impeach the writer-as an officer of the
Township B. of HI can only say, that my
address was formerly at Sewell, N. j., but
because of the parental forethought Of the
trainers of the present Quarantine Law 1
am not able, at this time, to give them
information as to my future domicile. As
have "no home" an ''alibi' will be my
defence. GEO. B. HURFF.