The Savannah morning news., 1904-08-12
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT MUST TAKE
CHARGE OF SMALLPOX SITUATION
Declared DR.. Drummer in Paper Stating Inefficient
Can Do Nothing

The paper by DR.. w. F. Drummer on
! The Smallpox Situation in Georgia
and the Remedy of Its Suppression, 4"
! read at yesterday mornings ses-
| sion of the Municipal League. stat
ed that the health boards. city. county
and state. are unable to cope with
| the smallpox situation, and that the
federal government will have to
take the matter up.
| He predicted that this will be done
at no very distant date. The paper
caused great deal of discussion. all
agreeing that the problem is the
most vital one with which municipali-
ties now have to contend.
In the discussion which followed the
paper DR.. Drummer declared that
when a State Board of Health that is
inefficient asks for money to do work
that it knows it cannot do, it is get
ting money under false pretenses."
Atlanta and Its Smallpox.
DIR. Robert w. Hynds of Atlanta as
sistant secretary of the State Board of
Health, differed with DR.. Drummer on
some questions, stating as his opinion
that the present epidemic of smallpox
came from Mexico and not Cuba. He
admitted that there is smallpox in
North Georgia and said it had been in
Atlanta for ten years.
He stated further there had been
more deaths among white people in
Atlanta this year from smallpox than
among negroes. He said the state
board had been without enough money
the last year to do much He thought
the boards, state, county and city,
could do good work.
DR.. Drummer. in answering this, said
the State Board had done nothing.
Drummer Called Them Down.
"They absolutely haven't got letter
press" he declared.
He said the state Board of
Health had reported to the United
States authorities that there had been
! seven deaths in Liberty City, which
has population of only $50, from
smallpox. That had been published to
the world, he said, by authority of
the state board.
DR.. Drummer said he had called the
attention of the president of the board
to the fact that there had not been
any deaths in Liberty City, and that
he refused to correct the statement,
saying 1t had been furnished him by
a certain physician in a letter.
DR.. Drummer says he asked for the
letter and it could not be found He
explained that the physician had prob
ably reported the deaths somewhere
else and DIR. Westmoreland had lost
the letter and not remembered where
the deaths occurred.
What Uncle Sam Would Do.
THAT gentleman" said Dr. Drummer,
after explaining this incident, sis the
n xyntN fof
Board of Health is doing" DIR. Brun-
ner declared the federal government
would most certainly undertake the
work. He said it would mean the
spending of a great deal of money in
| Georgia and adjoining states, instead
of taking money away as the present
work is doing, besides stamping out
| the disease.
Hon. Minter Wimberly of Macon
spoke at length on the question
| declaring that people are dying from
smallpox just simply because the au-
| thorities do not have the nerve to
enforce vaccination. The problem is
| the most vital one, he declared, that
could possibly be brought before the
league.
1.-The boards of health are dead and
| they don't know it, he stated. Others
also spoke on the question. Follow
ing is DR.. Burners paper in part:
Smallpox in Every State.
For nearly six years, smallpox, q
preVentable disease has existed in
every section of the state of Georgia.
This statement also applies to every
state in the union.
Smallpox owes it's origin TO return
ing soldiers who served during the
Spanish-American War, and who had
been stationed in Cuba and Porto
Rico. 1t is almost impossible to desig-
nate, correctly, the first infected point
The probability is that the disease was
introduced by volunteer troops on their
return from Cuba and Porto Rico,
which means that the first infected
point was a sea-coast city although
there is evidence that people were In
fected simultaneously at interior cities,
by soldiers who had been discharged
from the army.
That the disease existed among the
volunteers, in the corps commanded
by Gen. Lee, who were sent to Hav-
ana in the month of December, 1898, is
my personal knowledge, for | was, at
that time. an officer of the Marine
Hospital Service, being stationed at
Havana. A few weeks after that corps
had been in Cuba, smallpox developed
in a regiment from Indiana. Natural
ly the disease appeared. first in cities,
then the infection was transmitted to
SHldller cities, towns ana villages, and
finally became disseminated in every
county in this and other states.
Many Are Ignorant.
In a majority of cases, the disease
was properly handled in cities and
towns where there were organized
boards Of health. Unfortunately there
were some cities and towns where
there was a diversity of opinion among
physicians as to the true nature Of the
disease The reasons for this were in
the first place, but few of the medical
profession had ever seen smallpox and
those few had not come in contact with
the disease for many years. Again,
the mild type assumed in the present
epidemic is so different from the severe
type of the disease which prevailed for
years after the Civil War, that IL be-
came a difficult matter for the older
physicians to properly diagnose the
disease
During the last five years, I have
been called upon by the authorities of
nearly score of cities and towns to
untangle the snarl caused by the diff
ference of opinion among physicians
concerning the true nature Of an erup-
tive disease, about which the local
medical men had differed. l never fall
ed to find smallpox in every one of
the places visited.
The disease obtained a foothold in
the cities, spread rapidly to the small
towns and villages, which became
thoroughly infected, and from them to
the rural districts The apfhorftfao of