The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-09-02
PILOT TALKS OF FEVER
I. c. JAMES OF SHIP ISLAND IN
 MONTGOMERY.
He ExpIains Measures Adopted to Pre- tect Gulf Coast from West tn- dian Coasts and Favors
 National Quarantine.


 Of yellow fever reminiscences the
 most interesting spoken in recent years | in Montgomery were those by H. c. James, a pilot of Ship Island, Miss, who was in the city last night en route to Biloxi, Miss, from Wilmington, N. lC. MT. James is himself an immune. but fled from Ship Island soon after the fever broke out in New Orleans TOT the safety of his three daughters whom he took few days ago to North Saro- | lima.
 He will leave Montgomery this morn ing for Biloxi, Miss, and will soon re- sume his service as pilot at snip
 Island.
 There can be no doubt that the yell low fever in New Orleans this year was carried there from Honduras" said MT. James last night. There is positive evidence to prove this, but without evil dence the fact remains as a matter Of science that yellow fever does not orig mate in the United States. It was not born In this country and cannot
 thrive here unless there is a very mild
 winter. Then 1t will probably He dor
 mant until next year and all of sud- den break out in any community. Accurate history tells us that of
 seventy-five epidemics that have marked the history of the United States seventy-one were imported from some part of the West Indies and four from
 Mexico. The first cases of the fever in New Orleans this year came in on fruit vessels as a result of discrimina- tfon of the water quarantine as 1t was conducted. The whole system is very loose. Very often steamers plying be- tween New Orleans and the South American ports are not detained the necessary period for fever to develop,
 while sail-vessels taking some ten days to make the voyage with their cargoes. are subjected to longer detention. This is certainly discrimination and there Is bound to be danger until the system is changed.
 Until the importation of the fever
 in New Orleans this year the boats were
 fumigated empty and then loaded in
 one of the South American ports. We'll, they were exposed to Infection after
 they were fumigated and there came
 the dificulty and the leak. It was probably such an allowance as this
 that let the infection into the steamers going to New Orleans, the cases be- ing developed at sea-"
 Mir. James told of the restrictions put on boats at Ship Island and Key West. Fla. where there are the only two stations of the United States Ma
 rine Hospital Service on the Gulf Coast. On the west end of Ship Island. said
 Mir. James, all infected vessels are re- quired to be kept the full period of de-
 tention before getting out and the doe
 tors from the vessel and all passengers
 are quarantined from the side set apart for non-infected ships.
 Ship Island has been a station of the
 Marine Hospital Service off and on ever
 since 1SS1,' said MT. James. Tn that
 year the first hospital was established
 and there was considerable success in it's operation. In 1886, however. when the fever broke out along the coast a
 clamor arose among the people of the
 towns for the removal of, the station
 from Ship Island. The service was the people for the origin of that epi-
 demic was attributed to the station
 work at Ship Island. It was moved up
 to Chandalieur. La. In 1898 a terrific
 gale swept the coast and played havoc with the hospital. killing the steward and his assistants who numbered three i, or four. It was later rebuilt at Ship
 Island and has been there since"
 MT James says that after his score- andmore years of observation and ex-
 perience with yellow fever he Is thor
 oughly convinced that the only soIu- ton for the future handling of the dis
 ease in the United States is for a na- tional quarantine to succeed the con-
 licting quarantine systems of the vari- ous State. He believes the National
 Government will very soon assume su-
 preme control of all quarantines now conducted by the States through com mercial and enonomic necessity. The machinery is already in existence for such quarantine and that is the Hos
 pital Service. To start off sucff a change he believes further that 1t would be practical to add to the service staff one representative of each health board of the several States. These extra members could be put on in an advisory capacity and could render A good deal of valuable assistance which could not be gotten in the first year or two by the regular stan surgeons.
 Mir. James Is a man of intelltRence and much information. He has been in the pilot service many years.
 Matinee at CnsInO Today a,ao n ma,