New-York tribune., 1905-04-18
DOTY ON BLACK DEATH:
NO CAUSE FOR Alarm.
Thinks Sanitary Precautions Would
PreUent Its Spread.

DR.. A H. Doty. Health Officer OF the Port.
says there need be no alarm over the prediction
OF DR.. Justin De Lisle. the bacteriologist that
the Scbonic plague. or black death will he
prevalent in this and other Western countries in
the near future.
The plague will come perhaps in one year
and perhaps in ten. whenever the conditions are
ripe Dr. De Llse has said, Modern hygienic
conditions are of little avail in checking its
spread People may be made immune for a
year at time by receiving an injection Of vac
cine We have no such vaccine in this city, and
1t would take months to prepare, if found nee
| essary."
Said DR.. Doty yesterday:
cannot take DR.. De Lisle's hopeless view Of
the situation, simply because there is no occa-
sion Tor 1t. While bubonic plague is an ex-
| tremeiy dangerous disease in India. in the
united states in other civilized communities,
Where careful modern sanitary regulations are
IN force, it is entirely different affair do
not believe that this statement will be disputed
by practical sanitarians
1t is true that under the name of the black
| Death bubonic plague about the fourteenth or
htteenth century invaded Europe and caused
great mortality among its inhabitants, but we
must remember that at the period referred to the
sanitary regulations about par with
the sanitary regulations which enforced in
India at the present time. and there is reason
why the mortality in those instances should not
be practically the same. Even at the period OF
the black death" instances are not wanting
show that ordinary care and cleanliness made
vast difference in the result.
We have only to turn 10 the Irish famine
which occurred in the early part of the last cent
Iry learn that typhus fever a disease which
occasionally visits New-York, produced a NOR
talty among the half-famished people of Ire
land about equal to that caused by the black
death which DR.. De Lisle cites.
During the part of two years that typhus fever
existed in New York there altogether
about eight hundred cases. and all but eight or
ten of these were confined to cheap lodging
houses and the poorer class of tenement houses
l believe that when this is compared with the
seventy thousand cases of typhus fever which oC
CURED in Dublin during the same length of time
0Wo years. it will be evident to any one that
air and sunlight. proper food, cleanliness and
the enforcement of modern sanitary regulations
viii be able to contro. an outbreak Of any in
feCtious disease
During the last five or six years bubonic
plague has appeared in OpOrto. Glasgow. Santos
and Rio JaneirO and many other ports in this
section of the world. and yet in no instance has
il caused any very alarming results and in all
instances it was comparatively soon brought un-
der control, in cities where the sanitary
rangements are inferior to our own. The bubonic
plague under good sanitary conditions travels
slowly. This has been shown in our OWE coun-
try. The disease appeared in Chinatown in San
Francisco, and but comparatively few cases
have followed the original outbreak ard thus
far but little concern has been caused by its
presence there.
Every vessel coming to this part from plague
infected districts is subject the most rigid
inspection and disnfectior All persons who are
sick on board. even though they do not present
symptoms Of bubonic plague at first. held
for observation until their malady is clearly
cases Of bubonic plague have been detected on
vessels from Eastern and South American ports
and removed to Swinburne Island.
Health officials throughout the United States
fully alive to the situation and are prepared
to deal with bubonic plague. Under these cir
cumstances, I am quite sure that the public
need feel no alarm. and that they can safely
leave the matter in the hands Of those whose
duty ii is to protect the public health.