The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-07
Txnorance AssafIs our State Board oi
 Health.

Mobile Register.
 Perhaps as curious developmsnt south's experience of quarantine dur ing the past summer and autumn ls the kind of record that Is made Of that sessed of a pen, paper and some ave- nue of public expression, has engaged in making the record; and we have as snsv sas rssals snd xsTy thereon ta
 fully and wonderfully made Even tne rrndicai authorities are affected by the desire to give tssir sSs trSsstwoptness recent history: There. s little .sstis- faction to be had in tTyin&s & so ,Sa s.ra,n npn- lie a true history. We believe; now. ever. that some person competent 10 deal with the situation VIII a .aKe .nnt .ns as Is preserved in the official reports and In the columns of the newspapers: and that eventually the truth will
 There are some participants in the present stormy discussion who oughr to know better. Take. the American 1H says it was IS founded. owned and com, tholIed by the medical profession ofj America" It Is published weekly iu IookIne papsr snd Yet VelS te American Medicine. in calling for inlmdeiate congressional regulation. makes this S'"1Sme"si aThe State board ot health of Ala: bama is a mirage. fgment of medical imagination, believed in by It's spon- sors.. but of little or no utility to the
 This from a, journal supposed to be informed. and conducted by the med iSsl Se Hf Is gross, The want of Judgment is pro, heard aaI of efe pr. Jerome rom Cochran? We imagine not. The American Medicine manifests ignorance of Dr. Cochran: work. Therefore it does not know of '" One thing that the profession gen erally knows is that pr. Cochran or ielnated and nut into enect an organto called g State board of health lns. and that this organiz2tlon is regarded as subject is nothing, 1t should know something of the operation of this board before it undertakes to- con will say simply that Alabama phvsl' clans were first to disclose the pres ence of fever in New Orleans: that bur board declared ouarantine against the Mississinni coast ss soon as 1t wss discovered that there were coast people expresine the intention to Keen open the chief officer of the board and oth- ers discovered. fever on the coast when the United states surgeon failed reasonabie quaranti~4 aeainst infecteS
 nlaces, but did not enconrs~e such wild procedure as would actually pre- the state. Moreover the State board provided that intercourse and travel should he as free inside of Alabama aning. It disroura oed the natursf teti- dencv of communities to act iudepeu. dentlv of the State. authorities a~d
 t instituted what all who know the sane method of protecting the peoote
 ocainst the invasion of the dreaded disAase
 nurine the whole of the season there were hut two instances whe-e -erso~e infA~ted hv the d'sease eve da'
 the quarantine, and in both instances
 the sinE were at on,'e surrounded and nut uoder such care that therA was 70 soroad of the disease. This was don l under tha sunerVisi"n os the hoa~d an" Tn sav fhot a board do,ne such
 york. and dninH it sn eTecttve'v. is "hsment of the rred'caI im7Rina+'"n 's to write nnN sAis down as entirely
 'enorart of what has hannened in AI"Aan,a du-ph~ the rast seasan.
 We canoot accOfTrt for ignorance 70 dense The newsna nars of the state have given full pi'N'i"itv to the fa"ts.
 the Associated Press repnrts have
 fro~ tire to tive mt the infcrurettnn
 heFore the nuhlic. and our southern
 r'edtcal iiournals have been au'ct to rive credit where credit is due. Fiual- lv, all e~r neorle are enthusiastic over the w a done nv the hoard: there .h9s hAen criticism. but oniv praise; resolutions have been rassed by corn- ,neroial bodies thanktne the State health officer and the hnard of health
 for their services, Indeed, the one thine demonstrated Is that we of Ala hama have hoard of health that Is no fer'eut hut a real utility tn them. and in thie rsspect ts in agreeable con.
 trast to boards in some other States